Cambridge UL Special Collections

This is so fun! A. F. Scholfield (presumably on the right) became University Librarian @theul.bsky.social in 1923...

Previous Gordon Duff Prize winner Dr Ruth Abbott standing outside Cambridge University Library. Dr Abbott is holding up her prize-winning essay.

Write an essay to win £500 📝

The Gordon Duff Prize is now accepting proposals on the science of books and manuscripts and the arts relating to them.

Find out more and how to enter: https://loom.ly/xZZOdOc

A woodcut of Charles I, which forms the heavily symbolic frontispiece to Eikon Basilike. We see Charles I kneeling, with light appearing to shine from his head. The crown in the upper right corner is inscribed with the words ‘beatam & aeternam’ (blessed & eternal), which is to be contrasted with the temporal crown at the King’s foot, ‘splendidam & gravem’ (splendid & heavy). He holds the martyr’s crown of thorns, ‘asperam & levem’ (bitter & light).

#OnThisDay in 1600, Charles I was born.

This highly symbolic image of Charles holding the martyr’s crown of thorns is the frontispiece to the Eikon Basilike (The Royal Portrait). Published soon after his execution in 1649, it claimed to be Charles's spiritual autobiography.

London: 1649 – CCD.8.9

Excellent new guest blog post from @jwscolley.bsky.social on "A Lost Ballad Found: Rediscovering a Jephthah Ballad in the Norton Collection". Read all about it here: specialcollections-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk?p=31034

A ghoulish end to Adam Moore’s ‘Bread for the poor: and advancement of the English nation promised by enclosure’ (London, 1653). @theulspeccoll.bsky.social Syn.7.60.216(8). #mementomori

An image of a poppy from a sixteenth century herbal book. The petals of the poppy are a soft red. There are multiple green stems with unopened buds.

In Flanders' fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

John McCrae, In Flanders' Field.

Image: Fuch's herbal (Sel.2.81)

#ArmisticeDay #RemembranceDay

Montage showing items from Cambridge University Library’s Special Collections, set out for a class.

Excellent afternoon with second-year History students at @theul.bsky.social today to look at sources for their ‘Women in Cambridge c.1900-1950’ Research Project. @theulspeccoll.bsky.social

One of our favourite student seminars of the year, looking at Venetian Sessa imprints with cats!

A week to go until the Sandars Lectures 2025 📚
Join us in celebrating archival collections in Cambridge and beyond, on 11 & 12 November 2025, 5-6pm. Online spaces still available.
Book your free tickets: https://loom.ly/Du7jSUs

Two circular handwritten labels tucked inside a book, with the captions ‘Unguentum Lapidis Calaminaris’ and ‘Tinctura Valeriana Ammoniata’.

Labels for medicine bottles? Found in a copy of William Salmon’s ‘Botanologia: the English herbal’ (London, 1710) (along with several pressed botanical specimens).

CCA.46.31 @theUL.bsky.social, formerly at the Anatomy School, Cambridge, part of the Suffolk General Hospital collection.

Skeletons for #Halloween, from the Nuremberg Chronicle (1493). About the least rare rare book in existence (we have 5 copies) but this one hand-coloured and part of a donation made in 1574 by Elizabeth I's Archbishop of Canterbury Matthew Parker. CUL Inc.0.A.7.2[888].

Pretty stonking illumination in this copy of Antonio Gazio’s ‘De conservatione sanitatis’ (Venice, 1491), executed in Padua for the Sforza family soon after publication. @theulspeccoll.bsky.social Inc.2.B.3.45[1506].

What a girl can make and do, by Lina Beard and Adelia B. Beard.

Instructions for making a frankly fabulous reading nook chair from packing boxes, upon which to stretch oneself luxuriantly.

Instructions for home-made pyrotechnics, including a Snap-fire made from " a side-steel taken from a dress-stay" to fling your firework gaily into the air. Also a Rushing Comet made from a 3" rubber ball: "How heartily you will laugh when it strikes against some object which drives it flying backward". I think these girls are really quite subversive.

In the reading room today: super 1903 book if activities for girls in which Chapter 1 is building things with a hammer and a saw. There's also making fireworks using the metal from your stays. @theulspeccoll.bsky.social 1903.7. 554

Celebrating archival collections in Cambridge and beyond, join us for the 2025 Sandars Lecture Series by Joan Winterkorn MBE.
11 & 12 November, 5-6pm.
🎟️ Book your free tickets: https://loom.ly/Du7jSUs

Good sleeve on this early manicule. In a commentary on Aristotle, Porphyrius & Boethius, printed at #Venice in 1496. At @theulspeccoll.bsky.social since 1664, part of the vast collection of Richard Holdsworth, Master of Emmanuel College Cambridge. CUL Inc.3.B.3.138[1836].

Montage showing coloured illustrations of moths and the envelope in which they’re kept. There is blue handwriting on the envelope, which might read: ‘Frohawk’s drawings [o]f Melan[istic] Leps’.

Excited to find drawings of moths by FW Frohawk (1861-1946) in the archive of biologist William Bateson @theul.bsky.social.

They’re catalogued as ‘27 drawings of Milan Leps’, but think this should be ‘Melan[istic] Leps’? Do they look right for showing melanism, #TeamMoth? MS Add. 8634/J.3 #EntHist

St Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, holding onto a chunky tome (complete with metal bosses) for dear life. In a copy of his works, printed at #Venice in 1471 by Wendelin of Speyer, one of a pair of German brothers. @theulspeccoll.bsky.social Inc.2.B.3.1b[1331].

Everyone loves a ‘Bad Lad’. @theulspeccoll.bsky.social 1930.7.2076.

Some very pointy manicules in this copy of the works of Juvenal, printed at #Venice by Antonius de Strata, de Cremona, in 1486. Love the little red sleeves! Given to @theulspeccoll.bsky.social in 1934 by Stephen Gaselee. CUL Inc.3.B.3.47b[3983].

A beautiful 1930s car next to a small aeroplane, in black and white. "The light car of today and its equivalent in the realm of travel by air."

"The robot traffic controller" also known as a traffic light. Queued up are two light cars, a cyclist, a van and a double decker bus, all mid 1930s models.

"The modern light car really is a go-anywhere vehicle!" A 1930s three-wheeler driving through a river.

"The 9 mile Guildford Bypass is due to be opened today." A single 1930s car drives on a brand new dual carriageway. The road appears to have been plonked down in a field. It is quite delightful. Now part of the A3 and rather less charming.

In the reading room today: the absolutely wonderful Light Car magazine from 1934. #TrafficLight #Aeroplane #GuildfordBypass @theulspeccoll.bsky.social L429:8.b.20

Archbishop Laud was born #OTD in 1573. This copy of Lorenzo Traversagni’s ‘Margarita Eloquentiæ’ (St Albans, 1480), was almost certainly in his personal library& went to @bodleian.ox.ac.uk after his death. It was ejected as a duplicate in 1862 & is now @theulspeccoll.bsky.social Inc.5.J.4.1[3632].

Some great side-eye from this French Angel spotted yesterday in a copy of the ‘Via recta et antiqua’ of Jonas, the ninth-century Bishop of Orléans. Printed at Douai in 1645 and now @theulspeccoll.bsky.social U*.8.149(G).

Join us for this free research talk at Cambridge University Library!

LOVE the little face in the border here, not to mention the stonking great golden initial. In Cicero’s Epistolæ ad Familiares printed ON VELLUM at #Venice by the great Nicolaus Jenson in 1471. Came to @theulspeccoll.bsky.social in 1715 from the library of John Moore, Bishop of Ely. Inc.3.B.3.2[1347]

A bookish bookplate by wood engraver Reynolds Stone (1909-79), for the Francis Holland School in Sloane Square. Collected by Will Carter (of the Rampant Lions Press) and now @theulspeccoll.bsky.social MS Add. 9830/A/5.

A lengthy hand-painted initial at the beginning of the book of Genesis. From a Bible printed at #Venice by Franz Renner (originally from the German city of Heilbronn) in 1483. Given to @theulspeccoll.bsky.social by John Charrington in 1916. CUL Inc.5.B.3.6d[1395.1].

A great visit this morning from delegates at the 'Craft, Texture, & Aesthetics of Letter Forms' conference, to visit our Historical Printing Room & see a range of materials from our collection, including John Baskerville specimens, the Kelmscott Chaucer, & woodblocks & designs by Reynolds Stone!

Some final flowers this Sunday morning. From Humbert Belhomme’s ‘Historia’ of the Abbaye de Moyenmoutier (printed at Paris in 1724) in the Vosges département of eastern France. It was founded in 671, and flourished in the 18thC until its suppression in 1790. @theulspeccoll.bsky.social VI.11.50.

Armorial bookplate of Thomas Bramston (c. 1690-1765) of Skreens, near Maldon (Essex). Student at Pembroke College Cambridge, lawyer & Tory MP for Maldon (1727-34) & Essex (1734-47). In James Ussher’s ‘Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates’ (Dublin, 1639). @theulspeccoll.bsky.social Hib.7.63.33.

LOVE this bookplate (1920s?) for Jan Van Eck. In an equally interesting book (‘Le catholicon de la Basse Germanie’), printed at ‘Cologne’ in 1731 by ‘Pierre Marteau’ - a fictitious imprint used in Northern Europe when printers wanted to evade identification. @theulspeccoll.bsky.social CCD.81.267.