Winston Black
@winstonblack.bsky.social
Gatto Chair of Christian Studies, StFX, Antigonish, Nova Scotia
https://hcommons.org/members/secondweb/
Studying: Medieval Healing Traditions, Pharmacy, Manuscripts, Black Death, Medievalism.
Dad to 2 mini-mes, 2 cats. Playing piano, MTG, D&D
https://hcommons.org/members/secondweb/
Studying: Medieval Healing Traditions, Pharmacy, Manuscripts, Black Death, Medievalism.
Dad to 2 mini-mes, 2 cats. Playing piano, MTG, D&D
How else to spend my birthday? Queuing for the British Library on a rainy morning to touch the old books.
November 10, 2025 at 9:17 AM
How else to spend my birthday? Queuing for the British Library on a rainy morning to touch the old books.
New book! So pleased to get my author copies of our edition, translation, and study of Gregorio Dati's "La Sfera", a fifteenth-century Florentine poem on cosmology and geography.
This was the brainchild of the unstoppable Carrie Beneš.
It's profusely illustrated and will be great for students.
This was the brainchild of the unstoppable Carrie Beneš.
It's profusely illustrated and will be great for students.
October 16, 2025 at 12:48 PM
New book! So pleased to get my author copies of our edition, translation, and study of Gregorio Dati's "La Sfera", a fifteenth-century Florentine poem on cosmology and geography.
This was the brainchild of the unstoppable Carrie Beneš.
It's profusely illustrated and will be great for students.
This was the brainchild of the unstoppable Carrie Beneš.
It's profusely illustrated and will be great for students.
Thrilled to have completed my first turtle patrol for the Canadian Sea Turtle Network. Volunteers look for stunned or (sadly) dead sea turtles on Nova Scotia beaches in the fall after high tide. If nothing else it gives a great reason for a morning walk on gorgeous beaches.
seaturtle.ca
seaturtle.ca
October 15, 2025 at 12:01 PM
Thrilled to have completed my first turtle patrol for the Canadian Sea Turtle Network. Volunteers look for stunned or (sadly) dead sea turtles on Nova Scotia beaches in the fall after high tide. If nothing else it gives a great reason for a morning walk on gorgeous beaches.
seaturtle.ca
seaturtle.ca
For Indigenous People's Day, spend some time getting to know the paintings of Kent Monkman (aka Miss Chief Eagle Testickle) one of Canada's greatest living artists.
www.kentmonkman.com/paintings-ga...
www.kentmonkman.com/paintings-ga...
October 13, 2025 at 12:28 PM
For Indigenous People's Day, spend some time getting to know the paintings of Kent Monkman (aka Miss Chief Eagle Testickle) one of Canada's greatest living artists.
www.kentmonkman.com/paintings-ga...
www.kentmonkman.com/paintings-ga...
Sudden late summer shower, glowing cathedral, and full sky rainbow. It’s okay.
September 30, 2025 at 8:13 PM
Sudden late summer shower, glowing cathedral, and full sky rainbow. It’s okay.
Huh, cancel culture works.
Major backpedal from Academia [dot] "edu", who updated their Terms of Use today, probably because thousands of academics deleted their accounts when they posted new Terms last week granting them use of users' voice and likeness. That's now removed.
Still a predatory site!
Major backpedal from Academia [dot] "edu", who updated their Terms of Use today, probably because thousands of academics deleted their accounts when they posted new Terms last week granting them use of users' voice and likeness. That's now removed.
Still a predatory site!
September 22, 2025 at 8:52 PM
Huh, cancel culture works.
Major backpedal from Academia [dot] "edu", who updated their Terms of Use today, probably because thousands of academics deleted their accounts when they posted new Terms last week granting them use of users' voice and likeness. That's now removed.
Still a predatory site!
Major backpedal from Academia [dot] "edu", who updated their Terms of Use today, probably because thousands of academics deleted their accounts when they posted new Terms last week granting them use of users' voice and likeness. That's now removed.
Still a predatory site!
This is one of my favorite manuscript pages anywhere: I call it Frankenfolio.
It shows how valuable parchment was in the Middle Ages: they sewed up two holes & the scribe wrote carefully around the stitches.
Fittingly, the text is Pseudo-Hippocrates, "Book of Diets", talking about different meats.
It shows how valuable parchment was in the Middle Ages: they sewed up two holes & the scribe wrote carefully around the stitches.
Fittingly, the text is Pseudo-Hippocrates, "Book of Diets", talking about different meats.
September 5, 2025 at 5:52 PM
This is one of my favorite manuscript pages anywhere: I call it Frankenfolio.
It shows how valuable parchment was in the Middle Ages: they sewed up two holes & the scribe wrote carefully around the stitches.
Fittingly, the text is Pseudo-Hippocrates, "Book of Diets", talking about different meats.
It shows how valuable parchment was in the Middle Ages: they sewed up two holes & the scribe wrote carefully around the stitches.
Fittingly, the text is Pseudo-Hippocrates, "Book of Diets", talking about different meats.
Starting another year of teaching tomorrow. Excited for a packed house in my course, "Magic and Witchcraft in Premodern Europe", always a popular topic!
But bittersweet. It's likely the last year I'll ever teach, at least full time. It's been a good 20 years (!), but I expected more.
But bittersweet. It's likely the last year I'll ever teach, at least full time. It's been a good 20 years (!), but I expected more.
September 4, 2025 at 12:36 AM
Starting another year of teaching tomorrow. Excited for a packed house in my course, "Magic and Witchcraft in Premodern Europe", always a popular topic!
But bittersweet. It's likely the last year I'll ever teach, at least full time. It's been a good 20 years (!), but I expected more.
But bittersweet. It's likely the last year I'll ever teach, at least full time. It's been a good 20 years (!), but I expected more.
Thanks for the post. We medievalists have harped on this for decades, so it's good to have a non-medievalist repeat it.
It was Petrarch, not Plutarch, who popularized the idea of a "Dark Age", in several works ca.1330.
I have a chapter on this topic in my book The Middle Ages: Facts and Fictions.
It was Petrarch, not Plutarch, who popularized the idea of a "Dark Age", in several works ca.1330.
I have a chapter on this topic in my book The Middle Ages: Facts and Fictions.
August 28, 2025 at 12:21 PM
Thanks for the post. We medievalists have harped on this for decades, so it's good to have a non-medievalist repeat it.
It was Petrarch, not Plutarch, who popularized the idea of a "Dark Age", in several works ca.1330.
I have a chapter on this topic in my book The Middle Ages: Facts and Fictions.
It was Petrarch, not Plutarch, who popularized the idea of a "Dark Age", in several works ca.1330.
I have a chapter on this topic in my book The Middle Ages: Facts and Fictions.
Pleased with this. Took a while holding still by the feeder to get it.
August 24, 2025 at 6:47 PM
Pleased with this. Took a while holding still by the feeder to get it.
Happy kid caught the biggest fish at camp. Good end to the summer.
August 22, 2025 at 11:34 PM
Happy kid caught the biggest fish at camp. Good end to the summer.
Morning visit to the foggy harbour. Great beasts eat silently at the water’s edge. Also: lighthouse and sea turkeys.
August 15, 2025 at 12:21 PM
Morning visit to the foggy harbour. Great beasts eat silently at the water’s edge. Also: lighthouse and sea turkeys.
Fires are growing in Bayers Lake, just a few minutes from my house. Photo last night Aug 12 (credit Emily Reiner) from Northwest Arm looking up to Bayers Lake area and #Halifax Tower Hotel, with smoke across the horizon.
August 13, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Fires are growing in Bayers Lake, just a few minutes from my house. Photo last night Aug 12 (credit Emily Reiner) from Northwest Arm looking up to Bayers Lake area and #Halifax Tower Hotel, with smoke across the horizon.
Back from a great week in PEI. So many beaches. Especially loved the protected dunes in Greenwich.
Also pleased with this picture. Got contacts again for the first time in many years, to wear shades.
Younger kiddo can be seen reflected, about to run up the one dune you're allowed to walk on.
Also pleased with this picture. Got contacts again for the first time in many years, to wear shades.
Younger kiddo can be seen reflected, about to run up the one dune you're allowed to walk on.
August 10, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Back from a great week in PEI. So many beaches. Especially loved the protected dunes in Greenwich.
Also pleased with this picture. Got contacts again for the first time in many years, to wear shades.
Younger kiddo can be seen reflected, about to run up the one dune you're allowed to walk on.
Also pleased with this picture. Got contacts again for the first time in many years, to wear shades.
Younger kiddo can be seen reflected, about to run up the one dune you're allowed to walk on.
Entering my Immortan Joe phase thanks to a serious midlife apnea diagnosis. Must watch for Furiosa in the night.
August 9, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Entering my Immortan Joe phase thanks to a serious midlife apnea diagnosis. Must watch for Furiosa in the night.
Here we go! First prerelease in a while but this set looks fire, as my young opponents say, I think.
July 25, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Here we go! First prerelease in a while but this set looks fire, as my young opponents say, I think.
Privet hedge is in full bloom, bringing in many winged insect friends. The hummingbirds also like it but are too fast to photograph.
July 22, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Privet hedge is in full bloom, bringing in many winged insect friends. The hummingbirds also like it but are too fast to photograph.
The hares are getting comfortable in our yard. I got within a few feet!
July 22, 2025 at 1:50 PM
The hares are getting comfortable in our yard. I got within a few feet!
Little dragons love inhabiting initials of medieval manuscripts. However, this one just found his book is about pee.
Opening of Isaac Israeli, Book of Urines, translated by Constantine the African, in Erfurt/Gotha MS Amplonian Q 207: "Incipit liber urinarum Ysahac"
#medhist #histmed #manuscript
Opening of Isaac Israeli, Book of Urines, translated by Constantine the African, in Erfurt/Gotha MS Amplonian Q 207: "Incipit liber urinarum Ysahac"
#medhist #histmed #manuscript
July 18, 2025 at 10:52 AM
Little dragons love inhabiting initials of medieval manuscripts. However, this one just found his book is about pee.
Opening of Isaac Israeli, Book of Urines, translated by Constantine the African, in Erfurt/Gotha MS Amplonian Q 207: "Incipit liber urinarum Ysahac"
#medhist #histmed #manuscript
Opening of Isaac Israeli, Book of Urines, translated by Constantine the African, in Erfurt/Gotha MS Amplonian Q 207: "Incipit liber urinarum Ysahac"
#medhist #histmed #manuscript
Nearly 35 C in Halifax. Going for a hike was tough. Even the animals were melting.
Yes, that’s an albino red squirrel. I think it lives on granola bars and Cheetos. It put its tiny pink paw on my foot before giving up and melting on the rock.
Yes, that’s an albino red squirrel. I think it lives on granola bars and Cheetos. It put its tiny pink paw on my foot before giving up and melting on the rock.
July 16, 2025 at 8:03 PM
Nearly 35 C in Halifax. Going for a hike was tough. Even the animals were melting.
Yes, that’s an albino red squirrel. I think it lives on granola bars and Cheetos. It put its tiny pink paw on my foot before giving up and melting on the rock.
Yes, that’s an albino red squirrel. I think it lives on granola bars and Cheetos. It put its tiny pink paw on my foot before giving up and melting on the rock.
Goal: add more descriptions like this about myself to my books to influence readers in 500 years:
"John Bosgrove ys a mytte man and man of hi lerneing wythall.”
From the 15th c. medical collection in Huntington Library MS 64, f. 81r. John Bosgrove was apparently one of several owners of this MS.
"John Bosgrove ys a mytte man and man of hi lerneing wythall.”
From the 15th c. medical collection in Huntington Library MS 64, f. 81r. John Bosgrove was apparently one of several owners of this MS.
July 8, 2025 at 4:27 PM
Goal: add more descriptions like this about myself to my books to influence readers in 500 years:
"John Bosgrove ys a mytte man and man of hi lerneing wythall.”
From the 15th c. medical collection in Huntington Library MS 64, f. 81r. John Bosgrove was apparently one of several owners of this MS.
"John Bosgrove ys a mytte man and man of hi lerneing wythall.”
From the 15th c. medical collection in Huntington Library MS 64, f. 81r. John Bosgrove was apparently one of several owners of this MS.
Enjoying Leeds #imc2025 #s714, the third session on "Recipes as Reources of Knowledge", this one on "Worlds of Pharmaceutical Learning. A truly hemispheric approach to #medhist #histmed, with papers on Byzantine hospital drugs, plantain in A-S England and Tang China, and Pliny in Bohemia.
July 8, 2025 at 1:56 PM
An interesting puzzle! The symbol is used again on f. 113r. I'm not familiar with it, but it seems like a sort of "Nota bene" symbol, given how it's used in the margin next to passages underlined in red. I thought the first version was an abbreviated "q" but the second doesn't seem to be a letter.
July 7, 2025 at 4:33 PM
An interesting puzzle! The symbol is used again on f. 113r. I'm not familiar with it, but it seems like a sort of "Nota bene" symbol, given how it's used in the margin next to passages underlined in red. I thought the first version was an abbreviated "q" but the second doesn't seem to be a letter.
Big thunderstorm. Yard bun appreciates our bistro set.
July 2, 2025 at 12:11 PM
Big thunderstorm. Yard bun appreciates our bistro set.