Lauren Randall
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laurenrndll.bsky.social
Lauren Randall
@laurenrndll.bsky.social
1.1K followers 590 following 22 posts
PhD Theology candidate at Durham University researching the paratext of Codex Amiatinus, exploring palaeography, philology and manuscript cultures.
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laurenrndll.bsky.social
I’ll be at the Chester Beatty museum next week for Science Week Ireland offering drop-in workshops making iron gall ink and talking about Medieval pigments. It’s a fun way of opening up the world of the scribes who produced Early Medieval manuscripts.
November 6, 2025 at 5:52 PM
laurenrndll.bsky.social
🚨CfP🚨 ‘Shaping the Word: the Form and Use of Biblical Manuscripts in the Early Medieval West’
We are looking for papers exploring ways in which scriptures (including extra canonical) were used and presented during the Early Medieval period. A range of methodologies and disciplines welcome!
November 5, 2025 at 8:22 AM
laurenrndll.bsky.social
A visit to the stunning Melrose Abbey to plan the first stop on our Codex Amiatinus sound and light show tour in February 2026
October 30, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Reposted by Lauren Randall
a-l-saunders.bsky.social
It’s a Coptic GIF!! Thanks @laurenrndll.bsky.social for the sneak peak from Manuscripts and the Mind at @chesterbeatty.bsky.social
#manuscripts #coptic
October 25, 2025 at 2:42 PM
laurenrndll.bsky.social
We have a very exciting line up of people giving our main papers, including Richard Gameson offering a show and tell with mss in the Durham collections.
Send us your queries and abstracts by the 17th November.
laurenrndll.bsky.social Lauren Randall @laurenrndll.bsky.social · Oct 3
CFP: “Shaping the Word: the Form and Use of Biblical Manuscripts in the Early Medieval West” at Durham University in July 2026. We are interested in a wide range of papers exploring ways in which scriptural texts (produced roughly c. 500-1000) were presented and used.
Durham Uni, 2–5 July 2026 From c. 500-1000, Christian scriptures were produced and used in a diverse range of forms and contexts. A manuscript may include a single biblical text (the psalter, a gospel), a collection of texts (the Hexateuch, the gospels), or, rarely, a complete “New Testament” or “Bible” in the modern sense. The distinctiveness of a manuscript is shown by content and textual affiliation, its palaeographical and codicological characteristics, and its paratextual features – from illustrations of biblical narratives, author portraits, and illuminated lettering to canon tables, capitula, prefatory materials, and glosses. Once in circulation, a manuscript’s contexts of use may also vary. Different uses correspond to different users with distinct and perhaps conflicting priorities/goals. Production and use(s) may occur at the same site or at far distant times and places. This conference aims to explore topics related to both the physical presentation and the use of scriptural manuscripts produced in the Early Medieval period (c. 500–1000 CE). We welcome paper proposals from scholars working in all areas of this field, including PhD students. Whatever the specific topic, priority may be given to papers that also relate it to the wider focus of the conference on both “form” (or “production”) and “use”. We hope to be able to cover presenters’ full conference costs with the exception of travel. Titles and Abstracts of proposed papers should be submitted to Lauren Randall (lauren.m.randall@durham.ac.uk), copied to Francis Watson (francis.watson@durham.ac.uk), by Monday 17 November. Abstracts should not exceed 150 words. Papers should be 25 minutes, allowing 20 minute discussion. There will be keynote papers/presentations. Please contact us if you have any questions! This event forms part of our sub-project “Text, Format, and Reader”, focused on Codex Amiatinus and funded by the Glasgow-based “Paratexts Seeking Understanding” project (Templeton Religion Trust)
October 20, 2025 at 7:33 AM
laurenrndll.bsky.social
CfP 🚨 ‘Shaping the Word: the Form and use of Biblical Manuscripts in the Early Medieval West’
Folio from Codex Amiatinus, showing Ezra the Scribe writing out the text of scripture, with an open armarium in the background containing individual volumes of the books of the Bible
October 8, 2025 at 4:07 PM
laurenrndll.bsky.social
CFP: “Shaping the Word: the Form and Use of Biblical Manuscripts in the Early Medieval West” at Durham University in July 2026. We are interested in a wide range of papers exploring ways in which scriptural texts (produced roughly c. 500-1000) were presented and used.
Durham Uni, 2–5 July 2026 From c. 500-1000, Christian scriptures were produced and used in a diverse range of forms and contexts. A manuscript may include a single biblical text (the psalter, a gospel), a collection of texts (the Hexateuch, the gospels), or, rarely, a complete “New Testament” or “Bible” in the modern sense. The distinctiveness of a manuscript is shown by content and textual affiliation, its palaeographical and codicological characteristics, and its paratextual features – from illustrations of biblical narratives, author portraits, and illuminated lettering to canon tables, capitula, prefatory materials, and glosses. Once in circulation, a manuscript’s contexts of use may also vary. Different uses correspond to different users with distinct and perhaps conflicting priorities/goals. Production and use(s) may occur at the same site or at far distant times and places. This conference aims to explore topics related to both the physical presentation and the use of scriptural manuscripts produced in the Early Medieval period (c. 500–1000 CE). We welcome paper proposals from scholars working in all areas of this field, including PhD students. Whatever the specific topic, priority may be given to papers that also relate it to the wider focus of the conference on both “form” (or “production”) and “use”. We hope to be able to cover presenters’ full conference costs with the exception of travel. Titles and Abstracts of proposed papers should be submitted to Lauren Randall (lauren.m.randall@durham.ac.uk), copied to Francis Watson (francis.watson@durham.ac.uk), by Monday 17 November. Abstracts should not exceed 150 words. Papers should be 25 minutes, allowing 20 minute discussion. There will be keynote papers/presentations. Please contact us if you have any questions! This event forms part of our sub-project “Text, Format, and Reader”, focused on Codex Amiatinus and funded by the Glasgow-based “Paratexts Seeking Understanding” project (Templeton Religion Trust)
October 3, 2025 at 10:49 AM
Reposted by Lauren Randall
manuelmunoz.bsky.social
And we’re back! Our highly-rated Latin Palaeography and Early Modern English Palaeography courses are back with a twist: this time they’ll run across 6 week instead of 2, giving you more time to really dig into the content and your practice at your own pace. Apply now!

Www.imemsdurhamlearn.com
The Durham Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies Learning Centre
The Online Learning Centre for the Institute for Medieval and Early Modern Studies at Durham University.
Www.imemsdurhamlearn.com
September 1, 2025 at 10:51 AM
laurenrndll.bsky.social
Dore Abbey’s abbey door(way). Great skeleton painted on the left, too!
Showing doorway of medieval abbey building from the inside
August 26, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Reposted by Lauren Randall
bodiesandbeing.bsky.social
#Latin #Medieval
July 25, 2025 at 5:30 AM
Reposted by Lauren Randall
siobhanjolley.bsky.social
I’m at the airport en route to #EABSBL, so it feels like the perfect time to send a copy of my book, Reimaging the Magdalene, on a journey too!

💛 like and 🔁 RT and I’ll draw a winner on the feast of Mary Mag (22/07, heathens)

Let’s see where it ends up…

#Giveaway
The book cover, featuring Artemisia’s Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy
June 22, 2025 at 7:43 AM
laurenrndll.bsky.social
This cute little cat-like creature in Egerton 609
Image of manuscript page, showing a little doodle sign-off with a picture of a cat-like creature
June 9, 2025 at 3:26 PM
laurenrndll.bsky.social
Oh no! This is actually my life
jaema.bsky.social Journal of the Australian Early Medieval Association @jaema.bsky.social · Mar 27
Had this pop up on Insta, shared by @oxfordarchaeology.bsky.social - I felt it in my bones
A meme featuring a cranky looking fellow holding a reliquary. It is introduced with: "When I take my friends to a local heritage site, and they tell me they're bored." The cranky fellow responds: "Really? Right in front of the bones of St Cuthbert?"
March 27, 2025 at 9:50 PM
laurenrndll.bsky.social
A grumpy looking Luke for the start of his gospel in Amiatinus
Screenshot of the opening of the Gospel of Luke in the Northumbrian Codex Amiatinus, the initial letter Q is decorated with a moody looking face
March 18, 2025 at 11:51 AM
Reposted by Lauren Randall
tdbiii.bsky.social
Together with @siobhanjolley.bsky.social, I'm organising a symposium this summer in Nijmegen (NL). We have the opportunity to support 2 PGRs with travel grants to attend and participate. Feel free to share and hit us up with questions.
Student Bursaries: Liberating Biblical Women? Feminist Afterlives of the Bible in the 21st Century One-Day Symposium, Radboud University, Nijmegen, 1st July 2025 We invite postgraduate students to submit applications for participation in a one-day symposium exploring contemporary feminist reinterpretations of biblical women in modern media. This symposium will bring together scholars to examine how biblical narratives about women are reconstructed, reimagined, and reinterpreted in contemporary cultural products. Contemporary media frequently presents interpretations of biblical women, which are routinely touted as ‘feminist’: from television series like The Chosen to films such as Mary Magdalene and contemporary art by artists such as Nalini Malani. But in these media patriarchal values and judgements of women’s roles in society often still dominate. These media are entangled in normative representations of gender identities in which women cannot be separated from the roles of homemaker, helpmeet, mother, and whore. Two travel grants of up to €250 each are available for postgraduate students to participate in the symposium. Recipients are expected to submit a 5000-word paper by 1st June 2025. The paper will be pre-circulated among attendees and discussed at the symposium. Selected papers from the symposium will be included in a forthcoming edited volume. Application Requirements • Abstract outlining your proposed paper (300-500 words) • Brief biographical statement (150 words) • Institutional affiliation, where you are a registered student
January 15, 2025 at 12:16 PM
laurenrndll.bsky.social
Seagull with more of a comment than a question at #sblaar24
Demanding looking seagull in front of a view of San Diego marina
November 24, 2024 at 12:01 AM
laurenrndll.bsky.social
I usually use the fantastic digitised Amiatinus, but using even the half-size facsimile gives such a different impression of how the pages and diagrams work together
Open facsimile of codex Amiatinus, a purple page with gold letters providing the contents of the Bible. The second page, a diagram with two cruciform shapes containing an alternate list of the books of the Bible.
November 14, 2024 at 9:13 AM
laurenrndll.bsky.social
Had a go at making Iron Gall ink recently, it’s really simple to do (excuse my bad uncial)
November 12, 2024 at 9:40 AM