Dr Liam Sims
@liamsims
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) 🌈
I wonder where Tim Munby’s leaf of the #Gutenberg Bible ended up. Presented to him by Edwin J. Beinecke, one of the funders of the Beinecke Library. Sold for £1800 at Munby’s sale in 1976. A single Gutenberg leaf goes for about £100,000 these days.
Nice John Baskerville addition to my shelves today: his 1774 edition of Sallust & Florus, one of the last books he printed before his death in January 1775. With the added bonus of Tim Munby’s book label! 🤩
An elaborate gilt centrepiece from the binding of a copy of John Florio’s ‘A worlde of wordes, or most copious and exact dictionarie in Italian and English’ (London, 1598). @theulspeccoll.bsky.social Keynes.H.4.15.
The streets empty but for happy homosexuals who couldn’t give a shite about the #worldcup.
Aldus Manutius certainly knew how to lay out a page. From his 1503 edition of Cardinal Bessarion’s ‘In Calumniatorem Platonis’, which reconciled Platonism with Christianity. Part of the library of John Moore (Bishop of Ely), given to @theulspeccoll.bsky.social by George I in 1715. Sel.3.150. #venice
An impression from a piece of fallen type - an error in the printing process captured forever. In a copy of Constantius Applanus’s ‘Soliloquiorum’, printed at Cremona in 1496 and given to @theulspeccoll.bsky.social by Stephen Gaselee in 1934. CUL Inc.5.B.20.5[4036]. #fallentype #incunabula
A twinky vignette from the title page of the vast ‘Annales Ecclesiastici’, a history of the first twelve centuries of Christianity begun by Cesare Baronio (Vatican Librarian). First published in 1588, this edition (in 34 volumes) was printed at Lucca 1738-59. @theulspeccoll.bsky.social 5.31.1-34.
Rapidly becoming irritated at how thick these two are on Celebrity Gogglebox 👀
The crest of St John’s College Cambridge, in John Scott’s ‘Foundation of the Universitie of Cambridge’ (1620s). The text (which exists in several copies) lists benefactors & gifts. Scott was an heraldic painter and a member of Clare College. @theulspeccoll.bsky.social MS Gg.5.21.
Duck leg with sage, potatoes, and green beans with Marsala, chilli & other goodies (beans crafted by @aglmasters.bsky.social).
Might any of you bindings/heraldry nerds have seen these before? They’re on a set of Benito Arias Montano’s commentary on various books of the Bible (Antwerp: Plantin, 1575-88). Binding possibly French and the initials on the spine seem to include D, A & H. @theulspeccoll.bsky.social Broughton.161-4
A large & impressive oval gilt centrepiece on a copy of ‘Les ordonnances de l’ordre de la Thoyson d’Or’ (the ordinances of the Order of the Golden Fleece), printed on vellum. No colophon but our catalogue says [Antwerp: C. Plantin, 1558?]. @theulspeccoll.bsky.social SSS.48.5.
A silly face in this initial Q, from a copy of Duns Scotus, ‘Quaestiones super universalibus Porphyrii’, printed in the Belgian city of Aalst in 1489. In @theulspeccoll.bsky.social since 1664. Inc.5.F.1.3[3148]. #incunabula
Elegant engraved bookplate of Mrs Elizabeth Vesey (1715-91), whose literary circle - the Bluestockings - included Elizabeth Montagu, Frances Burney, Mary Delaney & the Duchess of Portland. In the second edition of the Poems of Robert Burns (Edinburgh, 1787). @theulspeccoll.bsky.social Keynes.W.5.27.
I feel this summarises my day so far quite well. From John Arbuthnot’s 1712 pamphlet ‘Law is a bottomless-pit’. @theulspeccoll.bsky.social Keynes.W.1.28.
Got five minutes out of Cambridge when the overhead wires died. Two hours on the train & now evacuated onto another train & waiting to head back to Cambridge. Kill me now.
Miss this crazy cat. Exploring #OTD in 2013, a few weeks after arriving in our lives.
Sausage, fennel, tomatoes, lemon, pine nuts & pasta. With @aglmasters.bsky.social.
Off to visit Exeter Cathedral tomorrow with members of @bibsoc.bsky.social, so it was fun to happen upon the cathedral’s eighteenth-century bookplate this lunchtime, depicting St Peter. In a copy of Hippocrates printed at Venice in 1538 and now @theulspeccoll.bsky.social Keynes.U.3.30.
Ooh I love him. Have you read his diaries? By some stroke of luck I bought a book years ago that (unknowingly at the time) had his bookplate in it 😊
Staffordshire slipware owl jug and cover, circa 1690-1710, at Bonhams today. Est. £20-30,000 & sold for £70,250.
The gilt arms of Thomas Brudenell (1578-1663), first Earl of Cardigan. On a copy of the Chronicles of England printed at Westminster by William Caxton in October 1482. One of two copies given or bequeathed to @theulspeccoll.bsky.social by Samuel Sandars in the 1890s. CUL SSS.41.4.
“Instead of which I gave a performance that plumbed the very depths of ineptitude”.