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Carin Ruff

@carinr.bsky.social

1.3K followers 820 following 4.8K posts

Medievalist, Latinist, paleographer, Episcopalian, with novel in progress. DC-based, with beagle. Web: ruffnotes.org Cover image is from the Reichenau Gospels, Walters Art Museum MS W7 fol. 7r.

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Carin Ruff @carinr.bsky.social · Feb 25

Pinned intro: Most days I make a post about medieval manuscripts associated with a saint of the day and discuss their #paleography. I generally follow medievalists, book history people, Episcopal/Anglican folks, and local Washington, DC history/civic affairs/statehood peeps.

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Carin Ruff @carinr.bsky.social · 8h

I confess it's the lycra dudes who most discourage me from biking. They're so unpleasant in their silly costumes and they'd hate the way I'd obey all traffic signs as I learned in Oxford and (long ago) Toronto.

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Carin Ruff @carinr.bsky.social · 9h

Christopher de Hamel reading the audiobook of his own _Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts_ is an absolute delight, but he pronounces Ceolfrith "Chee-OLL-frith" and it is making me crazed.

Carin Ruff @carinr.bsky.social · 10h

We should keep a pair of the damn things handy to whup snarking gloves-inquirers across the face with.

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Reposted by Carin Ruff

AaronM @aaronm.bsky.social · 11h

Back to speed with 56 new #Manuscripts this week from the #Vatican www.wiglaf.org/vatican/2025.... Includes a glossed Valerius Maximus, the Alexandreis, 17th c poetry, Plautus, Decretals, Ovid, a 13th C Roman de Brut, and more!
#MedievalSky #Skystorians

Vatican Manuscripts Added Week 41 of 2025

A total of fifty-six manuscripts were digitized during the past week. In a statistical anomaly, two fonds, Barb.lat and Ott.lat, brought in the same number of manuscripts, twenty-six for each. The r...

www.wiglaf.org

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Carin Ruff @carinr.bsky.social · 12h

bsky.app/profile/cari...

Carin Ruff @carinr.bsky.social · 16h

It was a very good decision to go #touchpews at a Rite I service across town. I was rewarded with a Palestrina Mass setting and plenty of mental space to listen and reflect. It's a long time since I heard the Summary of the Law in church. ⚓

My hand on the back of a polished dark wood pew, with a Hymnal 1982 just visible underneath. Choir in red cassocks is rehearsing out of focus in the chancel in the background.

Me, with light blue gauze scarf and roundish glasses, somewhat backlit by church lamps.

Carin Ruff @carinr.bsky.social · 12h

I still default to the Godspell version whenever I see that text!

Reposted by Carin Ruff

Ennius @enniusredloeb.bsky.social · 13h

A comet appears; Bishop Wilfrid is driven out; AElfwine is killed, and St AEthelthryth dies.

Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 173; The Parker Chronicle; started in 9th & continued into 11th century; England (Winchester); f.8r
@parkerlibcccc.bsky.social
@corpuscambridge.bsky.social

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Carin Ruff @carinr.bsky.social · 13h

I hope it was a good visit to DC in other ways, too. The weather was rather excitingly blustery today.

Carin Ruff @carinr.bsky.social · 13h

I knew that in principle, but since my home parish never does it I had forgotten! I mean, I had not forgotten the text, but I had forgotten it was either normal or optional to hear it regularly.

Carin Ruff @carinr.bsky.social · 15h

I have heard the Allegri sung by choirs positioned around the nave of the National Cathedral, during one of the weeks when they took the chairs out of the nave, so we the hearers were free to wander the space and listen from various positions. Amazing.

Carin Ruff @carinr.bsky.social · 15h

Excellent choice!

Carin Ruff @carinr.bsky.social · 15h

I will need to think more about why the main service at my usual parish feels so busy that I can't really focus. I will probably spend a few months alternating Sundays and try to get a better grip on the differences (apart from the obvious liturgical ones).

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Carin Ruff @carinr.bsky.social · 15h

Splendid! *waves from up the hill*

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Carin Ruff @carinr.bsky.social · 15h

That must have been glorious!

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Carin Ruff @carinr.bsky.social · 16h

I got there very early and so got to hear about 15 minutes of choir rehearsal, which was instructive wrt what it takes to get a talented volunteer choir with a few pro reinforcements (as I understand it) to sing fairly challenging music.

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Carin Ruff @carinr.bsky.social · 16h

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Carin Ruff @carinr.bsky.social · 16h

Consider this a reminder to live your life in such a way that your hagiography does not have chapters headed "DE CONFLICTU."

IWTA?

The digitized MS is here iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifes... and, absent the BL's description, the ASMMF's is very helpful: journals.lib.sfu.ca/index.php/as...

iiif.bl.uk

Carin Ruff @carinr.bsky.social · 16h

This is the feast of Wilfrid, d. 709 or 710, who reminds us that sometimes exceedingly difficult people turn out to be saints, or vice-versa. 🕯️ Here are screenshots (BL, sigh) of two pp. from his Life by Stephen of Ripon (fka Eddius Stephanus) in BL Cotton Vespasian D. vi. #medievalsky

Cotton Vespasian D. VI, fol. 78r, detail

Cotton Vespasian D. VI, fol. 83v, detail

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Carin Ruff @carinr.bsky.social · 16h

Equally important: keep the registration updated with your current contact information!

Reposted by Carin Ruff

Dr Liam Sims @liamsims.bsky.social · 21h

Good sleeve on this early manicule. In a commentary on Aristotle, Porphyrius & Boethius, printed at #Venice in 1496. At @theulspeccoll.bsky.social since 1664, part of the vast collection of Richard Holdsworth, Master of Emmanuel College Cambridge. CUL Inc.3.B.3.138[1836].

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Carin Ruff @carinr.bsky.social · 1d

Thank you for this rec! I was just hearing from a friend whose very young grandson recently discovered that museums are pretty neat. I'll pass this on.

Carin Ruff @carinr.bsky.social · 1d

Oh, Wunderhund!

Reposted by Carin Ruff

CM Janeese Lewis George @cmlewisgeorgew4.bsky.social · 1d

Every sign in DC marks the loss of someone’s neighbor, someone’s loved one, someone’s friend.

Every sign marks yet another step in the march toward authoritarianism.

Signs popping up around D.C. note: ‘ICE kidnapping happened here’

The signs range in style and mark numerous locations where people have been taken by federal agents.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Carin Ruff @carinr.bsky.social · 1d

Here's my earlier post about her brother Earconwald, in which I was also cranky downthread about the BL:
bsky.app/profile/cari...

Carin Ruff @carinr.bsky.social · Apr 30

Today is the feast of St. Earconwald, d. 693, Bp. of the East Saxons (i.e., of London). Here he is in the list of bishops of the "horientaliu(m) saxonu(m)" from the reconversion (i.e., of the Anglo-Saxon period), in @parkerlibcccc.bsky.social CCCC 183, fol. 61v. 🕯️🧵 #medievalsky

Manuscript page in two columns: lists of bishops, with numbers and headings in red and names in black. The numbers leave space for continuation of the lists.

Detail of the manuscript page in the other image, showing the top of the right column.

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Carin Ruff @carinr.bsky.social · 1d

This is immediately recognizable a 12th-c. Rochester MS, with that pointy-bottomed protogothic script. It's a very pretty copy of Bede. Here are some pages w/initials, plus samples of the mini-script used for capitula. #paleography

The digitized MS is here: iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifes...

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