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Dr Liam Sims

@liamsims.bsky.social

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Dr Liam Sims @liamsims.bsky.social · Dec 14

My PhD thesis is now available online through the University of Leicester repository! 'Sociability, Provincial Antiquarianism and Networks of Knowledge in the Spalding Gentlemen's Society, 1710-1755'. figshare.le.ac.uk/articles/the...

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Dr Liam Sims @liamsims.bsky.social · 17h

Mrs Piozzi on what a preface should be. Quite pleasing. From her Anecdotes of Dr Johnson (London, 1786). @theulspeccoll.bsky.social Keynes.F.5.9.

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Dr Liam Sims @liamsims.bsky.social · 17h

WOW

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Cambridge University Press @universitypress.cambridge.org · 18h

Congratulations to Kate Loveman on winning the 2025 Samuel Pepys Award for her book 'The Strange History of Samuel Pepys's Diary'. 📘 🏆

Find out more about the book 🔗 https://cup.org/47hzdrI

2025 Samuel Pepys Award Winner, featuring an emblem with a quill pen and a laurel, and a portrait of Kate Loveman, author of 'The Strange History
of Samuel Pepys's Diary’.

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Reposted by Dr Liam Sims

Alison Fisk @alisonfisk.bsky.social · 5d

A 3,500 year-old Egyptian glass cosmetic jar with two little duck heads!

Glass was a relatively new material at that time, so this jar would have been a precious possession.

From Merit’s beauty case, found inside Theban tomb (TT8) of Merit and her husband Kha in 1906. 📷 Museo Egizio

#Archaeology

Museo Egizio Turin photo showing a small, dark-blue, core-formed, round glass jar which tapers in at the shoulders below the neck. It has yellow, white, and light blue festoon decoration trailed around the main body. There is a single yellow trail just below the neck of the jar. There is a dark-blue circular glass lid, the top of which is adorned with two dark-blue duck heads with yellow bills, a yellow trailed stripe on the top of each duck’s head, and indents for their eyes. The jar is displayed on a perspex (?) stand against a grey background. Glass jar dimensions: 7.6 cm x 9.6 cm.

Core-forming is one of the earliest glassmaking techniques. Glassmakers shaped the body of the vessel around a core, wound colored trails around it. They then let the vessel cool and removed the core.

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Dr Liam Sims @liamsims.bsky.social · 23h

Oooft I remember being astonished by the Durer portrait many years ago.

Reposted by Dr Liam Sims

John McCafferty @jdmccafferty.bsky.social · 1d

The pillar at Seven Dials, #London
elevation of a Doric pillar on a pedestal, with pinnacle at the top surrounded by sundials

Drawn by Edward Pierce II
1693-1694

(British Museum)

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Dr Liam Sims @liamsims.bsky.social · 1d

Passed this a couple of hours ago!

Reposted by Dr Liam Sims

Cambridge University Library @theul.bsky.social · 1d

It's #BannedBooksWeek. Over the centuries, our duty to preserve the nation’s literary output has led us to collect works of all kinds, regardless of their content.

Lady Chatterley’s Lover and Ulysses both entered our collections years before they were widely available.

A 1920s copy of James Joyce's Ulysses in a bright blue paper binding. It is held in a person's hands. We see a library setting in the background.

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Dr Liam Sims @liamsims.bsky.social · 1d

For the love of god @theguardian.com, get some gays to check your headlines

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Dr Liam Sims @liamsims.bsky.social · 1d

Nice! Ours probably came to us in the 17thC. No colour sadly but some early scribbles. @theulspeccoll.bsky.social Inc.5.F.6.2[3370]

Dr Liam Sims @liamsims.bsky.social · 1d

Corrr

Dr Liam Sims @liamsims.bsky.social · 1d

Loving this soap advert from ‘The Graphic’ (25 July 1891). @theulspeccoll.bsky.social NPR.C.53.

Reposted by Dr Liam Sims

Richard Fallon @richardfallon.bsky.social · 2d

A literary Iguanodon at the Earth Sciences Library. Do any other libraries have dinosaurs or other antediluvian creatures carved into the furniture?

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Dr Liam Sims @liamsims.bsky.social · 2d

Episcopal side-eye :)

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Dr Liam Sims @liamsims.bsky.social · 2d

Dusting their knick-knacks all the day long…

Dr Liam Sims @liamsims.bsky.social · 2d

St Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, holding onto a chunky tome (complete with metal bosses) for dear life. In a copy of his works, printed at #Venice in 1471 by Wendelin of Speyer, one of a pair of German brothers. @theulspeccoll.bsky.social Inc.2.B.3.1b[1331].

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Anna-Lujz Gilbert @annalujz.bsky.social · 2d

A submission for early modern name of the day: Jewell Sparke, who subscribed in 1712, and signed his name with added sparkle

Close up photograph of eighteenth century manuscript, showing signature of Jewell Sparke with the ink forming glittery particles

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Dr Liam Sims @liamsims.bsky.social · 3d

Can anyone spare me £7500 for this gorgeousness Abbott & Holder?

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Rhianna Pratchett @rhi.bsky.social · 3d

Dad’s books are full of empathy, common sense, and a healthy suspicion of the powerful. But at its heart his work is also about how systems keep people poor while pretending it’s their own fault. So I hope Kemi’s taking notes as well as reading the jokes.

Paul Haine @paulhaine.bsky.social · 4d

Kemi Badenoch claiming Terry Pratchett as her favourite author is wild

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Dr Liam Sims @liamsims.bsky.social · 3d

Archbishop Laud was born #OTD in 1573. This copy of Lorenzo Traversagni’s ‘Margarita Eloquentiæ’ (St Albans, 1480), was almost certainly in his personal library& went to @bodleian.ox.ac.uk after his death. It was ejected as a duplicate in 1862 & is now @theulspeccoll.bsky.social Inc.5.J.4.1[3632].

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Richard Ovenden @richove.bsky.social · 3d

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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Dr Liam Sims @liamsims.bsky.social · 3d

GASP

Dr Ian McCormick @wokestudies.bsky.social · 3d

GOOD NEWS !
"A team of musicologists has unearthed the printed score of a previously unknown Purcell song, as well as the original manuscript for various keyboard compositions."
#baroque #music
www.theguardian.com/music/2025/o...

‘Almost unheard of’: experts find more music by English composer Henry Purcell

Printed score and keyboard manuscript by Purcell, who died in 1695, unearthed in Worcestershire and Norfolk

www.theguardian.com

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James Wright @jpwarchaeology.bsky.social · 4d

Does anyone have any intel on reasonably priced city centre spaces which seat approximately 50-people located in...

1) Nottingham

2) Norwich

3) London

Historic building preferred but not essential.

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Dr Liam Sims @liamsims.bsky.social · 4d

In this case it's because some academic publishers have decided they no longer want to publish prestigious humanities journals so they're having to find other homes...

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Nix~🍉 @punklenix.bsky.social · 4d

So many things have gone sideways over the years. Careers yanked out from under me, an abusive marriage and the creeping destruction of democracy leading to the rapid spread of blatant fascism.

I get mental stability & the will to continue from doing simple things. Baking bread, canning & pickling.

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