Good morning from the Bibliothèque nationale de France !
I have the beautiful Salle des Manuscrits to myself 😍

New blog post: "Beastly Beginnings". Did medieval readers give any thought to holding a book made out of animal skin?

"Large books with perfect skin were the SUVs among manuscripts."

Leiden, UB, BUR Q 1 (c. 1100). Link to full digitized book in post
https://buff.ly/4eXq8ow

This is huge.

The EFJ represents over 295,000 journalists in 44 countries 👇
www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/media/e...

The afternoon's papers and exchanges are now available online on the BnF's Youtube channel: www.youtube.com/live/9KWJPBN...

For those who are mainly interested in my paper, it starts 17 minutes in.

I'm thankful for everyone who is still hosting hybrid or all-online events

Le 29/11, au séminaire du Pireh, nous recevrons @jbcamps.bsky.social qui viendra présenter le projet LostMA, visant à comprendre la déperdition des textes et des manuscrits médiévaux.

Rdv à 9h30, à la Sorbonne ou sur Zoom.
Lien et programme : recherche-pireh.pantheonsorbonne.fr/recherches/s...

You might think you're heroic for quitting Twitter, but this is next level. To be elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) is one of the highest honors in science. @deevybee.bsky.social gave up her FRS because she didn't want to be associated with Elon Musk, who was elected FRS for space stuff. 👏

Just published my first blog post in 2 years and it feels great to do this again! I am working on a new format, shorter and reflecting on what an old book does to me. First one new style is about a moldy manuscript. See if you like it: https://buff.ly/4i7hp63. #medievalsky #booksky

“Every book is self help”. Excellent blackout poetry by Austin Kleon (https://buff.ly/3Oq4ej8). #blackoutpoetry #booksky

Here is the Manuscript and Book History starter pack, with experts working on Latin, Chinese, Syriac, Arabic, Hebrew, Old English, Slavic, Ethiopian and many more manuscript and book traditions!

go.bsky.app/AN9pLVo

Ever had one of those days when you just delete everything you've written? A scribe in Ebla, 4,300 years ago, had the same kind of day. Here's the clay tablet he crushed in his hand! See: Biga, Maria Giovanna. "An angry scribe of the third millennium BC." SCIENZE DELL'ANTICHITÀ (2011): 281-282.

This essay by Whitney Trettien and me was a labor of love about a favorite object at the Kislak Center. In it, we try to think in new ways about narratives of "discovery" in the archives. And we quote a bunch of tweets along the way.

Free access, with very pretty pictures!

tinyurl.com/taa8eh43

How long would your commute take in 1680? Mine would be about a day and a half.

@camunicampop.bsky.social has a brilliant tool for calculating travel times in Roman, 1680, 1830, 1911 and 2024. 🗃️
www.travelintimes.org/journey/52.2...

Bienvenue à toutes et tous ! Vous êtes de plus en plus nombreux à nous rejoindre, et nous en sommes ravis 🎉. Pour suivre toutes les productrices, tous les producteurs, ainsi que les journalistes et les émissions de France Culture présents sur Bluesky, voici notre kit 📦 go.bsky.app/UG5sNwJ

Des millions de réfugiés sans accès à des toilettes sûres. Des infrastructures d’urgence qui durent, des vies en danger. Quand l'humanitaire peine à répondre à la dignité.
➡️ l.franceculture.fr/RF7

medium.com/the-new-clim...