Francois Soyer
@fsoyer.bsky.social
Associate Prof of European History, the Inquisition, Antisemitism and Gender/Sexuality at the University of New England in Australia. Hispanophile and Lusophile.
The perils of an Australian university campus in the springtime.
October 14, 2025 at 11:36 PM
The perils of an Australian university campus in the springtime.
Birdlife in Australia is never dull: a discussion in progress at the feeder.
October 9, 2025 at 10:02 AM
Birdlife in Australia is never dull: a discussion in progress at the feeder.
I was sitting at my desk and had a feeling that someone was watching me.
September 12, 2025 at 4:15 AM
I was sitting at my desk and had a feeling that someone was watching me.
Springtime in Australia.
September 10, 2025 at 2:43 AM
Springtime in Australia.
Portugal's foremost twentieth-century poet, Fernando Pessoa, opining on Australia (Portuguese: É-se feliz na Austrália, desde que lá se não vá).
September 2, 2025 at 7:11 AM
Portugal's foremost twentieth-century poet, Fernando Pessoa, opining on Australia (Portuguese: É-se feliz na Austrália, desde que lá se não vá).
Receiving my author’s copies of my latest book: always a wonderful feeling but this time also a bittersweet one.
August 18, 2025 at 3:02 AM
Receiving my author’s copies of my latest book: always a wonderful feeling but this time also a bittersweet one.
Beware swooping trees.
August 10, 2025 at 11:41 PM
Beware swooping trees.
Just found the longest word in the English language.
August 5, 2025 at 9:41 AM
Just found the longest word in the English language.
Saw some of my fellow inhabitants of Armidale using surfboards as makeshift sleds this morning! #Australia #Armidale
August 3, 2025 at 12:15 AM
Saw some of my fellow inhabitants of Armidale using surfboards as makeshift sleds this morning! #Australia #Armidale
Siberia Down Under. #Australia #Armidale
August 2, 2025 at 7:41 AM
Siberia Down Under. #Australia #Armidale
Snow in Australia will always feel strange to me
August 2, 2025 at 3:58 AM
Snow in Australia will always feel strange to me
Snow Down Under... and it's only getting heavier! #Australia #Armidale
August 2, 2025 at 1:56 AM
Snow Down Under... and it's only getting heavier! #Australia #Armidale
History falling apart: early 17th century Inquisition trial dossier. digitarq.arquivos.pt/documentDeta...
July 31, 2025 at 8:15 AM
History falling apart: early 17th century Inquisition trial dossier. digitarq.arquivos.pt/documentDeta...
A question for Lusophones. Here is a blasphemous sentence from a inquisitorial trial: “que era puta mui grande e aleivosa farta de cães, gatos e negros." The official meaning of "fartar" is to be "satiated [with food].". Could it have a different (and ruder) meaning?
July 25, 2025 at 3:52 AM
A question for Lusophones. Here is a blasphemous sentence from a inquisitorial trial: “que era puta mui grande e aleivosa farta de cães, gatos e negros." The official meaning of "fartar" is to be "satiated [with food].". Could it have a different (and ruder) meaning?
Another frosty Antipodean winter morning and another colorful visitor in the garden (Armidale, NSW).
July 20, 2025 at 4:10 AM
Another frosty Antipodean winter morning and another colorful visitor in the garden (Armidale, NSW).
It's winter here in Australia but we still get these colourful visitors on frosty mornings in the NSW northern tablelands.
July 18, 2025 at 11:49 AM
It's winter here in Australia but we still get these colourful visitors on frosty mornings in the NSW northern tablelands.
Latin as a living language in 16th century Europe. In 1552 the inquisitors in Lisbon were interrogating an Englishman accused of sacrilege and because the Englishman "could not speak Portuguese well and knew Latin, they asked him questions in Latin." digitarq.arquivos.pt/.../0b68019c....
July 9, 2025 at 8:02 AM
Latin as a living language in 16th century Europe. In 1552 the inquisitors in Lisbon were interrogating an Englishman accused of sacrilege and because the Englishman "could not speak Portuguese well and knew Latin, they asked him questions in Latin." digitarq.arquivos.pt/.../0b68019c....
My father just sent me these pictures from his (somewhat neglected) village church in Burgundy. Plaster fell off the wall revealing these pictures. Any informed guesses about the age/date. My guess would be 16th century but I'm not an art historian.
July 2, 2025 at 8:23 PM
My father just sent me these pictures from his (somewhat neglected) village church in Burgundy. Plaster fell off the wall revealing these pictures. Any informed guesses about the age/date. My guess would be 16th century but I'm not an art historian.
I know that I complain a lot about early modern documents and the time it takes to read them but this one was EASY.
June 18, 2025 at 7:00 AM
I know that I complain a lot about early modern documents and the time it takes to read them but this one was EASY.
I guess this was Plan B if the Geneva/Reformation hustle didn’t work out.
June 8, 2025 at 9:17 AM
I guess this was Plan B if the Geneva/Reformation hustle didn’t work out.
There are so many glorious border oddities/exclaves in Europe, like this one on the Belgian-German border.
June 5, 2025 at 10:27 AM
There are so many glorious border oddities/exclaves in Europe, like this one on the Belgian-German border.
Baarle-Hertog: Imagine living in a bit of the Netherlands, that's surrounded by a bit of Belgium that is itself surrounded by the Netherlands.
June 5, 2025 at 8:05 AM
Baarle-Hertog: Imagine living in a bit of the Netherlands, that's surrounded by a bit of Belgium that is itself surrounded by the Netherlands.
Real life problems in 12th century Castile (Spain). From the Fuero/municipal law code of Cuenca.
May 27, 2025 at 10:59 AM
Real life problems in 12th century Castile (Spain). From the Fuero/municipal law code of Cuenca.
When your sales pitch goes too far, 16 June 1547. An overenthusiastic young bookseller is denounced to the Inquisition in Lisbon because he claimed to a customer that "he possessed books better than the [Holy] Gospels" and uttered other blasphemies.
May 26, 2025 at 4:03 AM
When your sales pitch goes too far, 16 June 1547. An overenthusiastic young bookseller is denounced to the Inquisition in Lisbon because he claimed to a customer that "he possessed books better than the [Holy] Gospels" and uttered other blasphemies.