Universal Short Title Catalogue

The Times They Are a-Changin'

In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII moved the calendar. Rebecca Hirt (@kit.edu), in our blog, explores the impact that this shift had on almanacs. You can read it here: www.ustc.ac.uk/news/when-te...

#almanacs #earlymodern

The Universal Short Title Catalogue is an essential resource for all who wish to consult early modern printed books and pamphlets, in any language. And it's free on the internet to anyone who wants to take a look, or to dive into some research.
www.ustc.ac.uk

There are plenty of newspapers in the USTC, but it’s also great to see the USTC in the press! We recently appeared in Fife Today as we celebrate our 30th anniversary this year: www.fifetoday.co.uk/news/people/...

CALL FOR PAPERS: Proclaiming, Affixing, Distributing: Disseminating the Law in Early Modern Europe [2nd COMLAWEU conference] (St Andrews: University of St Andrews, 5-6 MAY 2026) [DEADLINE 31 OCT 2025]

📣 @standrewshist.bsky.social

esclh.blogspot.com/2025/10/call...

It’s a pleasure to appear alongside such a great group of scholars in ‘The People of Print: Eighteenth-Century England’, overseen by the brilliant @elementaladam.bsky.social, Rachel Stenner and Kaley Kramer.

You can read it for free over the next two weeks here: doi.org/10.1017/9781...

Detail of the printed musical annotations in University of St Andrews’ copy of Sternhold, Thomas, Whitingham, William, Hopkins, John, The Whole Booke of Psalmes, collected into English Meter, (London, 1583), Bib BS1440.S8B83.

Ellen Robertson, a Book History MLitt student @standrewshist.bsky.social, has written on her fascinating research on a book of metrical psalms with extensive manuscript annotations held in the Special Collections @uniofstandrews.bsky.social!
university-collections.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/2025/08/19/s...

Seventeenth-century portrait of A Man Reading by Job Adriaensz Berckheyde. This painting shows an bespeckled man in three-quarters profile reading a newspaper. He is older with a beard and moustache and is dressed in a tattered jacket with a large barrel hat. On the table next to him, a case for his glasses appears alongside a book opened to reveal a title page printed in red and black ink. The colour palette is typical of 17th century Dutch portraiture, with shades of neutral colors and a similarly toned brown-gray background.

"EXTRA! EXTRA! Read all about it!"

Catch up on the news from the @universalstc.bsky.social annual conference on 'Newspapers and Periodicals', which took place in June 2025, with our newest blog by @zbrookman.bsky.social (PhD Candidate and Research Assistant).

ustc.ac.uk/news/ustc-20...

An etching by William Hogarth entitled 'The Laughing Audience', dated to 1733. In the scene an audience of people is depicted in a theatre, there are people seated in rows in the foreground, mostly men in wigs, all of whom are laughing. The upper register depicts the balcony seats were men flirt with women who are selling something out of baskets. There are lit candle sconces on the walls.

'Well, sir, learn to jest in good time; there's time for all things'-William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors

☛ New on the blog: ‘By a Lover of Ha, Ha, He’: Jest Books in a Cambridge Auction Catalogue by Anna Grace Gragg (MLitt student @standrewshist.bsky.social) 🃏📖😆

ustc.ac.uk/news/by-a-lo...

The call for papers for the second COMLAWEU conference, on the dissemination of the law in Early Modern Europe, is now open!

The deadline for proposals is 31 October 2025.

Any inquiries can be directed to Dr Arthur der Weduwen.

388 years ago TODAY, a chair was thrown at the Bishop of Edinburgh as he read from a book during a service. Riots followed shortly afterwards. In our latest blog, MLitt student William Lewis explores the book at the heart of the storm: www.ustc.ac.uk/news/a-war-o...

In our latest blog, MLitt student Ellen Robertson examines works that were promised by the catalogues of the Frankfurt Book Fair, but not always delivered. You can read it here: www.ustc.ac.uk/news/ellen-r...

The latest issue of our Library Quarterly, dedicated to our work on France, is out now! You can read it and subscribe here: www.ustc.ac.uk/news/ustc-li...

🚨Call for Papers: The 18th St Andrews/USTC Book History Conference on 'Print and Education' will take place 18–20 June 2026.

👉 Further details here: www.ustc.ac.uk/conference

📅 Application deadline: 12 December 2025

📖 We look forward to receiving your proposals!

#CfP #bookhistory #skystorians

Theodore Bibliandri’s translation of Machumetis saracenorum principis, Image courtesy of St Edmundsbury Cathedral. A title page of the Latin translation of the Qur'an, printed in Basel by Johann Oporinus, Nikolaus Brylinger in 1543. This copy was donated to the St James parochial library in Bury St Edmunds in 1595. The marginal notation at the bottom of the page, also in Latin, describes this gift. It reads: "non mihi sed omnibus H. Blagge."

📚Explore the storied lives of Suffolk's parochial library collections in a new blog post: 'Non mihi sed omnibus: Suffolk’s Last Parochial Libraries' by current MLitt student @standrewshist.bsky.social Emily Wildish.📚

#bookhistory #libraryhistory #collectionhistory

ustc.ac.uk/news/non-mih...

Our conference on News and Periodicals is underway with a panel on Political News Cultures! #USTC25

Our 2025 conference on Newspapers and Periodicals is underway with our hybrid workshop! #USTC25

Portrait of George the Bearded, Duke of Saxony by Lucas Cranach the Elder, c. 1534 (Museum der bildenden Künste). In the portrait, a balding and bearded man dressed in a voluminous robe of all black; he is presented in a 3/4 pose. The man's hands are clasped and he wears a two rings. Around his neck is the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece. The backround is aqua with some behind the figure's head.

Emma Caster, MLitt student @standrewshist.bsky.social, explores the career of the German printer, Wolfgang Stöckel (Müller) in a new blog entitled: 'Struggles and Strifes of a Reformation Printer: Printers and Debt in Germany'
ustc.ac.uk/news/struggl...

#bookhistory #Reformationhistory #earlymodern

The Frigate Peter and Paul in the Port of Amsterdam (17th Century), by Abraham Storck, Historisch Scheepvart Museum, Amsterdam A 17th century Dutch seascape painting illustrating at least 7 sail boats of various sizes, including the frigate of Peter and Paul, as well as a smaller transport row boat. The seas are calm and the sky is covered in swirling and fluffy clouds.

Ahoy there! New blog post!

Demi van Breukelen, master's student @utrechtuniversity.bsky.social & visiting researcher @standrewshist.bsky.social explores:
🌊'A Sea of Print: Printed Treasures in the Dutch Prize Papers Collection'

ustc.ac.uk/news/a-sea-o...
#printhistory #earlymodern #maritimehistory

The Frigate Peter and Paul in the Port of Amsterdam (17th Century), by Abraham Storck, Historisch Scheepvart Museum, Amsterdam A 17th century Dutch seascape painting illustrating at least 7 sail boats of various sizes, including the frigate of Peter and Paul, as well as a smaller transport row boat. The seas are calm and the sky is covered in swirling and fluffy clouds.

Ahoy there! New blog post!

Demi van Breukelen, master's student @utrechtuniversity.bsky.social & visiting researcher @standrewshist.bsky.social explores:
🌊'A Sea of Print: Printed Treasures in the Dutch Prize Papers Collection'

ustc.ac.uk/news/a-sea-o...
#printhistory #earlymodern #maritimehistory

Cover page of the USTC Library Quarterly, issue 8 (May 2025) which notes the contents.

The eighth issue of USTC Library Quarterly is out now!

You can download it and subscribe here: ustc.ac.uk/news/ustc-li...

This special issue is a collaboration with the COMLAWEU project.

Some fabulous discoveries here from the National Library in Edinburgh.

#HabemusPapam

Read all about the early modern conclave and papal election process in this post about rare surviving printed sheets from seventeenth-century conclaves.

Wrote a little blog about some fascinating printed conclave documents I came across in the @natlibscot.bsky.social! 🗝️

Many thanks to the cataloguers of their Special Collections for documenting these objects so diligently!

Detail of two of the [Four voting slips for the election of a Pope]. [Rome?: Reverenda Camera Apostolica?, 16--?], National Library of Scotland, Crawford.B.41(15). Reproduced with permission from materials on loan to the National Library of Scotland from the Balcarres Heritage Trust.

CONCLAVE! 🗝️

As we await white smoke, read about some rare printed objects from early modern conclaves preserved in @natlibscot.bsky.social! In this post, USTC postdoc, @ciaokatet.bsky.social, explores blank conclave vote tallying sheets and sample ballots. #conclave2025 www.ustc.ac.uk/news/conclave

An extract from Cannon’s text, which is held at the National Archives, Kew. 18th century manuscript writing on a warped piece of vellum with fold marks, stains and holes.

Gitika Sanjay, student of Modern History & Economics @standrewshist.bsky.social, explores the archival traces of a 18th-century text in a new post on our blog-'In Defence of ‘Abominable Practice’: Thomas Cannon’s Ancient and Modern Pederasty Investigated and Exemplify’d'!📜
ustc.ac.uk/news/in-defe...

Tracts of Action "Tracts of Action" published on 21 May 2024 by Brill.

How does one learn practical skills from a book? Why were how-to books so popular in the early modern period, who used them and how, and can they even be considered a clearly defined genre? Find out the answer to these and other questions in our edited volume: brill.com/display/titl...

Oil on canvas Portrait of Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolf II by Hans von Aachen, c. 1607, which is now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. Rudolf wears a bejeweled black hat topped by a feather and a fashionable lace ruff over his black jacket. Around his neck he wears the toson d'or, the symbol of the chivalric order of the Golden Fleece.

Cheers to a new blog!🍷

'Cheap Wine: A Warring Man’s Priority' by Zina Gharakhani, MLitt student in Early Modern and Reformation History @standrewshist.bsky.social

🍇 Explore wine industry regulations in Hapsburg Prague during the reign of Rudolf II.

#earlymodern

www.ustc.ac.uk/news/cheap-w...

We are delighted to unveil the provisional programme for our upcoming conference on Newspapers and Periodicals, organised by @zbrookman.bsky.social, @apettegree.bsky.social and Arthur der Weduwen, which will take place on 17 June and from 19-21 June 2025. #USTC25

** We apologise for the typo in the first post in the thread. Like early modern printers who are rushing to print the latest news and edicts, we sometimes have misprints too!

To learn more about the 5-year Communicating the Law in Europe, 1500-1750 (COMLAWEU) project in the @standrewshist.bsky.social visit: comlaweu.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/all-posts/