Anti-trans societies won’t make women safer Olive Watt reacts to the creation of the Cambridge University Society of Women, and reflects on the queer experience

www.varsity.co.uk/comment/30637
A beautifully written article. Devastating that it needs to be written at all.

Close up of a very small book bound in a fragment of a medieval liturgical manuscript on parchment

Yellow-black pencil for scale next to the miniature book which is with a parchment cover of medieval manuscript fragments

Close-up of the title page of the book: a Gregorian calendar printed in red and black.

Spilled my coffee travel mug in my backpack this morning - can you imagine the horror - so let’s just say some time with these wonderful #earlymodern miniature books was very much needed!

1) Gregorian Calendar (1585)

#rarebooks #bookhistory 💙📚📜

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ALSF 2025 took place on September 18th at Newnham College. 📚

It was a fantastic day filled with rich talks on topics as varied as Holocaust Memorialisation to Yoga provision in libraries. We're immensely grateful to all our speakers, network reps, and attendees who helped make the day so special. ❤️

A ginger cat resting on the floor of the entrance hall of Cambridge University Library.

In honour of #GingerCatAppreciationDay (which we're tempted to re-name #OdysseusAppreciationDay), here's our favourite marmalade-hued boy on a visit to the UL last week.

A sketch of a cat, presumably saying “mew”, with the caption “μ”.

For International Cat Day, here’s my favourite caricature from ‘Familiar illustrations of the language of mathematics or a new picture-alphabet for well-behaved undergraduates’ (1850) by John Lewis Roget.

🐱 It’s μ (“mu”).

(This is Trinity’s copy: 307.a.85.17)

For International #Cat Day, the device of the Sessa dynasty of Venetian printers. On the title page of a comedy called ‘La Prigione’ (The Prison) by Borso Argenti (Venice, 1587). Part of the library of the Marquesses of Bute, now @theulspeccoll.bsky.social (Bute.131). #internationalcatday

A bad day at the printing press, London 1660.
lib-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/Record/fbfb3...

🪐 Last Friday was volvelletastic! Looking forward to getting these in the display cases.

📖 These are all from books in the Whipple Library collection.

I was there. It was superb! 🌿📚

A. E. Housman bitching about the new @theul.bsky.social in 1934.

Well… hello there.

A “cat-a-mountain” from Claude Perrault’s Memoirs for a Natural History of Animals (1688)

🔍 (Whipple Library: STORE 76:3)

Libraries are a pretty cool place to be right now. (We have air con).

Interesting manicules in the margins

BnF Français 12584; Roman de Renart; 14th century; France; f.61r @gallicabnf.bsky.social

Just when I thought I’d found all the pressed flowers in the library, this gem shows up. 🌸

It’s a herbarium from 1833! 🌼

(Crewe MS 69) 🌿

Welcome to the archives.

Trump's tariff and immigration policies

BL Stowe 955; 16th century; France; f.15r

A fore edge title reading IULI[us] / DEI GRA [tia] / EP [iscopu]S WIR /CEB AC / FRANCI / ORIENT / DUX . CUL Sel.3.82

A fore edge title reading ULI[us] D I / RA[tia] G EP[iscopu]S / VIRC ET V / RAN OR F/ DUX. CUL F*. 8.31(c)

A book whose date should read 1578 has been rebound so that it reads 5781.

This is what happens when you add a fancy fore edge title, then 150 years later someone realises the book was misbound and moves the last 100 pages to the front. Should look like the first pic, actually looks like the second 🤦

Woodcut of Queen Elizabeth I, atop the world, from John Case’s Sphæra Civitatis (Oxford, 1588). @theulspeccoll.bsky.social Syn.7.58.44.

f.84r of Tradescant’s Orchard - depicts a black pear tree with a hungry Wren eyeing up a spider!

f.143r of Tradescant’s Orchard - depicts rich punnets of blushing grapes.

f.141r of Tradescant’s Orchard - depicts a hazelnut tree with a red squirrel and a frog.

My favourite pages from ‘Tradescant’s Orchard’ (C17th), a manuscript I discovered for the first time just today! 🍎

Bodleian Library MS. Ashmole 1461: digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/8350...

Embroidered linen decorative tapestry depicting what may be a marriage ceremony.

"Love scene" tapestry, Regensburg, Germany (14th century)
Image: Institute of Material Culture of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period

A small, round metal object with a cross-hatched surface and three evenly spaced loops around the edge. Slightly concave, with a worn texture. This is a sewing palm guard, once used to protect the hand while stitching thick fabrics or leather.

Bet you don’t know what this is. Looks a bit like a tiny manhole cover, doesn’t it? Or perhaps a piece of steampunk jewellery?

There’s even a miniature marionette version of the Hellbrunn fountains in the Marionette Museum!

So so adorable!

📍 Marionettenmuseum, Fortress Hohensalzburg.

One of my main reasons for visiting Salzburg was the chance to see the trick fountains at Hellbrunn! ⛲️

Used to entertain (and sometimes annoy) guests with their hidden jets of water, these fountains represent one of the more brilliant and playful aspects of renaissance/mannerist gardens.

Thoroughly enjoyed these paintings of early modern subjects of nature!

Oh, and the stuffed unicorn.

📍 Schloss Hellbrunn, Salzburg.

Actually speechless

How did I not know this was in the works??? Never been more excited for an exhibition in my life. 🤩🤩🤩

Shakespeare did not leave his wife Anne in Stratford, letter fragment suggests Professor says text shows Hathaway lived with playwright in London, upending the established idea of an unhappy marriage

This is insanely exciting.

www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...

I remember going to this as a student! Taking the Material Renaissance paper was the best decision I ever made - I LOVED it! 📚💙