Mark Empey

Delighted and excited to hear that my #bookhistory chapter, which discusses the important role the Irish Protestant community played in preserving crucial #medieval #manuscripts in #17thc, is now published. And look at that cover 🤩

Happy Friday from this cheerful doggo in the Galway Corporation Records for 1646 (Liber A - @uniofgalway.bsky.social Digital Library).

Love how #earlymodern historians research. Here are notes by Sir James Ware incl: 1) #Medieval genealogy of influential Burke family in Connacht 2) Seal of Bishop William Sylk of Meath (app 1434) 😍 3) Obits of key #Tudor officials in #Ireland 4) Ref to 1408 appointment to local office in Ballymore

🇮🇪 Historical Fiction | Ficsean Stairiúil Join us for a bilingual discussion on writing the history of 16th & 17th-century Ireland, as part of Dublin Festival of History. With Marie-Louise Coolahan, Deirdre Serjeantson & author Liam MacCóil. 📅 8 Oct | 6.30pm https://ow.ly/i6kX50ZPJAw

#Earlymodern books and space: fascinating insight of a female student using the title page to practice writing (and maybe numbers too?) @martinevanelk.bsky.social #herbook

My new book, Imprisonment in Early Modern England: Politics, Debt and the Origins of a Carceral Society, is (sort of) out now! Currently available online for anyone with institutional access: www.cambridge.org/core/books/i...

Lovely sketched Irish heraldry by #17c historian, Sir James Ware, incl. coat of arms of Ireland with an argent issuing from triple towered tower. However, the three antique crowns is Munster and the armed hand is Connacht. That featuring a (red) stag walking is actually that of the MacCarthy Mór

Relieved to send in the page proofs for my Esther Inglis biography yesterday! Should be out by the end of the year 😊

Reminds me when I delivered a lecture on Gilbert in my Tudor Ireland course and a Newfoundland student was in total disbelief about Gilbert’s record in Ireland. He had previously studied in England so my instant reaction was “wait till I tell you about this fella Cromwell” 😂

This is an AMAZING manuscript 😍😍 Worth reading this and definitely worth visiting. More pleasingly, the person who wrote the briefing for RTE has noted that the MSS used to be owned by Sir James Ware, one of Ireland’s greatest historians who I’ve had the pleasure of researching. Book forthcoming

Superb review of the groundbreaking anthology of women’s poetry from Scotland, Ireland and Wales, edited by a team of multilingual scholars, led by my former colleague and boss Sarah Prescott and my dear friend @mlcoolahan.bsky.social app.the-tls.com/219115/conte...

To celebrate #WorldHoneyBeeDay we thought we’d share a couple medicinal recipes featuring honey in the recipe books of the RCP archive. Kicking off with a classic from Lady Sedley’s 1686 book – ‘To make hayre grow’. . . with helpful accompanying illustration of expected growth 😆. #histmed 1/3

This is such an enjoyable piece. Well worth the read 👇👇👇

#earlymodern #bookhistory Workshop Call for Papers: Women’s Professional Networks in the Early Modern Book Trade, University of Edinburgh 6-7 May 2027 Please feel free to share with anyone who might be interested!

It’s the annual Tudor and Stuart Ireland conference this week with its usual fabulous array of papers and speakers. Of particular note is session 3 on #earlymodern Irish women. Details and registration here: tudorstuartireland.com/2026-confere...

'Irish Migrants in Early Modern Europe' 💻 Online talk by Prof Marian Lyons. ⌚ 25 Aug, 3-4pm Opening lecture of the 'Strangers to Citizens' talk series, part of the official Cultural Programme for Ireland’s Presidency of the European Council. Register: www.nli.ie/exhibitions-...

This is a fantastic blog that examines how we should think about #earlymodern marginalia & #bookhistory. Of the examples provided there are also two by women who owned works by Shakespeare #herbook. Paging @martinevanelk.bsky.social @rossmith.bsky.social @franceswolfreston.bsky.social

4 Aug 1633: Preaching at Christ Church #Dublin #otd on the text 'Tu es Petrus', John Bramhall, Lord Deputy Wentworth's chaplain causes consternation by suggesting that the Church of #Rome might be a 'real' church, just in error, rather than no church (Sidney Sussex/NLI)

Giving this cfp a boost: please consider submitting something. Our Forum feature is a great home for shorter pieces. #earlymodern

This is one of those editions that will stand the test of time. Students, academics and general readers will be forever grateful. Big shoutout to co-editors: my former boss @mlcoolahan.bsky.social & fun colleague Wes Hamrick. Most importantly it’s OPEN ACCESS: www.cambridge.org/core/books/w...

If anyone is considering editing something from our collections, we will happily supply a digital copy at no cost. Please contact Kate (archives at ucd dot ie).

My short essay about two 17th century Powhatan women in London and Bermuda is finally out! commonplace.online/article/the-...

The Records of Early English Drama is delighted to announce the open access publication of the tenth digital edition in the REED series. The dramatic records for the Swan Playhouse, edited by Sally-Beth MacLean, are now available on REED Online (ereed.org/collections/...).

Earlier this week I was informed that “The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Early Modern Women's Writing” is now published. It's a phenomenal effort by the editors but selling at a phenomenal price too. I've published some stuff in it so if any one doesn't have access happy to share my work #earlymodern

And if you're not in Galway you can hear Prof Steven Ellis discuss St Nicholas's Church during the reformation here: podcasts.apple.com/eg/podcast/p... OR read his superb open access article published here: er.ceres.rub.de/index.php/ER...

We often say that books hide stories. This time, one quite literally did. Secret compartment was hollowed out in this collection of sermons. 🕵️ #earlymodern #rarebooks #secretcompartment

This week we also published 'The Correspondence of Katherine Jones, Viscountess Ranelagh, 1640–1691', edited by Evan Bourke: bit.ly/4ouSa1l This is the latest volume in @royalhistsoc.org's Camden Series of primary source editions, published online & print by CUP: bit.ly/4oxm5Ga #Skystorians 1/2

As promised! The @uniofgalwaycasscs.bsky.social has generously provided support for two days of public-facing ms activities this July. The events will be free of charge, and there is funding for ECR travel (defined as ≤7 years post-PhD, with preference for those not yet in permanent employment). 1/

Super-niche query based on my ongoing research on #earlymodern women and accounting: is there any work that's been done on Spanish women and numeracy--or even numeracy in Spain more generally? I'm thinking of something similar to @afroide.bsky.social and @jmotis.bsky.social 's work on England.

I missed this earlier but it’s yet another terrific #HerBook piece by @franceswolfreston.bsky.social. I’ve done a small bit of work on female gift giving (out soon!) but more needs to be done. And come on, how can you not resist a read by an owner named Dulcibella Dunch??? #earlymodern

#DIBLives #OTD 1922 a huge explosion at the Public Records Office in the Four Courts destroyed centuries of Irish administrative, legal & genealogical records. @virtualtreasury.bsky.social has spent years recreating many of these records & made them freely available to the public. virtualtreasury.ie

It feels like this is the inevitable culmination of "hidden histories" and "untold stories" combined with "we can't footnote your work, that would be awkward for the reader." But at its core, it's just the result of an utter lack of respect for the labor and expertise of an entire field.

NEW OPEN ACCESS E-BOOK: 'Atlas of Scottish History to 1707' Almost 15 years in the making, the atlas contains maps, diagrams, plans, charts and tables covering the history of Scotland from the earliest times up to 1707, along with explanatory texts: books.socantscot.org/digital-book...

My new post, on the Elizabethan 'Case of Mines', which turns out to have lots of interesting bits just below the surface. legalhistorymiscellany.com/2026/04/22/t...

The #manuscript copy of Sir James Ware's Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland 1169-1272. He'd never published this meticulous #earlymodern work, though his annals for the Tudor period were printed in 1664 #bookhistory. Given this glorious penmanship by a #17thc scribe, why would you publish it?

Our spring 2026 issue is out! Featuring four articles, the annual Conversations on Early Modern Women and Race, three exhibition reviews, and twenty-five book reviews www.journals.uchicago.edu/toc/emw/curr... #EarlyModern

#CFP for #earlymodern folks! @hannah-historian.bsky.social and I are putting together a special edition of the Journal of Epistolary Studies on "Letters as Paratexts in the Early Modern World"!

The Bibliographical Society of America is participating in a social media campaign with ACLS this week, and we invite you to join in! The message is simple and proactive: we need more humanities and social sciences scholars and research. #TalkAboutHumanities

What a fabulous mid #16thc portrait with a clear inscription statement: “Sophonisba Angussola Virgo made it herself 1554”. My guess is that this was a personally drafted meditational book by the then 22-year old with an unambiguous #herbook statement? @martinevanelk.bsky.social

Next Friday at 12, PhD candidate Michael O'Connor will speak about his work on Irish slaveholders in Jamaica in an event hosted by the Centre for 18th-Century Studies at QUB

A clash of personalities that still waits for someone to write about. All the more interesting as it’s a v rare admission by Wenworth that he may have gone too far when it was suggested Mountnorris could be even executed for charges laid against him

Thomas Fairfax on 3 June 1645, promising that his army would never treat women as cruelly as the royalists had done at Leicester. A grim irony given what would happen a few days later at Naseby.

✨I could not be more excited to see what arrived in the post today. Not only because it is good to see 2 chapters reach the light of day, but because of the immense scholarship that has gone into this enterprise, with 69 scholars &2 vols my hat goes off to @ilikeoldbooks.bsky.social & other editors✨

Wonderful early modern marginalia, including a woman riding a horse astride. #bookhistory @emwjournal.bsky.social