Matthew Holford
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matthewholford.bsky.social
Matthew Holford
@matthewholford.bsky.social
1K followers 500 following 99 posts
Medievalist and librarian, interested in all aspects of manuscript culture.
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Reposted by Matthew Holford
themerl.bsky.social
Are you a PhD student & interested in using museum collections in your teaching or research?

We're running a *free* doctoral training programme for students at any institution to learn about working with collections.

Find out more:

collections.reading.ac.uk/whats-on/
Two students look at objects in the reading room at The Museum of English Rural Life.
November 25, 2025 at 12:55 PM
Reposted by Matthew Holford
apocalypsisnova.bsky.social
Three 2-year postdoctoral positions in COLIBRI, the ERC project based at Sapienza on the reconstruction and study of Hernando Colón's library!

web.uniroma1.it/trasparenza/...

web.uniroma1.it/trasparenza/...

web.uniroma1.it/trasparenza/...

Deadline 12 Dec
November 22, 2025 at 11:45 AM
Reposted by Matthew Holford
komldsp.bsky.social
And the news is... We're recruiting! Applications are now open for our 2026 @leverhulme.ac.uk Doctoral Scholarships. So, if you want to study at PhD level pre-modern handwritten cultures and the organisation of knowledge and power within them, do investigate our refreshed website.
November 21, 2025 at 9:30 AM
Reposted by Matthew Holford
suegreaney.bsky.social
Here at Exeter we are offering three fully funded AHRC PhD places in humanities subjects. Please get in touch if you are keen to come and do research with us! Closing date 23 February 2026: www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin...
PhD: AHRC Studentship | University of Exeter
Project descriptionThe University of Exeter is offering up to three fully funded AHRC doctoral studentships and training and development opportunities across a range of the AHRC’s disciplines for cand...
www.exeter.ac.uk
November 18, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Reposted by Matthew Holford
helengittos.bsky.social
A chance to see a well-used, 3m long, birth scroll made in England c.1500. Covered in prayers & illustrations, in Latin & English, invoking Sts Quiricus & Julitta, it's worn from use, engrained with vaginal fluid, imbued with love, pain, fear, hope & life. 🧵👇
wellcomecollection.org/exhibitions/...
November 15, 2025 at 8:04 AM
Reposted by Matthew Holford
jasonwdean.com
Friends, @sibyllacumae.bsky.social just sent the latest issue of Two Half Sheets, our newsletter. This issue: an interview with Falk Eisermann, incunable expert and leader of the GW. Enjoy his kind, thoughtful interview! 📜 #bookhistory #booksky #libsky #rarebooks open.substack.com/pub/twohalfs...
On Incunables 1.5: Falk Eisermann
For our second interview issue, we're joined by Falk Eisermann! He talks incunables, the GW, and shares some lovely books too.
open.substack.com
November 13, 2025 at 5:37 PM
Reposted by Matthew Holford
uofglasgowasc.bsky.social
📣Our UofG Library Visiting Research Fellowships are now open for applications!

We’re delighted to invite scholars from across the globe to apply to work with our internationally significant collections.

Apply at: www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/li...

📆Closing date: 5 January 2026

#UofGLibraryFellows
Graphic showing double page opening of emblem book from Stirling Maxwell Collection featuring portrait of a man on the left and a printed emblem of text and image on the right. The image is overlaid with information about the fellowship scheme welcoming researchers and repeating closing date and URL to follow.
November 13, 2025 at 2:05 PM
Reposted by Matthew Holford
csmc-hamburg.bsky.social
Announcing the J.P. Gumbert Dissertation Award 2025! 🏆

We are looking for the best PhD thesis on any aspect of manuscript studies defended between 1 Sep 2024 and 31 Dec 2025. The award includes a prize of 5,000 EUR and a fellowship at the CSMC.

Apply by 6 February 2026!

uhh.de/csmc-jpga-2025
November 11, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Reposted by Matthew Holford
tolonen.bsky.social
Great news! This is out: Opening the black box of EEBO academic.oup.com/dsh/advance-...
Opening the black box of EEBO
Abstract. Digital archives that cover extended historical periods can create a misleading impression of comprehensiveness while in truth providing access t
academic.oup.com
November 9, 2025 at 10:30 AM
Reposted by Matthew Holford
tainonen.bsky.social
3-year postdoc with CODICUM project for a medievalist placed in Odense, Denmark!

Special focus on Latin, palaeography & Dominican text and book history 📖😍🕵️

tinyurl.com/yrt4x8y3
3-year postdoc position in medieval studies
3-year postdoc position in medieval studies The Department of Culture and Language invites applications for a 3-year postdoc position in Dominican studies within the CODICUM project. The position is e...
tinyurl.com
November 7, 2025 at 12:06 PM
Reposted by Matthew Holford
dgplacenames.bsky.social
Made a site where you can practise Old English scansion. You get given a half-line and have to select which of Sievers's five types it belongs to.
Just Beowulf for now, but that's 6364 half-lines to be getting on with: dgplacenames.github.io/scansion/

[Data: clasp.ell.ox.ac.uk/]
November 7, 2025 at 4:36 PM
matthewholford.bsky.social
Just found out about this amazing example of #manuscript #recycling . The whole manuscript is made up from the margins of an earlier liturgical manuscript, cut out and rearranged (hence the unusual format), the (mostly) blank margins then used to copy various magical texts in the mid 16th century.
A magical text written in the 16th century on the previously blank margin of an earlier liturgical manuscript. Part of the original liturgical text can be seen at the bottom of the leaf. The leaf would originally have been part of the outer margin of a large leaf but has been rotated 90 degrees clockwise.
November 6, 2025 at 5:33 PM
matthewholford.bsky.social
The Tanner Bede is on Digital Bodleian! #MedievalSky 📜
digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/6285...
The opening page of the Tanner Bede with heading and an initial
November 1, 2025 at 9:29 AM
Reposted by Matthew Holford
oswaldsraven.bsky.social
📗New project publication📗

"Liturgy, Literature & History: Oswald of Northumbria and the Cult of Saints in the Middle Ages" is now available #OpenAccess from @britishacademy.bsky.social & @livunipress.bsky.social

Free download here: liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10....

#MedievalSky
Book cover
October 29, 2025 at 11:05 AM
Reposted by Matthew Holford
librarycolleen.bsky.social
These "Teaching the Codex" blog posts introducing collation formulas from Dr. Sian Witherden @sianwitherden.bsky.social
have particularly good illustrations that make it clear for students learning about it for the first time. 📜
teachingthecodex.com/author/teach...
Teaching the Codex
Teaching the Codex is an interdisciplinary project on the teaching of palaeography and codicology.
teachingthecodex.com
October 26, 2025 at 5:26 PM
Reposted by Matthew Holford
dr-patriciastoop.bsky.social
Great news!! My special issue on Writing for Third Parties: Commercial Manuscript Production in the Late Middle Ages (Queeste, @amsterdamupress.bsky.social) is now available in open access.

Looking much forward to your reactions!

www.aup-online.com/content/jour...
October 8, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Reposted by Matthew Holford
dannykay68.bsky.social
ATTACKS from bots are a major problem for libraries scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2025/10/07/g...
"Can we differentiate the behavior in our systems from the motives of the operating individual or organization, and should we be in the business of judging “good” and “bad” site visitors and uses?"
Guest Post - “Have You Proved You’re Human Today?” Open Content and Web Harvesting in the AI Era - The Scholarly Kitchen
AI web harvesting bots are different from traditional web crawlers and violate many of the established rules and practices in place. Their rapidly expanding use is emerging as a significant IT managem...
scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org
October 7, 2025 at 6:44 PM
matthewholford.bsky.social
Still time to sign up!
October 7, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Reposted by Matthew Holford
allthebeset.bsky.social
First time I’ve been a first to follow! Join me!
October 3, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Reposted by Matthew Holford
laurenrndll.bsky.social
CFP: “Shaping the Word: the Form and Use of Biblical Manuscripts in the Early Medieval West” at Durham University in July 2026. We are interested in a wide range of papers exploring ways in which scriptural texts (produced roughly c. 500-1000) were presented and used.
Durham Uni, 2–5 July 2026 From c. 500-1000, Christian scriptures were produced and used in a diverse range of forms and contexts. A manuscript may include a single biblical text (the psalter, a gospel), a collection of texts (the Hexateuch, the gospels), or, rarely, a complete “New Testament” or “Bible” in the modern sense. The distinctiveness of a manuscript is shown by content and textual affiliation, its palaeographical and codicological characteristics, and its paratextual features – from illustrations of biblical narratives, author portraits, and illuminated lettering to canon tables, capitula, prefatory materials, and glosses. Once in circulation, a manuscript’s contexts of use may also vary. Different uses correspond to different users with distinct and perhaps conflicting priorities/goals. Production and use(s) may occur at the same site or at far distant times and places. This conference aims to explore topics related to both the physical presentation and the use of scriptural manuscripts produced in the Early Medieval period (c. 500–1000 CE). We welcome paper proposals from scholars working in all areas of this field, including PhD students. Whatever the specific topic, priority may be given to papers that also relate it to the wider focus of the conference on both “form” (or “production”) and “use”. We hope to be able to cover presenters’ full conference costs with the exception of travel. Titles and Abstracts of proposed papers should be submitted to Lauren Randall (lauren.m.randall@durham.ac.uk), copied to Francis Watson (francis.watson@durham.ac.uk), by Monday 17 November. Abstracts should not exceed 150 words. Papers should be 25 minutes, allowing 20 minute discussion. There will be keynote papers/presentations. Please contact us if you have any questions! This event forms part of our sub-project “Text, Format, and Reader”, focused on Codex Amiatinus and funded by the Glasgow-based “Paratexts Seeking Understanding” project (Templeton Religion Trust)
October 3, 2025 at 10:49 AM
Reposted by Matthew Holford
ilikeoldbooks.bsky.social
very pleased to be offering an open ended Archives Cataloguing post working with the University of Edinburgh's wide and deep literary archives. please do share with anyone interested! elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...
Scottish Literary Archives Cataloguer (Corson Endowment)
Scottish Literary Archives Cataloguer (Corson Endowment) The Opportunity: The Heritage Collections department is pleased to advertise an opportunity to join our team as the Scottish Literary Archives ...
elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com
October 1, 2025 at 9:15 AM
Reposted by Matthew Holford
vch-home.bsky.social
#HistoryJob - just a reminder that our colleagues in VCH Herefordshire are looking for *two* contributing editors to bring their first #BigRedBook for over 100 years to fruition.

Details in the link, applications close on 10 October.
Contributing Editors at The Herefordshire Victoria County History Trust
Apply for the Contributing Editors role on jobs.ac.uk, the top job board for academic positions in higher education. View details and apply now.
www.jobs.ac.uk
September 30, 2025 at 10:24 AM
matthewholford.bsky.social
Next Wednesday 8th October, 12.30-1.30: Jiří Vnouček on "A Tale of Two Parchments" - insular and continental parchment preparation.
In person: @bodleian.ox.ac.uk Weston Library, Lecture Theatre
Or livestreamed.
Free: book here visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/event/oct25/...
A tale of two parchments
In this talk, Dr. Jiří Vnouček discusses differences in species choice and membrane preparation of 'Insular' and 'Continental' parchment used for book-making in the early Middle Ages.
visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk
September 30, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Reposted by Matthew Holford
laurajcleaver.bsky.social
FRAGMENTS GALORE 👇
manuelmunoz.bsky.social Dr Manuel Muñoz García @manuelmunoz.bsky.social · Sep 22
Now that I'm back in the UK, a little announcement: I'll be speaking at the Medieval Manuscripts Seminar (Senate House Library) on Tues 30th. Expect fragments galore!

The event is held in person & online!
ies.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...
Pieces of the past: the Small Fragment folder in the Rosenthal Collection at Keio University
ies.sas.ac.uk
September 24, 2025 at 8:21 AM
Reposted by Matthew Holford
alexbamji.bsky.social
Short-term post-doc for arts/humanities researchers! Do you love rare books, manuscripts, archives, art and/or objects? Would you like to explore one of our amazing Cultural Collections @universityofleeds.bsky.social for c. 6 weeks (longer part-time)? Find out more lahri.leeds.ac.uk/brotherton-f...
Brotherton Fellowship | Leeds Arts and Humanities Research Institute
lahri.leeds.ac.uk
September 17, 2025 at 1:23 PM