About this blog

I started this blog towards the end of 2020 after I handed in my dissertation on priests, books and compilatory practices in the Carolingian period.¹ It was initially intended as an online space to store (unfinished) ideas for future research projects. Over time, however, I started to use the blog more as a channel to communicate my academic publications and participation in various projects. Additionally, it has played a substantial role in my teaching as a way to present large swaths of information in a somewhat orderly fashion.

For now, I aim to keep on using the blog this way. So on here, you will primarily find my latest publications, books reviews, blogs I have written elsewhere, digital humanities projects, and the occasional personal update.

Libripendis

Coming up with a name for this blog was more difficult than I thought. That is why I resorted to a well-known means of coming across as interesting, which is latinizing one’s last name. As my last name is ‘Waagmeester’, a Dutch word describing the master of the weighing house, I had to look for a historical official that was in charge of managing weights. The earliest example that I was able to find is mentioned in Plinius’ (23/24-79 A.D.) Naturalis historia as the ’libripendes’ who were weighing the coins for the wages of the soldiers.² How this function was understood later on, can be gained from a 9th-c. glossary (see above), where it is explained as ‘he [who] weighs’.³ Much later, in a philosophical lexicon from the 17th c., it is described again as ‘he who weighs and is in charge of the weighing affairs’.⁴ As such, the name ’libripens’ seems to be fitting for this blog. To avoid any confusion with an Austrian IT-company I have chosen the genitive singular, which gives it something personal as well.