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Zanna Van Loon @zannavanloon.bsky.social · 20d

This manuscript by Anselmus Faust, dated 1612, is the oldest surviving European manual on bookbinding. Written in Latin & Dutch, it was created for the St Bernard's Abbey near Antwerp.

What makes it especially unique is its rare dos à dos binding: 2 books bound back-to-back, sharing a single spine.

Title page of the manuscript which reads 'Beschrijvinghe ende onderwijsinghe ter discreter ende vermaerder consten des boeckbinders handwerck, hier inne te sien ende te lesen hoemen de boecken op alderhande manieren binden ende maecken sal.'

Dutch cover of the book in parchment painted in red and part of it in white sheep leather that has been blind tooled.

Detail of the edges of the manuscript painted in red and green respectively.

French cover of the book in parchment painted in green and part of it in white sheep leather that has been blind tooled.

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Rebecca Baumann @arkhamlibrarian.bsky.social · Aug 26

Rewatching Columbo and just got to the conveniently labeled “first edition” of Alice in Wonderland.

A copy of Alice in Wonderland labeled “first edition.” It is not a first edition of Alice in Wonderland

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Martine van Elk @martinevanelk.bsky.social · Aug 20

Fantastic post on the blog today by Joe Black, who discusses Lady Bindloss's booklist--evidence of what books she bought, how she ordered them from London, and even how she shelved them by color earlymodernfemalebookownership.wordpress.com/2025/08/20/l... #EarlyModern #HerBook

Lady Bindloss Buys Some Books (1676)

Of the various kinds of documents that provide evidence of book ownership in the early modern period, purchase records are among the scarcest survivals: most booklists take the form of wills, inven…

earlymodernfemalebookownership.wordpress.com

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Dr Jill Whitelock @jillwhitelock.bsky.social · Jul 17

A nice binding on this book printed in Seville, 1587. Rel.e.58.4 @theulspeccoll.bsky.social

A high decorative gold tooled binding with a Madonna and Child in the centre.

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Suzanne Karr Schmidt @drkarrschmidt.bsky.social · Jun 23

When You Love Something, Hide It Underwater?

Ireland’s Oldest Book Shrine, Found Buried in a Lake, Reemerges share.google/SwLDzqhgDTMd...

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.

share.google

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Edwina Penge @edwinapenge.bsky.social · Jun 23

Online exhibition link 👇

Medieval Love Debate at Longleat

The Belle dame sans mercy in Longleat House Manuscript (MS) 258

longleat-house-collections.shorthandstories.com

Edwina Penge @edwinapenge.bsky.social · Jun 23

Delighted to see Longleat library's project with Birmingham Uni announced. Rewarding work producing the digitised MS and collaborating with Liv to create physical & online exhibitions for general audiences. Longleat MS 258 is fascinating - do explore the online content or come visit us!

Project shines new light on famous medieval poem at Longleat House - University of Birmingham

The University of Birmingham and Longleat House have collaborated on a new project re-examining the famous medieval poem, La Belle Dame sans Mercy.

www.birmingham.ac.uk

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Elise Watson @ewatson.bsky.social · Jun 23

Yet another example of daughters‘ essential roles in bookselling families: In 1581-2, Middelburg bookseller Dierick van Helmondt repeatedly sent his daughter Janne to buy books from Plantin in Antwerp and settle his accounts (his son worked in the business too) (Museum Plantin-Moretus Arch. 60 f. 2)

Text of a ledger describing the client as 'Dierick van Helmont, libraire a Middelborch, par sa fille Janne‘

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Allie Alvis 🌷 @book-historia.bsky.social · Jun 17

I dunno, I didn’t think he was that bad

Photo of a document with the phrase “Wynkyn de Worse” in the center; this is a typo of Wynkyn de Worde, which appears correctly below

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Malcolm Walsby @lankian.bsky.social · Jun 7

For those who have not seen it, researchers at the University of St Andrews are testing a device that can identify through light the presence of arsenic in old books:

news.st-andrews.ac.uk/archive/new-...

The research poster is a great recap:
@uniofstandrews.bsky.social @universalstc.bsky.social

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claire m. l. bourne @roaringgirle.bsky.social · Jun 5

four. different. ampersands. !!!!

& they all illustrate the origin of the ampersand in the ligature of the latin conjunction “et” (“and”).

222050 • @folger.edu

A close-up of a page (from a 17c book) printed in italic type highlighting four ampersands of varying design in close proximity to each other.

222050 • Folger Shakespeare Library

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Adran Astudiaethau Gwybodaeth/Department of Information Studies @infostudiesaber.bsky.social · May 21

Did you study or work at CLW, DILS or DIS in Aberystwyth, any time from 1964 onwards? Help us celebrate 60 years with our reminiscence project, gathering memories and memorabilia. See libraryschool.aber.ac.uk to find out more. We’d love to hear from you.

Memories of CLW, DILS and DIS – Aberystwyth library schools memories

libraryschool.aber.ac.uk

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Edwina Penge @edwinapenge.bsky.social · May 12

Start the week with a dose of National Trust library history. The Book Collector's summer issue has a piece on the wonderful library at Springhill.

The Book Collector |

Home | The Book Collector an online resource for book collectors, booksellers, librarians.

www.thebookcollector.co.uk

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Katie Birkwood @girlinthe.bsky.social · May 12

ESTC is back online in a new beta version hosted by CERL: datb.cerl.org/estc/ #RareBooks #BookHistory #Skystorians #GLAM 📚📜

English Short Title Catalogue

datb.cerl.org

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Trinity College Library, Cambridge @trincolllibcam.bsky.social · Apr 22

What better way to celebrate #EarthDay than with a hand-coloured incunable? 🌎

This is Ptolemy's 'Cosmographia', from 1482, which features 32 early examples of printed maps!

Shelfmark: Grylls 2.195
lib-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/Record/90ed3...

Detail from Grylls 2.195 showing the heads of two woodcut figures labelled 'Aquilo Vel Boreas' and 'Cecias Apeliotes' respectively. They surround one corner of Ptolemy's world map.

1482 world map, printed using a woodcut block, and coloured by hand.

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Edwina Penge @edwinapenge.bsky.social · Apr 15

Interested in big house libraries? My article about the library at the National Trust's Springhill is out now: www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/lih.2025.0189 Many thanks to LIH's editors Nadine Kozak & @jilld17.bsky.social.

The big house and the book-collecting game: notes on a partial twentieth-century library dispersal | Library & Information History

The big house library in Ireland was on a precarious footing in the early twentieth century. Successive sales assisted the demise, or diminishment, of the houses’ book collections. Libraries were ofte...

www.euppublishing.com

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Emily Dourish @emilydourish.bsky.social · Apr 11

It's that Friday feeling.

The end of a printed book in which the word FINIS has been printed FINSI with the letters somewhat crooked.

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UCL Early Modern Exchanges @uclearlymodxcha.bsky.social · Apr 4

Call for Papers: ‘Built with books: shaping the shelves of the early modern library’
Deadline 16th May 2025
9 –10 September 2025 at UCL, London

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Anna-Lujz Gilbert @annalujz.bsky.social · Mar 17

For anyone interested in the early Bodleian Library or early modern book owners, the Shaping Scholarship project at CELL, UCL has made the project data available: ebdo.org.uk/data/ It details every officially recorded donation made c. 1600-1620, plus some extras, which is around 10,000 items.

Phtotograph of Bodleian Benefactors' Register, open and showing gifts of Robert Barker and William Ballow, in italic print and manuscript on parchment.

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Edwina Penge @edwinapenge.bsky.social · Mar 14

Hurry! 🏃‍♀️ It's your last weekend to catch the display of costume books from the libraries at Longleat House. Image from Mercuri's Costumes historiques (Paris: Levy fils, 1860-1861). www.longleat.co.uk/whats-on/thr...

'Noble Siennoise' plate from Mercuri's work. The depicted 14th century woman looks like she about to run.

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Suzanne Karr Schmidt @drkarrschmidt.bsky.social · Feb 26

Just keep writing, just keep writing....

15th c. Italian woodcut of Jerome and lion, pointing at a frustrated scribe.

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Jay Moschella @jaymoschella.bsky.social · Feb 21

A tiny, intensely illuminated Italian book of hours, newly acquired at the Boston Public Library. Copied in or around Brescia at the end of the 15th century, this book has never been in an institutional collection and will soon be digitized. Now BPL MS q Med.303 bpl.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S7...

The first page of Matins, with an historiated initial showing the Annunciation and a full-page border with gold architectural ornaments and putti in front of a mountainous landscape.

Four missing leaves in the Mass of the Virgin result in two adjacent historiated iniatls. On the left, the Virgin and Child, on the right, King David

Peter with book and keys at the opening of Prime

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Dr Jill Whitelock @jillwhitelock.bsky.social · Jan 21

Supercute. Conrad Gessner’s bunny, from his history of animals, the copy presented to @theul.bsky.social by Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1574. N*.1.19(A) (1551) @theulspeccoll.bsky.social

Hand-coloured printed illustration of a rabbit, with Latin text.

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Daniel Bellingradt @dbellingradt.bsky.social · Dec 16

How to organize your books in true #earlymodern style by following 3 simple steps. Here is an advice from 1504:

Step 1: lay them on top of each other.

Step 2: book spines facing up.

Step 3: Have a few boxes within your book collection.

#bookhistory #skystorians

Detail from [Gregor Reisch] AEPITOMA OMNIS PHYLOSOPHIAE ... (1504). Two men in a room with a book collection in the back.

https://sammlungen.ulb.uni-muenster.de/hd/content/zoom/6045160

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Dr Liam Sims @liamsims.bsky.social · Dec 10

‘Redublique’ [sic]

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