Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
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rgmemss.bsky.social
Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
@rgmemss.bsky.social
3.1K followers 3.1K following 110 posts
Dedicated to the love of books, manuscripts, written words in multiple media across the ages. Did we mention books?
Our website = https://manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/
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rgmemss.bsky.social
Up next: manuscriptevidence.org//wpme/2025-r... "Break-Up Books and Make-Up Books", 21-23 November (hybrid at Princeton and online). Experts, students, collectors, lovers of books look at fragments. Join us!
2025 RGME Autumn Colloquium on Fragments -
2025 RGME Autumn Colloquium on Fragments “Break-Up Books and Make-Up Books: Encountering and Reconstructing the Legacy of Otto F. Ege and Other Biblioclasts“ Friday to Sunday 21–23 November 2025 Hybri...
manuscriptevidence.org
November 9, 2025 at 1:13 PM
rgmemss.bsky.social
#thresholds
thisismyglasgow.bsky.social This Is My Glasgow @thisismyglasgow.bsky.social · 22d
The entrance to the former Bridgeton Public Library on Landressey Street in the East End of Glasgow. Designed by J.R. Rhind and built in 1903, it's now home to the Glasgow Women's Library.

#glasgow #architecture #glasgowbuildings #bridgeton #library #architecturephotography
October 23, 2025 at 9:02 PM
rgmemss.bsky.social
#fragmentology
hopesteffen.bsky.social Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 22d
I got distracted by some fragment work this evening, & I was happy to revisit this little detail from a fourteenth-century German breviary, containing the feast of the dedication of a church.

[Syddansk Universitetsbibliotek, RARA Musik M 4]
Detail from a fragment of a manuscript fragment, showing the bottom of the front page of the book which is bound in the fragment. The edge of the page cuts through an initial O with floreate decorations in red ink around and within the O itself, which is in blue ink. Above the initial is the word 'Ymnus' (Hymn) in red, with the first word being 'Urbs', 'City'. Above this rubric are two lines of a praise of the Trinity with German muscial notation - looking a bit like brackets or pegs - in-between the text.
October 22, 2025 at 2:38 AM
rgmemss.bsky.social
#childrensbooks #histoyofreading
ottomanhistory.bsky.social History Cafe ☕ Ottoman Heritage @ottomanhistory.bsky.social · 22d
📜 Ottoman Press: 'Angeliaphoros', a Children's Magazine in Karamanli Turkish (written in the Greek Script), Published from 1872 to 1897. #Historical
October 22, 2025 at 2:02 AM
rgmemss.bsky.social
#fragmemtology
October 22, 2025 at 1:58 AM
rgmemss.bsky.social
#historyofliteracy #papersinpaintings
peterpaulrubens.bsky.social Dr. Peter Paul Rubens @peterpaulrubens.bsky.social · 22d
Fantastic portrait of diplomat, art theorist & astronomer Giovanni Battista Agucchi in 1621. An intense man! By his friend Domenichino, who was born on this day in 1581.
October 22, 2025 at 1:51 AM
rgmemss.bsky.social
Happening this Friday!
rgmemss.bsky.social Research Group on Manuscript Evidence @rgmemss.bsky.social · Oct 7
Next Week: We invite you all to the RGME 2025 Autumn Symposium, "Readers, Fakers, and Re-Creators of Books: From Page to Marketplace and Beyond". This event will be held online October 17-19; more details and registration found on the website: manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/2025-rg...
Poster for Research Group on Manuscript Evidence Autumn Symposium, 17-19 October 2025
October 13, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Reposted by Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
rgmemss.bsky.social
Next Week: We invite you all to the RGME 2025 Autumn Symposium, "Readers, Fakers, and Re-Creators of Books: From Page to Marketplace and Beyond". This event will be held online October 17-19; more details and registration found on the website: manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/2025-rg...
Poster for Research Group on Manuscript Evidence Autumn Symposium, 17-19 October 2025
October 7, 2025 at 3:32 PM
rgmemss.bsky.social
Next Week: We invite you all to the RGME 2025 Autumn Symposium, "Readers, Fakers, and Re-Creators of Books: From Page to Marketplace and Beyond". This event will be held online October 17-19; more details and registration found on the website: manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/2025-rg...
Poster for Research Group on Manuscript Evidence Autumn Symposium, 17-19 October 2025
October 7, 2025 at 3:32 PM
rgmemss.bsky.social
#historyofliteracy #historyofcookbooks
literaturegeek.bsky.social Amanda Wyatt! Visconti @literaturegeek.bsky.social · Sep 29
Told our grad fellows about Avery's work just last week—a go-to example of book history since her conf talk. Made food-stain charts on old paper, compared w/historical cookbooks under microscope=>unearthing moments in time for cooks who often couldn't write+otherwise left out of historical record:
ryancordell.org Ryan Cordell @ryancordell.org · Sep 29
Excited that longtime Viral Texts collaborator Avery Blankenship’s *American Literature* article is out—stemming from a chapter of her diss, it outlines her research using infrared spectroscopy to analyze food stains in C19 cookbooks—interesting for DH, book history, bibliography, and foodies alike
September 30, 2025 at 2:04 AM
rgmemss.bsky.social
#noahsark
patrickmcdonagh98.bsky.social Dr Patrick McDonagh @patrickmcdonagh98.bsky.social · Sep 15
An illustration of Noah's ark in a fourteenth century Irish manuscript accredited to Ádhamh Ó Cianáin, a scholar from medieval Fermanagh, at the @nlireland.bsky.social. In the top left can be seen the dove (or 'colu[m]ba') carrying an olive leaf returning to the ark.
An illustration of Noah's ark in a fourteenth century Irish manuscript accredited to Ádhamh Ó Cianáin, a scholar from medieval Fermanagh, at the @nlireland.bsky.social. In the top left can be seen the dove (or 'colu[m]ba') carrying an olive leaf returning to the ark.
September 22, 2025 at 12:04 PM
rgmemss.bsky.social
#historyofcollections
archivemole.com Archive Mole @archivemole.com · May 28
This document marked the end of the Maison Dieu's 300-year religious life and its transfer to royal control during the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

This record, held at The National Archives, UK, is one of thousands still undigitised.

We can help you access them.
September 21, 2025 at 2:39 PM
rgmemss.bsky.social
#picturepoems #carminafigurata #wordsasimages
enniusredloeb.bsky.social Ennius @enniusredloeb.bsky.social · Sep 20
Carmina figurata: text written in the form of a king #RoshHashanah
BL Oriental 2733; Mahzor for Rosh ha-Shanah, Franco-German rite; 14th century; France; f.51r
September 21, 2025 at 1:39 AM
rgmemss.bsky.social
#lists We admire Michael Hensley's work on book lists. He spoke about it for our 2025 Spring Symposium, and we are eager to learn more. #historyoflibraries
csmc-hamburg.bsky.social Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) @csmc-hamburg.bsky.social · Aug 25
‘We like lists because we don’t want to die’, said Umberto Eco. What drives our deep fascination with lists? PhD researcher Michael Hensley explores the meaning of Ethiopian and Eritrean book lists, offering glimpses into communities that would otherwise be lost:
uhh.de/csmc-hensley
Ethiopian and Eritrean manuscript evidence from the medieval period survives until today in varying states of preservation, ranging from whole codices, small fragments, or somewhere in-between. Some exemplars, for example, were later palimpsested to accommodate new texts. One such case is shown in the image above. Now housed in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, this manuscript was acquired by Antoine d’Abbadie (1810–1897) during his travels in Ethiopia in the nineteenth century. While the overtext dates to the seventeenth century, the pages on which it was written were taken from at least four earlier manuscripts, ranging from the fourteenth (or possibly earlier) to the early sixteenth centuries. This written artefact, and other palimpsests like it in the Ethiopian and Eritrean context, was treated recently in Erho 2025. Image: Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des Manuscrits, ms. Ethiopien d’Abbadie 191, f. 96v. Gallica. Accessed 20 August 2025. Donation List of ʾIyasus Moʾa from the gospel book of ʾIyasus Moʾa = EMML 1832 (1280/1281), recording the manuscripts that he donated to the monastery of Ḥayq ʾƎsṭifānos on his death in 1292. This important document is treated in my dissertation. Image courtesy of Meseret Oldjira.
September 3, 2025 at 3:20 PM
rgmemss.bsky.social
With the start of September, we mention the CFP deadline of 15 September for your proposals for our sessions at #kazoo2026 ( #2026icms ) and #imc2026 at Leeds. manuscriptevidence.org/2026-interna...
manuscriptevidence.org
September 1, 2025 at 1:23 PM
rgmemss.bsky.social
#doodles
erikkwakkel.bsky.social Erik Kwakkel @erikkwakkel.bsky.social · Jun 20
Just came across this web resource: 76 digitized handwriting manuals 1600-1800 - mostly with models for handwriting exercises (bibliotheques-specialisees.paris.fr/search/N-503...). A bored child learning to write doodled in one of them (source: bibliotheques-specialisees.paris.fr/ark:/73873/p...).
Flyleaf of writing manual shows doodles of child.
August 31, 2025 at 11:28 PM
rgmemss.bsky.social
#kzoo2026 CFP: this year the RGME is co-sponsoring 5 sessions at next year's ICMS- more details and portals for submissions on the website: manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/2026-in...
Research Group on Manyscript Evidence 2026 ICMS call for papers to co-sponsored sessions
August 27, 2025 at 2:40 PM
rgmemss.bsky.social
CFP: the RGME is sponsoring a session for #imc2026 called "Manuscripts at Play and as Play: Temporalities and (Re)Configurations as Reading Methods". Send us your proposals!
manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/2026-in...
2026 ICMS at Leeds: Call for Papers -
Call for Papers Sessions Sponsored by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence at the 2026 International Medieval Congress (In person or Hybrid) 6–9 July 2026 “Manuscripts at Play and as Play: Tempor...
manuscriptevidence.org
August 25, 2025 at 7:24 PM
rgmemss.bsky.social
#inscriptionsinstone
antiquity.ac.uk Antiquity Journal @antiquity.ac.uk · Aug 24
The last known inscription made in #Egyptian hieroglyphs was carved #OnThisDay in AD 394 🏺 #Archaeology

The Graffito of Esmet-Akhom depicts the god Mandulis, accompanied with a text hoping the inscription will last forever. It seems the engraver got their wish 1/2

📷Olaf Tausch / CC BY-SA 3.0
Brick wall engraved with a humanoid figure accompanied by hieroglyphs.
August 24, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Reposted by Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
antiquity.ac.uk
The last known inscription made in #Egyptian hieroglyphs was carved #OnThisDay in AD 394 🏺 #Archaeology

The Graffito of Esmet-Akhom depicts the god Mandulis, accompanied with a text hoping the inscription will last forever. It seems the engraver got their wish 1/2

📷Olaf Tausch / CC BY-SA 3.0
Brick wall engraved with a humanoid figure accompanied by hieroglyphs.
August 24, 2025 at 10:01 AM
rgmemss.bsky.social
#inscriptionsinstone #generosity #beauty
ideasroadshow.bsky.social Ideas Roadshow @ideasroadshow.bsky.social · Aug 24
An exceptional Byzantine mosaic made of marble & glass tesserae showing Ktisis who personifies the act of generous donation, c. 500.

👁️ Read/watch Byzantium: Beyond The Cliché, here: ideasroadshow.substack.com/p/byzantium-...

#mosaicmonday 🗃️ #arthistory #medievalsky #skystorians 🏺 #archaeology
Fragment of a Floor Mosaic with a Personification of Ktisis Byzantine, 500–550, with modern restoration. The following text is from The Met where you can view this mosaic: The bejeweled woman, holding the measuring tool for the Roman foot, is identified by the restored Greek inscription as Ktisis, a figure personifying the act of generous donation or foundation. The man with a cornucopia, originally one of a pair flanking her, has the Greek inscription “good” by his head, half of a text that probably said, “good wishes.” The fragment, made of marble and glass tesserae (small pieces of colored material), is typical of the exceptional mosaics created throughout the Byzantine world in the 500s. The Metropolitan Museum, after acquiring the two figures independently, has restored them in accordance with a dealer’s photograph showing their original arrangement while in storage before separation.
August 24, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Reposted by Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
ideasroadshow.bsky.social
An exceptional Byzantine mosaic made of marble & glass tesserae showing Ktisis who personifies the act of generous donation, c. 500.

👁️ Read/watch Byzantium: Beyond The Cliché, here: ideasroadshow.substack.com/p/byzantium-...

#mosaicmonday 🗃️ #arthistory #medievalsky #skystorians 🏺 #archaeology
Fragment of a Floor Mosaic with a Personification of Ktisis Byzantine, 500–550, with modern restoration. The following text is from The Met where you can view this mosaic: The bejeweled woman, holding the measuring tool for the Roman foot, is identified by the restored Greek inscription as Ktisis, a figure personifying the act of generous donation or foundation. The man with a cornucopia, originally one of a pair flanking her, has the Greek inscription “good” by his head, half of a text that probably said, “good wishes.” The fragment, made of marble and glass tesserae (small pieces of colored material), is typical of the exceptional mosaics created throughout the Byzantine world in the 500s. The Metropolitan Museum, after acquiring the two figures independently, has restored them in accordance with a dealer’s photograph showing their original arrangement while in storage before separation.
August 24, 2025 at 8:28 AM
rgmemss.bsky.social
Restorations, with thanks to our Associate, Carin Ruff @carinr.bsky.social
August 1, 2025 at 8:17 PM
rgmemss.bsky.social
More Is More, Wayback Machine Style for British Library Online, Hindsight Included. With thanks to our Associate, @carinr.bsky.social
carinr.bsky.social Carin Ruff @carinr.bsky.social · Aug 1
OMG PEOPLE! I have the BL hack of all BL hacks. Why didn't this occur to me before? It turns out the Wayback Machine has snapshots of MS metadata from the old Digitised Manuscripts site. I tried it for the Benedictional of St. Æthelwold, in honor of his day, and lo! web.archive.org/web/20140305...
Screenshot of the Wayback Machine capture of the old entry for BL MS Add 49598
August 1, 2025 at 5:30 PM
rgmemss.bsky.social
#beautifulbook #turnedthepages
carinr.bsky.social Carin Ruff @carinr.bsky.social · Jul 11
This is the feast of Benedict of Nursia, d. 547–THE Benedict, with apologies to B. Biscop & B. of Aniane. 🕯️ Let's do a 🧵 of manuscripts of his Rule. Bodleian Library MS Hatton 48, early-8c England, is the oldest surviving copy of the Rule. It is written in Uncials...

#medievalsky #monasticism
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Hatton 48, fol. 1r Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Hatton 48, fol. 7v
July 24, 2025 at 2:10 AM