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bobmaclean.bsky.social
Bob MacLean
@bobmaclean.bsky.social
410 followers 470 following 69 posts
Assistant Librarian (rare books), University of Glasgow Library Archives and Special Collections
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Reposted by Bob MacLean
liamsims.bsky.social
A wonderfully elaborate binding for Mrs Elizabeth Colles, from the early seventeenth century. It contains three linguistic works, including Thomas Thomas’s Dictionary (Cambridge, 1610). @theulspeccoll.bsky.social Rel.d.61.2. #herbook
November 14, 2025 at 12:58 PM
Reposted by Bob MacLean
whitneytrettien.bsky.social
Holy shit, just learned about the typewriter art of Montserrat Alberich Escardívol, a Catalan typist. Using an extra wide typewriter and 180 color ribbons, she built up elaborate images from simple characters like 'm' and '.' and ';'. Here is her typewritten painting of the Cathedral of Barcelona.
Full-color image of the Cathedral of Barcelona, composed on a typewriter by Montserrat Alberich Escardívol. Image from WikiMedia.
November 12, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Reposted by Bob MacLean
profdanielcook.bsky.social
Meanwhile, on Zoopla: one of Sir Walter Scott’s former properties is on the market…

www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/det...
November 8, 2025 at 12:04 PM
Reposted by Bob MacLean
profastreete.bsky.social
A wee bit of news.

news.sky.com/story/fascin...
'Fascinating' personal library of 'forgotten scholar' rediscovered
It is hoped that Zachary Boyd's collection at the University of Glasgow will help shed light on 17th century Scotland and a tumultuous time in European history.
news.sky.com
October 15, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Reposted by Bob MacLean
lynnemthomas.com
This talk will be recorded! It will be posted on our YouTube page once we have a chance to caption it. That can take a few weeks.
illinoisrbml.bsky.social University of Illinois RBML @illinoisrbml.bsky.social · Oct 14
Join us on Thursday, October 23 from 3-5 pm for a talk by Scheide Librarian Emeritus Paul S. Needham (Princeton University), titled "Gutenberg's Second Invention: The 1460 Mainz Catholicon."

All are welcome to attend. Refreshments will be served.
Graphic with an image of the Catholicon partially enlarged by a magnifying glass and text: "The RBML presents a talk by Paul Needham. Gutenberg's Second Invention: The 1460 Mainz Catholicon. Thursday, October 23, 3-5pm in Main Library Room 346. More than 500 years after its printing, the production details of the Catholicon are still a much debated topic in incunabula research. Come learn about the most recently discovered clues with the subject's preeminent scholar, Paul Needham!"
October 15, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Reposted by Bob MacLean
uofgnews.bsky.social
Zachary Boyd (1585–1653) was a minister, poet &
@uofglasgow.bsky.social academic who lived through one of Scotland’s most turbulent times.

Now his library has been brought together for the 1st time in more than 370 years by UofG's Prof Adrian Streete

📸Martin Shields

gla.ac.uk/news/headlin...
Professor Adrian Streete and Siobhán Convery, Director, Library Collections, look at a dictionary from the personal library of Zachary Boyd. Behind the pair is floor to ceiling book shelves with hundreds of books. Credit Martin Shields.
October 15, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Reposted by Bob MacLean
richove.bsky.social
MLGB is back!! Delighted that Medieval Libraries of Great Britain @bodleian.ox.ac.uk is now back online. We are also working had on plans for the next phase of the resource, enhancing & adding data & functionality. HUGE thanks to my colleagues for their hard & clever work mlgb.bodleian.ox.ac.uk
October 7, 2025 at 10:19 AM
Reposted by Bob MacLean
wynkenhimself.bsky.social
Want to learn more about what a bibliographical approach might be for working with hand-press books? Come think with me about how to notice, ask questions, and maybe even discover new things about the material features of old books! 📜📚 #BookHistory
rarebookschool.bsky.social Rare Book School @rarebookschool.bsky.social · Sep 26
We're accepting applications for our fall online course, A Bibliographical Introduction to the Hand-Press Period. The course, taught by @wynkenhimself.bsky.social, runs Sundays, 10/19-12/14. Application deadline is Fri 10/10. More at rarebookschool.org/fall-online-course-thinking-bibliographically
September 26, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Reposted by Bob MacLean
pomuirch.bsky.social
'Diasporic documents from the Gaelic Atlantic' - a one-day, in-person workshop at the University of Edinburgh on 5 September. Tuilleadh fiosrachaidh | More information 👇
Poster advertising an event to take place on 5 September 2025 at 50 George Square, the University of Edinburgh, on the topic of 'Diasporic documents from the Gaelic Atlantic'. The event will run from 10am to 5pm. 10.00 Introduction and welcome 10.30-12.00 Ken Ó Donnchú (UCC): Spanish-Irish translation 1593-1706 Aonghas MacCoinnich (Glasgow): Gaelic perspectives on ‘state formation’ and Atlantic plantation. The case of Lewis, c.1610-c.1640 Silke Stroh (Koblenz): Re-fitting ‘The Garb of Old Gaul’: Circum-Atlantic warfare and intercultural mobility in re-writings and translations of a popular 18th-century song 12.00-13.00 Lunch 13.00-14.30 Peadar Ó Muircheartaigh (Edinburgh): Viewing Inveraray from St Lucia: The case of Dugald MacNicol’s manuscripts Kathleen Reddy (Glasgow): The Bàrd na Ceapaich manuscript at the University of Glasgow Brendan Kane (UConn & Edinburgh): Political thought and politicization from New York to Cork: Reading the early modern through a 19th-century commonplace book 14.30-15.00 Coffee 15.00-16.00 Rob Dunbar (Edinburgh): Johnathon Mackinnon and Mac-Talla Síobhra Aiken (QUB): Gaeltacht communities in North America: Real or Imagined? 16.00-17.00 Round table Enda Delaney (Edinburgh), Désha Osborne (Edinburgh) Pádraig Fhia Ó Mathúna (Galway) 17.00 Close
August 7, 2025 at 11:23 AM
Reposted by Bob MacLean
rfergussonpoet.bsky.social
We're very excited to announce that our wonderful exhibition 'Celebrating the Scottish Poet, Robert Fergusson (1750-1774)' with the Mitchell Library, Glasgow, has been turned into an online exhibition!

Check it out at the link below: robert-fergusson.glasgow.ac.uk/online-exhib...
September 2, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Reposted by Bob MacLean
earlymodernjohn.bsky.social
Any early modern Protestantism people know anything about the preacher William Holbrook? He preached at Paul's Cross in 1609 and a couple of his sermons (that one, published as Love's Complaint; one to the Blacksmiths and one at St Botolph's without Aldersgate) made it into print.
September 1, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Reposted by Bob MacLean
elizaaudacis.bsky.social
Although how a 17th century noblewoman shelved her books shouldn't have any bearing on how an individual chooses to arrange their personal library, it IS satisfying to see all the anti-shelving-by-colour snobs have to eat this
August 26, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Reposted by Bob MacLean
rhonabrown.bsky.social
The new Scottish Literary Review is out on Project Muse! A Special Issue, guest edited by Gioia Angeletti and Marina Dossena, it features articles on Early Modern ScotLit, Mary, Queen of Scots, Scottish Picturebooks, migration writings and drama. You can access it here: muse.jhu.edu/issue/55288
The yellow cover for the journal, Scottish Literary Review. It features a black and white line drawing of a stylised thistle growing from the open pages of a book.
August 8, 2025 at 11:38 AM
Reposted by Bob MacLean
bibliophisla.bsky.social
Very exciting to see @physiciansgallery.bsky.social's The People's Dispensary published online! I loved working on this project a few years ago — sometimes I can still see Dr Andrew Duncan's handwriting when I close my eyes...

www.rcpe.ac.uk/peoplesdispe...
The People's Dispensary
www.rcpe.ac.uk
July 28, 2025 at 11:47 AM
Reposted by Bob MacLean
danigaravelli.bsky.social
This is so niche I can't believe I am asking, but does anyone know anyone who might be an expert in Protestantism in Italy during the Reformation? (Stranger things have happened). RTs welcome.
July 22, 2025 at 5:10 PM
Reposted by Bob MacLean
liamsims.bsky.social
DR LIGHTFOOTSOOO
OOWORKESOO
VOL. 1
OOOOO

Spotted this week @queenslibcam.bsky.social
June 28, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Reposted by Bob MacLean
drkarrschmidt.bsky.social
When You Love Something, Hide It Underwater?

Ireland’s Oldest Book Shrine, Found Buried in a Lake, Reemerges share.google/SwLDzqhgDTMd...
Ireland's Oldest Book Shrine Makes Its Museum Debut | Artnet News
After a 39-year conservation process, the Lough Kinale Book Shrine is on view at the National Museum of Ireland.
share.google
June 23, 2025 at 12:23 PM
Reposted by Bob MacLean
drkarrschmidt.bsky.social
Virgin of the Immaculate Copperplate?

This glowing 17th c. Spanish painting of the Virgin Mary on loan from the Hispanic Society of America to a wonderful Milwaukee Museum of Art exhibition is painted on one side and gloriously engraved on the other....
The verso with many saints engraved on a copper plate. Painting of the Virgin Mary on a copper printing plate.
June 22, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Reposted by Bob MacLean
melissaterras.bsky.social
Hurrah! My next book is instantiated, and in-the-world! Library Catalogues As Data: Research, Practice, Usage. Edited with Paul Gooding and @semames.bsky.social. Proud of this one! Official publication date soon… www.facetpublishing.co.uk/page/detail/...
Library Catalogues As Data book
June 21, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Reposted by Bob MacLean
thisismyglasgow.bsky.social
Relief sculpture of the 19th Century temperance campaigner William Collins on Glasgow Green, to which someone has added the remains of a hand-rolled 'cigarette'.

Cont./

#glasgow #keepglasgowweird #statue #publicart #peoplemakeglasgow
June 21, 2025 at 7:33 PM
Reposted by Bob MacLean
svanimpe.bsky.social
#PrintedEphemera #BookHistory
jsench.bsky.social Jonathan @jsench.bsky.social · Jun 18
Having your dissertation done up into a painting surrounded by the angels of arts and sciences is really a baller move.
June 18, 2025 at 8:21 PM
Reposted by Bob MacLean
drfrancisyoung.bsky.social
*Confused historians of early modern medicine wake up to find themselves experts on current affairs*
npr.org NPR @npr.org · Jun 15
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. apparently embraces the outdated "miasma theory" of disease instead of the widely accept "germ theory" of disease, which may help explain some of the actions he's been taking.
Ancient miasma theory may help explain Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s vaccine moves
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. apparently embraces the outdated "miasma theory" of disease instead of the widely accept "germ theory" of disease, which may help explain some of the actions he's been taking.
n.pr
June 15, 2025 at 10:34 PM
Reposted by Bob MacLean
eknuding.bsky.social
A Tudor manuscript of a medieval poem collected by 18th antiquaries which ended up in a medieval university - a thrilling tale of medieval culture & its reception 😃

Thanks to @bobmaclean.bsky.social & the ASC team for facilitating 💫

/fin 🧵
Glasgow university medieval remains
June 15, 2025 at 6:49 PM
Reposted by Bob MacLean
eknuding.bsky.social
It was the the elaborate initials (famously hiding an acrostic revealing the author's name, John Clerk of Whalley) and marginalia from later readers which occupied my attention this week 📝

2/3 🧵
Manuscript with elborate w initial
June 15, 2025 at 6:49 PM
Reposted by Bob MacLean
eknuding.bsky.social
A delight this week to make the aquaintance of this 1540s ms (Glasgow UL Hunter 388), the single surviving witness to the ME alliterative Romance, The Destruction of Troy (c. 1400), as part of my visiting fellowship at the University of Glasgow Library 📚

1/3 🧵
Ms Hunter 388 double page
June 15, 2025 at 6:49 PM