"2025 marks 200 years since Louis Braille invented his revolutionary 6-dot tactile writing system for blind people. Braille was also an organist, and went on to adapt his system into Braille Music, allowing blind musicians to access and study scores like never before." www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Release date is this Friday. www.facebook.com/share/r/1Cq3...

It may not look much, I know, but this seems very early for a book on music therapy.

Far from shiny. In fact, a very unglamorous binding overall. But a nice example of late 18th-century sheep on a simple Scottish pocket psalter.

Shiny.

Unused sheet from a contemporary Belgian partbook used an endpapers in a 1558 edition of Luther’s works. Currently on display in the ‘Sing Joyfully’ exhibition at Lambeth Palace Library.

Nice bit of tooling.

Out now: pre-release track from my album, The World to Me. Two weeks to full release! music.youtube.com/watch?v=13s8...

I don't know if it's due to the London Choral Sinfonia recording coming out (two weeks today...), but I've been getting a wider spread of listeners on SoundCloud recently.

Out now: simonbeattie.co.uk/wp-content/u...

Our next Bibliographical Skills Workshop is taking place at the University of Stirling, on 28 October 2025: ies.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...

It's arrived! And sounds AMAZING.

A final evening's drink in York.

Surely one of the best street names in the country. #York

Two signs within minutes of getting off the train in York. Nice to be back!

Very excited to be able to share this! Release date is 3 October.

Detail from an early brocade paper by Johann Lechner (c.1766–1839).

A Limoges plate from c.1917. One of a series of designs by the illustrator Jacques Onfroy de Breville (1858–1931), who worked under the nom de plume ‘Job’ and is best known for his children’s books.

The stalls, where I used to sing almost every day when I was at university.

That view. It's good to be back.

And the real thing.

A little 19th-century Mauchline ware notebook, complete with pencil, which sits on my desk. Looking forward to visiting in person at the weekend.

Trade card for the London bookseller–publisher Edward Withers (fl.1737–57).

A new blog post, on Rilke’s Das Marien-Leben and its publication, over the years, in English: simonbeattie.co.uk/blog/archive... In many ways, it draws together various interests of mine—old books, new music, German literature, translation—and seemed timely for Rilke's 150th anniversary.

This famous icon was painted by the great Andrei Rublev. But did you know that Rowan Williams wrote a poem about it? You can listen to my setting of the poem here: soundcloud.com/simon-42-1/o... Thanks for listening! And if you like it, please do share. #Iconic #Ekphrasis

I know, I know: the blog's been a bit quiet recently. But it's back! With Byron (and a stonker of an edition, too): simonbeattie.co.uk/blog/archive...

That moment when... you buy a book for reference, and it turns out to be the compiler's own copy.

Seems to be a good year for cherry plums.

From André Gide, Straight is the Gate, tr. Dorothy Bussy

A fine mezzotint of Paul I of Russia after a portrait by Stepan Shchukin (1754–1828), one of the greatest portrait painters of the Russian classical school, done in 1797 and engraved here by Robert Dunkarton c.1803.

I crossed the Seine at Rouen a couple of weeks ago on holiday. But English tourism to the area is well-established. Here's a pocket guide book from 1839.

An 18th-c almanac printed on green paper and bound in blue silk. I mean, come on. More details in my latest list: simonbeattie.co.uk/wp-content/u...

The hardest thing as an aspiring composer is securing performances. Georgia Mann just played Schumann's Violin Concerto on BBC Radio 3: written 1853, premiered 1937. There's hope for us all! Though I hope most of my music is premiered before I actually die... soundcloud.com/simon-42-1

Out now: simonbeattie.co.uk/wp-content/u...

I wonder if this copy of the English Hymnal actually went to Antarctica.

Granville Sharp (1735–1813) is best known as an anti-slavery campaigner, but he was also a keen amateur musician who, wonderfully, used to sign himself ‘G#’. This is the bookplate he and his brothers had for their collection of music, most of it sold at auction in 1814.

Love the subtle colouring here.

Simple but stylish.

An American account of the infamous Dreyfus trial, from 1899.

A gift from Quaritch when I left them in 2003: a bound set of the catalogues I produced when I was there.

An early ‘valentine writer’: 65 verse Valentines and Answers from which a tongue-tied Regency beau or belle could select to copy onto the reverse of the frontispiece before giving the engraving, as a Valentine’s Day card, to the object of his or her affection.

A sumptuous American gift-book edition of Byron’s works from 1855, aimed at ‘socially conscious’ women book buyers.

Following on from Bastille Day yesterday, a copy of the first edition of an account of the Terror by Jean-Baptiste Cléry (1759–1809), Louis XVI’s valet de chambre, published in London in 1798.

Nice to be interviewed by Fine Books Magazine.

Out now. Joyeux 14 juillet et bonne lecture ! www.justincroft.com/wp-content/u...