Cambridge University Library Special Collections

A binding for the organist John Bull (1562/3-1628)

Posted on 12 March 2016 by Liam Sims

The virtuoso composer, musician and organ builder John Bull (who probably spent some time at the University of Cambridge) died on this day in 1628. […]

Collectors and collecting, Library history, Music, Rare Books, Special Collections

Lines of Thought exhibition now open!

Posted on 11 March 2016 by Special Collections

The University library’s major free public exhibition to celebrate its 600th anniversary, Lines of Thought: Discoveries that changed the world,is now open in the Milstein Exhibition […]

600th anniversary, Cambridge Digital Library

Cambridge Science Festival at the University Library

Posted on 8 March 2016 by Special Collections

Cambridge Science Festival started yesterday and over the next two weeks, the city will be even more than usually full of inventions, discoveries and experiments. […]

600th anniversary, Archives, Digital Resources, Events, Exhibitions, Historical Printing, Library history, Manuscripts, Maps, Medicine, Music, Science, Special Collections

New old books: February 2016

Posted on 4 March 2016 by William Hale

The second instalment of our monthly series listing additions to the Rare Books collections. This month we feature Greek philosophy as read in sixteenth-century France, […]

Rare Books, Recent acquisitions

Image of the Month

Posted on 2 March 2016 by Frank

The Manuscripts department have just published their Image of the Month for March. It can be found on their webpage.

How (and when) to visit the Fitzwilliam museum…in the 1850s.

Posted on 26 February 2016 by Sophie Defrance

Many of you will have seen that the Fitzwilliam museum turned 200 earlier this month. How would visitors born, like the museum, 200 years ago, […]

Rare Books, Special Collections

Christmas in Changi – The Result!

Posted on 23 February 2016 by Emma Nichols

By Mary French and Emma Nichols Happy New Year from the Changi Conservators! Do you remember the Christmas Quiz from the Changi Guardian that we posed […]

Conservation, Royal Commonwealth Society

Closeup of one end of the UL slide rule.

The first slide rule: a discovery in the Macclesfield Collection

Posted on 19 February 2016 by Special Collections

Guest post by Boris Jardine. Slide rules dominated the practice of mathematics from their invention in reign of King Charles I to their sudden, electronic-calculator […]

Archives, Science

Malthus in Cambridge

Posted on 13 February 2016 by Liam Sims

On this day in 1766 – 250 years ago – was born Thomas Robert Malthus, for whom bells rang out in Cambridge yesterday. A scholar, cleric and […]

600th anniversary, Collectors and collecting, Library history, Rare Books, Special Collections

Darwin Correspondence Project launches their new website on Darwin’s birthday

Posted on 12 February 2016 by Special Collections

The Darwin Correspondence Project is celebrating ‘Darwin Day’ today (12th February) with a new website helping us to find out more about the life and […]

Archives, Darwin Correspondence Project, Digital Resources