His title is ‘Who was Elizabeth Northe? John Lettou and London’s first printing press’, and his paper will examine the circumstances surrounding the setting up of London’s first press, and the distribution of works produced by it in London in the 1480s.
Our next lecture will take place on Tuesday 21 April 2026 at 5.30 p.m., at the Society of Antiquaries, London, and online via Zoom. Matthew Payne, Keeper of the Muniments at Westminster Abbey (also Treasurer and a Vice-President of the Society) will deliver the Graham Pollard memorial lecture.
The graphic features the pale blue cover of The Library journal, on a blue banner at the bottom which contains the LUP logo and the Bibliographic society logo next to it. The background is a dark-panelled wooden library shelf with a ladder, featuring text overlaid in white which reads: 'The journal of The Bibliographical Society; the pre-eminent scholarly journal for the study of bibliography and of the role of the book in history.'
The Library | Volume 27, Issue 1
The first issue published with LUP on behalf of @bibsoc.bsky.social contains contributions from @tamarajatkin.bsky.social,
@saranorja.bsky.social, @brandonwhawk.bsky.social, @samlemley.bsky.social & @tntwining.bsky.social.
➡️ Read it online: bit.ly/Library-27-1
The Bibliographical Society is delighted to announce the launch of a redesigned version of the London Book Trades Database, details of which are in this month’s Council’s Choice:
bibsoc.org.uk/councils-cho...
The presentation discusses variant states that have recently come to light, as well as early translations of the Brontës’ novels.
Drawing on bibliographical evidence gathered from hundreds of original copies along with information gleaned from extant publishers’ ledgers, this talk traces the early editions, printings, and issues of the works of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë during their first three decades in print.
'Jane Eyre' has never gone out of print in English. Yet not all of the Brontë sisters’ works enjoyed such a wide readership at their outset.
Also now online is the Bibliographical Society’s lecture from February, given by Dr Barbara Heritage, 'Staying in print: The Brontës, 1846-1876':
www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0FB...
The lecture draws on a recently discovered treasure trove of correspondence with all of the major figures in bibliography of the mid twentieth century, charting the first stages of the revision of the catalogue.
The STC is the largest and most complex enterprise ever undertaken by the Bibliographical Society. The revised edition brought new levels of sophistication and was the fruit of a major transatlantic collaboration, initially between F. S. Ferguson in London and W. A. Jackson in Harvard.
We are pleased to report that Dr Nicolas Bell’s recent lecture commemorating the centenary of the publication of the Short-Title Catalogue is now available online:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKFe...
The graphic features the pale blue cover of The Library journal, on a blue banner at the bottom which contains the LUP logo and the Bibliographic society logo next to it. The background is a dark-panelled wooden library shelf with a ladder, featuring text overlaid in white which reads: 'The journal of The Bibliographical Society; the pre-eminent scholarly journal for the study of bibliography and of the role of the book in history.'
The Library | Most Read
'A True and Impartial Narrative of the Lives of the Fletchers of Oxford, Eighteenth-Century Booksellers' by Christine Ferdinand
@bibsoc.bsky.social @ciliprarebooks.bsky.social @ies-sas.bsky.social @royalhistsoc.org @davidshaw41.bsky.social
🔗 bit.ly/Library-Ferdinand
I believe the intention is to rerecord that lecture.
Drawing on a newly discovered collection of papers, the lecture will chart the early stages in what is probably the largest undertaking in the history of the Bibliographical Society.
To attend online, please register for the event here:
ies.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...
It is the custom for the President to address the Society during the second year of his or her presidency, and Dr Nicolas Bell will be taking this opportunity to commemorate the centenary of the publication of the Short-Title Catalogue.
The Society’s next meeting will take place on Tuesday, 17 March 2026, at 5.30 p.m., at the Society of Antiquaries, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, and online via Zoom.
Yes! It has just been uploaded to our YouTube channel: youtu.be/qFpVFbd7PSk
The video from our Winter Virtual Visit to the Vatican Apostolic Library is now available on our YouTube channel: youtu.be/qFpVFbd7PSk
Thanks for this. Will pass it on.
For this month’s Council’s Choice, Alessandro Bianchi has chosen AGORHA, a suite of thematic databases bringing together digitised documents, archival sources, and biographical records relating to individuals, collections, and institutions in France:
bibsoc.org.uk/councils-cho...
@sharpnews.bsky.social @bibsoc.bsky.social
This important work about the British Museum Library is now available open access here - doi.org/10.23636/t2s...
Bursaries for London Rare Book School courses including this one are available thanks to @bibsoc.bsky.social! 📖
The session will be led by Giles Bergel (Senior Researcher in Digital Humanities in the Department of Engineering Science in the University of Oxford) and Christopher Ohge (Senior Lecturer in Digital Approaches to Literature at the School of Advanced Study, University of London).
... about record linking and querying, the uses of data visualisation and computer vision in bibliography; and good practice in data management.
The workshop will provide an overview of current digital bibliographic methods and resources followed by a hands-on introduction to some key skills, where participants will learn how to process and clean bibliographical data ...
On Friday 13 March, an in-person training day in digital methods for bibliographical study has been arranged by the Institute of English Studies and the Bibliographical Society, in association with the John Rylands Research Institute at the University of Manchester who will host the event.
Our host is Dr Stephen Metzger of the Manuscripts Department. For this very special occasion, please join us online by registering at this link:
ies.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...
A live discussion and Q&A will follow. This visit is made possible by the generous consent of his excellency Abp. Giovanni Cesare Pagazzi, Librarian and Archivist of the Holy Roman Church, and the Rev. Mauro Mantovani, SDB, the Library’s Prefect.
Often viewed principally as a repository of manuscripts, it preserves much more, including printed books, graphic prints, and coins and medals. The virtual visit will take place on Zoom and will begin with pre-recorded introductions to the library’s history, its departments and its collections.