My Ides of March fun fact is that the place where Caesar was stabbed is now a cat sanctuary, and I think it’s beautiful that creatures with tiny knives on their feet live there

Fully funded PhD studentship: ‘Recording nature and writing the self: time, entomology and the archive in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries’. Closes 3 May. With Ruth Abbott, Staffan Müller-Wille, Ed Turner & me. @theul.bsky.social @zoologymuseum.bsky.social www.ccc.cam.ac.uk/initiatives/...

8 Badass Librarians We Need to Celebrate This International Women’s Day lithub.com/8-badass-lib... Obras Selectas de la Celebre Monja de Mejico, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz" at PG: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/74087 #womenhistoryMonth #librarians #libraries Dorothy B. Porter

Today in Brum, and delighted to see the new blue plaque in honour of John Baskerville, whose 3000+ typographical punches are in @theul.bsky.social in Cambridge (as well as being a key figure in the Midlands Enlightenment Baskerville was also Printer to the University of Cambridge).

The brilliant Future Nostalgia project @theul.bsky.social headed by our excellent colleague Leontien Talboom! Digital and analogue preservation intertwined. It’s been great working with her in #CULconservation 💾 #DigitalHumanities

Puzzle Binding! Tricky! These are almost as rare as hen's teeth, and we just... Had One??? And, it includes HOW Many Books? (Five from Germany c. 1601 and a blank one at last count...) #Vexierbuch #DosADos @newberrylibrary.bsky.social (Case C 823 .966)

Twilight @theul.bsky.social. 📷 #photography

Crocuses spotted flowering under a hedge in Ely. 📷 #photography

This Super Bowl Sunday, I’d like to introduce you all to the magical curse bowls used in Upper Mesopotamia and Syria in late antiquity. Written in Mandaic (as here) or Syriac Aramaic, they trap demons who trespass on a household by sucking them in with spiraling spells to the center of the bowl.

A Cambridge #TheWinter10. Green alkanet, Petty spurge, Common chickweed, Red dead nettle, Shepherd’s purse, Daisy, Greater periwinkle, Red dead nettle again, White dead nettle, Green hellebore and Common field speedwell. #WildflowerHour

Snowdrops in Cambridge. 📷 #photography

A stunning architectural binding, executed in Italy in the seventeenth century. On Gaspare Visconti’s ‘De Paulo e Daria amanti’ (printed at Milan in 1495), a poem centred on the false death of a lover, not unlike Romeo & Juliet. Bought by @theulspeccoll.bsky.social in 1966 & now Inc.5.B.7.23[4467].

The old Cambridge University Library. @theul.bsky.social #AlphabetChallenge #WeekBforBooks 📷 #photography

Some book trade ephemera for the cold weather: a piece of frost fair ephemera printed on the frozen River Thames by (or for) Mrs Sarah Baker on 18 January 1715/16 and probably later pasted into a book. Part of a collection assembled by A. N. L. Munby and now @theulspeccoll.bsky.social Munby.b.131.

A few favourites from Paula Rego: Visions of English Literature @norwichcastle.bsky.social Process, proofs and prints in the beautifully renovated galleries.

See you next year @theul.bsky.social #CambridgeUniversityLibraries #WinterSolstice #YaldaNight #Midwinter

Want to join the www.codicum.eu project? 3 year PostDoct at SDU (Odense, Denmark) for an Latin expert with palaeographical as well as text and book historical skills. #Medieval #Manuscript

Two days of Heritage Science and Manuscripts @ox.ac.uk with an excellent session @bodleian.ox.ac.uk Scientists, Historians and Conservators in conversation 📚

Dark, damp, but decidedly festive 🎄 @bodleian.ox.ac.uk and @ashmoleanmuseum.bsky.social looking beautiful in the rain this evening. #UniversityOfOxford #OxfordGLAM

Autumn days in Cambridge 🍂 @theul.bsky.social @clarecollege @corpuscambridge.bsky.social looking splendid on a crisp cold day. #CambridgeUniversityLibraries

Details of a fragment from an Abbasid Qur’an 📚 Iron gall ink on perfect parchment 🐑 @theul.bsky.social MS Add.1118, 3/4th century AH/ 9/10th century CE #IslamicManuscript #CambridgeUniversityLibraries #Parchment #JummahMubarak

#ManuscriptMonday from a flying visit to Words on the Wave @nmireland.bsky.social 📚 An exquisite show with wonderful archaeological objects, but always a joy to see books at the heart of an exhibition. #NationalMuseumofIreland #IrishManuscripts #FaddenMorePsalter #KinaleBookShrine

She is holding a book! 📖 Currently writing a section on visual evidence for book use in medieval Scotland - so this could not be better timed... www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

New research may rewrite the story of the Book of Kells 📚 @tcddublin.bsky.social @tcdlibrary.bsky.social

Walnut (husk) ink in progress. #NaturalDyes #NaturalInks #PracticeBasedResearch

Day to day collaboration between #CULconservation and colleagues in #CHIL @theul.bsky.social 📚 📷

Catching up on 1920’s week in @sewingbee.bsky.social and noticed a familiar backdrop! @cam.ac.uk @caiuscollege.bsky.social

Conserved c.20 years ago, and holding up pretty well 📚🧿 @theul.bsky.social Add. 1116, fragments of a Qur’an, 9th century #CULconservation #ParchmentConservation

A fascinating treatment by #CULconservation @theul.bsky.social for Criminology #RadzinowiczLibrary 🦛 #Conservation #LibraryConservation #NotJustBooks

Fascinating discussion which begins to explore the pros and cons of lending—and transporting—irreplaceable cultural heritage collections.

Come and work with us! @theul.bsky.social 📚 #CULconservation #BookConservation @conservators.bsky.social

There’s not a walnut tree in @theul.bsky.social Dye Garden (yet) so this year’s walnut ink production is thanks to a harvest in Norfolk. #NaturalDyes #PracticeBasedResearch #MedievalPalette

Excellent coverage of this beautiful exhibition, previously @kettlesyard.bsky.social 🇵🇸 www.theguardian.com/fashion/gall...

Tyger, tyger, burning bright 🧡 Beautiful day-flying Jersey Tiger moth spotted sheltering from showers today. @britentsoc.bsky.social @savebutterflies.bsky.social #BigButterflyCount

Something for @bbka.org.uk 🐝

Week 2 of the Montefiassone Conservation Project ends with a selection of Safina made by a dedicated class of would-be Safavid binders 📚 Painted gold and stencilling embellishes leather, paper, and textile. Thank you everyone! #MonteProject2025 #Montefiascone #SafavidBinding #IslamicBookbinding

Beautiful corners of Orvieto, Umbria, visiting after class here at the Montefiascone Conservation Project. #MonteProject #BookHistory #PracticeBasedResearch

Beautiful black Hollyhock in the Dye Garden at @theul.bsky.social yesterday evening. 🖤 📷 #photography

A butterfly on the blooming safflower today in the @theul.bsky.social Dye Garden 🌱

This week, our Conservation team harvested the cornflowers from the Dye Garden. Later this summer, we will share how to turn them into traditional colour for manuscript painting. #CULConservation #CambridgeUniversityLibrary #DyeGarden #ManuscriptConservation

Clear skies and rainbow flag flying for the final day of #PrideMonth @theul.bsky.social

Almost midsummer, and almost twilight in the Dye Garden @theul.bsky.social #CULconservation #CambridgeUniversityLibrary #LibraryGardens #Midsummer #DyePlants #PracticeBasedResearch

Gold on parchment with purple accents 📚 @theul.bsky.social MS Add.2964, one juz of an Abbasid Qur’an, ninth or tenth century C.E. #QuranManuscript #CambridgeUniversityLibraries #ParchmentManuscript #AbbasidManuscript

Fab opportunity to work @bodleianlibraries.bsky.social with the excellent #BodCons team 📚

Eid Mubarak to all those marking Eid al-Adha today ✨ This beautiful Qur’an manuscript is held in a bespoke satchel. It was made in Nigeria in the 19th century, and is now part of the Royal Commonwealth Society collections @theul.bsky.social CUL ORCS.4.01 #EidMubarak #QuranManuscript

Always a pleasure to host colleagues and visitors in #CULconservation 📚 Practice-based research and Heritage Science are key to @theul.bsky.social and @hips-project.bsky.social

Library Late at the UL is back! Join us on 19 June at Cambridge University Library for a fun evening dedicated to our latest exhibition, #CuriousCures -- including board games! ⏰THURS 19 JUNE, 7.30PM TO 10PM 🎟️Book your ticket now: loom.ly/aXzD1H4

The Venerable Bede’s tomb @durhamcathedral.bsky.social

Bank holiday weekend views @theul.bsky.social

“Make you to ravel all this matter out” (Shakespeare, Hamlet, 3.4) Join us in June for a conference which showcases early career scholars working on the intersections between text, materiality & performance in commercial theatres from 1500-1800! www.sal.org.uk/event/revels/