Jill Burke
@jillburke.bsky.social
Author, historian, occasional curator - of art, material culture, bodies, beauty/cosmetics, 1400-1700 esp Italy. Research Director and founder of Historical Reconstruction Lab @hcaatedinburgh.bsky.social
Pinned
Jill Burke
@jillburke.bsky.social
· Jun 9
A joyful first event at the Edinburgh Historical Reconstruction lab where we tried European and Chinese early modern cosmetics and perfumes, found out what James I and VI smelled like, and made pomanders from a 1555 recipe.
Reposted by Jill Burke
October 26, 2025 at 7:48 AM
Reposted by Jill Burke
We are offering up to £10k for researchers to seed collaborations, feasibility studies, application advice and training, partnership building etc for applications to Pillar 2 of Horizon Europe – Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/sche...
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/sche...
Horizon Europe Pump Priming collaboration between UK and EU partners 2026
This programme is providing pump priming funding to seed collaborations for applications to specific Horizon Europe topics in Pillar 2. The aim is to build collaborative activity between UK and EU/Ass...
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk
October 1, 2025 at 7:41 AM
We are offering up to £10k for researchers to seed collaborations, feasibility studies, application advice and training, partnership building etc for applications to Pillar 2 of Horizon Europe – Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/sche...
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/sche...
Reposted by Jill Burke
The first to realise that gall wasps came from an egg was Swammerdam in 1669 (Redi dissected thousands of galls and concluded reluctantly that gall wasps generated spontaneously). He drew this picture of a wasp laying an egg. janswammerdam.org/Images/gall....
September 30, 2025 at 8:46 AM
The first to realise that gall wasps came from an egg was Swammerdam in 1669 (Redi dissected thousands of galls and concluded reluctantly that gall wasps generated spontaneously). He drew this picture of a wasp laying an egg. janswammerdam.org/Images/gall....
Oak gall wasps are my current obsession - galls are a key ingredient in European writing inks before industrialisation.
Countless ideas on paper start with the relationship between an oak tree and a wasp.
Marcello Malpighi observed galls to understand and illustrate their growth in the 1670s
Countless ideas on paper start with the relationship between an oak tree and a wasp.
Marcello Malpighi observed galls to understand and illustrate their growth in the 1670s
September 30, 2025 at 8:05 AM
Oak gall wasps are my current obsession - galls are a key ingredient in European writing inks before industrialisation.
Countless ideas on paper start with the relationship between an oak tree and a wasp.
Marcello Malpighi observed galls to understand and illustrate their growth in the 1670s
Countless ideas on paper start with the relationship between an oak tree and a wasp.
Marcello Malpighi observed galls to understand and illustrate their growth in the 1670s
Reposted by Jill Burke
The Renaissance changed how people saw and understood the body. Cultural and art historian @jillburke.bsky.social @hcaatedinburgh.bsky.social explores fashion and everyday life in Renaissance Italy, reflecting on the surprising history of bras in medieval times: www.joinexpeditions.com/experts/4582
September 23, 2025 at 9:25 AM
The Renaissance changed how people saw and understood the body. Cultural and art historian @jillburke.bsky.social @hcaatedinburgh.bsky.social explores fashion and everyday life in Renaissance Italy, reflecting on the surprising history of bras in medieval times: www.joinexpeditions.com/experts/4582
Reposted by Jill Burke
Have you heard our recent BBC You’re Dead To Me episode about Renaissance Era Beauty Trends? It’s very funny, and I got a historical makeover!
My guests are fab comedian Tatty Macleod and brilliant expert historian @jillburke.bsky.social
Available on all podcast apps worldwide
My guests are fab comedian Tatty Macleod and brilliant expert historian @jillburke.bsky.social
Available on all podcast apps worldwide
September 7, 2025 at 9:22 AM
Have you heard our recent BBC You’re Dead To Me episode about Renaissance Era Beauty Trends? It’s very funny, and I got a historical makeover!
My guests are fab comedian Tatty Macleod and brilliant expert historian @jillburke.bsky.social
Available on all podcast apps worldwide
My guests are fab comedian Tatty Macleod and brilliant expert historian @jillburke.bsky.social
Available on all podcast apps worldwide
Reposted by Jill Burke
📣Are you a #histmed scholar whose book proposal belongs in our Social Histories of Medicine series?
The @sshmedicine.bsky.social Annual Book Development Prize Competition is open for submissions!🥳
Secure £2,000 in funding to help turn your idea into a published monograph or collection! Details👇
The @sshmedicine.bsky.social Annual Book Development Prize Competition is open for submissions!🥳
Secure £2,000 in funding to help turn your idea into a published monograph or collection! Details👇
📣Annual Book Development Prize Competition 📣
Submissions are now invited for the 2026 Award, which funds authors to turn a proposal into a book in the Social Histories of Medicine series, published by @manchesterup.bsky.social Applications are accepted on a rolling basis until 16 Jan 2026.
#histmed
Submissions are now invited for the 2026 Award, which funds authors to turn a proposal into a book in the Social Histories of Medicine series, published by @manchesterup.bsky.social Applications are accepted on a rolling basis until 16 Jan 2026.
#histmed
Annual Book Development Prize Competition
Rules and Entry Form The Society for the Social History of Medicine (SSHM) invites submissions to its Annual Book Development Award Competition. The Award Two awards of £2000.00 each will be given …
sshm.org
August 26, 2025 at 10:43 AM
📣Are you a #histmed scholar whose book proposal belongs in our Social Histories of Medicine series?
The @sshmedicine.bsky.social Annual Book Development Prize Competition is open for submissions!🥳
Secure £2,000 in funding to help turn your idea into a published monograph or collection! Details👇
The @sshmedicine.bsky.social Annual Book Development Prize Competition is open for submissions!🥳
Secure £2,000 in funding to help turn your idea into a published monograph or collection! Details👇
Reposted by Jill Burke
'The study...found that the main driver of increased red tape was university efficiency reforms. It threw doubt on the idea that increasing automation results in real efficiency, and suggested that Australian universities...had recently shifted towards stronger central executive management.' 1/2
University efficiency drives may have opposite effect, study finds.
The administrative burden in Australian universities is most keenly felt by teaching and research staff, according to a study from the University of Melbourne’s faculty of education.
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-aust...
The administrative burden in Australian universities is most keenly felt by teaching and research staff, according to a study from the University of Melbourne’s faculty of education.
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-aust...
University efficiency drives may have opposite effect, study finds - Research Professional News
Teaching and research staff say reforms mean more red tape for them, Australian survey reports
www.researchprofessionalnews.com
August 26, 2025 at 1:51 PM
'The study...found that the main driver of increased red tape was university efficiency reforms. It threw doubt on the idea that increasing automation results in real efficiency, and suggested that Australian universities...had recently shifted towards stronger central executive management.' 1/2
Reposted by Jill Burke
GRW-Rima! As we hear about nails, 16th century beauty treatments, and the value of care. With @jillburke.bsky.social @gregjenner.bsky.social @samiraahmeduk.bsky.social @cmatbaby.bsky.social and more. 1815 on R4 or afterwards on BBC Sounds. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
BBC Radio 4 - Pick of the Week, Rima Ahmed
Rima Ahmed presents selection of the best bits of audio across the BBC.
www.bbc.co.uk
August 17, 2025 at 9:18 AM
GRW-Rima! As we hear about nails, 16th century beauty treatments, and the value of care. With @jillburke.bsky.social @gregjenner.bsky.social @samiraahmeduk.bsky.social @cmatbaby.bsky.social and more. 1815 on R4 or afterwards on BBC Sounds. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
Reposted by Jill Burke
New episode of BBC YOU’RE DEAD TO ME: Renaissance Beauty — makeup, hair, skincare in 16th century Italy
With me, comedian Tatty Macleod, and expert historian Professor @jillburke.bsky.social
Available now on BBC SOUNDS, and coming to other podcast apps in 28 days www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
With me, comedian Tatty Macleod, and expert historian Professor @jillburke.bsky.social
Available now on BBC SOUNDS, and coming to other podcast apps in 28 days www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
August 8, 2025 at 8:25 AM
New episode of BBC YOU’RE DEAD TO ME: Renaissance Beauty — makeup, hair, skincare in 16th century Italy
With me, comedian Tatty Macleod, and expert historian Professor @jillburke.bsky.social
Available now on BBC SOUNDS, and coming to other podcast apps in 28 days www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
With me, comedian Tatty Macleod, and expert historian Professor @jillburke.bsky.social
Available now on BBC SOUNDS, and coming to other podcast apps in 28 days www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
Reposted by Jill Burke
Great to see our project written up in today's Guardian. Follow the link inside to our digital edition - more than one thousand pages of Thornton's writings transcribed and modernised. @kingsdigitallab.bsky.social @hcaatedinburgh.bsky.social #EarlyModern 📜 🗃️
August 4, 2025 at 10:38 AM
Great to see our project written up in today's Guardian. Follow the link inside to our digital edition - more than one thousand pages of Thornton's writings transcribed and modernised. @kingsdigitallab.bsky.social @hcaatedinburgh.bsky.social #EarlyModern 📜 🗃️
Reposted by Jill Burke
Every strand of this Edinburgh University report could be its own front page.
Yes, some of it will be familiar to historians, but this kind of frank public recognition is all too rare.
Incredible work by many different scholars.
Yes, some of it will be familiar to historians, but this kind of frank public recognition is all too rare.
Incredible work by many different scholars.
Edinburgh University had ‘outsized’ role in creating racist scientific theories, inquiry finds
Investigation finds one of Britain’s oldest and most prestigious universities benefited from transatlantic slavery and was haven for white supremacist theories
www.theguardian.com
July 27, 2025 at 6:49 AM
Every strand of this Edinburgh University report could be its own front page.
Yes, some of it will be familiar to historians, but this kind of frank public recognition is all too rare.
Incredible work by many different scholars.
Yes, some of it will be familiar to historians, but this kind of frank public recognition is all too rare.
Incredible work by many different scholars.
Reposted by Jill Burke
#History #SkyStorians 2025 @hisjournalha.bsky.social Research Bursary scheme is now open! Available: 1 ECR award & 1 mid-career researcher award, each worth up to £1,500. Deadline *15 August*. For further particulars & downloadable application form, see www.history.org.uk/higher-ed/re...
History Research Bursary Scheme: Early Career and Mid-Career Routes
www.history.org.uk
June 26, 2025 at 8:32 AM
#History #SkyStorians 2025 @hisjournalha.bsky.social Research Bursary scheme is now open! Available: 1 ECR award & 1 mid-career researcher award, each worth up to £1,500. Deadline *15 August*. For further particulars & downloadable application form, see www.history.org.uk/higher-ed/re...
Reposted by Jill Burke
Print Matters summer school hard at work at Thin Ice Press amid 3 days of book-making, reading Lucretius, depicting 'chaos', and perusing the Minster Library and Shandy Hall
July 18, 2025 at 10:45 AM
Print Matters summer school hard at work at Thin Ice Press amid 3 days of book-making, reading Lucretius, depicting 'chaos', and perusing the Minster Library and Shandy Hall
Reposted by Jill Burke
📢 Call for Applications
The Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Storici has published its 2025–2026 fellowship call (15 scholarships available).
Deadline: 31 July 2025
More info 👉 www.iiss.it/bando-di-con...
The Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Storici has published its 2025–2026 fellowship call (15 scholarships available).
Deadline: 31 July 2025
More info 👉 www.iiss.it/bando-di-con...
Bando di concorso per borse di studio dell’anno accademico 2025-2026. Scadenza: 31 luglio 2025
www.iiss.it
July 16, 2025 at 4:57 PM
📢 Call for Applications
The Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Storici has published its 2025–2026 fellowship call (15 scholarships available).
Deadline: 31 July 2025
More info 👉 www.iiss.it/bando-di-con...
The Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Storici has published its 2025–2026 fellowship call (15 scholarships available).
Deadline: 31 July 2025
More info 👉 www.iiss.it/bando-di-con...
Reposted by Jill Burke
Plan your summer 2026 to include Edinburgh in July: it will be THE place to be for historians of science! #hstm #bshs2026 #hss2026 #eshs2026
Excited for the launch of the ESHS/HSS 2026 Joint Meeting call for proposals, presented by Simone Turchetti and Sam Robinson at the General Assembly of the #ICHST2025
Hope to see you in Edinburgh in a year's time! hssonline.org/page/Edinbur...
Hope to see you in Edinburgh in a year's time! hssonline.org/page/Edinbur...
2025 HSS Annual Meeting - History of Science Society
The 2026 European Society for the History of Science/History of Science Society Joint Meeting will be held in Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom. The conference theme will be Shifting Perspectives: Plural Worlds, Contested Sciences.
hssonline.org
July 2, 2025 at 10:12 AM
This is for people who are familiar with Italian sixteenth-century handwriting and/or who are clever at manipulating images. I think someone wrote their name on this frontispiece to a beauty manual in 1571 then the later owner, Girolamo Garofano, wrote over it. Can anyone make the first name out?
July 3, 2025 at 3:12 PM
This is for people who are familiar with Italian sixteenth-century handwriting and/or who are clever at manipulating images. I think someone wrote their name on this frontispiece to a beauty manual in 1571 then the later owner, Girolamo Garofano, wrote over it. Can anyone make the first name out?
A bit unseasonal, but thought I’d share a pic of these gorgeous 16th c Venetian handwarmers we looked at behind the scenes at the V&A last week - which include a gimbal so the oil pot and wick face upwards whichever way you hold them
July 3, 2025 at 11:17 AM
A bit unseasonal, but thought I’d share a pic of these gorgeous 16th c Venetian handwarmers we looked at behind the scenes at the V&A last week - which include a gimbal so the oil pot and wick face upwards whichever way you hold them
Reposted by Jill Burke
And it's out! Open access and free to download. Thank you @wellcometrust.bsky.social and @manchesterup.bsky.social. Excited to see it out in the world (and sure that despite all the proof reading, I will find typos) @hsmurphy.bsky.social @historyelaine.bsky.social @medievalbadger.bsky.social
1 decade of Open Access, now 300 titles 🔓
Introducing 'Renaissance skin' by @evelynwelch.bsky.social - freely available to all students and institutions.
A magnificent feat for research in Renaissance art & #histmed
Read it here: www.manchesterhive.com/display/9781...
#Renaissance #OpenAccess
Introducing 'Renaissance skin' by @evelynwelch.bsky.social - freely available to all students and institutions.
A magnificent feat for research in Renaissance art & #histmed
Read it here: www.manchesterhive.com/display/9781...
#Renaissance #OpenAccess
July 1, 2025 at 11:33 AM
And it's out! Open access and free to download. Thank you @wellcometrust.bsky.social and @manchesterup.bsky.social. Excited to see it out in the world (and sure that despite all the proof reading, I will find typos) @hsmurphy.bsky.social @historyelaine.bsky.social @medievalbadger.bsky.social
Reposted by Jill Burke
The author of this piece advocates getting AI to read for you because “the internet-era explosion of digitized text now mocks nonfiction writers with access to more voluminous sources on any given subject than we can possibly process” 🙄
This is some bleak shit. Historians literally outsourcing the creative and research process to a thieving algorithm ripping off the IP of their own fellow-historians.
Says everything that they’re doing it from a Google office.
Hacks. They should be ashamed.
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/16/m...
Says everything that they’re doing it from a Google office.
Hacks. They should be ashamed.
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/16/m...
A.I. Is Poised to Rewrite History. Literally.
www.nytimes.com
June 16, 2025 at 12:17 PM
The author of this piece advocates getting AI to read for you because “the internet-era explosion of digitized text now mocks nonfiction writers with access to more voluminous sources on any given subject than we can possibly process” 🙄
Reposted by Jill Burke
Our @samleggs22.bsky.social is part of a new #exhibition @stgilescathedral.bsky.social@edinburghcouncil.bsky.social about the 1st Burghers as part of #edinburgh 's 900th birthday! 🎂 Check it out at #StGiles until 30th Nov ⛪ @hcaatedinburgh.bsky.social #edinarch #archaeology #scotland #archsci
June 16, 2025 at 10:02 AM
Our @samleggs22.bsky.social is part of a new #exhibition @stgilescathedral.bsky.social@edinburghcouncil.bsky.social about the 1st Burghers as part of #edinburgh 's 900th birthday! 🎂 Check it out at #StGiles until 30th Nov ⛪ @hcaatedinburgh.bsky.social #edinarch #archaeology #scotland #archsci
A joyful first event at the Edinburgh Historical Reconstruction lab where we tried European and Chinese early modern cosmetics and perfumes, found out what James I and VI smelled like, and made pomanders from a 1555 recipe.
June 9, 2025 at 8:07 AM
A joyful first event at the Edinburgh Historical Reconstruction lab where we tried European and Chinese early modern cosmetics and perfumes, found out what James I and VI smelled like, and made pomanders from a 1555 recipe.
Reposted by Jill Burke
'Sir Peter is facing anger from staff at the University of Edinburgh at plans to cut £140m from its spending - equivalent to at least a month's expenditure each year....in a wide-ranging interview...he said he cannot rule out compulsory redundancies at the 442-year-old institution.' 1/2
Funding warning from Edinburgh University principal Mathieson - BBC News
Sir Peter Mathieson says ministers must act over the future funding model for Scotland's universities.
www.bbc.com
April 18, 2025 at 9:56 AM
'Sir Peter is facing anger from staff at the University of Edinburgh at plans to cut £140m from its spending - equivalent to at least a month's expenditure each year....in a wide-ranging interview...he said he cannot rule out compulsory redundancies at the 442-year-old institution.' 1/2
Went to the Science Museum stores yesterday. Utterly joyful.
L-R 17th c pomander, 18th c essence box, travelling medical box (17th/18th c), 16th c anatomical doll
L-R 17th c pomander, 18th c essence box, travelling medical box (17th/18th c), 16th c anatomical doll
March 21, 2025 at 3:32 PM
Went to the Science Museum stores yesterday. Utterly joyful.
L-R 17th c pomander, 18th c essence box, travelling medical box (17th/18th c), 16th c anatomical doll
L-R 17th c pomander, 18th c essence box, travelling medical box (17th/18th c), 16th c anatomical doll
Reposted by Jill Burke
Hello Everyone, please join us at the Denbo Center virtually for @fabribald.bsky.social talk as part of our seminar series, Labour of Science. Register with the QR code below! Looking forward to seeing you all there!
February 28, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Hello Everyone, please join us at the Denbo Center virtually for @fabribald.bsky.social talk as part of our seminar series, Labour of Science. Register with the QR code below! Looking forward to seeing you all there!