Dr Liam Sims

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...

🪰 The binding of a book printed at Paris in 1516. @theulspeccoll.bsky.social Acton.a.sel.18.

Spotted in the printing room @theulspeccoll.bsky.social

Printed label & inscription (‘propriety is the ground of all comfort’) of one Joshua Hotchkis. Possibly the student of St John’s Cambridge in the 1720s, later a Canon of St Paul’s & Master of the Charterhouse School. In a volume of 1650s religious pamphlets @theulspeccoll.bsky.social (E.12.65).

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Christmas cake day! Ready to be fed with brandy for the next eight weeks.

Bookish woodcut of the Paduan physician Pietro da Montagnana in his study. Medical books sit above (Hippocrates, Galen, Avicenna) & in the cupboard below are books with clasps & bosses. In the Fasciculus medicinae (#Venice, 1500) of Johannes de Ketham. @theulspeccoll.bsky.social Inc.3.B.3.45[1519].

This is a fragment of a colossal bust of Alexander the Great. It stands 58cm high. Whilst the sculpture is severely damaged, what survives is striking in its masterful rendering of the human face. For me, the clean oblique cut also lends a feel of a modern art piece. 🕰️C2nd BC 🏛️📷Pergamon Museum

Never forget.

Watching ‘From Russia With Love’ 👀

Can't believe it'll have been two years soon! I'd love to reach 20% of my fundraising goal by then 🏳️‍⚧️ canopyrobin.etsy.com

The large armorial engraved bookplate of the antiquary John le Neve (1679-1741). In a manuscript volume of obituary notices for eminent persons dying between 1600 and 1677, begun by Le Neve in October 1717. Now @theulspeccoll.bsky.social MS Add. 97.

I don't think that it's been sufficiently advertised, so I'll draw attention to a nice little display of Psalters in the public area, Blackwell Hall, of the Bodleian's Weston Library. Manuscripts and printed books (incl. a Bay Psalm Book), in Hebrew, Latin, Middle English, English ...

Lovely visit to the St Bride Library today!

Of cool recess, o'er which the mantling vine Lays forth her purple grape, and gently creeps Luxuriant; mean while murmuring waters fall Down the slope hills, dispersed, or in a lake, That to the fringed bank with myrtle crowned IV, 258-262

Happy new year 6030 to those who follow the Ussherian dating of the divine creation of the world #onthisday in 4004 BCE.

Sexy sleeve on this manicule. In a copy of Herodian’s ‘Historia de imperio post Marcum’, a history of Rome from the death of Marcus Aurelius in 180AD to the beginning of Gordian III’s reign in 238. Printed at Rome in 1493 & bought by @theulspeccoll.bsky.social in 1917. CUL Inc.3.B.2.37[1307].

Suddenly remembered the existence of Kemp Folds kempfolds.blogspot.com

Happy 92nd birthday to @theul.bsky.social!

A glistening little illuminated initial from a Latin Bible written in the early 14thC, possibly in Germany. It illustrates the beginning of chapter 11 of Isaiah, where the Holy Spirit (doves) rests upon the branch (the messiah). Bought by @theulspeccoll.bsky.social in 1891 & now MS Add. 3030.

Curious to know why this book contains a page at the end on which is printed the word EPISTOLA twenty-two times in three columns. In the philosophical disputations of the Dutch philosopher Adriaan Heereboord (Leiden, 1650). @theulspeccoll.bsky.social X.16.47.

Naked reading anyone? The device of the French printer Jean Mareschal, in a missal printed at Lyon in 1532. Bequeathed to @theulspeccoll.bsky.social by John Hacket, Bishop of Lichfield & Coventry in 1670. CUL Rit.b.153.1.

Pleasing to get proofs of book chapter soon to be published. Based on my PhD research via a talk I gave at the USTC conference a couple of years ago 💃

Want to hear more about what's been happening at the Museum over the last few months? Our project will see the Society’s 1911 museum repaired, refurbished, and fully redisplayed for the first time in over a century. See more on this story: www.sgsoc.org/update-on-th...

Pink sorrel flowering at the back of @theul.bsky.social next to Grange Road. #WildflowerHour

Gorgeous first visit to Highgate Cemetery today. Marx, Radclyffe Hall and a cute black cat.

Handling the Augustine Gospels some years ago was definitely a high-point of my bookish career. Probably the book which has been on these islands longer than any other (circa 1425 years).

Venetian cat on sentry duty at Feltrinelli Bookshop in Venice #Caturday #VeniceBooks

Angela Lansbury #Caturday

With gems and golden lustre rich emblazed, Seraphic arms and trophies; all the while Sonorous metal blowing martial sounds: At which the universal host up-sent A shout that tore Hell's concave, and beyond Frighted the reign of Chaos and old Night. I, 538-543

My vulgar mind read this as ‘cheesy fat bangs’ 🧐

Can the tech bro morons stop f*cking about with this bollocks and maybe turn their attention to getting wifi to work on trains?

A special exclusive evening on Wednesday in the London home of William Morris. The WMS museum is opening by candlelight for an intimate talk with me about Morris's garden life there, a drink reception, and museum access. @williammorrissocuk.bsky.social williammorrissociety.org/events/an-ev...

The Collections & Research Day @antiquaries.bsky.social is ace! Do have a peek...

So excited to be heading to Antwerp in December for the Association of European Printing Museums conference at the Plantin-Moretus Museum! On the theme of 'inspiration & participation' in printing museums. www.aepm.eu/aepm-confere...

An engraving from Martin Lister’s great work on molluscs, the Historiæ conchyliorum (London, 1685-), one of many executed by his daughters Susanna & Anne. This copy belonged to the politician Cholmley Turner (1685-1757) of Kirkleatham Hall in North Yorkshire. @theulspeccoll.bsky.social Keynes.R.7.4

Announcement!!! Big news!!! 📢📢📢 My book, The Racialization of Print, has a cover (!!), and a webpage, and pre-orders are now available! Coming in Spring, 2027, from @uncpress.bsky.social and @oieahc.bsky.social Use code 01SOCIAL30 to save 30% uncpress.org/979889313492...

#OnThisDay in 1926, A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh was published! 🍯🧸 To celebrate the centenary, let’s explore this interactive story book version of “Pooh Goes Visiting” dating back to the 1930s. 📖 (Classmark: 1931.8.1271) Music by LeonarC from Pixabay

A mid week piece from me, on the FT newspages. In an act of extraordinary generosity the owner of the building which houses Rules, London’s oldest restaurant, has donated it to the @nationaltrust.org.uk www.ft.com/content/1386...

Tapestry time!

The device of the Madrid-based printer Juan de la Cuesta, in a copy of Don Quixote (Madrid, 1608). It features a falcon & a sleeping lion, with the motto ‘post tenebras spero lucem’ (I hope for light after the darkness, from Job 17:12). @theulspeccoll.bsky.social Hisp.5.60.2.

Rare effigy with early inscription. Matilda le Caus 1224, Old Brampton, Derbyshire.

🚨Free public lecture on the Norman Conquest @sas-news.bsky.social @ies-sas.bsky.social @ihr.bsky.social on November 12. Book now to hear Dr Mark Hagger explore the impact of 1066 on Britain. 👇 #BayeuxTapestry #YearOfTheNormans #Millenium www.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...