Cambridge UL Special Collections

Due to an unplanned maintenance issue which requires further assessment, the University Library will not be open to readers today (16th January). You can check our Service Update page: lib.cam.ac.uk/using-library/…

Our precious #Shakespeare first folio of 1623 recently underwent some conservation treatment. Read all about it in our latest blog: specialcollections-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=31272

Over 80 broadsides & slip-songs were recently added to our online catalogue by our volunteer Sofia. She talks about some of her favourites in our latest blog: specialcollections-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=31210

Excellent new guest blog post from @JWSColley 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 great visit this morning from delegates at the 'Craft, Texture, & Aesthetics of Letter Forms' conference, to visit our Historical Printing Room & see materials from our collection, including John Baskerville specimens, the Kelmscott Chaucer, & woodblocks by Reynolds Stone!

Francis Jenkinson, University Librarian at Cambridge between 1889 and 1923, was born on this day in 1853. Here he seems to have found time away from his books & entomological specimens to have fun with a well-behaved dog. @theULSpecColl Portraits.c.71.

Archbishop Matthew Parker was born #OTD in 1504. He left the bulk of his collection to @ParkerLibCCCC but in 1574 gave us 100 books, including this new edition of the Gospels in Anglo Saxon type (1571). The notes are by Abraham Wheelock, first Cambridge Prof. of Arabic. UL 1.24.9

Our latest blog features a recent acquisition: a Parisian journal, in medieval style, inspired by the 1900 Paris Exposition. Read all about it here: specialcollections-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=30510

Thanks to @OrkneyLibrary we are aware that today is #CowAppreciationDay! Our collection includes this glorious early twentieth-century book of children's poetry (marketed as 'untearable'), entitled simply 'MOO COWS'. @theUL 1907.11.60. 🐮

Our latest blog, by Munby Fellow Dr Joshua Fitzgerald, focuses on nineteenth-century efforts to translate the Bible into Nahuatl (or Mexican). Read it here! specialcollections-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=30409

Our latest blog post is by Beckett Thornber (MA Conservation Studies student @westdeancollege) who has constructed a model of a late medieval folded manuscript, inspired by an example in our Curious Cures exhibition on medieval medicine! specialcollections-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=30259&previ…

Digitised in full: cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-NN-000…

The French theologian Theodore Beza was born #OTD in 1519. In 1581 he presented us with one of our greatest treasures, the so-called Codex Bezae: a copy of the New Testament in Greek & Latin, written around the year 400 & one of the earliest surviving Biblical manuscripts.

Mumtaz Mahal, empress consort of the Mughal Empire, died #OTD in 1631. This little pamphlet (costing sixpence) was issued in 1823 to coincide with the display in London of an ivory model of the Taj Mahal, her funerary monument. @theulspeccoll Pam.5.82.155.

Curiously, Joan of Arc & Voltaire both died #OTD (1431 & 1778). Voltaire composed La Pucelle d'Orleans (the Maid of Orleans) to satirise the not yet canonised Joan & its bawdy content saw it banned across Europe. This early edition (1762) is illustrated by Gravelot. Syn.6.76.5.

It's Ascension Day, commemorating the Christian belief of the bodily ascension of Jesus into heaven. Our MS Dd.4.17, a 14th-century Book of Hours probably made in the East Midlands, has a great image of Jesus' feet about to disappear into a cloud. #ascensionday

Lovely visit yesterday from a group of Australian Jane Austen enthusiasts, who enjoyed seeing a variety of first editions, a book from Jane's own library, and a letter in her own hand. Plus, of course, 'Jane Austen in Australia'! #janeausten

In our latest blog, @ciditcharlotte talks about her engagement with a fifteenth-century manuscript of Christine de Pizan, now at Newnham College & recently digitised. specialcollections-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=30146

Beautiful botanical details inside & out in this recent acquisition from @Quaritch: Henrietta Moriarty's 'Viridarium: coloured plates of greenhouse plants' (London 1806), produced in part to free her from destitution after the early death of her dissolute husband. UL 8000.d.1621

The first #Pope Leo, known as Leo the Great, who reigned 440-461 & was the first to be buried in St Peter's Basilica. This copy of his sermons (#Venice, 1482) carries this portrait by the Pico Master, appropriately within an initial L for Laudem. CUL Inc.3.B.3.43[1499]. #popeleo