Blog

On this day 6 months ago my dog died. Grieving a pet is an odd experience. It feels self-indulgent: with all the problems in the world,...

Last week I wrote about how to read an astronomical calendar: what information they contained and what it was used for. This post is...

For a bit of fun over on Twitter this week, I made my followers an offer: It was an offer that 60 of them couldn't refuse. Requests...

What do all those columns of letters and numbers mean? This post explains how to make sense of all the information.

Back in June I was thrilled to get another chance to broadcast an Essay on BBC Radio 3.  This one was about John Gower, “the forgotten...

Girton College, the Cambridge University college where I am lucky to work, owns a full-scale facsimile of the Hereford Cathedral Mappa...

This post is cross-posted from the Ordered Universe project blog (with different pictures). The 18th Ordered Universe symposium – and the...

Happy Yule!  As you probably know, Yule (Jól) was the pagan Nordic celebration of the bleak midwinter.  And it’s the winter solstice...

Yesterday I had an opportunity to present some medieval science on the BBC.  I had been asked to contribute to “Free Thinking” on Radio...

Facebook greeted me today with this little graphic: Given that this is the radar picture over the UK this morning, it’s not surprising...

Since today is 29th February, a leap-year-themed post is in order.  This one answers the question you’ve all been asking: how are leap...

I submitted my PhD thesis last week (and now have a little more time to post on this blog).  In large part it’s a study of this...

I handed in my PhD thesis earlier this week, so I finally have time for a new blog post.  It’s another small step towards the blogging...

A few years ago I enjoyed a blog post in which National Maritime Museum curator Rebekah Higgitt wrote about the “navigation” theme of the...

OK, so I missed Andy Murray’s Wimbledon semi-final.  And I missed seeing England hammer the Aussies in Cardiff.  But I didn’t care. ...

I’m just back from two very enjoyable days in Oxford, at the Bodleian Library’s wonderful new Weston Library.  Apart from looking at some...

I’ve written a blog post entitled “How to cast a medieval horoscope” before.  But I didn’t tell the whole story. Regular readers of this...

I recently attended my first ever Kalamazoo.  This is not a strange musical instrument, or a kind of olive.  It is an annual gathering of...

I recently returned from the International Congress on Medieval Studies.  It’s held every year at the University of Western Michigan in...

I started this blog when I reconstructed a medieval equatorium.  I wanted to understand how it worked, and the best way was to follow the...