@ProfShakespeare

3/3 Michelangelo's grocery list. Because even great artists have to eat! Especially on their birthday, and his is today.

2/2 ‘I'm bent like a bow’: Michelangelo complains about painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling, and draws his only self-portrait!

Given current events in the Middle East, let's prepare for the weekend with the four horsemen of the Apocalypse.
#Weekend 😀
BL Add MS 11695; f.102v
@blmedieval.bsky.social

Plea roll for the Court of King’s Bench, with a portrait of Henry VIII This record of disputes taken to court in 1518, written in abbreviated Latin, includes a vivid portrait of the reigning monarch at the time.

My mission to fill The National Archives website with niche legal records continues. www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/explore-the-...

Read and rave event at Leeds Library

We're are celebrating the power of storytelling.

To mark the National Year of Reading, the BBC is partnering with the British Library’s Living Knowledge Network to bring their BBC CBeebies Bedtime Story read & rave events to libraries nationwide.

Find out more here: link.bl.uk/8lv

Revel in These Beautiful, Bejeweled Medieval Books Feel free to judge these books by their covers.

Beautiful books:

www.atlasobscura.com/articles/med...

A text worthy of a few notes: the beginning of Homer's Iliad

BL Burney MS 86; Townley Homer: Iliad of Homer, with extensive marginal and interlinear scholia; ?1059 CE; f.1r

The bejewelled binding of the gospel-book, which also bears cast figures representing Christ in Majesty and the Crucifixion.

Judith, countess of Flanders, died #OTD in 1094. She was widowed when Tostig, earl of Northumbria, died at the Battle of Stamford Bridge. Symeon of Durham says she 'loved St Cuthbert even more than did her husband'. One of Judith's gospel-books 📸The Morgan Library & Museum #medievalsky

Page from a manuscript (handwritten) book showing text and an elaborately decorated border, with the coat of the king of France at the bottom of the page.

Page from a printed 15th century book with an illumiated initial E

Some blingy books for world book day: A mid-15th century manuscript of Caesar's Gallic Wars, written on vellum, and that once belonged to the king of France; and our earliest printed book, the letters of Cicero to his friends printed on paper in 1472. Shiny! #WorldBookDay

We’re hiring a Social Media Manager at the British Library.

Join our Digital Engagement team and help connect audiences with the stories, collections and ideas of the UK’s national library.

📍 St Pancras
Apply by 15 March 2026
More details here: link.bl.uk/rkj

‘The camera is my weapon of choice’: Gordon Parks’ era-defining shots of segregation – and those who defied it The visionary photographer captured the ugliness of racism in America, as well as the strength and dignity of those who opposed it – from cleaners in the corridors of power to Martin Luther King Jr pr...

What the brilliant photographer Gordon Parks did: www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

Three paintings depicting white women workers in factories

Suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst who created several watercolours depicting women workers in cotton mills and potteries to highlight working women’s rights on pay and conditions #womensart #WomensHistoryMonth

Embroidered textile banner featuring the name Boadicea in gold letters and a golden chariot wheel motif

Suffrage banner commemorating Boadicea (or Boudica) the Britjsh warrior queen, designed in 1908 by Mary Lowndes #womensart

Illuminated manuscript book

Cover of a 15th century book

Illuminated page from the 15th Century

One of the best parts of the day job is putting on document displays. Today, I got to show off this gorgeous 15th-century illuminated statute book [TNA E 164/10] #LegalRecords

A gothic castle in the transylvanian mountains. A great bear of a man, waring a stovepipe hat and carrying a cane: "Now that you are my bride, you will never leave this castle!" His new bride replies "Wow! Your library is amazing!" He continues "Beyond the castle is a high wall with no gate, and beyond that is a deep. Dark forest with no path." She pulls a volume from a great bookcase, "I suppose it's my library too, now we're married." He goes on "The forest is crawling with ravenous wolves, malignant birds and the spirits of long-dead travellers." Ignoring him, carrying a pile of hardbacks "So many books! I can't believe My luck!" He has sprouted wings, claws and cloven hoofs. "When the sun sets, I transform into a wild beast and soar into the night, seized by a terrible bloodlust!" She sits, examining her books as he flies out the window "Ok. I'll stay here and read. See you in the morning"

'Castle'
One of the limited-edition prints in my shop
www.tomgauld.com/shop

2/2 Once more the ‘Flemish Raphael’: Michiel Coxcie, born OTD 1499, w/ a particularly dramatic & violent David & Goliath.

The picture shows two dolls with movable shoulders, elbows, hips and knee joints. The legs of both dolls are partially broken off. One doll's arm is almost completely missing. The limbs and torso are very long, the breasts small. The faces are largely destroyed. The hair is combed back behind the ears, reaching down to the shoulders at the nape. The ivory, which is actually white, has turned brown over time.

Beloved #toys: a pair of #Roman ivory #dolls with articulated arms and legs found in a tomb of a little #girl from a wealthy family in Emona, Ljubljana/Slovenia.

The majority of the dolls in Roman times were made of less valuable materials such as clay, wood or linen. 🧵1/2

🏺 #archaeology

Commission for the trial of Lady Jane Grey [TNA KB 8/23]

Close up of "Edwardus" on a Great Seal [TNA KB 8/23]

Lady Jane Grey's trial occurred so early in Mary I's reign that a Great Seal for Mary hadn't yet been made. As such, the trial records use Edward VI's seal instead. [TNA KB 8/23]

My photo shows the so-called ‘Trier Gold Treasure’ in a museum display case. It is a Roman coin hoard made up of some 2,650 gold aurei. The small round gold coins are spread randomly in a dense pile across a light-coloured display case surface. To the upper right of the coin mound is the broken bowl-shaped bottom of the original copper alloy vessel that held the hoard. The metal is coloured green with corrosion. Several gold coins are scattered inside the bowl. In the lower left corner of the display case is another large, irregular fragment of the original container. Museum information label: In 1993, a bronze vessel with 2650 Roman gold coins (aurei) is discovered in Trier. It is the largest Roman gold coin treasure ever found. The Aureus was in the 1st and 2nd Century the standard coin of the Roman gold minting with an average weight of 7.27 g, with a very high fineness of approx. 980/1000. The coins depict 29 different emperors, empresses or relatives of the imperial house. The oldest coins were minted between 63 and 64 AD, the youngest between 193 and 196 AD. The coins were inside the vessel, which was accidentally discovered by an excavator, rolled up in leather bags. The bags were decorated with leather straps and closed enamel seal capsules. The treasure revealed numerous secrets in its scientific processing: it probably did not represent private assets, but a state treasury that was carefully managed and over a longer period of time and enlarged. During a civil war, the gold coins were finally buried in a cellar in 196 AD and then fell into oblivion. Presumably the former administrator of the treasury took his knowledge of the hiding place with him to the grave.

The Trier Gold Hoard!

The largest #Roman gold coin hoard ever found!

More than 2,650 Roman aurei, weighing 18.5 kg, were discovered inside a bronze vessel wrapped in leather bags, during construction work in 1993. The coins date from 63 AD to 196 AD.

Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier 📷 by me

A medieval dragon for St. David’s Day - decoration from the 15th century chancel screen at Crowland Abbey in Lincolnshire. 📸 My own. #StDavidsDay #CrowlandAbbey

A historic brick building with arched windows is surrounded by vibrant green grass and blooming white and yellow daffodils. In the background, the spires and intricate architecture of Westminster Abbey rise majestically. Leafless tree branches arch across the top of the image under a clear blue sky.

A lush lawn filled with vibrant purple crocus flowers in full bloom, surrounded by fresh green grass. The flowers' delicate petals are open, revealing vivid orange stamens, creating a picturesque scene of early spring.

'Sweet as springtime flowers'
- Taming of the Shrew (II, 1)

Some springtime views of the Abbey's 900-year-old College Garden, with daffodils, narcissi and crocuses all in flower

#ShakespeareSunday

The ‘Pilgrim Hare’ from St. Mary’s Church at Beverley in East Yorkshire. Dating to the mid-14th century, the hare is dressed as a pilgrim, hence the title. It is thought that the carving was the inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s White Rabbit. 📸 My own. #StoneworkSunday #Beverley

2/2 Three graces, passing benefits from one to the next in the midst of Botticelli's Spring, c, 1480.

Born (possibly) on this day in 1445, in Florence, the great Sandro Botticelli. Starting off his day with his Primavera, because don't we all wish spring would arrive?

a red dragon on a green and white flag ALT: a red dragon on a green and white flag

Dydd Gwyl Dewi Hapus 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Happy St David’s Day 🌼

Title page of Henry V

“Tell him, I'll knock his leek about his pate
Upon Saint Davy's day.”
(#Shakespeare, Henry V)

Happy #StDavidsDay 🌼

Librarian & Executive Director of the Lewis Walpole Library in Farmington, Connecticut, 06032 | Other at Yale University Apply for Librarian & Executive Director of the Lewis Walpole Library job with Yale University in Farmington, Connecticut, 06032. Other at Yale University

JOB ALERT 📜📚

Librarian & executive director of Yale’s Lewis Walpole Library (Farmington, CT)

•Research center for 18th-century Britain
•You’d report to the fabulous Michelle Light

careers.yale.edu/us/en/job/13...

Good night!

BL Add 16577; Festival prayer book, Italian rite; 3rd quarter of the 15th century; Italy; f.44v

Portrait of a woman, head and shoulders with a parrot on each shoulder and two parrots on her lap

Frida Kahlo, Me and my parrot, 1941 #womensart

a cat is laying on a staircase next to a bowl of food ALT: a cat is laying on a staircase next to a bowl of food

Happy #Caturday