How to become a printer's apprentice in 1743. A boy is led by Carmenta, a Roman goddess who created the alphabet, up steps of a temple where the goddess Typographia awaits. Each step represents a skill that must be mastered, such as reading, writing, foreign languages, declensions, conjugation. 1/2

In a bookshop in Oxford, I bought a book about Oxford, published in Oxford in 1859, formerly part of the @bodleianlibraries.bsky.social collection in Oxford. Is it safe to assume this book has never left Oxford?

Someone in the 17th century had a bad day :(

@tomgauld.bsky.social print found its perfect place 👌

Always a good idea

Just make up your mind already, please 👀

Our latest blog explores some late-Victorian accounts of boating, part of the @cambridgeuni.bsky.social Cruising Club archives. Some of the accounts are beautifully illuminated, like medieval manuscripts! specialcollections-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk?p=29965

The Seamorce is as bigg as an oxe and twice as confused.

Throwback to a time when typos were blamed on the devil and the composing room had more drama than a newsroom.

I couldn’t believe my eyes, but yes, 1£

Saw a book annotated by King James I today at @lampallib.bsky.social… but let’s be real, the heron stole the show.

The will of William Wildgoose, Stationer of Oxford [made in 1638] who bound books for the Bodleian, including Shakespeare's First Folio. Three out of five witnesses signed with a mark. A reminder that seventeenth century print trade people lived in a world that was semi-literate.

Words of wisdom found in a book from @pembrokelibraryoxf.bsky.social

The Clarendon Building was not there yet. Amazing!

For anyone interested in the early Bodleian Library or early modern book owners, the Shaping Scholarship project at CELL, UCL has made the project data available: ebdo.org.uk/data/ It details every officially recorded donation made c. 1600-1620, plus some extras, which is around 10,000 items.

This is funny. Jean Jure, a bookseller and binder, arrested in 1556 for ‘meditating’ over forbidden books on a feast day, is released after claiming he is illiterate!

One of the coolest printer’s marks I’ve ever seen

What a coincidence! Just came across this manuscript in @bodleianlibraries.bsky.social