AlcuinsLibrary

Stondeð nu on laste leofre duguþe weal wundrum heah, In the place of the beloved troop stands a wall wondrous high

The Fifth Window. Past nine o'clock on St Nicholas' Eve & a cold waning moon is rising over the village green. The Church of St. Thomas à Becket is unlit but for one solitary lamp, held by Old Fox, who stands & waits in the nave. For on this night each year, when Auriga, the Charioteer, thunders through the Milky Way, & Cassiopeia's mirror gleams silver-gilt, then the carved Eagle lectern of that old Dorset church turns from stern whittled wood to feather & claw & amber eye, & his tale must be heard by one who knows his unmodern tongue.

'Despite frequent remonstrations, Persephone never accepted that she could not photocopy a whole book in one go".

Truly splendid observation. Coincidence? I think not.

Pretty simple.

The Council @RoyalHistSoc is deeply concerned by the extent, speed and very damaging impact of proposed cuts and closures announced yesterday across Arts & Humanities @oxford_brookes. This affects colleagues in #History as well historians in depts such as @musicatbrookes 1/2

The Tories are stealing the Trump playbook to rev up division Stop the boats =build the wall The invented fear about cancelling Xmas comes from the same place

The great AS Byatt has died. She wrote this, inspired by King Lear, about her little boy, who was killed by a drunk driver. I first saw it when my own yellow-haired little boy had cancer. Few writers can reach you when you are feeling unreachable. She was extraordinary.

@ArmandDAngour More cephalophoric than shattering?

You know what really is shattering? That Dennis is derived from Dionysus (via French Dénis).

@NorthumberArt Stunning painting!

It’s like politicians have forgotten why on Earth we were ever in the EU in the first place. Do they not realise we want to travel/live/work/study/retire/buy from/sell to our closest neighbouring countries, cheaply, freely and without red tape?

Gospels of Abba Garima, an illuminated gospel book in two volumes written on vellum in Ge'ez language and preserved in Abba Garima Monastery east of Adwa, in Mehakelegnaw Zone of Tigray Region of northern Ethiopia, were, according to legend, written and partly illuminated by Ethiopian missionary Abbu Garima, who is thought to have arrived in Ethiopia in 494 CE. Most outside scholars and scientists previously agreed that gospels, based on Garima’s teachings, were written centuries after his death, probably by priests in 10th Century CE. However recent radiocarbon dating carried out at Oxford University suggested a date between 330-650 CE for their creation, opening the possibility that gospels were actually created by Abba Garima. If Abba Garima Gospels date from the time of Abba Garima (500 CE), they are possibly earliest surviving illuminated Christian manuscripts. Survival of Garima Gospels is astonishing, since all other early Ethiopian manuscripts seem to have been destroyed during turbulent times. Very little is known about history of Abba Garima Monastery, but it may have been overrun in 1530s CE, by Muslim invaders. More recently, in 1896 CE, area was at centre of resistance to Italian forces. Monastery’s main church was destroyed by fire in around 1930 CE. Survival of Garima Gospels may have been due to fact that they were hidden, perhaps for centuries or even for more than a millennium. Hiding spot may have been forgotten and it could have been rediscovered by chance in relatively modern times. In 1520 CE, Portugues chaplain Francisco Álvarez visited monastery and recorded that there was a cave (now lost or destroyed), where Abba Garima was reputed to have lived. Álvarez reported that monks would descend into it by ladder to do penance. Although speculation, it is possible that Gospels may have been hidden in this cave. - Subscribe for Weekly Newsletter - archaeo-histories.beehiiv.com/?_gl=1*1dhkanl… #archaeohistories

@micol_long Pietatis

Help me #medievaltwitter: in the editions of a donatio post obitum to an italian convent, 1310, the gift of an ivory comb (to be used liturgically) is presented as "pro pletatis". I think "pletatis" must be a mistake, but I can't understand what the correct word should be...

Happy birthday, Reading Room! Born on this day in 2015, vhmml.org now provides access to 120,024 manuscripts and other materials. More than 90 languages are represented, with Latin, Arabic, and Syriac being the most prevalent. Pictured: vhmml.org/readingRoom/vi…

Æthelberht, bishop of Candida Casa / Hwit Aerne, ‘White House’, (Whithorn, Galloway) from 15 June 777-89 and bishop of Hagustaldes ham (Hexham) from 789 died #OTD in 797. He was succeeded at Whithorn by Badwulf and at Hexham by Heardred. ©AOC Archaeology

"Are the books real?" This question is coming up more & more often on tours of Marsh's Library. Actual physical, in-person tours when people are 2 feet away from the books. It's as if some people are so used to living online that they can't quite understand physical reality.

Another method for fixing an error in a medieval manuscript - This scribe employed the figure of a man using a rope to pull along the accidentally omitted portion of the text - 1st half of the 15th century, British Library, Arundel 38, f. 65r

Here's this week's Endangered Alphabet Sudoku, in the Tifinagh script of the Amazigh or Berber people. DM me with the solution. Prizes to the first three received. Then back our campaign at kickstarter.com/projects/endan… for 23 more!