Francois Soyer

Trying to do academic work with my resident supervisor keeping a close eye on me.

Forthcoming book cover (out in early 2027 with Bloomsbury). It will feature a microhistory of the fascinating trial of Antonio/Vitoria, plus an edition of the original 1556-7 Portuguese trial document and an English translation.

Forthcoming book cover (out in early 2027 with Bloomsbury). It will feature a microhistory of the fascinating trial of Antonio/Vitoria, plus an edition of the original 1556-7 Portuguese trial document and an English translation.

you laugh but “we remembered Spain and it’s right where we left it” has saved our bacon more than once

Some recently-published reflections on my (fairly basic) use of AI to study Visigothic church councils. In an open access special issue on AI and medieval history out together by Nerea Fernandez Cadenas. Using AI saved me a lot of time, if nothing else! ⌚ e-revistas.uc3m.es/index.php/RE...

Chris Wickham was endlessly curious, he was a life-long learner of languages, methods, problem. An important British interlocutor with _Annales_ history-making and expositor of the Marxist historical tradition. Always humane and engaged. A loss not only to his loved ones, but to all historians.

New publication: François Soyer, The Gran Complicidad and the Spanish Empire (1635–1649) in The Encyclopedia of Jews in Latin America, Brill, 2026. DOI: 10.1163/2950-5860_EJLA_SIM_088253 referenceworks.brill.com/display/entr...

New publication: François Soyer, The Gran Complicidad and the Spanish Empire (1635–1649) in The Encyclopedia of Jews in Latin America, Brill, 2026. DOI: 10.1163/2950-5860_EJLA_SIM_088253 referenceworks.brill.com/display/entr...

The local town council's parking meter enforcement Cockatoo is not impressed and he will mess up your car if you don’t pay for your parking.

The local town council's parking meter enforcement Cockatoo is not impressed and he will mess up your car if you don’t pay for your parking.

First proofs of the forthcoming book have arrived in my email inbox from Bloomsbury. In classic fashion: in the middle of frantic marking and at the start of the school holidays. 🤦🏻‍♂️

First proofs of the forthcoming book have arrived in my email inbox from Bloomsbury. In classic fashion: in the middle of frantic marking and at the start of the school holidays. 🤦🏻‍♂️

Apparently pancake printers are a thing...

Apparently pancake printers are a thing...

Extremely excited to announce an article co-authored by myself and Aaron Hyman on the visual and material cultures of Dutch piracy in the early modern Caribbean is now out in Renaissance quarterly @rsaorg.bsky.social , and open access! www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

Forget spiders🕷️, snakes 🐍 and crocodiles 🐊… meet the new Australian killers. 🦆 🦆 🦆

The stuff you read in the margins of inquisitorial denunciations: "About the duck that went to the house of the Englishmen."

The perils of being an early modern military reenactor:

The perils of being an early modern military reenactor:

A new breakfast-time friend.

A new breakfast-time friend.

Lisbon 1575: man has a theological argument during a meal in a tavern. He anxiously returns the next day to explain some dubious statement he made about Christ and also to have another bite to eat. Is told he can "go eat dinner at the Inquisition" (a qual lhe disse que viesse gentar à Inquisição)!

Lisbon 1575: man has a theological argument during a meal in a tavern. He anxiously returns the next day to explain some dubious statement he made about Christ and also to have another bite to eat. Is told he can "go eat dinner at the Inquisition" (a qual lhe disse que viesse gentar à Inquisição)!

Job! Professor/Associate/Assistant Professor in Global Iberian Empires - The University of Hong Kong www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DSM969/p...

Peer review [“Le Manuel des Péchés” (Handbook of Sins), late thirteenth century, University of Nottingham fol. 48r.]

Winter morning scenes in Australia: early walk, catching the first rays of sun on the gum trees, smelling the wattle and hand feeding the rainbow lorikeet.

Peering over the gutter. 🦜

A reminder that AI, even the supposedly more advanced and dependable AI systems that your institution/university pushes you and your students to use will make stuff up (aka lie to you). Don't depend on it.

Australian winter: frosty mornings and hungry parrots

When asked by an inquisitor in sixteenth-century Lisbon why he never married, a Christian from India responded "because he wanted to see the world" (disse que elle numqua casou porque tinha tenção de ver o mundo).

When asked by an inquisitor in sixteenth-century Lisbon why he never married, a Christian from India responded "because he wanted to see the world" (disse que elle numqua casou porque tinha tenção de ver o mundo).

Amid the 2026 World Cup excitement, let's remember Monty Python's Germany vs Greece International Philosophy World Cup Final www.youtube.com/watch?v=i21O...

September 1550: the Augustinian Sebastião Toscano is denounced to the Lisbon Inquisition by scandalized churchmen for claiming in a sermon preached in the presence of the king that “after Christ no soul was more perfect in grace and virtue than that of Saint Augustin.”