Jan Machielsen
Historian of early modern religion, working on witches and saints. Loves hikes and risotto.
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- Reposted by Jan MachielsenCongratulations @janmachielsen.bsky.social on the publication of The Cambridge Companion to Counter Reformation Sanctity! Great to see this come out! #earlymodern #history #skystorians
- Looking forward to a trip to Cambridge next month!
- Not #earlymodern but this abandoned church served a leprosy colony in the 1940s. And the graffiti of the diabolical bishop is delightful!
- Highlight of today's home. View of La Gomera and El Hierro from the south side of Teide. The islands almost seem to float in the air.
- My mum, partner and I hiked a wonderful stretch of the Wales Coast Path today, in memory of my dad who wanted to complete it. Hopefully one day we will.
- Just my sort of Christmas! 🤪
- Ha. This feels so predictable somehow... www.nytimes.com/2025/12/13/b...
- Very pleased that we got to publish this Comment in the TRHS! And many thanks @chriscampbell1.bsky.social for pitching it. Further reflections on this and other subjects are certainly welcome. 😊 🗃️
- What does Gen AI mean for the work of the historian and the value of historical experience, skills and craft? 'The Historian in the Age of AI' by @chriscampbell1.bsky.social. New Comment article now available in 'Transactions of the Royal Historical Society' bit.ly/4atErTB #Skystorians 1/2
- If anyone is wondering what the right time is to put up a Christmas tree, the Vatican is still busy putting up theirs.
- Another public transport strike so I just had to walk to work today. 😋 (It's all going to be over by the end of next week so just let me be. 😅)
- The Milvian bridge just now. No crosses in the sky unfortunately.

- Boo!
- Jerome translating the Bible by Hendrick van Somer in the Palazzo Barberini. As the sign says, "the challenge of the text becomes hands-on combat". One for @tntwining.bsky.social 😊 #earlymodern
- Saint Luke healing a child, while painting the Virgin and experiencing some sort of ecstasy. Who says that men can't multitask? 🤪 By Giovanni Lanfranco, in the Palazzo Barberini
- Lorenzo Lotto's Mystica marriage of St Catherine... Love How Jerome is reading through the thing and that he brought his lion! #earlymodern
- Hell, to paraphrase Sartre, is other tourists.
- I can't help but feel really curious about Christ's genitalia now. 🤪 A statue by Michelangelo in the Domine, Quo Vadis. #earlymodern
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- Went to see the altar of Joseph of Copertino in the Santissimi Apostoli today. If you want hear more about him and his flights, come to my talk at Sapienza tomorrow at 10am. 😊 #earlymodern
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- As an #earlymodern historian of old religious things it is easy to feel at home in Rome. Abominations such as 👇 are reminders that Catholicism is a living faith and that the Renaissance art I adore was new when it was made.
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- I'm giving a #monkabulous talk next week Friday at the Sapienza on the flying friar Joseph of Copertino. And it just occurred to me... What better place to share the details than :: hum :: BlueSky? Everyone is very welcome!
- When you don't know who to leave your money to, you can always make the Virgin Mary your heir! #earlymodern
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- Quite excited to see one the #medievalsky articles we published in the Transactions @royalhistsoc.org make it onto BBC Sounds! 🗃️ An excellent Halloween themed More or Less episode counting the stakes used by Vlad the Impaler. Have a listen! www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
- An English (St George?) flag waving Virgin... For all the Reformers on here. 😝 Chiesa della Trinità, Bologna.