Loudly tooting this CFP, please retweet:
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#AcademicSky

Douglas is doing some of the most exciting Renaissance manuscript research of which I'm aware--any time you have space to hear him live or on recording, I definitely recommend it!

Delighted to see that the Department of Homeland Security acknowledges that their immigration laws are "endangering American communities." Less delighted to see that nobody who publishes to the DHS webpage can write a grammatically correct sentence. I guess we only teach those to immigrants.

Tomorrow, 23 May, I'm presenting material from my article 'Donne's Lost Songs' @folger.edu for the Folger Community Scholars. Performances by sop. Margot Rood and theorbist Billy Simms. Founders Room, 4:30pm EDT. Please come if you're nearby! If you're far away and want a zoom link, DM or email me.

Just posting this again since it's coming up in about three hours. Should be fun!
dlcl.stanford.edu/events/singi...

Today I learned about plumbing hierarchy: in the 17th century one could be a "sergeant plumber," or head plumber to whom other plumbers reported.

Free gallery talk on zoom Jan. 30, 6 PM EST, about the fantastic @folgerlibrary.bsky.social exhibit on Esther Inglis. The speakers reproduced her embroidered bindings for the exhibit. Info and registration here:
www.folger.edu/whats-on/vir...

Library Day 9 of 10, Beinecke 2024, & really regretting only asking to come for 2 weeks. This morning I hit 1400 entries in my database: I now have recorded 1404 MS copies of 654 disparate EM poems on servants & tradesmen in 220 (or so) different trades, including at least 347 distinct epitaphs.

I'm so grateful to have gotten to spend all last week (& next) at the Beinecke, staffed with some of the world's friendliest and most helpful librarians, guards, & facilities staff. Readers no longer have access to in-building coffee, but the fellowships folks have really stepped up their swag game.

I'm the only one in the house awake right now, but out of consideration for the other human, this is the only photo I'll share.

My followers have doubled overnight, so I guess I'm one of the cool kids at last! Hi, new people! I have a book on readers of Shakespeare's sonnets, my current research project is on epitaphs about 17th century servants and tradesmen, & I live with the two best cats in the world.

If I read enough epigrams in a row, I start to read the period and slash at the end of each one as a cymbal crash: "Such Malsters as ill measure sell for gaine / are not meere knaues, but also knaues in graine." Ba-dum-TSS. Does this happen to anyone else? (Folger MS V.a.339, 220r or 226r).

If anyone is wondering about Newly Reopened Folger, I'll just note that someone sitting near me today arrived in shorts and a sleeveless shirt, stayed in one place in that outfit for at least 3 hours, and lived to walk back out. (I'm wearing a light sweater, but it's definitely warmer than before.)

Is anyone interested in trying to assemble a RSA panel on obscure Renaissance poets and/or obscure or lower-class subjects? I have two different directions I could take and would love to find some people with compatible interests to make a panel.

Can affirm after 1 week that bsky is better for the ego. Every day bsky tells me someone I admire has followed me (so if you follow me & see this, that's you!). On the Old Place, my new follower today is "Fan Page of Elon Musk." The bar is low, but thanks, cool people, for following little old me.