Laura Morreale
@lauramorreale.bsky.social
Independent Scholar/Medieval Francophonie & Italian Historiographies. http://digitalhumanitiesddp.com, http://tcf.lauramorreale.com, http://dalme.org.
Hi medievalist friends.
Having some trouble deciphering a glyph from a 14th century list of household expenses from Siena. The mystery glyph is outlined in red; it looks like the letter "z" (or #2) and seems like it should be some sort of denomination or currency? Any ideas would be welcomed!
Having some trouble deciphering a glyph from a 14th century list of household expenses from Siena. The mystery glyph is outlined in red; it looks like the letter "z" (or #2) and seems like it should be some sort of denomination or currency? Any ideas would be welcomed!
November 17, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Hi medievalist friends.
Having some trouble deciphering a glyph from a 14th century list of household expenses from Siena. The mystery glyph is outlined in red; it looks like the letter "z" (or #2) and seems like it should be some sort of denomination or currency? Any ideas would be welcomed!
Having some trouble deciphering a glyph from a 14th century list of household expenses from Siena. The mystery glyph is outlined in red; it looks like the letter "z" (or #2) and seems like it should be some sort of denomination or currency? Any ideas would be welcomed!
Welp. Another hour of ground stop at DCA. Cool. The richest country in the world brings free circulation of its own people to a grinding halt because it won’t pay its workers.
Stuck on the tarmac in Charlotte because no flights are going in or out of DCA. I can only imagine how much more complicated this will become during the holiday travel seas on.
November 8, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Welp. Another hour of ground stop at DCA. Cool. The richest country in the world brings free circulation of its own people to a grinding halt because it won’t pay its workers.
Stuck on the tarmac in Charlotte because no flights are going in or out of DCA. I can only imagine how much more complicated this will become during the holiday travel seas on.
November 8, 2025 at 1:34 PM
Stuck on the tarmac in Charlotte because no flights are going in or out of DCA. I can only imagine how much more complicated this will become during the holiday travel seas on.
Reposted by Laura Morreale
Well worth the read, especially for US based medievalists, to get a sense that the lack of jobs and the slow deterioration of medieval studies as a global problem. Do what you can individually, but also build networks and communities.
My blog post with the ADAM network has now been published. It's about precarity, the future of small subjects, and communal approaches to academic work. I hope it will resonate with some. #IchBinHanna #KleineFaecher #SkandiRetten
difficultmedieval.com/2025/10/23/h...
difficultmedieval.com/2025/10/23/h...
Hard Times and Trial Approaches: Old Norse-Icelandic Studies Between Precarity and the Future
Dr Rebecca Merkelbach reflects on her keynote speech at the most recent Saga Conference. Held every three years, Saga Con is the most important meeting of Old Norse scholars, bringing together acad…
difficultmedieval.com
October 24, 2025 at 6:22 PM
Well worth the read, especially for US based medievalists, to get a sense that the lack of jobs and the slow deterioration of medieval studies as a global problem. Do what you can individually, but also build networks and communities.
Not cranky. There is no reason that the only market for higher education should be among 18-22 years olds, the majority of whom are mostly concerned with making a living (not coursework). People who value what academics have worked their lives to cultivate should rightly pay for that expertise.
a mildly crank take is that as people live longer and universities struggle with demographic issues, colleges should offer a kind of somewhat-separate retiree-PhD path. Like it's still an actual degree, you still do real coursework and a dissertation, but you pay tuition instead of teaching classes
October 23, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Not cranky. There is no reason that the only market for higher education should be among 18-22 years olds, the majority of whom are mostly concerned with making a living (not coursework). People who value what academics have worked their lives to cultivate should rightly pay for that expertise.
This is amazing! Thanks for posting
Much #charterrific fun to be had on the new Fiscus website, dedicated to fiscal lands in the regnum Italiae! #medievalsky
fiscus.unibo.it/en/
fiscus.unibo.it/en/
Fiscus
fiscus.unibo.it
October 14, 2025 at 2:47 PM
This is amazing! Thanks for posting
With apologies for multiple postings, La sfera is now available for pre-order (publish date October 1)! www.italicapress.com/index600.html
www.italicapress.com
September 24, 2025 at 12:20 PM
With apologies for multiple postings, La sfera is now available for pre-order (publish date October 1)! www.italicapress.com/index600.html
Looking forward! I'll also me mentioning La sfera, as the collaborative translation comes out from Italica Press on October 1!
September 22, 2025 at 10:55 PM
Looking forward! I'll also me mentioning La sfera, as the collaborative translation comes out from Italica Press on October 1!
nice review! Thanks for passing it along:)
A new review now in Sehepunkte:
www.sehepunkte.de/2025/09/4031...
www.sehepunkte.de/2025/09/4031...
SEHEPUNKTE - Rezension von: A Crusader's Death and Life in Acre - Ausgabe 25 (2025), Nr. 9
Rezension über Anne E. Lester / Laura K. Morreale: A Crusader's Death and Life in Acre. The 1266 Account-Inventory of Eudes of Nevers (= Medieval Societies, Religions, and Cultures), Ithaca / London: ...
www.sehepunkte.de
September 15, 2025 at 4:46 PM
nice review! Thanks for passing it along:)
Hey medievalists! Digital Medieval Studies Institute (DMSI) is coming to Kzoo! Learn about Handwritten Text Recognition, Photogrammetry, Digital Editions, Virtual Pilgrimage, and MSS in Material and Digital Environments. Application & registration info coming soon wmich.edu/medievalcong...
September 12, 2025 at 7:20 PM
Hey medievalists! Digital Medieval Studies Institute (DMSI) is coming to Kzoo! Learn about Handwritten Text Recognition, Photogrammetry, Digital Editions, Virtual Pilgrimage, and MSS in Material and Digital Environments. Application & registration info coming soon wmich.edu/medievalcong...
How widespread were medieval technological objects, and who owned them? Read about where they were found in medieval households in a new DALME feature essay by Dan Smail. dalme.org/features/a-n...
September 9, 2025 at 1:46 PM
How widespread were medieval technological objects, and who owned them? Read about where they were found in medieval households in a new DALME feature essay by Dan Smail. dalme.org/features/a-n...
looks like an abandoned Au Bon Pain
August 8, 2025 at 1:43 PM
looks like an abandoned Au Bon Pain
I'm just putting this out there. If you go to the gym & use the locker room, DO NOT use your cell phone where people are getting undressed (like the sauna and showers). Cell phones are cameras. It's a matter of safety and security, & if the culture allows cameras in these areas, someone will film.
August 3, 2025 at 10:26 PM
I'm just putting this out there. If you go to the gym & use the locker room, DO NOT use your cell phone where people are getting undressed (like the sauna and showers). Cell phones are cameras. It's a matter of safety and security, & if the culture allows cameras in these areas, someone will film.
Reposted by Laura Morreale
🗳️ ELECTION TIME! 🗳️
Digital Medievalist community - it's time to choose your next Executive Board!
What's happening:
- 5 Executive Board positions up for elections (2025-2029 term)
- 10 amazing candidates to choose from
- YOUR voice matters in shaping our future!
#Digitalhumanities #Medievalsky
⤵️
Digital Medievalist community - it's time to choose your next Executive Board!
What's happening:
- 5 Executive Board positions up for elections (2025-2029 term)
- 10 amazing candidates to choose from
- YOUR voice matters in shaping our future!
#Digitalhumanities #Medievalsky
⤵️
a spongebob squarepants scene with a mailbox and a flower
ALT: a spongebob squarepants scene with a mailbox and a flower
media.tenor.com
July 28, 2025 at 2:09 PM
🗳️ ELECTION TIME! 🗳️
Digital Medievalist community - it's time to choose your next Executive Board!
What's happening:
- 5 Executive Board positions up for elections (2025-2029 term)
- 10 amazing candidates to choose from
- YOUR voice matters in shaping our future!
#Digitalhumanities #Medievalsky
⤵️
Digital Medievalist community - it's time to choose your next Executive Board!
What's happening:
- 5 Executive Board positions up for elections (2025-2029 term)
- 10 amazing candidates to choose from
- YOUR voice matters in shaping our future!
#Digitalhumanities #Medievalsky
⤵️
Maybe some good news for the NEH grant holders? (TBH, the outright thievery was really tough to take).
According to POLITICO reporter @kyledcheney.bsky.social, a federal judge has blocked the cancellation of NEH awards by DOGE.
JUST IN: A federal judge has blocked the cancelation of $175 million in National Endowment for the Humanities grants, mass terminated by DOGE in April. She says the effort was transparent viewpoint discrimination in violation of the First Amendment.
July 26, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Maybe some good news for the NEH grant holders? (TBH, the outright thievery was really tough to take).
Just wait until rich applicants can pay for data input that floods the interwebs with positive information about the candidate. AI only knows what is out there...
So my university is gonna use AI to help evaluate incoming student applications so god have mercy on all our souls
Good luck kids
news.vt.edu/articles/202...
Good luck kids
news.vt.edu/articles/202...
Virginia Tech updates undergraduate admissions process
The changes include shifting the university’s early admissions application deadline to Nov. 1 and integrating a new approach to evaluating applicant essays.
news.vt.edu
July 25, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Just wait until rich applicants can pay for data input that floods the interwebs with positive information about the candidate. AI only knows what is out there...
I have a friend/colleague at a *very* elite institution who thinks the next step is liberal arts only institutions. Students are hungry for what we have to teach, and we are cheap compared what other subjects require. Just need a donor with some faith to get us started...
July 25, 2025 at 4:04 PM
I have a friend/colleague at a *very* elite institution who thinks the next step is liberal arts only institutions. Students are hungry for what we have to teach, and we are cheap compared what other subjects require. Just need a donor with some faith to get us started...
Reposted by Laura Morreale
Hi crusades #medievalsky people, do we have evidence of swords being left by returning crusaders as votive offerings in churches? (Asking for @roaringgirle.bsky.social )
July 18, 2025 at 1:37 AM
Hi crusades #medievalsky people, do we have evidence of swords being left by returning crusaders as votive offerings in churches? (Asking for @roaringgirle.bsky.social )
Reposted by Laura Morreale
Thanks Laura, I definitely did! The things I learned at the workshop will certainly be useful for my research and teaching. I definitely will be interested in next year's workshops if (and when!) I'm coming back to Leeds for #IMC2026!
July 14, 2025 at 8:11 AM
Thanks Laura, I definitely did! The things I learned at the workshop will certainly be useful for my research and teaching. I definitely will be interested in next year's workshops if (and when!) I'm coming back to Leeds for #IMC2026!
So glad you enjoyed it as much as we did! We are in Leeds for the next 3 years, so come join us for training on digital tools especially for use by pre-modernists. We are already lining up our workshops for next year (and the next 3 years at Kalamazoo!)
After @imc-leeds.bsky.social #IMC2025 there was still time for Digital Medieval Studies Institute #DMSI25 workshop. Thank you @lauramorreale.bsky.social & @nkivilcimyavuz.bsky.social for organizing the event and @cebenes.bsky.social for an amazing workshop on geospatial data!
July 14, 2025 at 8:01 AM
So glad you enjoyed it as much as we did! We are in Leeds for the next 3 years, so come join us for training on digital tools especially for use by pre-modernists. We are already lining up our workshops for next year (and the next 3 years at Kalamazoo!)
Selfish and wasteful
Our former staff salaries.
Our grantees' terminated grants.
Our applicants' planned projects and programs.
Your taxpayer dollars.
💸 $ 💸 $ 💸 $ 💸
Louder for the people in the back.
Louder for the people not yet paying attention. #NEH
Our grantees' terminated grants.
Our applicants' planned projects and programs.
Your taxpayer dollars.
💸 $ 💸 $ 💸 $ 💸
Louder for the people in the back.
Louder for the people not yet paying attention. #NEH
Wow. Some people are upset about gutting the national endowment for the humanities. But fear not. The Big Beautiful Bill appropriates $40 million for "for the procurement of statues" for the President's "Garden of Heroes" www.budget.senate.gov/imo/media/do...
June 29, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Selfish and wasteful
What is also hilarious to me is the idea that everyone should just get a "practical" business/economics degree and then they will be fine. But what will you be buying/selling/counting? There has to be something of substance. We are producing empty containers and nothing to fill them with.
💯 this. It's the #arts & #humanities as well. Knowledge production & preservation, eroded & obliterated.
#Science & the humanities are stronger together - as evidenced by many #NEH grant programs that support #AI, #linguistics, #R&D and more. We need one another, & we need the public to see this.
#Science & the humanities are stronger together - as evidenced by many #NEH grant programs that support #AI, #linguistics, #R&D and more. We need one another, & we need the public to see this.
It’s also not just science #NEH
June 26, 2025 at 1:16 PM
What is also hilarious to me is the idea that everyone should just get a "practical" business/economics degree and then they will be fine. But what will you be buying/selling/counting? There has to be something of substance. We are producing empty containers and nothing to fill them with.