Anthony Bale FBA
@realmandeville.bsky.social
Medievalist & wanderer. 🏳️🌈 Travel, literature, history, cats.
📖’A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages’ - ‘stunning’ (The Times)
University of Cambridge; Girton College Cambridge; London
https://linktr.ee/realmandeville
📖’A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages’ - ‘stunning’ (The Times)
University of Cambridge; Girton College Cambridge; London
https://linktr.ee/realmandeville
Spanish translation published by @aticodeloslibros.com today! Plus Benny the cat, contemplating his imminent breakfast
aticodeloslibros.com/197-anthony-...
aticodeloslibros.com/197-anthony-...
September 29, 2025 at 8:19 AM
Spanish translation published by @aticodeloslibros.com today! Plus Benny the cat, contemplating his imminent breakfast
aticodeloslibros.com/197-anthony-...
aticodeloslibros.com/197-anthony-...
The beautiful monastery at Sázava 🇨🇿 where the Charles University Centre for the Study of the Middle Ages is holding its summer school, themed this year around medieval travel. Many layers of history and a great atmosphere
September 6, 2025 at 3:13 PM
The beautiful monastery at Sázava 🇨🇿 where the Charles University Centre for the Study of the Middle Ages is holding its summer school, themed this year around medieval travel. Many layers of history and a great atmosphere
Got a book on ‘black magic’ from @thelondonlibrary.bsky.social 🧙🏼♂️Discovered that John and Cathy had been using it for practical fortune telling. At least they only wrote in pencil
August 20, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Got a book on ‘black magic’ from @thelondonlibrary.bsky.social 🧙🏼♂️Discovered that John and Cathy had been using it for practical fortune telling. At least they only wrote in pencil
Marina Warner’s eloquent and urgent new book, tracing the rich human histories of sanctuary - on what it means to find and to lose a place of shelter.
July 9, 2025 at 7:43 AM
Marina Warner’s eloquent and urgent new book, tracing the rich human histories of sanctuary - on what it means to find and to lose a place of shelter.
@thereisnocat01.bsky.social Chambéry, France.
May 2, 2025 at 7:05 PM
@thereisnocat01.bsky.social Chambéry, France.
“A mery May”. The Betley Window, c. 1500, V&A.
May 1, 2025 at 8:08 AM
“A mery May”. The Betley Window, c. 1500, V&A.
The US 🇺🇸 paperback edition of A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages: the World through Medieval Eyes is here! 📚🌏🛫 Published by @wwnorton.com. Details: wwnorton.com/books/978132...
April 28, 2025 at 6:32 AM
The US 🇺🇸 paperback edition of A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages: the World through Medieval Eyes is here! 📚🌏🛫 Published by @wwnorton.com. Details: wwnorton.com/books/978132...
Lovely to see @girtoncollege.bsky.social’s medieval diptych of the Annunciation & Assumption by Francesco di Vannuccio (c. 1380) in the National Gallery’s super Siena exhibition. In the left panel, 2 supplicants kneel before a miniature version of Simone Martini’s Annunciation altarpiece.
April 21, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Lovely to see @girtoncollege.bsky.social’s medieval diptych of the Annunciation & Assumption by Francesco di Vannuccio (c. 1380) in the National Gallery’s super Siena exhibition. In the left panel, 2 supplicants kneel before a miniature version of Simone Martini’s Annunciation altarpiece.
Very much enjoyed the folding calendars in the informative and beautiful new exhibition @lampallib.bsky.social - late medieval saints’ calendars, prognostications, a Hell mouth, zodiac and wound men, in creative formats. Unfolding Time: Medieval Pocket Calendars, until 15th May
February 14, 2025 at 7:59 AM
Very much enjoyed the folding calendars in the informative and beautiful new exhibition @lampallib.bsky.social - late medieval saints’ calendars, prognostications, a Hell mouth, zodiac and wound men, in creative formats. Unfolding Time: Medieval Pocket Calendars, until 15th May
A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages will be published in Czech translation next week!
Středověký turista: Poutníci, učenci a špioni na cestách.
Trans. Marek Sečkař (Brno: Nakladatelství Host) 🇨🇿🇨🇿🇨🇿
www.hostbrno.cz/stredoveky-t...
Středověký turista: Poutníci, učenci a špioni na cestách.
Trans. Marek Sečkař (Brno: Nakladatelství Host) 🇨🇿🇨🇿🇨🇿
www.hostbrno.cz/stredoveky-t...
January 23, 2025 at 3:40 PM
A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages will be published in Czech translation next week!
Středověký turista: Poutníci, učenci a špioni na cestách.
Trans. Marek Sečkař (Brno: Nakladatelství Host) 🇨🇿🇨🇿🇨🇿
www.hostbrno.cz/stredoveky-t...
Středověký turista: Poutníci, učenci a špioni na cestách.
Trans. Marek Sečkař (Brno: Nakladatelství Host) 🇨🇿🇨🇿🇨🇿
www.hostbrno.cz/stredoveky-t...
The frosty ruins yesterday of White Ladies priory, Shropshire, a twelfth-century house of Augustinian canonesses
January 12, 2025 at 5:41 PM
The frosty ruins yesterday of White Ladies priory, Shropshire, a twelfth-century house of Augustinian canonesses
'Mandragora hath...tweye maner kynde: the femel is yliche in leves to the letuse and bereth apples. That other is male with leves liches to the beete...'
Writing about medieval mandrakes, medicine, gender and magic. Here's a female from @labnf.bsky.social & a male from @britishlibrary.bsky.social
Writing about medieval mandrakes, medicine, gender and magic. Here's a female from @labnf.bsky.social & a male from @britishlibrary.bsky.social
![Female mandrake root as a naked woman with three apple-like berries sprouting from her head. Johannes von Cuba, Gart der Gesundheit, 1485. Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale de France, RES FOL-TE142-18 (A)]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:wqqjekxp6qq2adyciuvco7oq/bafkreifqnwbwjx3vowe4u4hpcxljy7dtghpd4isd6xrrsnwestk7yjbxma@jpeg)
January 10, 2025 at 10:47 AM
'Mandragora hath...tweye maner kynde: the femel is yliche in leves to the letuse and bereth apples. That other is male with leves liches to the beete...'
Writing about medieval mandrakes, medicine, gender and magic. Here's a female from @labnf.bsky.social & a male from @britishlibrary.bsky.social
Writing about medieval mandrakes, medicine, gender and magic. Here's a female from @labnf.bsky.social & a male from @britishlibrary.bsky.social
“Slowly, without sensing it, we grow old”, a quotation from Cicero that is the theme and refrain to Alan Hollinghurst’s excellent new novel. I found it superbly riveting, and more emotionally involving than many of his previous books. Highly recommended.
December 2, 2024 at 7:43 PM
“Slowly, without sensing it, we grow old”, a quotation from Cicero that is the theme and refrain to Alan Hollinghurst’s excellent new novel. I found it superbly riveting, and more emotionally involving than many of his previous books. Highly recommended.
Hello BlueSky! I’m Anthony, professor of medieval studies, archive botherer, global wanderer, and cat attendant. My most recent book is “A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages: the world through medieval eyes”, in UK paperback from Penguin Viking.
My next book is about the medieval origins of the witch.
My next book is about the medieval origins of the witch.
November 18, 2024 at 7:59 AM
Hello BlueSky! I’m Anthony, professor of medieval studies, archive botherer, global wanderer, and cat attendant. My most recent book is “A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages: the world through medieval eyes”, in UK paperback from Penguin Viking.
My next book is about the medieval origins of the witch.
My next book is about the medieval origins of the witch.
A few standout items from the British Museum’s Silk Roads show:
the first known chess set, ‘Game of Kings’, Samarkand, 700CE;
Buddha, made in Pakistan c 500CE and found in Sweden;
Syrian flagon found at Prittlewell, Essex;
King Offa’s 8th-century dinar, a copy of a contemporary Abbasid coin
the first known chess set, ‘Game of Kings’, Samarkand, 700CE;
Buddha, made in Pakistan c 500CE and found in Sweden;
Syrian flagon found at Prittlewell, Essex;
King Offa’s 8th-century dinar, a copy of a contemporary Abbasid coin
November 18, 2024 at 7:31 AM
A few standout items from the British Museum’s Silk Roads show:
the first known chess set, ‘Game of Kings’, Samarkand, 700CE;
Buddha, made in Pakistan c 500CE and found in Sweden;
Syrian flagon found at Prittlewell, Essex;
King Offa’s 8th-century dinar, a copy of a contemporary Abbasid coin
the first known chess set, ‘Game of Kings’, Samarkand, 700CE;
Buddha, made in Pakistan c 500CE and found in Sweden;
Syrian flagon found at Prittlewell, Essex;
King Offa’s 8th-century dinar, a copy of a contemporary Abbasid coin
Excited to receive the new book, “Oathbreakers”, by @profgabriele.com and @lollardfish.bsky.social - promising a gripping journey into the Carolingian civil war and an account of “what happens when…long-suppressed tensions flare into deadly violence.” @harpercollins.bsky.social
November 12, 2024 at 2:41 PM
Excited to receive the new book, “Oathbreakers”, by @profgabriele.com and @lollardfish.bsky.social - promising a gripping journey into the Carolingian civil war and an account of “what happens when…long-suppressed tensions flare into deadly violence.” @harpercollins.bsky.social
Maria De Villalobos, d. 1350, reading her Book of Hours forever. A beautiful medieval tomb at Lisbon Cathedral 💒📖🪦
November 18, 2023 at 7:05 PM
Maria De Villalobos, d. 1350, reading her Book of Hours forever. A beautiful medieval tomb at Lisbon Cathedral 💒📖🪦
‘A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages: The World Through Medieval Eyes’ now available in UK & Ireland. Jilly Cooper’s new novel also available 👀
November 12, 2023 at 12:49 PM
‘A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages: The World Through Medieval Eyes’ now available in UK & Ireland. Jilly Cooper’s new novel also available 👀
Visited the tiny beachside cave hermitage at Agathi, Rhodes. Has the vestiges of wall-paintings, including this George and the Dragon. The hermitage faces, across a bay, the huge ruined Hospitaller fortress of Feraklos
October 16, 2023 at 5:24 AM
Visited the tiny beachside cave hermitage at Agathi, Rhodes. Has the vestiges of wall-paintings, including this George and the Dragon. The hermitage faces, across a bay, the huge ruined Hospitaller fortress of Feraklos