Dr Liam Sims
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liamsims.bsky.social
Dr Liam Sims
@liamsims.bsky.social
4K followers 1.3K following 1.5K posts
Rare Books Specialist @theul.bsky.social |
Hon. Secretary @bibsoc.bsky.social | Fellow @antiquaries.bsky.social | Venetophile | Bellringer | PhD on antiquarian networks in 18thC Lincolnshire (thesis linked in pinned post) 🌈
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liamsims.bsky.social
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...
liamsims.bsky.social
Ooh
awickenden.bsky.social Alice Wickenden @awickenden.bsky.social · 1d
This, by @adamwithbooks.bsky.social in the most recent HLQ, is really excellent. "Bibliography tends to drain out affect—­ but it needn’t."
Queer Failure and Early Modern Books Adam Smyth ABSTRACT This article brings together bibliography and queer theory to consider the significance of errors in early modern printed books. Particular attention is paid to the errata narratives that appear in many early modern books, explaining the presence of mistakes and often requesting that the reader correct the errors before proceeding. If bibliography has tended to be norm-setting, queer theory provides a corrective, and a more patient critical mode for considering how historians of the book and literary critics might respond to the various kinds of mistakes that were central to early print. The article builds, in particular, from recent critical work on queer bibliography by Malcolm Noble and Sarah Pyke. KEYWORDS: queer bibliography; errors; errata; history of reading; book history; Sarah Pyke; Malcolm Noble
November 25, 2025 at 12:24 PM
liamsims.bsky.social
A sixteenth-century annotator (and gloriously be-sleeved manicule) possibly quoting Augustine - ‘O admirabile sacramentum’ - in the margin of my copy of St Jerome’s ‘Epistolæ’ (Letters), printed at #Venice in 1496 by Johannes Rubeus Vercellensis.
November 24, 2025 at 9:32 PM
liamsims.bsky.social
A pleasing birthday. Lunch with a lovely friend at Emmanuel, mucho cards, then champagne, wine & lamb. Pretty blessed I’d say.
November 24, 2025 at 8:43 PM
liamsims.bsky.social
Time for some Bolly 🥂
November 24, 2025 at 5:38 PM
liamsims.bsky.social
Birthday eve! Treated deliciously by @aglmasters.bsky.social
November 23, 2025 at 9:30 PM
liamsims.bsky.social
Absolutely love this sailor, by gay Scottish artist Francis Cadell (1883-1937), an ink & watercolour on paper from 1915. According to the gallery label Cadell ‘playfully exaggerates his flirtatious charm’. Spotted at the National Gallery of Scotland last weekend.
November 23, 2025 at 9:13 AM
Reposted by Dr Liam Sims
laurajcleaver.bsky.social
How have books shaped the way we think? In January Anna Somfai will teach an online short course on books about science and philosophy in the Middle Ages. Book now 👇 #MedievalSky @ies-sas.bsky.social @warburginstitute.bsky.social @sas-news.bsky.social palaeography.uk/study/short-...
Medieval Philosophical and Scientific Manuscripts – an online short course taught by Anna Somfai
This course will run online from 14:00-17:00: Monday 26 January – Thursday 29 January 2026. The course explores medieval Western philosophical and scientific manuscripts produced over the spa…
palaeography.uk
November 21, 2025 at 10:39 AM
liamsims.bsky.social
A stunning portrait of the Scottish classical architect Sir William Bruce (c. 1630-1710) & his sexy cravat, painted in the 1660s by John Michael Wright. Bruce remodelled parts of the Palace of Holyroodhouse & designed Hopetoun House. Portrait spotted at the National Gallery of Scotland last weekend.
November 22, 2025 at 10:49 AM
Reposted by Dr Liam Sims
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Sir Anthony Weldon, A Cat May Look Upon a King (printed for William Roybould, at the Unicorn in Pauls Church-yard, 1652)
Frontispiece of a book with a portrait of James I of England and opposit, a sleepy looking cat
November 21, 2025 at 5:15 PM
liamsims.bsky.social
Birthday dinner for @aglmasters.bsky.social tonight, mostly cooked by him. Julia Child’s coq au vin, Claudia Roden’s (Med) mash with extra virgin & spring onions, & braised cabbage 🤤
November 21, 2025 at 8:46 PM
liamsims.bsky.social
😍
November 21, 2025 at 4:06 PM
liamsims.bsky.social
This is so fun! A. F. Scholfield (presumably on the right) became University Librarian @theul.bsky.social in 1923...
trincolllibcam.bsky.social Trinity College Library, Cambridge @trincolllibcam.bsky.social · 5d
Wrap up warm. This drawing (GOW/A/2/2), by J. D. Beazley of himself, A. S. F. Gow, and A. F. Scholfield, Paris, 1912, is part of a new display in the Wren library looking at the correspondence of Trinity Fellow, A.S.F Gow.
archives.trin.cam.ac.uk/index.php/pa...
#exhibition
#archive
Pencil drawing of three men wearing hats and coats.
November 21, 2025 at 12:31 PM
liamsims.bsky.social
Lovely work colleagues just accosted me with ‘happy birthday’ (for Monday) and a Colin the Caterpillar! 🎈
November 21, 2025 at 10:43 AM
Reposted by Dr Liam Sims
dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social
"I have kindly removed this superfluous cover from your speaker. Who knows why it was there? I think you will find you can hear the sounds coming out of it more clearly now. You are welcome."
Our cat Professor Charles Cardigan relaxing, whilst listening to the critically acclaimed 1972 album '666' by Aphrodite's Child.
November 21, 2025 at 9:24 AM
Reposted by Dr Liam Sims
deathbybadger.bsky.social
I am on a book hunt for

well written sex scenes between two men
written by a man

but I am coming up with the same 5 books I've already read, and tomb dust. how is this possible. (and no, I don't need a romance, I need devastating smut)
November 20, 2025 at 10:03 AM
Reposted by Dr Liam Sims
echomikeromeo.bsky.social
University of Glasgow Library has a remarkably generous visiting research fellowship scheme - come hang out with me in Glasgow! Get funded! www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/li...
University of Glasgow - MyGlasgow - Library - Research Fellows
www.gla.ac.uk
November 20, 2025 at 11:22 AM
Reposted by Dr Liam Sims
rcpmuseum.bsky.social
We are delighted to announce a virtual winter lectures for exhibition 'A body of knowledge' is open to book 👉 history.rcp.ac.uk/event/body-k...

🗓️ 6pm GMT, 9 Dec, £5
😍 Featuring a virtual exhibition tour & fascinating lectures from @awickenden.bsky.social & @samuscript.bsky.social!

#LibraryHistory
Image of an open anatomy book showing a skeleton and other books in cases in the exhibition. Open books in cases in the exhibition, the nearest book is in Arabic.
November 4, 2025 at 3:19 PM
liamsims.bsky.social
So pleased to be there last night.
bibsoc.bsky.social The Bibliographical Society @bibsoc.bsky.social · 7d
The Society’s gold medal was presented last night to Dr David Shaw, past President, in recognition of his distinguished services to bibliography, including in the Cathedral Libraries Catalogue and his many publications on French and English printing.
November 19, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Reposted by Dr Liam Sims
theul.bsky.social
#OnThisDay in 1600, Charles I was born.

This highly symbolic image of Charles holding the martyr’s crown of thorns is the frontispiece to the Eikon Basilike (The Royal Portrait). Published soon after his execution in 1649, it claimed to be Charles's spiritual autobiography.

London: 1649 – CCD.8.9
A woodcut of Charles I, which forms the heavily symbolic frontispiece to Eikon Basilike. We see Charles I kneeling, with light appearing to shine from his head. The crown in the upper right corner is inscribed with the words ‘beatam & aeternam’ (blessed & eternal), which is to be contrasted with the temporal crown at the King’s foot, ‘splendidam & gravem’ (splendid & heavy). He holds the martyr’s crown of thorns, ‘asperam & levem’ (bitter & light).
November 19, 2025 at 8:52 AM
Reposted by Dr Liam Sims
rhetorician.bsky.social
Lovely manicules in Wellcome Ms 373, recipe book of Jane Jackson
November 18, 2025 at 11:40 AM
Reposted by Dr Liam Sims
nguthrie.bsky.social
John Polidori, The Vampyre, as it first appeared in the New Monthly Magazine (1819), sold at Bonhams, London in October for £16,640 incl. premium #c18th #c18 #18thc (long)
Slim volume in contemporary calf, rebacked, gilt spine with red morocco title label, lightly rubbed. With Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein on Netfliex now and Maggie Gyllenhaal's The Bride on the way, is it time for a film version of this? Would be interesting to see a more Gothic/Romantic and less Victorian vampire, also shorn of the Hollywood trappings Last page of prefatory material and opening chapter, with attribution to Lord Byron
November 18, 2025 at 11:51 AM
Reposted by Dr Liam Sims
fesshole.bsky.social
Instead of Secret Santa, we're doing something similar but for colleagues' kids this year. I've been paired with a chap who always speaks over me. I'm getting his kids glitter and glue. I hope they love it.
November 17, 2025 at 3:20 PM
liamsims.bsky.social
Bought a book in Edinburgh I’ve been after for years but which is so scarce I’ve never seen one for sale. Evans was later the first woman President of @antiquaries.bsky.social. I have a line of Robert Herrick engraved inside my wedding ring, from his ‘A ring presented to Julia’.
November 18, 2025 at 11:05 AM
liamsims.bsky.social
Tenta-cule!
medmilmedicine.bsky.social Medieval Military Medicine @medmilmedicine.bsky.social · 9d
The arms of an octopus were used to mark specific parts of this page that were of importance or interest - 14th century, Bancroft Library, BANC MS UCB 085
November 17, 2025 at 10:37 PM
liamsims.bsky.social
A gorgeous weekend in bright sunny Edinburgh.
November 17, 2025 at 7:19 PM