Francis (Buster) Whitfill
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fwhitfill.bsky.social
Francis (Buster) Whitfill
@fwhitfill.bsky.social
Recovering teacher & PhD student in Spanish at the University of Virginia. Interested in #medieval & #earlymodern content. I am interested in literary depictions of #Satan and #evil and what they tell us about society
Is it just me, or has bluesky just turned into threads and x? I get all the political drama that I'm trying to not invest all my time into.
October 28, 2025 at 1:30 AM
Reposted by Francis (Buster) Whitfill
29th September is the Feast of St Michael and All Angels. Here are the angelic orders of Seraphs, Cherubs, and Thrones.

BL Royal MS 6 E IX; Convenevole da Prato, Carmina regia; c1335 CE; Italy (Tuscany); f.6r
September 26, 2025 at 8:50 PM
My inbox is getting away from me 😩
August 30, 2025 at 9:32 PM
Reading up on the mester de clerecia poetry and looking out the window. I've got a lot to catch up on this weekend
August 30, 2025 at 5:55 PM
Reposted by Francis (Buster) Whitfill
#Skystorians I’d like to workshop some of my research (preferably some time next year) and am looking for fitting conferences or seminars that welcome interdisciplinary work and material culture studies. Does anyone have suggestions? #EarlyModern #HistSci #ArtHistory #HistTech 🗃️
August 20, 2025 at 8:05 PM
So, Kim Davis, happily in her fourth marriage following some rocky affairs, is the champion of Biblical marriage. If I wrote a book with a character like that, it would be considered far-fetched. God bless America
August 12, 2025 at 2:57 PM
General question for #booksky, #academicsky, #earlymodern, #medieval, #literature people: what are you reading right now? As for me, just finished Reception (Willis), working my way through Berceo (about to read Santo Domingo de Silos), Historia Apolonii for #latin practice and for my 🧵
August 11, 2025 at 11:24 PM
In 8 weeks of intensive #Latin, you have to learn the most essential terms, like "interficio," which means "to kill." Or "neco," "to kill." Or "occido," "to kill." Or "caedo," "to cut down" or "to kill." Or "deleo," "to blot out" or "to destroy." This has been such an enriching opportunity
August 7, 2025 at 12:36 AM
Reposted by Francis (Buster) Whitfill
Hentist and harepist

BL Stowe 17; 'The Maastricht Hours'; 14th century; f.92v
August 4, 2025 at 6:00 PM
While taking intensive latin this summer has been exhausting, there is something special about it. Cur verba antiqua tam magica sunt? ✨
August 4, 2025 at 11:54 PM
Reposted by Francis (Buster) Whitfill
Brace yourselves. It’s the 448th anniversary today of the documented and very real appearance of the Terrifying! Satanic! One-Eyed! ghost dog Black Shuck at two churches in Suffolk, where he wilfully murdered “two persons, as they were kneeling uppon their knees, and occupied in prayer”
August 4, 2025 at 7:53 AM
Reminder. We'll be accepting submissions for our panel on #satan in #earlymodern Europe until tomorrow. Come join us at #rensa26
#sin #demonicpacts
Greetings #earlymodern friends, the deadline for submissions for this #cfp on #satan, #sin, #demonicpacts has been extended to August 3! Come join us at @rsaorg.bsky.social's 2026 conference in San Francisco! #rensa26 More details on flyer or at tinyurl.com/76rw4cz7. Please spread the word!
August 2, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Reposted by Francis (Buster) Whitfill
Greetings #earlymodern friends, the deadline for submissions for this #cfp on #satan, #sin, #demonicpacts has been extended to August 3! Come join us at @rsaorg.bsky.social's 2026 conference in San Francisco! #rensa26 More details on flyer or at tinyurl.com/76rw4cz7. Please spread the word!
July 28, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Reposted by Francis (Buster) Whitfill
I taught my students to build audio soundscapes today to use as a tool of historical analysis and I am having so much fun listening to their tracks and reading their thoughtful reflections. They used this woodcut by Sebald Beham as their visual inspiration: www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...
print | British Museum
The Village Fair; in the centre a group eating at table, on left a procession to a church, on the right a fight, printed from four blocks on four sheets joined to form continuous frieze. 1535 Woodcut
www.britishmuseum.org
July 30, 2025 at 9:13 PM
Greetings #earlymodern friends, the deadline for submissions for this #cfp on #satan, #sin, #demonicpacts has been extended to August 3! Come join us at @rsaorg.bsky.social's 2026 conference in San Francisco! #rensa26 More details on flyer or at tinyurl.com/76rw4cz7. Please spread the word!
July 28, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Reposted by Francis (Buster) Whitfill
Why not start your week with blowing the perfect soap bubbles while running naked and jumping over a skull?
July 28, 2025 at 6:00 AM
Let's talk about the seduction of #satan in #earlymodern Europe. How are people drawn into acts of evil, demonic pacts, or sinful lives? What do these tales teach us about ourselves and society? Looking forward to hearing from you and chatting, both at #rensa2026 and beyond! #cfp #earlymodernsky
#earlymodern scholars who work on #satan, I'm organizing a panel for @rsaorg.bsky.social's 2026 conference. The topic is "Satan the Seductor: Willful and Unwitting Damnation in Early Modern Europe." @fatricky.bsky.social will be the chair. For #cfp info: tinyurl.com/76rw4cz7 See you there? #RenSA26
July 26, 2025 at 1:46 PM
Reposted by Francis (Buster) Whitfill
Here's another example of how the idea that James was buried in Compostela was part of the Nordic medieval worldview. This is the opening of the Saga of Flores and Blankiflor, which includes a pagan raid on Jakubs landi, which is to say Galicia.

[AM 489 4to, vol.II f.27v; courtesy of handrit.is]
July 25, 2025 at 9:21 PM
Reposted by Francis (Buster) Whitfill
Forget about what year it is. What century is it?

nashvillebanner.com/2025/07/20/d...
July 24, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Reposted by Francis (Buster) Whitfill
I learned a fun new word today:
ultracrepidarian

[uhl-truh-krep-i-dair-ee-uhn]

"Noting or pertaining to a person who criticizes, judges, or gives advice outside their area of expertise."
July 23, 2025 at 11:31 PM
Reposted by Francis (Buster) Whitfill
I’m reading a very dutiful, brilliant, thorough monograph by a scholar who built an illustrious career with such books- nothing too flashy, featuring reasoned arguments with other scholars, offering new readings, new information. It is what should bring success in academia and it’s slipping away
July 23, 2025 at 12:59 AM
Last year I read about academia's hidden curriculum in "A Field Guide to Grad School." (@jessicacalarco.com) It was a good intro to a lot of things I didn't know coming in, but whew, I feel like I'm living the source material for a sequel at times 😅
July 22, 2025 at 11:28 PM
Reposted by Francis (Buster) Whitfill
Sympathy for the devil in the early modern period? 😈

Submit your proposal for the next @rsaorg.bsky.social meeting in San Francisco!

#RenSA26 #academicsky #earlymodern #monkabulous #nuntastic #reformazing #16thC #17thC #18thC
After a fantastic slate of papers at RSA Boston 2025, EMoDiR is delighted to announce our CfP for RSA San Francisco 2026.

Please circulate, and submit a proposal!

#earlymodern
July 13, 2025 at 11:14 AM