Bob MacLean
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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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bobmaclean.bsky.social
Alarm set for 5am, boots laced, Harry Potter fans elbowed out of the way, and now mooching up Glenfinnan, heading for the two Munros up here. This is the way to pass a Tuesday…
River, trees, and mountains beyond. All in sunshine and blue sky River, trees and a large stone viaduct (Glenfinnan) passing above. Sunshine
May 13, 2025 at 8:56 AM
bobmaclean.bsky.social
Sgor Gaoith anns a’ Mhonadh Ruadh an diugh. Bha i caran gaothach (surprise!) air a’mhullach ach dìreach àlainn fad-latha
A panoramic view from a hilltop looking down at water with hills in the background. Sunshine
April 12, 2025 at 9:14 PM
bobmaclean.bsky.social
What better way to spend an afternoon than cataloguing this pretty little embroidered psalm book. A student has been working on this category of book for their placement recently but this one had remained uncatalogued.

Until now: eleanor.lib.gla.ac.uk/record=b4235...
A small (8cm height) book lying in an archival box. It has an embroidered binding of various naturalistic shapes on a cream silk background. A pink ribbon extends from the cover The wider view of the same book in its conservation archival box A close up of the title page: The whole booke of psalmes… 1632
April 11, 2025 at 3:32 PM
bobmaclean.bsky.social
Lunch spot. Creag Mèagaidh - air a’ mhullach
Legs and feet lying on grass on hilltop in foreground. Distant hills and blu sky beyond. Bright sunshine
April 8, 2025 at 12:30 PM
bobmaclean.bsky.social
Skiving off with some annual leave for another hill. This is from the summit of Carn Liath above Loch Laggan. What a stunning day
April 8, 2025 at 9:45 AM
bobmaclean.bsky.social
Getting up at 5am on a Saturday to drive for 3 hours to then walk up a hill for a long time makes little sense to many people. But in my defence… Sròn a' Choire Ghairbh above Loch Lochy
April 5, 2025 at 10:15 PM
bobmaclean.bsky.social
Also bound with loads of blank leaves at the back. Presumably for notes or additional receipts to be added (though sadly unannotated)
Blank leaves in a book
March 24, 2025 at 6:27 PM
bobmaclean.bsky.social
Well this binding design is new to me! A 17th (or possibly 18th) century leopard decoration binding. Covering a 1530 copy of “Liber de Peste” published in Alcalá eleanor.lib.gla.ac.uk/record=b1589... Or is it a binding with pox?
Cover of a brown leather book binding covered in black spots Title page of the book: Liber de peste, 1530 Spine decoration of the book, with raised bands and gold fillets
March 24, 2025 at 6:26 PM
bobmaclean.bsky.social
Interestingly I added provenance details for another EM Scottish aristocratic woman to the catalogue record of one of our 1629 copies of Argenis a wee while back @uofglasgowasc.bsky.social Sp Coll TCL 104 copy eleanor.lib.gla.ac.uk/record=b1671...
Detail from a catalogue record of a 1629 copy of Argenis. Reads: Katharin Donholm (17th/18th century) likely Catherine Denholm, the wife of James Hamilton, Lord Pencaitland (1659-1729) (married ca. 1680) …
March 16, 2025 at 10:40 PM
bobmaclean.bsky.social
My find of the week. A surprise to me (and possibly other #BookHistory types) is that bibliography powerhouse Philip Gaskell was also responsible for this very well-regarded work of local history. On the clearances in Lochaber. I’m looking forward to reading it
A book cover: Morvern Transformed. A Highland Parish in the Nineteenth Century. Philip Gaskell. Photo shows two people seated outside a stone-built house. One has a spinning wheel in front of her
March 16, 2025 at 10:59 AM
bobmaclean.bsky.social
Since my words don’t work so goodly in the morning, here’s a picture to try to clarify my garbling universityofglasgowlibrary.wordpress.com/wp-content/u...
March 8, 2025 at 7:57 AM
bobmaclean.bsky.social
Judgmental labelling
Label on edge of a box reads: Outsized oddments
March 6, 2025 at 5:55 PM
bobmaclean.bsky.social
I’m also enjoying this as an example of challenging composition. Within the same sheet (it is a half-sheet octavo) a range of typefaces, type sizes, column layouts, and with loads of footnotes referenced from the main text. It must have been a real faff to compose
A page of Latin type from an 18th century Ovid. A single column main text takes up the top half of the page. Alphabetical footnote markers are added in superscript at the end of columns in smaller type. Beneath this an interpretation of the text is laid in smaller italic text in two columns with a vertical rule dividing them. Beneath that are notes from the main text, laid out in two columns, identified alphabetically and with vertical rule dividing them
March 2, 2025 at 7:41 PM
bobmaclean.bsky.social
My weekend purchase in Aberfeldy. A nice little bit of two colour printing with varying degrees of success in registration. A presumably 18c Scottish provenance to boot. ESTC T99243
Hand holds open a book. Title page has Latin text printed with alternating black and red lines. Reads:” P Ovidii Epistolarum Heroidum…” printed in London in 1722. The facing page has a handwritten ownership inscription,” Ex Libris Gulielmus Campbelli” Close up of first leaf of the same book. In Latin title reads “Lectoris”. A red and black printed decorative roll at head of page. First letter with factotum printed in red with initial H for Habes
March 2, 2025 at 2:35 PM
bobmaclean.bsky.social
Move along, nothing to see here. Just the Book of Kells in a 1960s film being brusquely handled without a hint of cradle in sight while the reader makes notes with a biro. Spotted by @oddenda.bsky.social and shared with me by @btwhite.bsky.social
www.britishpathe.com/asset/37929/ (7.03) #rarebooks
Still image taken from out takes of a 1960s British Pathè film, “Ireland - Tradition on the Move”. Shows a grey-haired and bespectacled reader seated at a desk with a large manuscript book (apparently the Book of Kells) sitting in front of her. It lies on the desk without a book cradle.
February 8, 2025 at 6:31 PM
bobmaclean.bsky.social
On the subject of #Bookhistory valentines, I do have a soft spot for this 19th century Glasgow example eleanor.lib.gla.ac.uk/record=b1655... (read more about these here: www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/li...)
A hand-coloured lithograph caricature image of a compositor at his case with composing stick in left hand and reaching for type with right. Text reads: You set of a Printer, your nose is too red, Your legs are defective as well as your head; All your enjoyments are drawn from the pot; You’re ragged, you’re lazy, you’re a poor drunken sot. At births, deaths, and marriages you’re up to a trick, And, though not on the tramp, you have always a stick.
January 28, 2025 at 5:03 PM
bobmaclean.bsky.social
I’ve just finished upgrading the catalogue record of this cracker, with its nice #herbook inscription (thanks to @shantigraheli.bsky.social for the transcription input). A big 👏 to my conservation colleagues for the fab rebind to make this accessible again eleanor.lib.gla.ac.uk/record=b4202...
Open book on a white book cushion. Printed title in French reads: Le romant de La rose. Codicils et testament de maistre Jehan de meun. Beneath this, printed imprint information and various marks of ownership Close up detail of marks of ownership in an early French hand, written on the title page of a book A printed page of French text from an early printed book. Two columns with two woodcut miniatures The spine of a the binding of a book. Red coloured with black labels
January 23, 2025 at 2:48 PM
bobmaclean.bsky.social
Archive work summed up in a footnote
Footnote reads: This note surfaced, and subsequently disappeared again, during an increasingly despairing investigation of Box 58
January 14, 2025 at 1:23 PM