Provenance – Cambridge University Library Special Collections

Material Evidence in Incunabula – guest post

Posted on 18 September 2018 by Special Collections

The following post has been written by Ester Peric, an intern in the Rare Books Department for the month of August updating MEI records (material […]

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

A miscellany of new acquisitions

Posted on 5 September 2018 by Liam Sims

Last July this blog featured a note about a collection of Quaker books, bequeathed to the Library in 2016 by David J. Hall (1947-2015), former […]

Collectors and collecting, Friends of Cambridge University Library, Rare Books, Recent acquisitions, Special Collections

Edward Gwynn and his bindings

Posted on 4 July 2018 by Liam Sims

In 2009 a history of the British Library was published with the title ‘Libraries within the Library’, a phrase which might just as easily be […]

Collectors and collecting, Library history, Rare Books

A chance discovery: Guest post by Jason Scott-Warren

Posted on 18 October 2017 by Special Collections

One of the newest arrivals in the University Library’s Rare Books department was a chance find on Ebay. The History of Our B. Lady of […]

Christian Works, Poetry, Rare Books, Recent acquisitions, women

The Fluctuating Fortunes of the University Library during the 15th and 16th Centuries

Posted on 1 September 2017 by James Freeman

While elucidating finer points of library administration and the placing of manuscripts on the shelves, the early catalogues of the University Library additionally bear witness […]

Cambridge University Archives, Library history, Manuscripts, Subject guide, Uncategorized

Comings and Goings: The Movement of Manuscripts at the University Library before 1600

Posted on 1 August 2017 by James Freeman

A new subject guide has been published on the University Library website on the subject of the handwritten and printed registers, inventories and catalogues of […]

Cambridge University Archives, Library history, Manuscripts, Subject guide, Uncategorized

The Early Catalogues of the University Library: A New Subject Guide

Posted on 10 July 2017 by James Freeman

Perhaps the most common enquiry regarding our medieval manuscripts concerns their provenance: in particular, when they might have arrived at the University Library. Our manuscripts […]

600th anniversary, Cambridge University Archives, Manuscripts, Subject guide

Books of Hours at Cambridge University Library

Posted on 11 August 2016 by James Freeman

Within its holdings of well over 450 illuminated manuscripts, Cambridge University Library possesses some 45 Books of Hours. As books designed for personal use within […]

Cambridge Digital Library, Manuscripts

Castles in the air: two works of Renaissance and Baroque Iberian poetry

Posted on 18 March 2016 by Sophie Defrance

Thanks to a recommendation of Dr Rodrigo Cacho, Reader in Spanish Golden Age and Colonial Studies, the Rare Books department of Cambridge University Library has […]

Collectors and collecting, Hispanic, Rare Books, Recent acquisitions, Special Collections

New old books: January 2016

Posted on 1 February 2016 by William Hale

The Rare Books Department of the Library purchases over 200 printed books each year to enhance its historical collections. In the first of what we […]

Poetry, Rare Books, Recent acquisitions