Greate gourde those are some impressive looking pumpkins! From a hand-coloured 16th century herbal, annotated by an early reader #Halloween

🐊Friday's #crocodile is the #Egyptian god Geb who could take various forms, here almost nose-to-nose with priestess Herwebenkhet, Chantress of Amun, as she drinks pure water in the Afterlife c.960 BC (image: Egyptian Museum)

Today we've added four major digitised manuscripts to our website. The Moutier-Grandval Bible, Codex Sinaiticus, Chronicle of the Kings of Mann and the Isles; John of Salisbury, Entheticus in Policraticum etc., and the Lindisfarne Gospels are available to view at

What clothes should one pack for a few days in San Francisco in November? I'm mostly confounded about what kind of jacket situation to plan for.

Spare a thought for Grover Cleveland, whose career as an answer in a pub quiz died tonight.

Also on exhibit was the pair to Dior's Venus, his 1949 Junon gown. This dress is known as one of, if not THE, highlights of Christian Dior's career. It was one of his fairytale-like ballgowns, to be worn at galas. Both dresses were a part of his Milieu du siecle collection, 🧵

The Society for the Study of Early Modern Women and Gender is currently accepting applications for Graduate Student Travel Grants for spring/summer 2025 conferences.

The Humanities Doctorate predates the medical degree by CENTURIES

Decided to participate in LancasterUniHistory department’s Christmas bake-off this year. Baked a medieval manuscript cake. It’s called the Manuscake. Won the star baking prize!

it's Jane Austen's 249th birthday and I hope you'll celebrate by taking a turn about the room, developing a passion for dead leaves, inadvertently falling in love with the last person you could ever be prevailed upon to marry.

Warming flavours of saffron, pepper, chile and ginger for a cold winter's morning in #Dublin. From a 16th century herbal. a book on the medicinal uses of plants.

Have you ordered your Christmas eels yet? Have you?? Medieval kings often served eels at their Xmas feasts. In 1213, King John had 10,000 eels at his holiday party. His son, Henry, once ordered up 40,000! So get on it! You don't want your party to be the First Nö-eel, do you?

Lots of reindeer in this 1572 map of Lapland, not sure where the elves are hiding tho'! #Christmas #RareBooks

Mary studies scripture, while Joseph snuggles the baby. Gotta love that ol' 15th Century complementarianism.

Gold finger ring featuring a figural hare motif, 16th century, crafted in Europe. Currently housed in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum.

Stockings, 1830s. Kyoto Costume Institute.

Fancy some maths? Helen McGregor worked this multiplication table sampler in Scotland in 1840. Multiplication table samplers were a way for a student to learn both needlework and mathematical skills at the same time

Pope Pius?? Yeah, I sure hope he is???

Girl Shoots Man Dead at a Ball - for ‘treading on her foot and declining to apologise’ , Illustrated Police News, 1898.