Dr Mark Purcell
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camlibresearch.bsky.social
Dr Mark Purcell
@camlibresearch.bsky.social
4.1K followers 980 following 560 posts
Director, Research and Collections, Cambridge University Library and CUL Research Institute; Bye-Fellow, Pembroke College; FSA FRHistS; University Deputy Proctor; The Country House Library (Yale, 2017); private views
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Reposted by Dr Mark Purcell
hedgehoggrl.bsky.social
The stunning ceiling of the library at Château de Fontainebleau.

#PhotographersOfBluesky #EastCoastKin #AlphabetChallenge #WeekBforBooks
#Stunday #CeilingsOnSunday #SilentSunday
A long gallery lined with bookcases under an arched ceiling covered with ornate, gold trimmed panels featuring classical paintings. On the floor in the foreground is a large globe in a wooden stand.
January 18, 2026 at 12:43 PM
Reposted by Dr Mark Purcell
crems-york.bsky.social
🚨 Two @rarebookschool.bsky.social courses coming to York in July!
@wordsmith.bsky.social 'The Culture & Craft of Wood Type' & @jenniebatchelor.bsky.social 'The Rise of Periodical Print Culture'
rarebookschool.org/courses/typo...
rarebookschool.org/courses/hist...
🗃️ #bookhistory #earlymodern #18thC
The Culture & Craft of Wood Type | Rare Book School
Course Length: 30 hours Course Week: 12–17 July 2026 Format: in person, York, UK Fee: $1,495 This course offers an in-depth engagement with the culture and craft of wood type, with a core focus on the...
rarebookschool.org
January 22, 2026 at 1:22 PM
camlibresearch.bsky.social
Dossier of press clippings at the Grolier Club - and learning of a direct link between the sale of two unique Caxtons from York Minster (now Morgan Library) and the foundation of @thefnl.bsky.social - news of sales broken in Times, 18 March 1931; FNL announced in Times, 21 March 1931. Fascinating.
January 22, 2026 at 7:46 PM
Reposted by Dr Mark Purcell
royalhistsoc.org
PhD funding for early career historians completing a doctorate.

Applications are invited for the Society's Centenary PhD Fellowships for the academic year 2026-27 bit.ly/49MzqmT.

Two awards of £8500 per student, held jointly with @ihr.bsky.social. Closing date: 31 January 2026 #Skystorians
Call for Royal Historical Society PhD funding with text: The Royal Historical Society offers two annual PhD Fellowships for postgraduate historians in their third year of research at a university in the UK or overseas in order to complete a doctorate. The Fellowships comprise: Two RHS Centenary Fellowships: each Centenary Fellowship runs for 6-months and is worth £8,500 for final-year PhD students to complete their dissertations and to develop their research career. All Fellowships are open to candidates without regard to nationality or academic affiliation. They are jointly held with the Institute of Historical Research (IHR), University of London, where Fellows are based.
January 22, 2026 at 8:47 AM
Reposted by Dr Mark Purcell
jdmccafferty.bsky.social
Winter landscape with a bird trap, 1601 Pieter Bruegel the Elder (Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien)
January 21, 2026 at 10:45 PM
camlibresearch.bsky.social
Intrigued as always to see this at the Grolier Club. It’s a library catalogue for the 2nd Earl Spencer’s library at Althorp, now Grolier Club, New York. Another one went to @thejohnrylands.bsky.social along with the books in 1894. This was the travelling version, for book buying trips across Europe.
January 22, 2026 at 4:03 PM
camlibresearch.bsky.social
Always good to see …
January 22, 2026 at 3:58 PM
Reposted by Dr Mark Purcell
theul.bsky.social
Today marks 125 years since the death of Queen Victoria.

Victoria died at Osborne House, on the Isle of Wight, on 22 January 1901. This fascinating selection of press clippings shows the reaction across Europe.

British Colonial & Foreign Press Cutting Agency (Syn.2.90.7-8).
A French newspaper clipping reporting the death of Queen Victoria. We see a drawing of Victoria in her later years and the headline: "Mort de la Reine D'Angleterre". A Swedish newspaper clipping reporting the death of Queen Victoria. We see a drawing of Victoria in her later years and the headline: "Drottning Victoria". A Portuguese newspaper clipping reporting the death of Queen Victoria. We see a drawing of Victoria in her later years, surrounded by smaller pictures of her younger years. A Greek newspaper clipping reporting the death of Queen Victoria. We see a drawing of Victoria in her younger and later years, and the music for a song.
January 22, 2026 at 3:54 PM
camlibresearch.bsky.social
Back at the Grolier Club, New York City.
January 22, 2026 at 3:57 PM
Reposted by Dr Mark Purcell
bendorgrosvenor.bsky.social
Some breaking art historical news for you - a lost portrait of Robert Burns by Sir Henry Raeburn was unveiled today at the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh. It’s been missing for more than 200 years.
1/3
January 22, 2026 at 2:36 PM
Reposted by Dr Mark Purcell
historians.org
AHA members: The AHA is accepting applications for the 2026-27 research grants until February 15, 2026. Preference will be given to advanced doctoral students, nontenured faculty, and unaffiliated scholars and to those with specific research needs. 🗃️
Grants & Fellowships - AHA
AHA Research Grants Grants may be used for travel to a library or archive; microfilming, photography, or photocopying; hiring a researcher; borrowing or access fees; and similar research expenses-a li...
www.historians.org
January 20, 2026 at 6:07 PM
Reposted by Dr Mark Purcell
zannavanloon.bsky.social
Who's a good boy?

Detail of a dog on a 16th-century blind-tooled leather binding.

#earlymodern #bookhistory #rarebooks 💙📚📜
Close-up of the blind-tooled stamp of a dog with his tail up and mouth open. The decoration is part of a roll stamped border on a brown leather cover.
January 21, 2026 at 1:27 PM
Reposted by Dr Mark Purcell
trincolllibcam.bsky.social
This is squirrel is going somewhere. Click here to find out where: mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/Manuscript/B...
B.11.22 is a 13th/14th c. Book of Hours bursting with beautiful and amusing illustrations.
#squirrelappreciationday
a painting of a red squirrel climbing a rope.
January 21, 2026 at 12:16 PM
Reposted by Dr Mark Purcell
apollo-magazine.com
‘A building doesn’t have to be gracious, or even functional, to be special.’ Will Wiles has a soft spot for James Stirling’s History Faculty Building in Cambridge
In defence of James Stirling’s ‘unromantic castle’
The History Faculty Building in Cambridge, completed in 1968, is hard to love. But love it this former student does, writes Will Wiles
buff.ly
January 21, 2026 at 12:00 AM
Reposted by Dr Mark Purcell
uknatarcsector.bsky.social
Keen to join the Archive Service Accreditation Committee and influence expectations about how an effective archive service performs?

🚨Applications close in just three days’ time: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/archives-sec...
Two people stand in the corridor of a repository looking through a series of black and white photographs.
January 20, 2026 at 1:11 PM
Reposted by Dr Mark Purcell
alicemarples.bsky.social
Our latest PhD Placement opportunities - come and work at the British Library for 3-6 months to develop your research and professional skills. 8 projects available, deadline for applications 27 February.

www.bl.uk/services/res...
PhD placement scheme
Our annual placement scheme offers doctoral researchers from all disciplines the chance to develop and apply skills and expertise outside the university sector.
www.bl.uk
January 20, 2026 at 2:16 PM
camlibresearch.bsky.social
Patience and Fortitude. It’s so cold that I’m running out of both.
January 20, 2026 at 7:09 PM
camlibresearch.bsky.social
Back in the Gilded Age.
January 20, 2026 at 4:51 PM
Reposted by Dr Mark Purcell
karina42.bsky.social
Exhibition | Savonnerie Carpets of Louis XIV enfilade18thc.com/2026/01/18/e...
#C17th #materialculture #earlymodern
Exhibition | Savonnerie Carpets of Louis XIV
Opening soon (for just one week) at the Grand Palais: Le Trésor Retrouvé du Roi-Soleil / The Rediscovered Treasure of the Sun King Grand Palais, Paris, 1–8 February 2026 Curated by Wolf Burchard, E…
enfilade18thc.com
January 20, 2026 at 2:54 PM
Reposted by Dr Mark Purcell
myriahwilliams.bsky.social
Thinking more about these doodles, the angle might suggest that if they were drawn by outlining a thumb or finger, it was the thumb/finger of a right hand. Was Eadburg a lefty?
Drypoint doodles of three people in the bottom margin of a manuscript page. The composite image is the work of Jessica Hendy-Hodgkinson and is part of figure 2 in her article "The Acts of Eadburg: drypoint additionsto Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Seldon Supra 30" Early Medieval Europe (2026).
January 19, 2026 at 11:03 PM
Reposted by Dr Mark Purcell
politicdormouse.bsky.social
Dr. Gladys West, US mathematician has died age 95. Known for her contributions to mathematical modeling of the shape of the Earth, and on the development of satellite geodesy models, later incorporated into GPS. #RIP en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladys_...
Dr. Gladys West is inducted into the Air Force Space and Missile Pioneers Hall of Fame during a ceremony in her honor at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., Dec. 6, 2018. West was among the so-called "Hidden Figures" part of the team who did computing for the U.S. military in the era before electronic systems.(Photo by Adrian Cadiz)
January 19, 2026 at 10:58 PM
Reposted by Dr Mark Purcell
katiedflanagan.bsky.social
Evening Minster
January 19, 2026 at 7:11 PM
camlibresearch.bsky.social
A most wonderful squirrel from @theul.bsky.social
jillwhitelock.bsky.social Dr Jill Whitelock @jillwhitelock.bsky.social · 5d
Seventeenth-century squirrel, looks like it’s eating a little nut. On an embroidered binding from a 1641 psalter, SSS.34.27 @theul.bsky.social.
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekBforBooks 📷 #photography
A squirrel on an old embroidered book binding.
January 19, 2026 at 7:15 PM
camlibresearch.bsky.social
Walking in the cold and snow.
January 19, 2026 at 7:13 PM
camlibresearch.bsky.social
Amiable exchanges with @nelsonrarebooks.com reminds me to ask - who else is in New York for Bib Week? Bib Week is a great moment to meet up with imaginary friends from social media. I’m staying on East 55th, so not far from the Grolier Club.
January 19, 2026 at 12:24 AM