Saturday librarian @theul.bsky.social

Fascinating world of ancient #glass: an amazing #Roman glass jug with a smaller glass jug inside – a so-called joke-jar that shows the skill of the glassmaker. Presumably made in workshop in Cologne, found in a grave in Stein am Rhein, Switzerland, 4th c. AD. 🧵1/2

Long shot, but if anyone in North #Oxford has lost a tortoise with a surprising turn of speed in the heat, do get in touch..

Did you know that we're currently working on the first large-scale redisplay of our collections in more than a century? Like our founders, we have the opportunity to reimagine what a museum can be and do: and we’re excited to bring that reimagining into reality. #MuseumReimagined

Complex gilt centrepiece on a copy of Robert Estienne’s Greek New Testament, printed at Paris in 1550. @theulspeccoll.bsky.social Ta.54.5.

An exciting project to catalogue Charles #Darwin's personal library is underway! Learn about it in our latest blog: specialcollections-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk?p=32108

OK now I need a boiled egg spoon...

Nautilus cup, c. 1550 - c. 1600 Southern Germany (Rijksmuseum)

I am *so* fascinated by the concept of the Pantheon & a state decreeing someone a national hero decades after their death. Not just an honour (OM, CH, Legion d'Honneur) given in life, but that their bodily remains are moved into a national temple. Do other countries do anything similar?

SUN! 🌞 From Jacopo Caviceo’s ‘Libro del Peregrino’ (Parma, 1513), a tale of star-crossed lovers first published in 1508 and later translated into French and Spanish. @theulspeccoll.bsky.social Tc.52.51.

Nine exceptional individuals whose achievements have made lasting contributions to the world were recognised today with honorary degrees at Oxford University’s Encaenia. Find out more ⬇️ https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2026-06-23-oxford-university-awards-honorary-degrees-at-its-annual-encaenia-ceremony

400 years ago today, a codfish was gutted at Cambridge Market. 🐟   Inside it was a tiny book containing Protestant texts from the early years of the English Reformation.   Was this a providential message from God, a piece of political propaganda or an elaborate hoax? Music by Julius H. from Pixabay

An appropriately ☀️ gym bop today

The village Facebook group cracks me up sometimes 😂

Edvard Munch, The Sun

There’s a couple on my train with a massive prawn platter in their baggage 😬😳

With Dad, aged ten months. #fathersday

My nine year old asked for a Rosetta Stone cake for his birthday

A pleasingly complex gilt centrepiece on a copy of William Camden’s ‘Britain, or, A chorographicall description of the most flourishing kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the Islands adjoyning, out of the depth of antiquitie’ (London, 1637). @theulspeccoll.bsky.social Adams.3.63.7.

Robert Lowe (1811-92), Chancellor of the Exchequer under Gladstone & the first MP for the University of London (1868-80). He also had #albinism & suffered with his sight. Portrait spotted at Senate House on Monday.

Watching.

The engraver, calligrapher & teacher of arithmetic Edward Cocker (1631-76), with the tools of his trade. From an edition of ‘Cocker’s Arithmetick’ (London, c. 1725) in the collection of Victorian astronomer John Couch Adams @theulspeccoll.bsky.social Adams.8.67.25.

😭

Gym bop 💪

My job for this afternoon: guarding Gutenberg.

Not quite sure what the figures on this bookplate are upto. Bookplate of one Jos. Joh. Oberhueber (1745-1824) in a devotional work printed at Nuremberg in 1507 & now @theulspeccoll.bsky.social Rel.c.50.4.

🟦 BREAKING NEWS 🚨 | The £400m new London Museum at Smithfield Market will open to the public on Saturday 28 November

Died (alas!) on this day in 1464, in Brussels, the incomparable painter Rogier van der Weyden. Here, himself, in a detail from a tapestry after his design.

It’s alive!

What a wonderful project here at Cambridge aiming to understand John Ray’s garden. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Tomorrow evening I'm speaking for Peterborough Cathedral about the destruction of the medieval library of Peterborough Abbey, and 18th-century attempts to recover it

Three Lions #England #WorldCup 🏳️‍🌈⚽

Come on, Gland.

The disarray of the books in this woodcut makes me anxious. From Cicero’s ‘Tusculanae quaestiones’, printed at #Venice in 1516. This copy came to England in the sixteenth century and was in @theulspeccoll.bsky.social by 1715. Shelfmark L.15.18.

We're starting a journal! We're looking for ideas for pieces that we can fold into the proposal that will go to an interested press, with the hope that if the press take the journal on we'll starting publishing in 2028. #smellstudies #sensorystudies #smellhistory #smells

We are very sad to announce the death, after a short illness, of our colleague Professor Rosamond McKitterick, Professor Emerita of Medieval History and Emerita Fellow of @sidneysussex.bsky.social (31 May 1949 – 13 June 2026). Colleagues and students pay tribute: www.hist.cam.ac.uk/news/profess...

Stunning

Mighty Odysseus @theul.bsky.social

Just got my tickets for the Bayeux Tapestry at the BM. I didn't bother when booking opened yesterday, people reported the site crashing and three hour waits! Overnight the BM has designed an entirely new interface, and it took me just 30 seconds to book two tickets. Looking forward to it!

This first edition of Oscar Wilde’s The Happy Prince contains the story of a secret love affair... 📖The Happy Prince: and other tales by Oscar Wilde illustrated by Walter Crane and Jacomb Hood, 1888. (Keynes.X.6.3) #LGBTQ+ #PrideMonth #RareBooks #CambridgeUniversityLibrary

Some lush metalwork in the Skinners Arms (Judd Street, near King’s Cross) yesterday

Curiosity, history and community. That’s the Cambridge spirit behind our 2026 #LGBTQ+ #PrideMonth book display! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🫶 Find it in the South Reading Room throughout June.

Spent four hours moving from place 7500 to place 1 only to end up with this haha.

Members' booking for the Bayeux tapestry exhibition is moving at a glacial pace. I've moved forward about 1500 places in the queue in 1h15m so at this rate I'm unlikely to get through before I have to go home at 5.30...

A teeny little sharply carved toothy skull hanging around at St Mary's and All Saints, Hawksworth. #MementoMoriMonday

And Bluesky, which was *not* banned

Quite nice eighteenth-century tooling on this label for one of the handwritten shelf lists to the Dd* class @theulspeccoll.bsky.social.

In the spirit of our founders, who came together to share knowledge and discoveries, we love uncovering new finds! When we analysed an archive document using a light box recently, we came across a previously undetected image. The outline of a unicorn (a maker's mark) was revealed.

The ammonite lampposts of Lyme Regis.