Jan Machielsen
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janmachielsen.bsky.social
Jan Machielsen
@janmachielsen.bsky.social
5K followers 1.3K following 1.3K posts

Historian of early modern religion, working on witches and saints. Loves hikes and risotto.

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History 57%
Philosophy 17%
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janmachielsen.bsky.social
Jan Machielsen @janmachielsen.bsky.social · 1d
Yes!!! I have a note on my phone that says "write to Christine" for more than a week now. Just haven't had the time.

Reposted by Jan Machielsen

drjamielewis.bsky.social
Jamie Lewis @drjamielewis.bsky.social · 1d
20 minutes of me. Too much for anyone. www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...
Does Bigfoot exist? - ABC listen
The search for Bigfoot continues
www.abc.net.au

Reposted by Kate Bradley

janmachielsen.bsky.social
Jan Machielsen @janmachielsen.bsky.social · 1d
About to embark on the long journey to #RenSA26 and San Francisco.

I'll be there as @rsaorg.bsky.social Religion Discipline Rep and as co-editor of the Transactions of @royalhistsoc.org.

If you have ideas for an article or just want to talk about submissions, please send me a DM!

#earlymodern

janmachielsen.bsky.social
Jan Machielsen @janmachielsen.bsky.social · 1d
Very pleased to be involved in this. It's promising to be a diabolically good #RenSA26!
emodir.bsky.social EMoDiR @emodir.bsky.social · 1d
📆20-21 Feb📣EMoDiR at #RSA2026 : "The Devil and Dissent: Early Modern Perspectives"👹
I. “Philosophy and Theology of Evil”
III “Politics of Demonization”
IV. “Living with Demons” (co-organized with Jan Michielsen)
Join us and hear our fantastic speakers!

#EarlyModern #Devil

👇

Reposted by Christine Kooi, Martin van Gelderen, Jan Machielsen

emodir.bsky.social
EMoDiR @emodir.bsky.social · 1d
📆20-21 Feb📣EMoDiR at #RSA2026 : "The Devil and Dissent: Early Modern Perspectives"👹
I. “Philosophy and Theology of Evil”
III “Politics of Demonization”
IV. “Living with Demons” (co-organized with Jan Michielsen)
Join us and hear our fantastic speakers!

#EarlyModern #Devil

👇

janmachielsen.bsky.social
Jan Machielsen @janmachielsen.bsky.social · 5d
www.artribune.com/progettazion...

A friend just sent me this.
È morto Christoph Luitpold Frommel, grande storico dell’architettura del Rinascimento
Classe 1933, lo storico dell’architettura tedesco ha trascorso a Roma gran parte della sua vita, per gli studi seminali sui palazzi rinascimentali e come direttore della Biblioteca Hertziana, dal 1981...
www.artribune.com

janmachielsen.bsky.social
Jan Machielsen @janmachielsen.bsky.social · 6d
I'm sorry for your loss.

janmachielsen.bsky.social
Jan Machielsen @janmachielsen.bsky.social · 7d
On my way to Cambridge now! Very much looking forward to the #earlymodern @emodcam.bsky.social seminar tomorrow, especially as Cambridge has been such a hub for early modern Catholic studies!
emodcam.bsky.social Cambridge Early Modernists @emodcam.bsky.social · 20d
Early Modern World History Seminar – Lent Term 2026 Programme 🌏

janmachielsen.bsky.social
Jan Machielsen @janmachielsen.bsky.social · 7d
Excellent! I really enjoyed working on that chapter. Still have to dip into the other contributions myself but it does look splendid!

janmachielsen.bsky.social
Jan Machielsen @janmachielsen.bsky.social · 11d
Glad to see this out! It's a mighty tome, relevant to archaeologists, folklorists, #hextag peeps and more. And an impressive effort even if the functionalist argument doesn't always hold (I think, anyway).

Reposted by Jan Machielsen

princetonupress.bsky.social
Princeton University Press @princetonupress.bsky.social · 12d
“Killing the Dead has laid bare a subject of exceptional importance.” Great to see @janmachielsen.bsky.social’s review of John Blair's Killing the Dead in the latest issue of @thetls.bsky.social. Read more here:
High stakes
A dead body, as anyone who has sat with one will know, is an unsettling marker of the divide between life and death. The body is still the person we knew and loved, and yet no longer them. However much...
www.the-tls.com

janmachielsen.bsky.social
Jan Machielsen @janmachielsen.bsky.social · 12d
Trump is meer Henry VIII dan Filips II.

janmachielsen.bsky.social
Jan Machielsen @janmachielsen.bsky.social · 13d
Thanks, Theo! That was my last Covid project.

janmachielsen.bsky.social
Jan Machielsen @janmachielsen.bsky.social · 13d
Many congratulations, Holly! I really enjoyed our conversation and can't wait to see what you do next. 😊

Reposted by Jan Machielsen

webstermedieval.bsky.social
Paul Webster 🌈 @webstermedieval.bsky.social · 13d
Congratulations @janmachielsen.bsky.social on the publication of The Cambridge Companion to Counter Reformation Sanctity! Great to see this come out! #earlymodern #history #skystorians

Reposted by Jan Machielsen

hsbamford.bsky.social
Holly B 🌈 @hsbamford.bsky.social · 13d
I passed my viva with minor corrections!

A huge thank you to my examiners @janmachielsen.bsky.social and @profelainechalus.bsky.social for such a positive and constructive experience!

janmachielsen.bsky.social
Jan Machielsen @janmachielsen.bsky.social · 19d
Looks like they are on mushrooms. 😅

janmachielsen.bsky.social
Jan Machielsen @janmachielsen.bsky.social · 19d
#earlymodern

janmachielsen.bsky.social
Jan Machielsen @janmachielsen.bsky.social · 19d
Thanks! My partner's 95-year-old grandfather came up with it!

janmachielsen.bsky.social
Jan Machielsen @janmachielsen.bsky.social · 19d
Looking forward to a trip to Cambridge next month!
emodcam.bsky.social Cambridge Early Modernists @emodcam.bsky.social · 20d
Early Modern World History Seminar – Lent Term 2026 Programme 🌏

Reposted by Kevin O’Sullivan, Jan Machielsen, Renaud Morieux

emodcam.bsky.social
Cambridge Early Modernists @emodcam.bsky.social · 20d
Early Modern World History Seminar – Lent Term 2026 Programme 🌏

janmachielsen.bsky.social
Jan Machielsen @janmachielsen.bsky.social · Jan 14
This reminds of some of the material in the Jesuit archives where they laminated the pages but it caused the ink to leak…

janmachielsen.bsky.social
Jan Machielsen @janmachielsen.bsky.social · Jan 13
Not #earlymodern but this abandoned church served a leprosy colony in the 1940s. And the graffiti of the diabolical bishop is delightful!

janmachielsen.bsky.social
Jan Machielsen @janmachielsen.bsky.social · Jan 12
It's such a profound loss.

Just in case you're going, Katrina Olds and I are organizing an event marking Katie's life and scholarship at the San Francisco RSA.

janmachielsen.bsky.social
Jan Machielsen @janmachielsen.bsky.social · Jan 12
Highlight of today's home. View of La Gomera and El Hierro from the south side of Teide. The islands almost seem to float in the air.

janmachielsen.bsky.social
Jan Machielsen @janmachielsen.bsky.social · Jan 12
I've never made a starter pack but I know others have. Anyone can post using the #earlymodern tag!

janmachielsen.bsky.social
Jan Machielsen @janmachielsen.bsky.social · Dec 28
My mum, partner and I hiked a wonderful stretch of the Wales Coast Path today, in memory of my dad who wanted to complete it. Hopefully one day we will.

janmachielsen.bsky.social
Jan Machielsen @janmachielsen.bsky.social · Dec 20
Just my sort of Christmas! 🤪
Festive four way socket adaptor

janmachielsen.bsky.social
Jan Machielsen @janmachielsen.bsky.social · Dec 15
Ha. This feels so predictable somehow...

www.nytimes.com/2025/12/13/b...
U.S.-U.K. Trade Deal Hits Stumbling Block
www.nytimes.com

janmachielsen.bsky.social
Jan Machielsen @janmachielsen.bsky.social · Dec 11
Very pleased that we got to publish this Comment in the TRHS! And many thanks @chriscampbell1.bsky.social for pitching it.

Further reflections on this and other subjects are certainly welcome. 😊

🗃️
royalhistsoc.org Royal Historical Society @royalhistsoc.org · Dec 11
What does Gen AI mean for the work of the historian and the value of historical experience, skills and craft?

'The Historian in the Age of AI' by @chriscampbell1.bsky.social.

New Comment article now available in 'Transactions of the Royal Historical Society' bit.ly/4atErTB #Skystorians 1/2
Front page of 'Transactions of the Royal Historical Society' Comment article, title 'The Historian in the Age of AI', by Chris Campbell. Full abstract: "This comment interrogates the methods and conclusions of Working with AI, a recent report conducted under the auspices of Microsoft, which identified historians as the profession with the second-highest ‘AI applicability’. It finds that the authors’ conclusions are based on an erroneous simplification and misrepresentation of a historian’s typical professional tasks, which have been publicly amplified by extensive media coverage. This comment then offers a wider provocation about the report’s conception of a professional historian, and whether it is related to the public application of ‘historian’ to a number of different practitioners with varied training and qualifications. In particular, it seeks to highlight a paradox which the report exposes: that we cannot defend the specialist training and expertise of professional historians against the encroachment of AI without also separating the academic skills and qualifications of historians from those engaged in more popular forms of historical writing and communication. The comment questions how we might grapple with this paradox without reverting to academic elitism."