Bob MacLean
@bobmaclean.bsky.social
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📥 478
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Assistant Librarian (rare books), University of Glasgow Library Archives and Special Collections
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Bob MacLean
Ben Gross
3 days ago
The most exciting
#BookHistory
talk of the season is coming up next week! Join us
@ransomcenter.bsky.social
or online as Ann Blair delivers the 2026 Pforzheimer lecture. This talk has Erasmus, Gessner, and volumes both large &small! Learn more:
www.eventbrite.com/e/pforzheime...
#booksky
🗃️📜📚
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Back to work! Happy New Year, all!
13 days ago
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Adam Smyth
18 days ago
On reading both sides of a piece of paper: a mini essay
adamsmyth.substack.com/p/bothsidesi...
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Heather Froehlich
19 days ago
“The tell isn’t that fake citations look wrong. It’s that they look too right. Too convenient. Too perfectly aligned with whatever point the AI is making“
open.substack.com/pub/cardcata...
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How to Spot AI Hallucinations Like a Reference Librarian
The verification tricks that would make fact-checkers weep with joy.
https://open.substack.com/pub/cardcatalogforlife/p/how-to-spot-ai-hallucinations-like?r=6rd&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
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Bob MacLean
Sonja Drimmer
about 1 month ago
Books = amazing tech. Here's an offertory book recording donations on shabbat. To heed the prohibition on writing during sabbath the page has a grid with holes that correspond to an amount. Thread goes thru the hole pledged; when paid, thread comes out.
jewishmuseum.org.uk/50-objects/c...
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Bob MacLean
Dr David Rundle
about 1 month ago
Palaeographers: you definitely should consider applying to this illustrious fund:
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Bob MacLean
History of Parliament
about 1 month ago
Following on from his article on Peter McLagan, Scotland's first Black MP, Dr Martin Spychal has explored the life of his father, Peter McLagan senior, and his ownership of enslaved people in Demerara (modern-day Guyana):
historyofparliament.com/2025/12/11/p...
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Peter McLagan senior (1774-1860): enslaver, plantation owner and landed proprietor - The History of Parliament
Dr Martin Spychal explores the life of Peter McLagan senior (1774-1860). A farmer’s son from Perthshire, McLagan senior acquired considerable wealth as an enslaver and plantation owner in Demerara…
https://historyofparliament.com/2025/12/11/peter-mclagan-senior-1774-1860/
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Bob MacLean
Ben Gross
about 1 month ago
"There seems a love in hair, though it be dead. It is the gentlest, yet the strongest, thread of our frail plant..." -Leigh Hunt, "On a Lock of Milton's Hair" (The author of
#ParadiseLost
was born
#OnThisDay
in 1608.) (More on Hunt's hair collection:
sites.utexas.edu/ransomcenter...
)
#poetry
🗃️📜
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Bob MacLean
John McCafferty
about 1 month ago
A Book Peddler Master of the Canesso Peddler ca. 1670–90 (Met Museum)
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Bob MacLean
Rebekah Higgitt
about 2 months ago
This is such a sad story! An important collection that had been sent for digitisation (though why from Kent to Scotland, I'm not sure) 📜
www.bbc.com/news/article...
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Museum staff 'devastated' after drawings worth £500,000 destroyed
About 1,700 military drawings from the Royal Engineers Museum were destroyed in the theft last month.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy8jeme3k2eo
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Delighted to see this published. It was very rewarding and worthwhile collaborating with you on this Matthew, well done 👍
add a skeleton here at some point
about 2 months ago
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Bob MacLean
Dr Liam Sims
2 months ago
A wonderfully elaborate binding for Mrs Elizabeth Colles, from the early seventeenth century. It contains three linguistic works, including Thomas Thomas’s Dictionary (Cambridge, 1610).
@theulspeccoll.bsky.social
Rel.d.61.2.
#herbook
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Whitney Trettien
2 months ago
Holy shit, just learned about the typewriter art of Montserrat Alberich Escardívol, a Catalan typist. Using an extra wide typewriter and 180 color ribbons, she built up elaborate images from simple characters like 'm' and '.' and ';'. Here is her typewritten painting of the Cathedral of Barcelona.
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Daniel Cook
2 months ago
Meanwhile, on Zoopla: one of Sir Walter Scott’s former properties is on the market…
www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/det...
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Bob MacLean
Adrian Streete
3 months ago
A wee bit of news.
news.sky.com/story/fascin...
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'Fascinating' personal library of 'forgotten scholar' rediscovered
It is hoped that Zachary Boyd's collection at the University of Glasgow will help shed light on 17th century Scotland and a tumultuous time in European history.
https://news.sky.com/story/fascinating-personal-library-of-forgotten-scholar-rediscovered-13450450
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Bob MacLean
Lynne M. Thomas 🏳️🌈🚀🦄 📜
3 months ago
This talk will be recorded! It will be posted on our YouTube page once we have a chance to caption it. That can take a few weeks.
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Bob MacLean
UofGNews
3 months ago
Zachary Boyd (1585–1653) was a minister, poet &
@uofglasgow.bsky.social
academic who lived through one of Scotland’s most turbulent times. Now his library has been brought together for the 1st time in more than 370 years by UofG's Prof Adrian Streete 📸Martin Shields
gla.ac.uk/news/headlin...
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Bob MacLean
Richard Ovenden
3 months ago
MLGB is back!! Delighted that Medieval Libraries of Great Britain
@bodleian.ox.ac.uk
is now back online. We are also working had on plans for the next phase of the resource, enhancing & adding data & functionality. HUGE thanks to my colleagues for their hard & clever work
mlgb.bodleian.ox.ac.uk
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Peadar Ó Muircheartaigh
5 months ago
'Diasporic documents from the Gaelic Atlantic' - a one-day, in-person workshop at the University of Edinburgh on 5 September. Tuilleadh fiosrachaidh | More information 👇
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Bob MacLean
Robert Fergusson (1750-74)
5 months ago
We're very excited to announce that our wonderful exhibition 'Celebrating the Scottish Poet, Robert Fergusson (1750-1774)' with the Mitchell Library, Glasgow, has been turned into an online exhibition! Check it out at the link below:
robert-fergusson.glasgow.ac.uk/online-exhib...
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Bob MacLean
John Gallagher
5 months ago
Any early modern Protestantism people know anything about the preacher William Holbrook? He preached at Paul's Cross in 1609 and a couple of his sermons (that one, published as Love's Complaint; one to the Blacksmiths and one at St Botolph's without Aldersgate) made it into print.
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Bob MacLean
Beth DeBold
5 months ago
Although how a 17th century noblewoman shelved her books shouldn't have any bearing on how an individual chooses to arrange their personal library, it IS satisfying to see all the anti-shelving-by-colour snobs have to eat this
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Rhona Brown
5 months ago
The new Scottish Literary Review is out on Project Muse! A Special Issue, guest edited by Gioia Angeletti and Marina Dossena, it features articles on Early Modern ScotLit, Mary, Queen of Scots, Scottish Picturebooks, migration writings and drama. You can access it here:
muse.jhu.edu/issue/55288
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Bob MacLean
Isla H. Macfarlane
6 months ago
Very exciting to see
@physiciansgallery.bsky.social
's The People's Dispensary published online! I loved working on this project a few years ago — sometimes I can still see Dr Andrew Duncan's handwriting when I close my eyes...
www.rcpe.ac.uk/peoplesdispe...
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The People's Dispensary
https://www.rcpe.ac.uk/peoplesdispensary/index.html
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Bob MacLean
Dani Garavelli
6 months ago
This is so niche I can't believe I am asking, but does anyone know anyone who might be an expert in Protestantism in Italy during the Reformation? (Stranger things have happened). RTs welcome.
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Bob MacLean
Dr Liam Sims
7 months ago
DR LIGHTFOOTSOOO OOWORKESOO VOL. 1 OOOOO Spotted this week
@queenslibcam.bsky.social
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Bob MacLean
Suzanne Karr Schmidt
7 months ago
When You Love Something, Hide It Underwater? Ireland’s Oldest Book Shrine, Found Buried in a Lake, Reemerges
share.google/SwLDzqhgDTMd...
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Ireland's Oldest Book Shrine Makes Its Museum Debut | Artnet News
After a 39-year conservation process, the Lough Kinale Book Shrine is on view at the National Museum of Ireland.
https://share.google/SwLDzqhgDTMdYiZkt
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Bob MacLean
Suzanne Karr Schmidt
7 months ago
Virgin of the Immaculate Copperplate? This glowing 17th c. Spanish painting of the Virgin Mary on loan from the Hispanic Society of America to a wonderful Milwaukee Museum of Art exhibition is painted on one side and gloriously engraved on the other....
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Bob MacLean
Melissa Terras
7 months ago
Hurrah! My next book is instantiated, and in-the-world! Library Catalogues As Data: Research, Practice, Usage. Edited with Paul Gooding and
@semames.bsky.social
. Proud of this one! Official publication date soon…
www.facetpublishing.co.uk/page/detail/...
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Bob MacLean
This Is My Glasgow
7 months ago
Relief sculpture of the 19th Century temperance campaigner William Collins on Glasgow Green, to which someone has added the remains of a hand-rolled 'cigarette'. Cont./
#glasgow
#keepglasgowweird
#statue
#publicart
#peoplemakeglasgow
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Bob MacLean
Steven Van Impe
7 months ago
#PrintedEphemera
#BookHistory
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Bob MacLean
Dr Francis Young
7 months ago
*Confused historians of early modern medicine wake up to find themselves experts on current affairs*
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Dr Emma Nuding
7 months ago
A Tudor manuscript of a medieval poem collected by 18th antiquaries which ended up in a medieval university - a thrilling tale of medieval culture & its reception 😃 Thanks to
@bobmaclean.bsky.social
& the ASC team for facilitating 💫 /fin 🧵
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Bob MacLean
Dr Emma Nuding
7 months ago
It was the the elaborate initials (famously hiding an acrostic revealing the author's name, John Clerk of Whalley) and marginalia from later readers which occupied my attention this week 📝 2/3 🧵
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Bob MacLean
Dr Emma Nuding
7 months ago
A delight this week to make the aquaintance of this 1540s ms (Glasgow UL Hunter 388), the single surviving witness to the ME alliterative Romance, The Destruction of Troy (c. 1400), as part of my visiting fellowship at the University of Glasgow Library 📚 1/3 🧵
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Bob MacLean
Association for Scottish Literature
7 months ago
Tom Leonard’s 1984 poetry collection INTIMATE VOICES was banned by Scotland’s Central Region school libraries in 1984. The Education Committee said “There are some harmful words in it… Sometimes the naked truth has to be clothed” But Leonard had anticipated this sort of reaction…
#BookWormSat
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Bob MacLean
Consortium of European Research Libraries (CERL)
7 months ago
CERL - Consortium of European Research Libraries - is now on Blue Sky. Our mission is to connect European book heritage with the world. Expect to see news on rare books, manuscripts and events from our community.
www.cerl.org
Give us a follow!
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Supporting Europe's written heritage [CERL]
https://www.cerl.org
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Bob MacLean
Early Modern How-to Books
7 months ago
Last month the Scottish 🏴 and German 🇩🇪 sides of our project met in Glasgow. In our latest blog post, Alina Lange reports on a successful trip 👇
howtobook.hypotheses.org/3851
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Bob MacLean
Adam Sharp
8 months ago
I also love this desire path comic by Chaz Hutton (instachaaz on instagram) that demonstrates that we may attempt to deny our nature, but we will always ultimately be meanderthals
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Dr Nicole Volmering
8 months ago
📢 Clear your calendars! 🗓 On June 16th I'm hosting a day of talks on the Irish manuscripts in St Gall! The stellar line-up includes special guests from the Stiftsbibliothek. Tickets are free! Reserve here 👉
stgallmanuscripts.eventbrite.ie
@historytcd.bsky.social
@researchireland.ie
#medievalsky
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The Irish Manuscripts in St Gall - A Day of Public Lectures
Join us for a day of fascinating public lectures on The Irish Manuscripts in St Gall - a must-attend event for history buffs!
https://stgallmanuscripts.eventbrite.ie
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Bob MacLean
Helen Smith
8 months ago
A contributor has had to withdraw from something I'm editing, late in the day. I'm looking for a sprightly 10,000 book historical words on the broad theme of 'consumers/consumption' and the period 1450-1650 (not necessarily all of it).
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Harry Spillane
8 months ago
Do come along on May 28th to hear all about Francis Fry, his bibles, and a little bit about his chocolate...which you might even get to try🍫 The fruits of my Munby Fellowship research
@theul.bsky.social
@theulspeccoll.bsky.social
@darwincollegecam.bsky.social
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The latest offering from
@howtobooks.bsky.social
—
howtobook.hypotheses.org/3784
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How to Find Traces of Use in Old Books. At Venerable Shelves in Wolfenbüttel
In an age when books are categorized on Amazon by their condition — ‘like new,’ ‘good,’ ‘with minor signs of wear’ – blemishes seem to be considered a flaw. But what if these very traces are the real ...
https://howtobook.hypotheses.org/3784
8 months ago
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A 75% staff cut proposed at the Archives and Special Collections at Bangor University
eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...
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Sign the Petition
SAVE YOUR ARCHIVE / ACHUBWCH EICH ARCHIFDY
https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchng.it%2FRSxPQMnz5c&data=05%7C02%7CRobert.MacLean%40glasgow.ac.uk%7C6ae5d5a996ca4e6f2def08dd96b387cb%7C6e725c29763a4f5081f22e254f0133c8%7C1%7C0%7C638832419988838955%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=M0bKG9RSuq2sNsCfwORGo%2BQVWn%2FBHrkxgrUAG0oLDEE%3D&reserved=0
8 months ago
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Toadskin onlays. That’s a new one on me!
add a skeleton here at some point
8 months ago
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Alarm set for 5am, boots laced, Harry Potter fans elbowed out of the way, and now mooching up Glenfinnan, heading for the two Munros up here. This is the way to pass a Tuesday…
8 months ago
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Bob MacLean
Liesbeth Corens
10 months ago
oh, Edinburgh! Please go and beam very enthusiastically at Alex Walsham when she's giving the Gifford lectures in May! She's talking about Motion & Emotion in
#EarlyModern
Christianity, and is bound to be brilliant. Blurb and booking here:
cahss.ed.ac.uk/20242025-pro...
#SkyStorians
#EarlyModern
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Bob MacLean
Sonja Drimmer
9 months ago
Prayer books in the Middle Ages & early modern period were used by people over generations. Personal objects, they are commonly the site where ppl left notes about important events, as here, in a late 15th- or early 16thC hand which wrote in the November calendar page , "My Moder departed to God."
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Peadar Ó Muircheartaigh
9 months ago
Next week at the Barbados Museum and Historical Society (and on zoom), speaking on a Scottish
#Gaelic
poet and writer active in the
#Caribbean
in the early 1800s, but mostly about three generations of
#Bajan
women in his family, from the 18th to the 20th century!
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