Writing Rare Books School application personal statements. Trying to find a dignified and appropriate way to express in the context of my application to a course on teaching the history of the book that I get a little teary-eyed sometimes often when I get to touch and read original eleventh-century documents, and that I want some of that for my ( Read more... )

I'm back in Vernon for the holidays (I arrived back last Thursday as planned), I've finished marking my exams, and I've made the annual Santa cookies with the assistance of Z, L, and Cormac and Marek in the decorating phases. Now I'm in the process of acquiring and wrapping my presents for people, visiting with everyone, and trying to breathe ( Read more... )

So, I was having a pretty mediocre day today, dealing with a student's athletic schedule and negotiations with Prof M related to it, chipping away at the translation of a long, narrative, and not very clearly written late-eleventh century charter from the priory of Marmoutier at Donges(1), and reading some direly boring but necessary articles on ( Read more... )

WHOA, WAIT, STOP EVERYTHING. I discovered earlier this week while I was reading an article about nuns that several women from the diocese of Nantes (which I am totally counting as Brittany for the purposes of my dissertation, although people who work on Anjou might disagree) became nuns at the abbey of Ronceray in Angers, or its priories in and ( Read more... )

Obviously, the most important things I should be wishing for for Mali are peace and stability, but nevertheless it's a huge relief to find out that the medieval manuscripts of Timbuktu most likely weren't destroyed in the conflict I'd been hearing ( Read more... )

Well, it's been a while, and that's mostly down to the fact that last week turned out to be an unexpected week of doom (week of unexpected doom?). It was my final week of lectures, the first one on the Seven Years' War and the second one on the American Revolution, so I wasn't particularly worried going in. I was more or less like "an excuse to ( Read more... )

Augh, there is too much for me either to explain or to sum up. So I give you bullet points ( Read more... )

This candle isn't for the Canucks, who won last night to avoid getting swept in the first round and to give themselves at least one more game, but for my Canucks-fan grandma, who is ninety-four today. Happy birthday, Nana ( Read more... )

So, yesterday I went to Fougères, and it was awesome, and tomorrow I'm probably going to go to Bécherel, which is both on my to-visit list and having a book festival this weekend. Today is Easter, and although I can't bring you religion, I can bring you monks and their lay benefactors (and enemies). I've been saving up some anecdotes from the ( Read more... )

For once, my livejournal silence has been the silence of productivity. I've been hard at work all weekend on my database, and I spent part of today on it too, and part of it at the archives. Progress! But today I'm here to talk about the archives.

First of all, the archives départementales d'Ille-et-Vilaine ( have some quirks... )