Sara Charles
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saracharles.bsky.social
Sara Charles
@saracharles.bsky.social
2K followers 500 following 390 posts
Medieval manuscript practitioner, bringing the manuscript making process to life. Author of The Medieval Scriptorium. Cat lady.
www.teachingmanuscripts.com
PhD in medieval martyrologies. Editor of Historical Research journal.
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saracharles.bsky.social
A cat on Catte Street. I’m building a model to help with my research of Catte Street, Oxford. Leoba is helping via physical manifestation (not to scale)
Ragdoll cat laying louchy on a plan of Catte Street
November 8, 2025 at 2:11 PM
saracharles.bsky.social
A perfect exit hole in a marble gall #everydaymiracles #irongallink
A close up of a marble gall from an oak tree with a perfect circle where the gall wasp chewed its way out
November 2, 2025 at 1:41 PM
saracharles.bsky.social
I'll be talking to the Caxton Club next month on The Medieval Scriptorium - going through all the stages of making manuscripts, including demonstration videos. There may be cats in the background. Fri 14 Nov 12:00PM CT (5.00PM GMT) #medievalsky #bookhistory
www.caxtonclub.org/event-6296386
Medieval manuscript miniature of a seated scribe holding a quill and knife over ruled parchment inside a decorated initial (GKS 4 folio III, fol. 165r)
October 24, 2025 at 10:25 AM
saracharles.bsky.social
Homegrown madder pigment. It's wonderful to create medieval pigment from something grown in your garden #bookhistory #medievalpigments #medievalsky
Madder pigment in an oyster shell Dried madder roots in a bowl on some scales Madder pigment being mulled on a glass slab Madder pigment surrounded by examples of dried paint on paper and parchment
October 12, 2025 at 3:15 PM
saracharles.bsky.social
You’re not working now. You’re giving me attention
Ragdoll cat plonked on top of laptop to prevent the human doing any work
October 12, 2025 at 11:19 AM
saracharles.bsky.social
So excited for this! #bookhistory #medievalsky #parchment #manuscripts
October 8, 2025 at 11:21 AM
saracharles.bsky.social
@dannybate.bsky.social spotted in Waterstones in Brighton 🙌
September 29, 2025 at 11:16 AM
saracharles.bsky.social
A rather fabulous looking tome has just arrived on my doorstep @dannybate.bsky.social 🙌
September 27, 2025 at 5:23 PM
saracharles.bsky.social
And the bunting reminds me of the fab medieval bunting @beccameriel.bsky.social made for my book launch 😍
September 25, 2025 at 4:58 PM
saracharles.bsky.social
A great turn out for @cathamclarke.bsky.social and Hannah Lowe at the IHR Creighton Lecture - Doing History with Poetry @ihr.bsky.social
September 9, 2025 at 5:10 PM
saracharles.bsky.social
Look how I have cruelly betrayed them by leaving home and going into work #cats
Three cats in a wooded area Three cats looking sadly at their prime food supplier receding into the distance
September 9, 2025 at 11:51 AM
saracharles.bsky.social
@cathamclarke.bsky.social Spotted (not once, but twice) in the window of Hatchards in St Pancras
September 6, 2025 at 4:09 PM
saracharles.bsky.social
Sloe foraging so I can make some winter gin gifts 😊
Blackthorn bush with purple berries (sloes) Washed and drained sloe berries
September 4, 2025 at 2:40 PM
saracharles.bsky.social
The Medieval Scriptorium is now available in paperback! 😊 reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/the-med... #bookhistory #medievalsky #skystorians #medievalmanuscripts @reaktionbooks.bsky.social
Paperback copies of The Medieval Scriptorium in a box Back cover of The Medieval Scriptorium with reviews: 'This fascinating book explores the medieval process of bookmaking and reproduction that was often arduous, back-breaking, eye-straining work for the scribes and copyists involved. We learn how colours were made and calfskin prepared to create parchment and how these beautiful and enduring objects developed. Illuminating.' Financial Times Best Books of the Year' 2024 'A highly readable account of developments in book production in western Europe during the Middle Ages. Times Literary Supplement This book takes the reader on an immersive journey through medieval manuscript production in the Latin Christian world. Each chapter opens with a lively vignette by a medieval narrator - including a parchment maker, scribe and illuminator - introducing various aspects of manuscript production. Sara J. Charles poses the question 'What actually is a scriptorium?' and explores the development of the medieval scriptorium from its early Christian beginnings through to its eventual decline and the growth of the printing press. With the written word at the very heart of the Christian monastic movement, we see the immense amount of labour, planning and networks needed to produce each individual manuscript. By tapping into these processes and procedures, we can experience medieval life through the lens of a manuscript maker. SARA J. CHARLES works at Senate House, University of London, and has a PhD in medieval martyrologies. She has previously published on various aspects of the history of the book. First page of The Medieval Scriptorium with reviews: This fascinating book explores the medieval process of bookmaking and reproduction that was often arduous, back-breaking, eye-straining work for the scribes and copyists involved. We learn how colours were made and calfskin prepared to create parchment and how these beautiful and enduring objects developed. Illuminating?' Financial Times 'Best Books of 2024' "The Medieval Scriptorium is a highly readable account of developments in book production in western Europe during the Middle Ages, surveying and contextualizing many of its best-known and most significant treasures while casting interesting light on the circumstances of their production. Sara J. Charles introduces us to various individuals behind the books and reminds us of the human cost: the sore backs, the eye strain and the freezing fingers.' Times Literary Supplement Charles conjures the feel, sounds and smells of manuscript-making in this jaunty book, which is filled with imagined vignettes starring medieval figures, as well as extensive detail and analysis of tools, materials and religious contexts.' Apollo Magazine 'The Medieval Scriptorium takes modern readers back to the origins - technical, social, economic and intellectual - of copying in late antiquity and the Middle Ages... Charles is a specialist in recovering medieval techniques of bookmaking, and her account is at its best when diving into the material culture of sharing ideas... Our present modes of copying may be immeasurably faster than the work of the medieval scribe, but this book demonstrates that the present has much to learn from the past. Financial Times A lively and very readable illustrated survey by University of London book historian Charles of all aspects of medieval manuscript production in the Latin Christian world, charting the decline and fall of the scriptorium and its makers over more than a millennium? Fine Books Magazine Two copies of The Medieval Scriptorium on a window ledge
September 3, 2025 at 11:02 AM
saracharles.bsky.social
There’s lots of knopper galls out on the oak trees at the moment - where gall wasps have laid their eggs inside of developing acorns. These interesting shapes are good for making #irongallink, but they are very sticky!
English oak tree laden with acorns and knopper galls Close up of a knopper gall inbetween two acorns Two knopper galls on an English oak tree
August 31, 2025 at 12:34 PM
saracharles.bsky.social
Look what the postie brought for me today @cathamclarke.bsky.social! That’s tomorrow’s reading sorted 😊
A postal delivery of A History of England in 25 Poems by Catherine Clarke
August 30, 2025 at 5:42 PM
saracharles.bsky.social
I can highly recommend @rebeccamenmuir.bsky.social’s walking tour of Early Modern Latin in the City of London. Visited some new sites and finished off with a nice pub lunch and a toast to Wynkyn de Worde www.layersoflondon.org/map/trails/e...
#layersoflondon
Traitor’s Gate, Tower of London Outside of church: St Hallow’s by the Tower St Paul’s Cathedral viewed through a side street Sign for the Stationers’ Hall
August 21, 2025 at 2:58 PM
saracharles.bsky.social
🚨PRE-ORDER OFFER

Get 25% off the paperback edition of The Medieval Scriptorium: Making Books in the Middle Ages with code SUMMER25 from #Waterstones

Offer only valid between 28-31 July
#WPreorder #medievalsky #bookhistory @reaktionbooks.bsky.social

www.waterstones.com/book/the-med...
Text reads: 25% off on upcoming books. Pre-order now with code: SUMMER25. 28-31 July. Online only. Image of book cover
July 29, 2025 at 11:46 AM
saracharles.bsky.social
If you can, go and see this exhibition. It’s absolutely full of beautiful books of hours (as well as the calendar from Très riches heures)
Text reads: Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry. Gold writing surrounded by medieval marginalia Medieval miniature from Christina de Pizan’s City of Ladies Open disbound folio from the Très riches heures with the image of June on the left and calendar dates for February on the right
July 23, 2025 at 4:30 PM
saracharles.bsky.social
My face when I realise I now have to lug home the extremely heavy (but beautiful) catalogue I bought from the Très Riches Heures exhibition in Chantilly #medievalsky #medievalmanuscripts
Close up of a peasant sowing seeds and looking extremely disgruntled. From the September image of the manuscript Très riches heures of Jean, Duke of Berry Exhibition catalogue of the Très riches heures manuscript
July 23, 2025 at 4:22 PM
saracharles.bsky.social
I’m in the foyer of the union building with all my manuscript materials on display. Come and have a go at illuminating or writing with a quill #IMC2025 #medievalscriptorium @ies-sas.bsky.social @ihr.bsky.social
July 10, 2025 at 12:58 PM
saracharles.bsky.social
The medieval fun continues with the instruments of the Luttrell Psalter, played by de Mowbray’s Musicke #IMC2025
July 8, 2025 at 8:23 PM
saracharles.bsky.social
Learning more about the fascinating world of relic labels at Chelles from the brilliant @ana0dias.bsky.social #IMC2025 #craftingdocuments
July 8, 2025 at 3:43 PM
saracharles.bsky.social
Such a treat for medievalists at #IMC2025 - a fashion show by Tanya Bentham. So wonderful to see these costumes in real life 🥰
Early medieval dress Anglo-normal dress Anglo-normal dress Late medieval dress
July 7, 2025 at 6:42 PM
saracharles.bsky.social
So exciting to chat with the Battle Abbey Tapestry Group working on this amazing new design - and to add a small part of a griffin outline #IMC2025
Embroidery in Bayeux tapestry style Close up of outline of griffin partially stitched with red thread People working on embroidery
July 7, 2025 at 5:24 PM