Monica H Green

@monicamedhist.bsky.social

Medhist=medieval+medical history (https://hcommons.org/members/mhgreen2/). Focus on Global Health. Open-access: The Black Death: The Medieval Plague Pandemic through the Eyes of Ibn Battuta, https://works.hcommons.org/records/n3h76-6dg78.

@monicamedhist.bsky.social

This never gets old: the thrill of reading about a MS & then being able to "call it up" for viewing minutes later. This is a 14thC note added at the end of a 13thC theology MS held by the Cistercian house of Foucarmont in Normandy. It recounts the arrival of the Black Death in the region in 1348.

On the right side: A French note about the arrival of the Black Death in Normandy, written in the 2nd half of the 14th century. On the left side: the end of the original document, a 13th-century theological manuscript. Source: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS lat. 2588, f. 179v. From the microfilm reproduction, posted on Gallica.
@jessiemihalik.comReposted by @monicamedhist.bsky.social

If you’re an elder millennial or older (before 1989), you might need another dose of the measles vax to get maximum protection.

You can do a blood test to check, but it’s easiest to just get another dose, especially if your insurance covers it.

Info:
www.npr.org/2026/10/12/n...

@ramckay.bsky.socialReposted by @monicamedhist.bsky.social

I think some skepticism is healthy and warranted, especially with such a resilient, popular phrase. At the same time, it feels worthwhile to remain attentive to potential shifts in meaning.

@mekka.mekka-tech.comReposted by @monicamedhist.bsky.social

✒️🔥Facts. Same with the US. At some point we're going to have to acknowledge that the more racist parts of nations are more vulnerable to this specific type of interference. London didn't vote for Brexit. NYC didn't vote Trump. Racism is a vulnerability that can be exploited by your foreign rivals.

@drdragases.bsky.socialReposted by @monicamedhist.bsky.social

But everyone in the field will confirm that he was one of the very most important Medievalists of the past half century. He certainly already was when I met him a decade ago. And given his immense stature, he was just a very kind and generous scholar towards someone who still had a long way to go.

@mayorseidel.bsky.socialReposted by @monicamedhist.bsky.social

Our information environments are subject to manipulation by oligarchs and foreign powers, but this, too, is material. Ukraine’s strategic counter-strikes also defend electoral democracies far away from the war itself.

@sarahebond.bsky.socialReposted by @monicamedhist.bsky.social

The splendid Sarah Derbew has a new article in AJP on "From Aksum to Athens." It explores literary understanding of Aksum (modern Ethiopia) via Greek & Ge'ez (ግእዝ, aka Classical Ethiopic): She "examine[s] various descriptions of the 6th-century ce Aksumite ruler Kaleb." muse.jhu.edu/article/1002...

Museum number 1910,1207.1 Description Gold coin. (whole) Half-length bust of Kaleb right, crowned, holding stick, flanked by two wheat-stalks, in beaded inner circle. Half-length bust of Kaleb right, wearing headcloth, holding stick, flanked by two wheat-stalks, in beaded inner circle. State Associated with: Aksumite Kingdom Africa: Aksumite Kingdom Authority Ruler: Kaleb Cultures/periods Aksumite Production date 500-525 (circa) Production place Minted in: Aksum (town) Africa: sub-Saharan Africa: Ethiopia: Tigray: Aksum (town) Materials gold Dimensions Die-axis: 12 o'clock Weight: 1.60 grammes Inscriptions Inscription type: inscription Inscription position: obverse Inscription language: Greek Inscription script: Greek Inscription translation: King Khaleb Inscription type: inscription Inscription position: reverse Inscription language: Greek Inscription script: Greek Inscription translation: Son of Thezenas Bibliographic references BMCAK / Catalogue of the Aksumite Coins in the British Museum (409, p.40) Anzani 1926 / Numismatica Axumita (142) Akbarnia et al 2018 / The Islamic World: a History in Objects (p.21, fig.3) Location Not on display Subjects royal/imperial plant Associated names Named in inscription & portrayed: Kaleb Named in inscription: Tazena Ruler: Kaleb Acquisition name Purchased from: Messrs W S Lincoln & Son Acquisition date 1910 Department Money and Medals Registration number 1910,1207.1 C&M catalogue number BMCAK (BMC Aksumite)(40)(409)(40) now at the British Museum
@monicamedhist.bsky.social

I've been tracking Salmonella enterica paratyphi C ("paratyphoid fever") for a number of years, & it is indeed showing up in a number of key archaeological sites, from late medieval Norway & Germany to early modern Spain & Mexico. But we need to integrate historical work, too, & that's missing here.

A list of three studies by Robert Hymes, on potential historical evidence for the presence of plague in 13th-century northern China. The first and third are published #OpenAccess: Hymes, Robert. “A Hypothesis on the East Asian Beginnings of the Yersinia pestis Polytomy,” The Medieval Globe 1 (Fall 2014), 285-308; repr. in: Pandemic Disease in the Medieval World: Rethinking the Black Death, ed. Monica H. Green (Amsterdam and Kalamazoo, MI: Arc-Medieval Press, 2015), pp. 285-308. Hymes, Robert. “A Tale of Two Sieges: Liu Qi, Li Gao, and Epidemics in the Jin-Yuan Transition,” Journal of Song-Yuan Studies 50 (2021), 295-363. Includes as a separate downloadable appendix, “Patients and Associates of Li Gao, and Their Associations.” Hymes, Robert. “Buboes in Thirteenth-Century China: Evidence from Chinese Medical Writings,” The Medieval Globe 8, no. 1 (2022), 1-57; reprinted in Robert Hymes and Monica H. Green, edited by Carol Symes, New Evidence for the Dating and Impact of the Black Death in Asia (Leeds, UK: Arc Humanities Press, 2022).
@monicamedhist.bsky.social

Important paper that's going on the 2nd Plague Pandemic bibliography even though it's not about plague: He et al., "Ancient DNA implicates Salmonella Paratyphi C as a candidate pathogen in a thirteenth-century East Asian epidemic." Unfortunate omission: Hymes's historical work on 13thC epidemics!

A quote from He et al. 2026 on the limitations of the study: "Several limitations temper inference. First, the sample size is modest, n = 15, with three SPC-positive individuals. Second, reliance on shotgun rather than capture-enriched data constrains sensitivity and precludes robust phylogenetic placement. Third, the cemetery’s archaeological dating, approximately 1175–1320 CE, situates use within the target period but does not establish near simultaneity of interments, direct AMS dates are needed. Fourth, detection power for additional bacteria and all RNA viruses remains limited. Finally, preservation and taphonomic filters likely bias detections toward minimum estimates of true prevalence. Despite these constraints, the Xiyang evidence estab- lishes that SPC circulated in thirteenth-century North China at a time and place with historically attested epidemic conditions. This strengthens the rationale for considering enteric fever among plausible contributors to morbidity and mortality during the Mongol and Jin transition while avoiding single-cause narratives." Source: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2025.106452.
@pronounced-ing.bsky.socialReposted by @monicamedhist.bsky.social

"...Little public things—like designing postage stamps or National Park Service photographer stipends or spending the pittance of pre-DOGE NEA dollars on public programming—did something to cohere a nation. Everyday aesthetics made place."

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