Thomas Phillips
@thomasphillips.bsky.social
Medievalist • Musicologist • Anglo-Norman chant traditions • Postdoctoral researcher @ University of Cambridge
Happy St Edmund’s Day!
An office for this saint’s feast day has been notated using Anglo-Saxon neumes.
København, KGL Bibliotek, GKS 1588 quarto (Second half of 11th c.)
An office for this saint’s feast day has been notated using Anglo-Saxon neumes.
København, KGL Bibliotek, GKS 1588 quarto (Second half of 11th c.)
November 20, 2025 at 9:02 AM
Happy St Edmund’s Day!
An office for this saint’s feast day has been notated using Anglo-Saxon neumes.
København, KGL Bibliotek, GKS 1588 quarto (Second half of 11th c.)
An office for this saint’s feast day has been notated using Anglo-Saxon neumes.
København, KGL Bibliotek, GKS 1588 quarto (Second half of 11th c.)
I very much doubt anyone on here will recognise this logo, but I’m showing it anyway because I’m very happy with this purchase.
November 19, 2025 at 11:34 AM
I very much doubt anyone on here will recognise this logo, but I’m showing it anyway because I’m very happy with this purchase.
Thoroughly enjoyed Sarah Hamilton’s chapter, ‘The missa pro imperatore in eleventh-century England’. Always looking for new scholarship relating to the PRG (I’m still familiarising myself with it…). Very happy to see Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS. 163 featured so prominently.
November 18, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Thoroughly enjoyed Sarah Hamilton’s chapter, ‘The missa pro imperatore in eleventh-century England’. Always looking for new scholarship relating to the PRG (I’m still familiarising myself with it…). Very happy to see Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS. 163 featured so prominently.
1) I’m using this short time I have in Cambridge to get some articles out which I’m really excited about sharing. Topics include the role of the cantor at St Albans Abbey throughout the twelfth century, the history of the Office of St Alban in England and Scandinavia…
November 16, 2025 at 8:23 PM
1) I’m using this short time I have in Cambridge to get some articles out which I’m really excited about sharing. Topics include the role of the cantor at St Albans Abbey throughout the twelfth century, the history of the Office of St Alban in England and Scandinavia…
Reposted by Thomas Phillips
I'm lucky to have worked with one of the many brilliant people in these departments. Henry Parkes in Music is one of the cleverest, most insightful and inspirational historians I know - and one of the finest teachers too. Don't waste such talent @uniofnottingham.bsky.social.
Well this is awful news: tinyurl.com/yr65mjkx
'All modern language and music courses are being suspended for new students at the University of Nottingham.'
Nottingham friends: please be assured that we will join you in protesting against this decision in the strongest possible terms. Solidarity.
'All modern language and music courses are being suspended for new students at the University of Nottingham.'
Nottingham friends: please be assured that we will join you in protesting against this decision in the strongest possible terms. Solidarity.
Music and modern languages courses suspended at University of Nottingham
In a statement the institution also says it is
www.bbc.co.uk
November 6, 2025 at 5:38 PM
I'm lucky to have worked with one of the many brilliant people in these departments. Henry Parkes in Music is one of the cleverest, most insightful and inspirational historians I know - and one of the finest teachers too. Don't waste such talent @uniofnottingham.bsky.social.
Reposted by Thomas Phillips
Furry seal skin AND tiny Icelandic manuscripts!
www.sciencenorway.no/cultural-his...
www.icelandreview.com/news/rare-15...
www.sciencenorway.no/cultural-his...
www.icelandreview.com/news/rare-15...
Eight pages bound in furry seal skin may be Norway's oldest book
The little book is so rare that the National Library of Norway is bringing in experts from around the world to learn more.
www.sciencenorway.no
November 3, 2025 at 10:41 PM
Furry seal skin AND tiny Icelandic manuscripts!
www.sciencenorway.no/cultural-his...
www.icelandreview.com/news/rare-15...
www.sciencenorway.no/cultural-his...
www.icelandreview.com/news/rare-15...
I’m reading Michael Ende’s ‘The Neverending Story’ for the first time as the film is my absolute childhood favourite. To my horror, the horse, Artax, can talk…if you know, you know…
September 30, 2025 at 8:34 AM
I’m reading Michael Ende’s ‘The Neverending Story’ for the first time as the film is my absolute childhood favourite. To my horror, the horse, Artax, can talk…if you know, you know…
It’s finally finished. Big thanks to the SWWDTP and my supervisors - Emma Hornby, Ben Pohl, and Sarah Hamilton.
A sorely underrated English medieval manuscript, if I might say so myself. I hope I’ve done it some justice.
A sorely underrated English medieval manuscript, if I might say so myself. I hope I’ve done it some justice.
September 27, 2025 at 7:38 AM
It’s finally finished. Big thanks to the SWWDTP and my supervisors - Emma Hornby, Ben Pohl, and Sarah Hamilton.
A sorely underrated English medieval manuscript, if I might say so myself. I hope I’ve done it some justice.
A sorely underrated English medieval manuscript, if I might say so myself. I hope I’ve done it some justice.
I haven’t checked in on here in a while. My thesis is currently with my supervisors for comments before I submit the final thing at the end of September. In the meantime, job applications and article writing…
August 1, 2025 at 8:41 AM
I haven’t checked in on here in a while. My thesis is currently with my supervisors for comments before I submit the final thing at the end of September. In the meantime, job applications and article writing…
1st August - the original feast day of the Invention of St Alban. It was moved to 2nd during the abbacy of Geoffrey de Gorron in 1129, but the octave, which should fall on 9th August, remains fixed on 8th in the calendars.
(Oxford, Bodleian Library, Auct. D. 2. 6)
(Oxford, Bodleian Library, Auct. D. 2. 6)
August 1, 2025 at 8:36 AM
1st August - the original feast day of the Invention of St Alban. It was moved to 2nd during the abbacy of Geoffrey de Gorron in 1129, but the octave, which should fall on 9th August, remains fixed on 8th in the calendars.
(Oxford, Bodleian Library, Auct. D. 2. 6)
(Oxford, Bodleian Library, Auct. D. 2. 6)
Looking forward to speaking at this conference. This is the last time I’ll be giving a paper before I submit my thesis in September.
🎼 Open for registration
Moving Music: The transmission of music and sound in the medieval and early modern world
This event on 24 & 25 June at Emmanuel College will explore how, when, where, and by whom music and sound was transmitted during medieval and early modern periods
🎶 buff.ly/a5o4vUf
Moving Music: The transmission of music and sound in the medieval and early modern world
This event on 24 & 25 June at Emmanuel College will explore how, when, where, and by whom music and sound was transmitted during medieval and early modern periods
🎶 buff.ly/a5o4vUf
June 22, 2025 at 6:57 PM
Looking forward to speaking at this conference. This is the last time I’ll be giving a paper before I submit my thesis in September.
Lovely Easter run across the dunes of what was once the medieval town of Kenfig. John Leland, writing in 1538, said: “There is a litle village on the est side of Kenfik, and a castel, booth in ruine and almost shokid and devourid with the sandes that the Severn Se ther castith up.”
April 20, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Lovely Easter run across the dunes of what was once the medieval town of Kenfig. John Leland, writing in 1538, said: “There is a litle village on the est side of Kenfik, and a castel, booth in ruine and almost shokid and devourid with the sandes that the Severn Se ther castith up.”
“Exultet iam angelica turba…” from the Blessing of the Candle on Holy Saturday.
Note the melisma over the word “accendit”, the point at which the candle is lit. These melismas are only found in sources from England, Normandy, and Norman-Sicily.
BnF Lat. 13765 (11th c.)
Note the melisma over the word “accendit”, the point at which the candle is lit. These melismas are only found in sources from England, Normandy, and Norman-Sicily.
BnF Lat. 13765 (11th c.)
April 19, 2025 at 2:50 PM
“Exultet iam angelica turba…” from the Blessing of the Candle on Holy Saturday.
Note the melisma over the word “accendit”, the point at which the candle is lit. These melismas are only found in sources from England, Normandy, and Norman-Sicily.
BnF Lat. 13765 (11th c.)
Note the melisma over the word “accendit”, the point at which the candle is lit. These melismas are only found in sources from England, Normandy, and Norman-Sicily.
BnF Lat. 13765 (11th c.)
I couldn’t call myself an Oxford resident if my bike hadn’t been stolen…8 months isn’t bad a run.
March 21, 2025 at 11:54 AM
I couldn’t call myself an Oxford resident if my bike hadn’t been stolen…8 months isn’t bad a run.
It’s sad to see that the ‘Dublin Pontifical’ (Dublin, Trinity College, 98) is no longer available online as a fully digitised manuscript.
March 17, 2025 at 1:44 PM
It’s sad to see that the ‘Dublin Pontifical’ (Dublin, Trinity College, 98) is no longer available online as a fully digitised manuscript.
The Chrism Mass liturgy is so messy.
March 13, 2025 at 7:58 AM
The Chrism Mass liturgy is so messy.
Five verses of the hymn ‘O redemptor sume carmen’ preserved in BL, Cotton Nero A. i, ff. 172r-172v (early 11th c.)
March 11, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Five verses of the hymn ‘O redemptor sume carmen’ preserved in BL, Cotton Nero A. i, ff. 172r-172v (early 11th c.)
Despite being technologically literate, I haven’t found a better way to organise my chant-text comparisons than using pencil and paper
March 11, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Despite being technologically literate, I haven’t found a better way to organise my chant-text comparisons than using pencil and paper
Please sign the petition to save the School of Music at Cardiff University 🏴🎼
Sign the Petition
SAVE CARDIFF UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MUSIC
www.change.org
January 31, 2025 at 5:28 AM
Please sign the petition to save the School of Music at Cardiff University 🏴🎼
To shut down a leading centre of musical education in a country celebrated as ‘the land of song’ is an unforgivable irony. Once a department like this is gone, the damage is irreversible.
Cardiff University confirms huge job cuts and School closure programme
Martin Shipton Cardiff University has confirmed the worst fears of its employees by announcing a major cuts programme that includes around 400 job losses and the closure of five schools. A document sh...
nation.cymru
January 29, 2025 at 10:21 AM
To shut down a leading centre of musical education in a country celebrated as ‘the land of song’ is an unforgivable irony. Once a department like this is gone, the damage is irreversible.
Reposted by Thomas Phillips
👋 Here is a petition set-up by recent graduates from Cardiff University School of Music: www.change.org/p/save-cardi...
I have heard there will be more coming for people to throw their voices behind the cause.
I have heard there will be more coming for people to throw their voices behind the cause.
Sign the Petition
SAVE CARDIFF UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MUSIC
www.change.org
January 29, 2025 at 8:24 AM
👋 Here is a petition set-up by recent graduates from Cardiff University School of Music: www.change.org/p/save-cardi...
I have heard there will be more coming for people to throw their voices behind the cause.
I have heard there will be more coming for people to throw their voices behind the cause.
I implore digital archivists: when uploading sample images of a manuscript that contains music notation, please include at least one image of a folio featuring the music notation itself.
January 15, 2025 at 5:57 AM
I implore digital archivists: when uploading sample images of a manuscript that contains music notation, please include at least one image of a folio featuring the music notation itself.
Last read of 2024. Blitzed through it in a few hours at the airport. I’d only ever seen Mike Flanagan’s Netflix loose adaptation (one of the best limited series of all time). The source material did not disappoint.
December 31, 2024 at 5:41 AM
Last read of 2024. Blitzed through it in a few hours at the airport. I’d only ever seen Mike Flanagan’s Netflix loose adaptation (one of the best limited series of all time). The source material did not disappoint.