Cambridge Digital Library

That's me in the corner...
... looking stunning!
Just a casually pretty peacock hanging out in the corner a medieval book on astronomy!
cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-FITZ...

2025 was a busy year with a lot to still be excited about -
Check out all the great stories in @theul.bsky.social's Annual Review!

A miniature battle for 'Freedom' at the edge of the paper landscape... A poetic doodle from Alfred Lord Tennyson's Notebook 'X' (@trincolllibcam.bsky.social O.15.17).
cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-O-00...

2026 Global History Lecture, with the German Historical Institute, London - RHS On Tuesday 10 February, the Society hosts its annual Global History Lecture, in partnership with the German Historical Institute, London. This year we are delighted to welcome Professor Vinita Damodar...

Join us on Tuesday 10 February for the 2026 Global History Lecture, hosted in partnership with @ghilondon.bsky.social

Professor Vinita Damodaran will speak on 'Decolonising the Natural History Collections of Empire' bit.ly/4qLCaYB

Booking for in-person & online attendance is now open #Skystorians

Darwin Correspondence Project Read and search the full texts of more than 12,000 of Charles Darwin’s letters, and find information on 3,000 more. Discover complete transcripts of all known letters Darwin wrote and received up to t...

😊 Thanks mostly due to the dedicated team of the Darwin Correspondence Project - they have some great anecdotes, resources & teaching materials worth exploring: darwinproject.ac.uk

An aerial view of a grass covered Iron Age hillfort, trees filling the interior, multiple paths exposing the white chalk geological natural beneath, the while being surrounded by hedge field boundaries

For the last #HillfortsWednesday of 2025, here's the trivallate Iron Age marvel of Badbury Rings #Dorset

✈️ 📷 summer 1947 @camdiglib.bsky.social (CC BY-NC 3.0) with uncontrolled access causing major erosion

Now better managed by the @nattrustarch.bsky.social, Badbury is a great place to explore 😍

Screenshot from the Websites of the Netherlands Xmas Edition, with a small Internet Archive Europe logo at the top of a dense photomosaic composed of millions of tiny Dutch website captures forming the image of a bright, decorated Christmas tree.

❄️ ’Tis the season for exploring the web’s past!

@InternetArchive.EU has transformed millions of Dutch websites from the #WaybackMachine into a festive, interactive Christmas mosaic. 🎄

It offers a new way to see the web & the scale & value of digital collections.

Try it ➡️ display.archive.org/xmas

Is it Christmas yet?

#medievalsky #medievaladvent

@camdiglib.bsky.social Dd.5., f. 207r

Quote over an autumnal countryside background reads: “Elizabeth continued her walk alone, crossing field after field at a quick pace, jumping over stiles and springing over puddles with impatient activity, and finding herself at last within view of the house, with weary ankles, dirty stockings, and a face glowing with the warmth of exercise

Jane Austen loved a ramble!

250 years since her birth, we’re celebrating the paths and landscapes that inspired her life and writing.

Explore the new Jane Austen trails ➡️ www.ramblers.org.uk/features/footsteps-jane-austen

A feminist Newtonian Any major new scientific theory experiences a period of reception after publication in which it is examined, questioned, subject to criticism and put to the test. During this period, which can and …

18th-century, French, Newtonian physicist, Gabrielle-Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, Marquise du Châtelet who was born on 17 December 1706 #histsci
thonyc.wordpress.com/2010/12/17/a...

cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/PH-UA-P...

It's thanks to digital technologies like #IIIF / @iiif.bsky.social that revolutionise the actual experience of interacting with collections like those @theul.bsky.social!

Digital Rasa: Can Ancient Indian Aesthetic Theory Guide Our Engagement with Manuscripts and Photographs online? This essay reflects on the concept of rasa (ancient Indian aesthetic theory) & rethinks our digital engagement with manuscripts & photos in collections.

If you're after a Friday read? Why not join us on a virtual adventure to explore a different way of thinking about how we interact and engage with digitised cultural heritage:
www.theheritagelab.in/digital-rasa...

Fantastic Futures 2025 - ConfTool Pro - BrowseSessions Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with…

Last day of Fantastic Futures 2025: AI Everywhere, All at Once begins! What an absolutely inspired community this is 🤩! Register for free access to today's livestream www.conftool.org/fantastic-fu... and join in a full schedule of incredible talks. www.conftool.org/fantastic-fu... #ai4lam #ff2025

CRASSH and Charles Wallace India Trust Fellowship.

Applications now open 🎓

Spend 9 weeks at Cambridge University with the CRASSH & @cw-indiatrust.bsky.social, supporting scholars from India in the arts, humanities, and heritage conservation

Funding includes travel, accommodation & research expenses

Apply by 19 Jan 2026
bit.ly/3tw6OuI

Historic Maps: Interpreting Stories of Place Discovery Course 1

Looking for new learning experiences, enrichment and inspiration? Try our new IHR Discovery Courses : Historic Maps, Townscape and Architecture, and Archaeology for Local History. www.history.ac.uk/news-events/... www.history.ac.uk/news-events/... www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

We've got some HUGE news! We've DOUBLED in size overnight! Not only have we added "some" more Cairo Genizah fragments, but "ALL" of them @theul.bsky.social !!!
This now brings the total number of items in Cambridge Digital Library to OVER 160,000!
cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/...

This is a very interesting interview with @melissaterras.bsky.social on @transkribus.bsky.social 's co-operative model, and how to balance financial imperatives with academic imperatives.

#DigitalHistory

Another hilltop 360 for #HillfortsWednesday, this time from Mither Tap, Bennachie, Aberdeenshire, taken 2 weeks ago. I do declare that each Scottish hillfort I ascend is windier than the last, & this was definitely windier than Eildon Hill, which was pretty windy, tbf.

The Khami Atlas of the World is an atlas of the entire world drawn and painted entirely by hand in amazing detail (with no ruler) by Dan English (1912-1980). It includes the names of every river, hill and promontory, and every village, dorp and aul in all five continents. https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-MAPS-MS-PLANS-B-00041/1

The Khami Atlas of the World, drawn and painted ENTIRELY BY HAND in amazing detail (with no ruler) by Dan English (1912-1980). It includes the names of every river, hill and promontory, and every village, dorp and aul in all five continents.
Now THAT'S #MapMonday!
cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-MAPS...

Darwin Manuscripts : Miscellaneous letters from and to C. R. Darwin and others. Also individual leaves and fragments of Cirripedia and Origin,... This item is included in the Library’s 600th anniversary exhibition Lines of Thought: Discoveries that changed the world

Explore these, and plenty more, on Cambridge Digital Library! cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-DAR-...

The Khami Atlas of the World is an atlas of the entire world drawn and painted entirely by hand in amazing detail (with no ruler) by Dan English (1912-1980). It includes the names of every river, hill and promontory, and every village, dorp and aul in all five continents. https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-MAPS-MS-PLANS-B-00041/1

The Khami Atlas of the World, drawn and painted ENTIRELY BY HAND in amazing detail (with no ruler) by Dan English (1912-1980). It includes the names of every river, hill and promontory, and every village, dorp and aul in all five continents.
Now THAT'S #MapMonday!
cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-MAPS...

Book cover, Sverker Sörlin, Snö, a detail of snow covering trees and landscape from a painting by Gustav Fjaestad

Profoundly beautiful account of the history of snow studies, the fragility of snow and the impact of the anthropocene by Sverker Sörlin.

Also an appeal for a different way of doing #science

How do we display data as we want, but still store it as we should? This podcast, produced by Vera Chiquet and virtualculture.ch, offers the data steward’s perspective on digitisation for #TrainingTuesday 🎧

➡️ campus.dariah.eu/resources/ex...

#DataStewardship #Digitatisation #Workflow

Landscape Histories from the Air : Hill fort, East Lulworth, Dorset

When you're in Cambridgeshire and have a distinct lack of hillforts and beautiful coastline... This 1948 shot of Flower's Barrow near Lulworth Cove ticks boxes! #hillfortswednesday
cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/PH-GEOG...

One cat per mouse

Cambridge University Library, MS Kk.4.25; Bestiary; c.1230 CE; England; f.74v @camdiglib.bsky.social

Untold Stories behind the making of Samuel Bourne’s ‘Picturesque’ Photographs of the Himalayas : a colonial narrative of the mountains. This essay explores the erasures of local labour, knowledge and histories in Bourne’s photographs of India, with a focus on the Himalayas.

Famed British photographer Samuel Bourne traveled extensively in India during the 1860s. He had an eye for the perfect shot, but was his pursuit of perfection detrimental to local labour, knowledge and histories? #PhotoHistory
Chirantan Banik delves deeper:
www.theheritagelab.in/samuel-bourn...

Amazing!

We've got enough we could probably form a whole band - 'The Badly Drawn Elephants' perhaps?
cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-II-0...

Recently digitised as part of the Sally T. WongAvery Digital Collection of Chinese Materials (cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/...), a collaboration with @theulspeccoll.bsky.social at @theul.bsky.social & UC San Diego Library @ucsandiego.bsky.social, generously supported by the Avery-Tsui Foundation!