Another excellent report from the House of Lords Digital & Communications Committee. Lords committees have been assessing the likely impact of AI on a range of fields over the past decade.

I had no idea that @levostregc.bsky.social started so young.

I’m sure @apettegree.bsky.social will know.

New exhibition @senatehouselib.bsky.social!

Thank you! I’ve just ordered it on the strength of this thread. I only research dull-looking manuscripts (early modern) as they are so often full of surprises.

It was the C. Ferrers one.

Another mid 16th century will lists an eyrar (brood) of swans.

Detail from a fresco of Philippa Mareri as a Poor Clare, dressed in a brown cape with black veil and white wimple against a greenish blue background. Her head is framed with a gold halo.

Happy St Philippa’s day to all who celebrate! She died otd 1236. This later fresco shows her with a large book, perhaps representing her Bible reading or her records of her friend Santa Chiara, also influenced by St Francis. A happy coincidence that reformer Philip Melanchthon was born otd 1497.

Thank you so much for sharing. Absolute news to me and the De La Motte dynasty is fascinating. Of interest to @huguenotsociety.bsky.social

Not in this collection, which is extensive, and fully catalogued, but for the most part relates to her literary interests. It includes, for example, her extensively manuscript annotated notebooks for her thematic catalogue.

Vellum cover of small hand-made book with black and white patterned ribbon fastenings.

Inside cover of handmade book with Imogen Holst’s colourful bookmark showing a man and woman dancing in Thaxted, with the church spire in the background.

Quotation in Imogen Holst’s writing “So are you to my thoughts as food to life, Or as sweet-season’d showers are to the ground. Shakespeare. [Sonnets]”

Three tickets for the Aldeburgh Festival tucked inside handmade book, including one for 1960 inscribed “Miss I. Holst”

It is a mystery why or when composer and conductor Imogen Holst wrote 14 quotations in this vellum-covered book, but still delightful. From the lovely Church House collection accessioned at Britten Pears Archives in 2025. HOL/8/15/2/52

Extract from early 18th century manuscript letter written in French with a handdrawn heart in place of a seal.

Archives are a treasure trove of expressions of love. Here is William Beauvoir, chaplain to the British Ambassador in Paris, writing to his wife in England in 1716. “Hand-drawn heart, but without pretence, for absence doesn’t lessen the ardour of love at all”. @lampallib.bsky.social MS 1556 f.109.

Leicester Cathedral reveals sign language wedding held in 1576 Cathedral bosses believe the signed service could have been one of the first in England.

Well this is a very touching local news story.

After the reference to 1425 this follows: “No, the 1917 Bill was about a collective group of peers who had been, I think, collaborating with the Nazis around the Second World War.”

A fun fact about the cover image: it is of GH taking it in turns to conduct and sing with Imogen and his brother Emil when they were on holiday in the Cotswolds in summer 1932.

Super blog by @huguenotsociety.bsky.social about the drainage of the fens, an enduring feature of the Cambridgeshire landscape, by a Protestant immigrant workforce. “The French” are still remembered at Thorney Abbey, where they later worshipped.

Mimosa tree in blossom against a blue and pale pink sky at dusk, 5 February c. 5 pm.

Even in this rainy weather the mimosa tree in Archbishop’s Park, next to the wonderful @lampallib.bsky.social, is spectacular. The photo can’t capture its scent, but it must surely be the largest mimosa in London.

Perhaps start (in Poet’s corner) with Alice Meynell, who so nearly became Poet Laureate.
The musicians area is crowded, but Gustav Holst now seems an odd omission.
Lots to think about!

The chairs are not scenic but are there for sitting on, which is helpful as there is so much to look at in the extraordinary gallery.

The room in London where Benjamin Franklin lived, walls painted green, a bust of Franklin in the marble fireplace, small table and single writing chair and two large full length windows which he used to take his early morning “air baths”.

Born #otd in Boston, Massachusetts, 320 years ago, Benjamin Franklin, polymath, printer, scientist, diplomat, writer & US Founding Father. For those in central London wanting to celebrate, a visit to @benfranklinhouse.bsky.social, where he lived, wrote and experimented for years, is inspirational.

Yes. First used for the ornate chairs in Prince’s chamber then adopted throughout. Very large numbers of « richly gilt chair nails, new pattern » are recorded in the Hardman day books.

Race and the Early Modern — CEMS KCL Blog

Delighted to announce the launch of a new seminar - Race and the Early Modern - in collaboration with @folger.edu.

A monthly, transatlantic, online seminar for research on race, racialisation, and racemaking across #earlymodern Studies.

Sign up to attend!

kingsearlymodern.co.uk/race-and-the...

@ihr.bsky.social events may sound too good to be true but there really isn’t a catch. They are just excellent.

I’ve always thought his design for a decorative nail to be one of his outstanding achievements - and one he was actually commissioned for.

This is such good news from @nationaltrust.org.uk. When visiting historic houses I always try to spend as much time as possible looking at book spines, particularly for the periods in which I’m most interested. Being able to read them would be a big step forward for book lovers of all ages.

@historytoday.com’s 1st co-editor Alan Hodge died in 1979, when his family founded a travelling fellowship in his memory @somervillecollege.bsky.social, where his wife Jane had studied. I was the beneficiary in 1979, visiting France for the first time aged 21 to research 16th-18thc MSS. So grateful

Looking forward to this. A reminder that online @huguenotsociety.bsky.social lectures are free to all. Membership of the society is also open to all (some Huguenot societies elsewhere require members to be of Huguenot descent). I couldn’t imagine my research without access to their member resources.

Partial view of Strawberry Hill House, white mock Gothic with turret and crenellations, against a bright blue sky with trees in the foreground.

Front view of two Turkish jewel encrusted daggers with sheaves, with stained glass windows in the background.

Back view of two Turkish ornate daggers and sheaves, both 16th century, with stained glass window reflections and view through the open door to the room beyond.

2nd exhibition visit of 2026 to « Henry VIII’s Lost Dagger » @strawberryhill.bsky.social. Horace Walpoles attempt to outTudor the Tudors didn’t quite work (his now-lost bejewelled dagger was Ottoman) but the daggers on display are spectacular, as is his house. Ends 15 Feb. Train station nearby.

Down the road from the former Timmis and Tudor Mytton mills (still picturesque, now housing), where my teetotal great grandfather allegedly agonised over whether to use beer to speed up efforts to extinguish the fire which burnt down the previous building.

That’s so kind of you. I didn’t know about either, and have really enjoyed listening to the clip, thank you so much. I do hope you can recover enough to get to the museum. Let me know if there are any specific references I could perhaps check for you.