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Dot Porter

@leoba.bsky.social

4.1K followers 1.7K following 630 posts

Medievalist, digital humanist, and wannabe booklicker. I'm here to post memes and yell about manuscripts. See also @sims-mss.bsky.social I speak for myself and not for my employer

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Dot Porter @leoba.bsky.social · Apr 3

I love EVERYTHING about manuscripts but mostly I love that they were made by people - that every part of them, from the substrate to the ink to the ideas behind the words on the page to the thread that holds the codex together - were made by the hands and minds of people.

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Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies @sims-mss.bsky.social · 9h

Today's manuscript contains hymns and prayers bound with slightly later printed pastoral works. It contains prayers in Latin with interlinear German, each followed by a German translation, with some marginal notes. Germany, late 15th c. (UPenn Ms. Codex 1604) #medievalsky

🔗: https://bit.ly/3Xd1Voy

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Reposted by Dot Porter

Joseph Howley @illdottore.bsky.social · 16h

This fellowship changed the trajectory of my career and my time on its committees is the most worthwhile professional service I have ever done. Please apply and help us spread the word

Rare Book School @rarebookschool.bsky.social · 13d

The Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography (SoFCB) at RBS invites applicants to its 2025 cohort of Junior Fellows.

Applications are due 𝗪𝗲𝗱𝗻𝗲𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝟭𝟵 𝗡𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿.

For details about this & other RBS scholarships & fellowships, visit tinyurl.com/Apply-SoFCB-2025

A vertically oriented rectangular graphic is split into an upper portion and a lower portion. The upper half shows a photo of a woman with pulled-back dark brown hair wearing a dark dress jacket and scarf. To her left, bold black text reads “I feel no hesitation saying that joining the SoFCB fully transformed my academic life and research.” Below the woman, smaller text in white reads, “Elizaveta Strakhov, Past President, Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography (SoFCB)”. The lower portion of the graphic has a mostly white background with a couple of horizontal bars in gray and black. Text in white, black, red, and yellow reads, “Apply now! The SoFCB Junior Fellows Program. Application Deadline: Wednesday, 19 November 2025. Learn more & apply at tinyurl.com/Apply-SoFCB-2025.”

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Medieval and Early Modern Orients (MEMOs) @memorients.bsky.social · 4d

MEMOs EVENT: Islam in Medieval England
British Library, London:

memorients.com/events/memos...

MEMOs EVENT: Islam in Medieval England | MEMOs

Our expert panel explore the Islamic presence in England during the medieval and early modern period.

memorients.com

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🌈Dr. Franken Frizzle 🎃 @swilua.bsky.social · 1d

One of the hardest things about so many surviving medieval texts—particularly in Arthurian Legend—is you don’t know if they were meant to be taken seriously, or if they were meant to be jokes, told to drunk people, while drunk

This is one reason Monty Python is FR one of the best retellings

John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 1d

Most "classics" are boring as fuck to a modern reader in no small part because the context of the story is not understood by them and so many of the allusions and "inside jokes" known to then-contemporary readers have been lost in time and in translation

Rachel Feder @rachelfeder.bsky.social · 1d

Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat

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Will Wiles @willwiles.bsky.social · 17h

Performatively reading in the cafe, but wearing white gloves so I'm still venerating the Book As Object, with a t-shirt saying "I know archivists don't wear gloves" so people know the gloves are performative.

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Dot Porter @leoba.bsky.social · 1d

The Aberdeen Bestiary has been online since at least 2001, I wrote about it in my master's thesis in library school. I guess it was redigitized in 2016? This story was originally published in 2017. I'm not complaining, exactly, I just think it's funny this is being reported as brand new information.

Ideas Roadshow @ideasroadshow.bsky.social · 1d

This #medieval illuminated manuscript has been digitized and is now available online #openaccess !

🗃️ #arthistory #skystorians #medievalsky 🏺

www.openculture.com/2025/10/the-...

The Aberdeen Bestiary, One of the Great Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts, Now Digitized in High Resolution & Made Available Online

For thousands of years, ordinary people all over the world not only worked side-by-side with domestic animals on a daily basis, they also observed the wild fauna around them to learn how to navigate a...

www.openculture.com

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Daniel Bellingradt @dbellingradt.bsky.social · 1d

This ad about the importance of using the best lightning solutions for your workspace is brought to you from 1530 Wittenberg. The desk user M.L. recommends the illuminating dove to help you stay on task. #skystorians #academicchatter

Martin Luther sits at a writing desk, writing, and a heavenly sent dove is illuminating the room. This is a hand coloured part of a bible print from 1530. You may access a digital copy here: https://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/~db/0011/bsb00113027/images/index.html

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Dot Porter @leoba.bsky.social · 1d

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Dot Porter @leoba.bsky.social · 2d

I once blocked someone on Tumblr for taking me to task about gloves in the rudest way (usually I just link to the NYT article but I guess I was over it that day)

Dot Porter @leoba.bsky.social · 2d

😂

Dot Porter @leoba.bsky.social · 2d

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand

Where are your gloves?

🏰meg⚔️ @Birthright Audiobook! @impavid.us · 5d

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand

I'll go first: Six page commercial lease.

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Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies @sims-mss.bsky.social · 2d

For #CoffeeWithACodex on October 16, Curator @leoba.bsky.social will visit @rosenbachmuseum.bsky.social where she'll join Librarian Elizabeth Fuller for a look at MS 1004/29, a mid-fourteenth-century physician's belt book. #medievalsky #cwac

Register here: https://bit.ly/4ohnEqu

Coffee with a Codex On The Road: Bat Book at the Rosenbach

An informal lunch or coffee time to meet virtually with Kislak curators and talk about one of the manuscripts from Penn's collections. Each week we'll feature a different...

bit.ly

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Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 2d

No, resurrecting the corpse of Anne Frank so 12-year-olds can gossip with her is not how you “make history come alive.” It’s how you destroy history so that someone can come in, rewrite it, and then author a future to their liking.

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Tom Reagan’s Hat @rufustsuperfly.bsky.social · 3d

RIP Diane Keaton
My favourite picture of her where everyone else is giving it their best Blue Steel & she looks like she’s just wandered in off the street looking super cool.
She was allowed to wear her own clothes & her wonderful personality shines out.
What a unique talent & human being.

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Dot Porter @leoba.bsky.social · 3d

THANKS I HATE IT

97.9 The Hill WCHL & Chapelboro.com @wchlchapelboro.bsky.social · 5d

UNC announced Thursday it will combine the School of Information and Library Science and the School of Data Science and Society into a new entity focused on information technologies such as generative AI.

UNC Combining Library Science, Data Science Schools Into New Entity - Chapelboro.com

The two schools will be combined into a new entity focused on information technologies such as generative AI.

chapelboro.com

Reposted by Dot Porter

Pumpkinloaf @toneloaf.bsky.social · Jul 23

This week, I resigned from my position as Director of IT/Tech at an org I truly believed in. I wanted us to stop using Generative AI and was told no.

This thread will explain my decision and why I believe this is a true crisis. I hope ya see this and if you want to chat, + or -, lets do it 1/

My long thread chunked into 4 pieces. Its too long to add alt text so hopefully you read the post if you were interested enough to click on the image!

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Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 4d

People think the first thing Gutenberg printed was the Bible. This is false. The first things he printed were a political prophecy, propaganda about the Turks’ threat to Christendom, & a popular school text. If you want a parallel to AI, that’s it: making $ from conspiracies, racism, & school slop.

Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 4d

really nice piece on this btw from @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social sonjadrimmer.com/blog-1/2025/...

"The Printing Press Democratized Knowledge": When Slogans Masquerade as History — Sonja Drimmer

The phrase is said so frequently it seems, like the mechanism it celebrates, to mechanically replicate itself.  It's become a favorite catchphrase among tech boosters of any sort (see my post on...

sonjadrimmer.com

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Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies @sims-mss.bsky.social · 6d

Today we take a look at one of our favorites - and the oldest codex in Philadelphia! LJS 101 is a 9th and 11th century translation of Aristotle's De interpretatione (by Boethius) with some additional texts. #medievalsky

🔗: https://bit.ly/43ayh61

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J.D. Sargan @jdsargan.bsky.social · 6d

I'm giving several talks about the books in the next couple of months, if you want to hear more (before you buy?). The first, linked below, is online via. UPenn @sims-mss.bsky.social on October 17th at 12 midday EDT.

Trans Studies as Book Historical Method

J. D. Sargan considers generative modes of reading through the premodern archive to seek out trans lives beyond the ephemeral glimpses that have gone unnoticed in the historical record.

www.library.upenn.edu

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Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies @sims-mss.bsky.social · 4d

For #FragmentFriday here's a parchment leaf from a lectionary used as pastedown and front flyleaf in the binding of a late 15th century collection of papal letters regarding the order of the Eremite Friars of St. Augustine of Rouen (UPenn Ms. Codex 736) #medievalsky

🔗: https://bit.ly/3Wq9uaq

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Dot Porter @leoba.bsky.social · 5d

The AI bubble cannot pop fast enough

(I'm a graduate of UNC's library school. This is so disappointing.)

Caitlin Goodman @caitlinest.bsky.social · 5d

My day is shot bc a colleague just shared this UNC press release about a still to-be-named, to-be-designed, to-be-planned AI school where the only known fact seems to be that it will replace the library school.

www.unc.edu/posts/2025/1...

University leadership announces development of new school at Carolina | UNC-Chapel Hill

The School of Information and Library Science and the School of Data Science and Society will be founding leaders of a new school to amplify and lead Carolina’s response to the information and data ne...

www.unc.edu

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Dot Porter @leoba.bsky.social · 5d

EXCITING!! Can't wait to read it!

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Die Laughing Magazine @dielaughingmag.bsky.social · 10d

It's here! It's here! The TOC for Issue 5 of Die Laughing is HERE!

We could not be more excited to bring you these 6 hilarifying tales, available as a PDF download 10/31/25, with stories posting for free every week after! Join us for stories so funny they'll kill you! #horrorsky
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Die Laughing Magazine @dielaughingmag.bsky.social · 9d

Hey! Are you an artist? Is your work scary AND funny? Do you want to have your art on the cover of the most prestigious horror comedy publication we know of?

Great news! Die Laughing is accepting cover art submissions on an ongoing basis. Send us your art! dielaughingmag.com/c...

Composite mage of the covers of the first four issues of Die Laughing Magazine.

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Die Laughing Magazine @dielaughingmag.bsky.social · 7d

We won't choose and you can't make us! We're bringing you the best of hilarious horror (and we're also probably losing at cards).

#meme #unomeme #horror #humor #cantchoose #dielaughing

Uno meme! On the left, an Uno card that reads "choose between laughter and fear OR draw 25" and on the right, a seated person holding a hand full of so many Uno cards (clearly having drawn 25 to avoid such an unfair decision).

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