William Stukeley, English antiquary, pioneered archaeological exploration of Stonehenge & Avebury sites, born #OTD 1687. Society of Antiquaries, London

Aaaaaaaargh. #traitors

One of my favourite student seminars of the year, looking at Venetian Sessa imprints wry cats @theulspeccoll.bsky.social 🐱

A hammered bronze lion’s head, made in the 8th century BCE, and spotted last week in the museum at Olympia, Greece. The eyes would have been inlaid and it was possibly attached to a votive shield or used as a building decoration.

Evening reading.

Printing historians! A student asked today the purpose of the black dots around the Aldine mark in this copy of his Dante (1502). Perhaps they’re just a way of framing it but I’ve not noticed it before. @theulspeccoll.bsky.social Young.253.

The @bibsoc.bsky.social has advertised the 2026 round of grants for bibliographical research. Do have a peek!

👀

Rescuers work to reach worker trapped in medieval tower that partially collapsed in Rome https://abc7.com/post/rescuers-work-reach-worker-trapped-medieval-building-torre-dei-conti-partially-collapsed-rome-italy/18108892/

Excited to have been elected Hon. Secretary of @bibsoc.bsky.social, doing good work to promote bookish research since 1892. Daunted to be following in the footsteps of the great A. W. Pollard (pictured in 1928), R. B. McKerrow & Mirjam Foot among others, but looking forward to new things!

Spotted you in the wild @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social! Alongside Geoffrey Munn’s display of early modern magical objects @antiquaries.bsky.social on Friday.

As part of the Fredson Bowers award from @bibsoc.bsky.social (🙏) I’ll be giving a short talk on ‘The reassembly, analysis and appraisal of John Bellingham Inglis (1780-1870): #rarebooks collector; savant; scholar; slave owner’ November 18th, 5-7pm. In person / online bibsoc.org.uk/event/panel-...

Somewhat astonishingly, here it is, a book, a thing in the world... More, including acknowledgements, soon❤️

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

I hate gay Halloween what do you mean you’re an uncataloged book someone tried to rebind with duct tape

🎃 Happy Halloween! This appropriately spooky binding comes from a sammelband of works on the guillotine, containing thirteen items on its invention, history, use, and physiological effects.

Second brandy feeding of the Christmas cake.

Now back home from a wonderful 6 days in Greece (Athens, then a 1300-km coach tour including Epidaurus, Olympia, Mycenae, Delphi & the hilltop monasteries of Meteora). This #owl is in the Acropolis Museum: made in the 4th century BC and found in the Odeion of Pericles at the SE foot of the Acropolis

Genuinely delighted to download a PhD thesis from a university repository where the author has neglected to remove the words "BITCH THIS IS YOUR THESIS" from the filename.

Less great when your washing machine packs up. Bye bye cash.

Holidays are great and all but it’s bloody lovely to get home.

Back in Athens for one more night. Time for drinks & Parthenon views. With @aglmasters.bsky.social (who took the pic).

The hilltop monasteries of Meteora today, plus a lot of cats. With @aglmasters.bsky.social

So sad to hear of the death of Prof Michael Twyman, who nurtured many budding printing historians (including me) and whose support of and contribution to typographic history is celebrated in the most recent issue of the 'PHS Journal', demonstrating the breadth of his knowledge.

Delphi this morning was astonishingly beautiful. With @aglmasters.bsky.social.

The Society is pleased to announce the publication of a new e-resource: Benjamin Wardhaugh, 'Ancient Greek Mathematics in print, 1475–1703'. This can be downloaded as a PDF file from bibsoc.org.uk/ancient-gree...

Not a bad view to wake up to in Delphi today.

The ruins of Olympia this morning, with @aglmasters.bsky.social

Archaeological museum at Olympia this morning. With @aglmasters.bsky.social

Delightful doodles of some pipe smoking Georgians found by Maddock Fellow Danielle Magnusson on the works of Ben Jonson, printed in 1616 #Readers #Epigrams

And Mycenae this afternoon. With @aglmasters.bsky.social

Epidaurus this morning! With @aglmasters.bsky.social

Another day. Another wine with the Parthenon as a backdrop 🍷

Athens cats.

Parthenon!!!

Not a bad view from our hotel bar…

Out of office on. Off to Greece with @aglmasters.bsky.social tomorrow!

Seems to be a tiny mouse (other suggestions gratefully received) hitching a ride on this fifteenth-century manicule. In a copy of Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics, printed at Barcelona c. 1473. Now @theulspeccoll.bsky.social Inc.3.H.3.3[3472].

Drop an old person you're going to turn into in the future.

How important is lighting to photographing a gravestone? Here is the same stone at 11:55 am and 12:28 pm on the same day. Raking sunlight picks out every detail in the carving (and even the texture of the stone). grave of silversmith Timothy Dwyt [Dwight] d.1692, Granary Burying Ground, Boston

One for @starcrossed2018.bsky.social. From @theulspeccoll.bsky.social 1910.8.970 (published in London, 1894).

Fucking morons

Christmas cake aficionados… My recipe (ancient) says for a 23cm cake to be done for 4 hours at 140 degrees (I’ve turned this down to 120 to account for fan). But my skewer is already coming out clean after 3h15. Should I be brave and whip it ooot or keep it in a bit longer? Top looks good.

For the first time in my life I’m making a proper Christmas cake, using my auntie’s 1985 ‘Complete Cookbook’ (her Christmas cake has never been surpassed in my experience). Wish me luck…

Annual visit to Hereford Cathedral for the library & archives advisory board meeting 📖

Lovely gesture and I sort of see the point, but he's not going to be popping in to consult books any time soon is he...?

‘The lorde is wethe the[e] this daye and ever amen’. At the back of a work by Christine de Pisan (London, 1521). @theulspeccoll.bsky.social Sel.4.38.

Yaxley-Lennon has found another chump to fund his holidays and habit. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

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].

21 nuns escape disastrous fire engulfing nearly 400-year-old Italian monastery