Rare Books – Page 3 – Cambridge University Library Special Collections

‘I dared not dream that this dream had come true’: musings on special collections in lockdown

Posted on 25 May 2020 by Special Collections

I dared not dream that this dream had come true:That I was bending over that yellow pageLit with his words – our boy, our poet, […]

Christian Works, Exhibitions, Manuscripts, Rare Books, Special Collections

“L’entreprise la plus vaste du dix-huitième siècle”: the Encyclopédie Méthodique

Posted on 20 May 2020 by William Hale

The Encyclopédie méthodique was the last and largest of the great French encyclopedias of the eighteenth century. Its first instalment appeared in 1782 and its […]

Rare Books

Spreadsheets, shelflists & scones: Special Collections works from home

Posted on 16 April 2020 by Liam Sims

On Wednesday 18th March the University Library closed its doors to readers, in line with government advice around COVID-19. That afternoon saw many of Cambridge’s […]

Archives, Cambridge Digital Library, Cambridge University Archives, Digital Resources, Digitisation, Ely assizes, Manuscripts, Rare Books, Special Collections

Erotica comes to Cambridge

Posted on 4 February 2020 by Liam Sims

When one thinks of the great collections which Cambridge University Library has built up over its six centuries, erotic literature is probably not very near […]

Acquisitions, Collectors and collecting, French, Illustration, Rare Books, Special Collections

Henry Compton’s Prayer Book, and John Wright’s Bible

Posted on 2 September 2019 by William Hale

Including as it does the library of the British and Foreign Bible Society as well as the collection of Arthur William Young, the University Library […]

Acquisitions, Rare Books

Imagining Islands: Images of Island Exploration in Early Modern Travel Narratives

Posted on 24 June 2019 by Special Collections

A guest post by Lauren Killingsworth, whose exhibition “Imagining Islands” can be viewed in the Library Entrance Hall from Monday 24th June to Saturday 27th […]

Anniversaries, Exhibitions, Maps, Rare Books, Travel

Conflicting Chronologies: A New Exhibition at the Whipple Library

Posted on 6 May 2019 by Special Collections

A guest post by Meira Gold, PhD student in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science. Her research concerns the history of Victorian Egyptology […]

Exhibitions, Rare Books

Discoveries in the reading rooms

Posted on 8 April 2019 by Emily Dourish

Readers working with material in the University Library’s Special Collections reading rooms are accustomed to discovering new and exciting things every day, whether that be […]

Exhibitions, Rare Books, Special Collections

Discovery: 200 Years of the Cambridge Philosophical Society

Posted on 13 March 2019 by Katrina Dean

Coming into the Cambridge University Library entrance hall visitors encounter three objects: a wall-mounted cast of 565 million-year-old sea-creature fossils, a plastinated pitcher plant, using […]