Mark Empey
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memps2.bsky.social
Mark Empey
@memps2.bsky.social
1.7K followers 290 following 240 posts
Early Modernist to the bitter end #Bookhistory Female Book Owners; Women Writers; British & Irish historical writing; early Stuart peripheral governments
Forthcoming book: Sir James Ware: Royalism, History & Antiquarianism (Boydell)
Coined #HerBook
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memps2.bsky.social
Mark Empey @memps2.bsky.social · Mar 1
Delighted and excited to hear that my #bookhistory chapter, which discusses the important role the Irish Protestant community played in preserving crucial #medieval #manuscripts in #17thc, is now published. And look at that cover 🤩
New publication with Four Courts Press: The Church of Ireland under the Stuarts, edited by Patrick Little, which discusses the religious, political, and cultural contribution of the church in seventeenth-century Ireland My chapter 'Preserving the past: history, manuscripts and belonging, c 1600-41' which discusses the role of the Irish Protestant community in preserving crucial medieval manuscripts and how this forces us to re-evaluate our understanding of the settler society
memps2.bsky.social
It appears everybody is 'ill satisfied' in January 1637, at least in the eyes of the second viscount Conway anyway. Something tells me he's not entirely the life of the party #earlymodern
Letter from Edward, Lord Conway, to Sir Thomas Wentworth (lord deputy of Ireland) reporting how notable figures in England are all 'ill satisfied'
November 10, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Reposted by Mark Empey
wynkenhimself.bsky.social
Great look into the comprehensiveness of EEBO and EEBO-TCP and what that means for using those tools. Highly recommend for all computational bibliographers and early modernists doing large-scale work with EEBO
November 9, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Reposted by Mark Empey
medrenliza.bsky.social
EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT: Conference on "Early Modern Asexualities," in person at Victoria College at the University of Toronto (and streamed online), January 5-7, 2026.

Get previews of chapters in the collection edited by myself, @catherineclifford.bsky.social, and @omaraphd.bsky.social. 💜🤍🌪️🖤

1/
Conference poster featuring excerpts from a painting: a man in a tunic (Apollo) chasing a woman (Daphne); Apollo looks imploring, while Daphne, walking away from him, looks exasperated. Their figures repeat in miniature on the background of the poster, and in the center in a purple circle is the following text: "January 5-7, 2026, Victorial College Chapel and Online, Early Modern Asexualities"
November 5, 2025 at 11:14 PM
memps2.bsky.social
In good news (well, for a small minority) I’ve been given permission to return to Bluesky.

In better news for #earlymodern folk, it’s a timely return as I’ve got proofs for my latest #bookhistory work on female book ownership 1500-1700 #HerBook
Proofs of new chapter coming out on Female Book Ownership 1500-1700
October 27, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Reposted by Mark Empey
drjpw.bsky.social
Are you curious about the potential for archival practices to shape the study of emotion; why there are letters in the English State Papers labelled 'mad'; or how the culture & politics of Elizabethan England shaped people's experience of distress? Find out here! doi.org/10.1017/S008... #earlymodern
‘your poore distressed suppliant’: ‘Madness’, Emotion and the Archive in Early Modern England | Transactions of the Royal Historical Society | Cambridge Core
‘your poore distressed suppliant’: ‘Madness’, Emotion and the Archive in Early Modern England
doi.org
September 2, 2025 at 9:51 AM
memps2.bsky.social
Can’t help but be engrossed by this. Not just the quality or attention to detail but how the desk is presented, the meticulous research, the anguish of research (??), and the hints de Heem left for the viewer to interpret and reflect on. Fabulous
jdmccafferty.bsky.social John McCafferty @jdmccafferty.bsky.social · Sep 2
Jan Davidsz de Heem, Still Life with Books and a Violin, 1628. (Mauritshuis, The Hague)

Literate viewers knew the titles of the books on this table were concerned with the idea of ​​fate.
September 2, 2025 at 5:17 PM
memps2.bsky.social
You may not be interested in Maelsechlainn Mór.

You may even not be interested in the magnificence that is the Annals of the Four Masters, compiled by ridiculously talented Irish Franciscans under challenging conditions.

But please don’t tell me you aren’t impressed by work of this scribe 😍
ucdarchives.bsky.social UCD Archives @ucdarchives.bsky.social · Sep 2
Maelsechlainn Mór, High King of Ireland, died #OTD 1022.

Maelseachlainn Mor, son of Domhnall, son of Donnchadh, pillar of the dignity and nobility of the west of the world, died on Cro-inis Locha-Aininn, after having been forty-three years in sovereignty over Ireland...
September 2, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Reposted by Mark Empey
rebpaf.bsky.social
✉️ We're back from our summer break with a new blogpost by Rosenn Nicolas (Galway),exploring a letter to Christopher Plantin that shows how 16th-century European book production depended on networks of publishers,printers, & intermediaries,shaped by commerce and censorship.
#REBPAF #MSCA #BookHistory
Secrets of a 1569 letter: how books defied borders? The power of partnerships in the 16th century
Rosenn Nicolas, University of Galway1 Figure 1: Introduction of the letter The Plantin Moretus Museum keeps an original letter exposing unusual facts about the people involved in the printing spher…
rebpaf.wordpress.com
August 30, 2025 at 11:47 AM
Reposted by Mark Empey
anita5446.bsky.social
Fascinating article by Nuala Zahedieh about the centrality of canoes in early colonial exploitation 🗃️https://academic.oup.com/past/advance-article/doi/10.1093/pastj/gtaf021/8231030
Canoes in the Early English Caribbean: The Role of an Indigenous Technology in Making Mercantilism Work*
Abstract. The Caribbean, with its focus on cash crop production, played a major role in the rise of England’s Atlantic trading system and the making of mod
academic.oup.com
August 13, 2025 at 8:23 PM
Reposted by Mark Empey
martinevanelk.bsky.social
Just discovering this database of books as symbols in Renaissance art--a wonderful resource #EarlyModern #HerBook basiraproject.org
BASIRA • Books as Symbols in Renaissance Art
basiraproject.org
August 27, 2025 at 2:43 PM
memps2.bsky.social
So much to unpack from Joe’s wonderful #HerBook post on Lady Bindloss’s purchase records. As he astutely notes, such records “help situate book ownership within a broader story of the networks and market mechanisms through which books moved from printer to seller to buyer”.

WELL worth the read 👇👇
August 23, 2025 at 11:26 AM
memps2.bsky.social
Sir Edward Osborne reported that the assassin, Felton, demanded his pay ‘so peremptorily (with his hatt on) of the Duke, as he kickt him, whereuppon he stabd him in the back, leaving him butt soe much time as to say “villaine thou hast slaine me” and soe died’. The DRAMA
histparl.bsky.social History of Parliament @histparl.bsky.social · Aug 23
Assassinated #OTD 1628, George Villiers, 1st duke of Buckingham and favourite of James I. Buckingham enjoyed great influence at court, but public popularity didn’t follow. He was fatally stabbed in a Portsmouth pub. More on his relationship with James I 👇 ow.ly/Jbm850ATmbH
James I and the duke of Buckingham: love, power and betrayal - The History of Parliament
Paul M. Hunneyball, Associate Editor of the House of Lords 1604-1629 project, kicks off with a sequel to his blog from last LGBTHM, 'James I and his favourites: sex and power at the Jacobean Court'.
ow.ly
August 23, 2025 at 10:39 AM
Reposted by Mark Empey
zannavanloon.bsky.social
REGISTRATION OPEN!

Now more than ever, research is reshaping our view of women’s roles in the early modern book trade. Join us in Antwerp (5–7 Nov 2025) for our conference Women & the Household in the #earlymodern Book Trade.

Register here: tinyurl.com/womenbooktrade

#rarebooks #bookhistory 💙📚📜
Conference: Women and the Household in the Early Modern Book Trade | Museum Plantin-Moretus
The aim of this two-day conference is to share knowledge of women’s rich and varied lives and works in the period before the rapid industrialisation of book production which changed the face of home l...
museumplantinmoretus.be
August 20, 2025 at 12:27 PM
memps2.bsky.social
Always fascinated by #17thc historians and how they structured and took notes of their research.

Here's an example of the Irish historian, Sir James Ware, trawling through the Register of St Werburgh's in #Chester and listing archdeacons who served in Irish dioceses in the #medieval period
Sir James Ware's notes from The Register of St Werburgh's in Chester in which he creates a list archdeacons who served in Irish dioceses in the medieval period Sir James Ware's notes from The Register of St Werburgh's in Chester in which he creates a list archdeacons who served in Irish dioceses in the medieval period
August 19, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Reposted by Mark Empey
rhyskamjones.bsky.social
Publication day!!

Find out how C18th Welsh cultural revivalism positioned itself within an expanding British Empire and a newly-minted British state. Includes Welsh sources on slavery/abolition, settler colonialism, Indigenous America, and more

🚨🚨🚨 35% off all formats with the code BB135 🚨🚨🚨
Welsh Revivalism in Imperial Britain, 1707-1819
Reframes the study of Welsh cultural revivalism, highlighting transnational and imperial contexts.
boydellandbrewer.com
August 19, 2025 at 12:45 PM
memps2.bsky.social
This volume is a much needed contribution to the wider #bookhistory community, specifically as it places an emphasis on indigenous language and its responses to the rapidly changing colonial and printed world. It also complements the #earlymodern volume 3 brilliantly
historyatgalway.bsky.social University of Galway - History @historyatgalway.bsky.social · Aug 19
Congratulations to Pól Ó Dochartaigh and Niall Ó Ciosáin (and many of our colleagues in Roinn na Gaeilge) for their contributions in the recently published The Oxford History of the Irish Book, vol II: The Printed Book in Irish, 1567-2010s (OUP, 2025)!
Cover of The Oxford History of the Irish Book, volume II: The Printed Book in Irish, 1567-2010s, edited by Éamonn Ó Ciardha, Frank Sewell, and Alan Titley.
August 19, 2025 at 2:33 PM
Reposted by Mark Empey
grubstreetwomen.bsky.social
Very exciting: the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography published a cluster of new entries on women stationers. See the intro by Valerie Wayne: www.oxforddnb.com/newsitem/906...

ODNB entries are so helpful in identifying women from traces on printed material. So happy to see this work ❤️
www.oxforddnb.com
August 16, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Reposted by Mark Empey
historicaljnl.bsky.social
📣John Locke’s Forgotten Manuscript

We are thrilled to announce that @davidrarmitage.bsky.social's
article on his discovery of a new John Locke manuscript is out now👇

It sheds new light on Locke's practical involvement in political economy & his engagement with Ireland 📜🗃️
John Locke and Irish Linen Manufacture: A New Manuscript | The Historical Journal | Cambridge Core
John Locke and Irish Linen Manufacture: A New Manuscript
www.cambridge.org
August 15, 2025 at 7:56 AM
Reposted by Mark Empey
jdmccafferty.bsky.social
It's very sad to have the news of Bríd McGrath's death. She was an indefatigable editor for @irishmanuscripts.bsky.social

See our tribute to her here:

www.irishmanuscripts.ie/brid-mcgrath/
Bríd McGrath - Irish Manuscripts
Bríd at the launch of her edition in Clonmel in June 2006. It is with great sadness that we have learned of the death of Dr Bríd McGrath, editor of four IMC editions. On behalf of the Chair and member...
www.irishmanuscripts.ie
August 14, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Reposted by Mark Empey
irishhistorians.bsky.social
We are delighted to announce that a full programme and registration for the 35th Irish Conference of Historian is now available. Maynooth University, 12-13 September.

Please share widely.

www.eventbrite.com/e/35th-irish...
35th Irish Conference of Historians - Inner Lives and Outer Realities
The 35th annual Irish conference of historians hosted by the Irish Committee of Historical Sciences & Maynooth University Dept. of History
www.eventbrite.com
August 13, 2025 at 9:31 PM
Reposted by Mark Empey
clodaghtait.bsky.social
A number of Four Courts Press books can now be borrowed on archive.org. Four Courts is a key publisher of works on Irish history, and this means some out of print edited collections on early modern history are now more readily available. And you can read some of my articles there too! For example:
August 12, 2025 at 11:29 AM
memps2.bsky.social
A manuscript copy of Edmund Campion’s #16thc ‘Two bokes of the Histories of Ireland’. The many names on the title page provide a fascinating insight into its popularity and how widely circulated Campion’s work was before Sir James Ware published it in 1633 #bookhistory
A manuscript copy of Edmund Campion’s Two bokes of the Histories of Ireland with evidence of numerous names of contemporary readers
August 10, 2025 at 11:48 AM
Reposted by Mark Empey
jdmccafferty.bsky.social
10 Aug 1636: The Annals of the Four Masters/ Annála Ríoghachta Éireann are completed & signed on this day #otd The great 17thC annalistic source for the history of the island of #Ireland (Here is the signature page from @ucdarchives.bsky.social s UCD-OFM Ms A13).
August 10, 2025 at 10:40 AM
Reposted by Mark Empey
thecelticist.bsky.social
If you're in Dublin between now and late October, don't miss the Words on the Wave exhibition at the National Museum on Kildare St. Some of our most important medieval Irish manuscripts are on loan from the Abbey of St Gallen & are back in Ireland for the first time in c. 1200 years. #MedievalSky
A close-up of a decorated initial P, with human and zoomorphic figures, in the early medieval Insular style, from the St Gall Priscian. Some of Priscian's Latin text is visible as are interlinear and marginal glosses in Old Irish. A close-up of a letter P in a highly decorated and colourful style characteristic of early medieval Insular Gospel books, with dots, geometric designs and zoomorphic figures. A highly decorative early medieval Irish Gospel book, open at the beginning of the Gospel of John: "In principio erat uerbum ...", with interlace and zoomorphic designs. Four manuscript fragments, dated to the seventh century, which formed part of the earliest known copy of Isidore of Seville's Etymologiae.
August 9, 2025 at 5:26 PM