Dr Mark Purcell

This is extremely exciting-- the Bury Psalter is a truly monumental, important example of high-end nonmetropolitan English manuscript production--nothing provincial about it!

Is this one of the windows in Emmanuel College?

a black and white cat sitting on a grey knitted cushion on a bookshelf behind an orange sofa

pleased to report that we’ve managed to reclaim half the sofa for human bums after giving the cat the option to shelve herself

A very handsome cat

Woodcut of the crucifixion, from a Dutch edition of the ‘Speculum Humanæ Salvationis’ (Mirror of Human Salvation), printed at Culemborg in 1483. Given to @theulspeccoll.bsky.social in 1916 & now Inc.4.E.9.1[3112].

Ah yes - I have seen this.

I should like to see this. How does it compare to his presentation copy of Instauratio Magna?

Fun task last thing on a Friday: recataloguing (because it had disappeared from the catalogue) Francis Bacon’s presentation copy to Cambridge University of his Works (London, 1623). In a contemporary binding of blue velvet embroidered with silver thread. @theulspeccoll.bsky.social Sel.2.84.

Iford, East Sussex, St Nicholas. One of those endearing Norman churches built in a linear alignment of nave, central tower and chancel which never had transepts

Some of the surviving third century walls of Caistor Roman Town (Venta Icenorum) in Norfolk. The town was established in around AD 70, and served as the principal centre for the region. 📸 My own. #RomanSiteSaturday #RomanBritain

Course Descriptions London Rare Books School courses offered

There’s something for all book-lovers at this summer’s London Rare Books School #Books
ies.sas.ac.uk/study-traini...

⚓🐬 Legendary Venetian printer Aldus Manutius died #onthisday in 1515. Pictured here is the iconic Aldine dolphin -and anchor-printer's device, associated with the adage 'festina lente' (make haste slowly).

Home after an an evening in college, to face a frenzied assault from Tomkins, the resident cat. Still grumbling now.

Herewardus expugnatus est : a multis Normanni. Much amused to see this splendid (and new) thing at Norwich Castle today. The story of Hereward the Wake, with other highlights including the Conqueror venerating the shrine of St Etheldreda at Ely.

Good to see this again today - the amazing Paston Treasure Painting at the Castle Museum in Norwich. I was involved in the big Yale book about it back in 2017.

Diagram of the path of the sun

Einsiedeln, Stiftsbibliothek, Codex 318(733); Claudianus Mamertus, De statu animarum libri tres; third quarter of the 9th century; Soissons; p.4
(www.e-codices.ch/en/list/one/...)

Excellent and excellent news!

printed sheet in latin in gothic letters

a 1482 printed indulgence with blanks to fill in your name...

Let us know when you’re over from
Dublin

I knew we had Hrabanus Maurus manuscripts that looked like this @theul.bsky.social, but no idea we had this equally amazing printed edition of 1503 highlighted by @liamsims.bsky.social. Gosh. Completely wonderful.

Still reflecting two months on about an unbelievably amazing trip to Egypt in December.

My colleague @jillwhitelock.bsky.social may be able to tell you more about the remarkable story of the university typing office in Cambridge (our Cambridge, not Cambridge, Mass), and the remarkable women who worked in it in the early 20c. Jill had led acquisitions of archival material on it.

Archaeologists and students from @cam-archaeology.bsky.social and @cambridgearch.bsky.social unearthed possible Viking remains on a training dig at Wandlebury Country Park.

🔗 https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/wandlebury-training-dig-burial?utm_medium=social&utm_source=bluesky

This image shows the interior of the Georgian Theatre Royal in Richmond, North Yorkshire. It is a Grade I listed building, described as the most important theatre in the development of the English playhouse. Built in 1788 by actor-manager Samuel Butler, it is one of the UK's oldest working theatres. The theatre maintains an authentic 18th-century country theatre atmosphere, featuring original boxes, a sunken pit, and a small gallery. The scenery shown, which is part of the theatre's collection, dates between 1818 and 1836.

Built in 1788 by actor manager Samuel Butler the Georgian Theatre Royal In Richmond Yorkshire closed in 1848. Some 115 years later it was restored and reopened 1963 before being extended in 2003. It is the most complete Georgian theatre in the country.

To escape this grey and cold February day, here’s St. Ives. Cornwall, in May ❤️ Happy daydreaming! 🥰

Just a few weeks ago I was here. Now I am in Cambridge, and it’s raining.

This is enormously interesting.

if circumstances were different I would 100% be applying for this gorgeous job — maybe you should?

The cover of Allen Seaby’s illustrated children’s book on the Alfred Jewel (London, 1947). @theulspeccoll.bsky.social 1948.7.1411.

Ripped G-Earth geometry of Bruges, showing the Belfort (R) and the Burg (former fortified castle of the Counts of Flanders) (L) with the lost church of St Donatian blocked out (Cathedral from 1599 to 1801 - the last bishop was 1794 and it seems even though the church was gone Bruges diocese wasn't abolished under the Napoleonic reforms until 1801)

View of the Burg and Grote Markt, print after an isometric map made 1561 by Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder.

took me ages but finally got a plan of the archaeology of the Burg in Bruges to find the exact spot of the Sint-Donaaskerk, raised to a cathedral in 1559 and demolished for materials 1799-1800.

Now I've got a bit ambitious and have tried to rebuild it