Universal Short Title Catalogue
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universalstc.bsky.social
Universal Short Title Catalogue
@universalstc.bsky.social
1.2K followers 1.1K following 45 posts
The Universal Short Title Catalogue is the most comprehensive catalogue of the early modern print world.
Posts by @ciaokatet.bsky.social and @ernestjeb.bsky.social
Website: https://www.ustc.ac.uk/ | Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ustcgram
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universalstc.bsky.social
The Times They Are a-Changin'

In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII moved the calendar. Rebecca Hirt (@kit.edu), in our blog, explores the impact that this shift had on almanacs. You can read it here: www.ustc.ac.uk/news/when-te...

#almanacs #earlymodern
November 11, 2025 at 9:23 AM
universalstc.bsky.social
There are plenty of newspapers in the USTC, but it’s also great to see the USTC in the press! We recently appeared in Fife Today as we celebrate our 30th anniversary this year: www.fifetoday.co.uk/news/people/...
October 31, 2025 at 4:54 PM
universalstc.bsky.social
Ellen Robertson, a Book History MLitt student @standrewshist.bsky.social, has written on her fascinating research on a book of metrical psalms with extensive manuscript annotations held in the Special Collections @uniofstandrews.bsky.social!
university-collections.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/2025/08/19/s...
Detail of the printed musical annotations in University of St Andrews’ copy of Sternhold, Thomas, Whitingham, William, Hopkins, John, The Whole Booke of Psalmes, collected into English Meter, (London, 1583), Bib BS1440.S8B83.
August 25, 2025 at 8:48 AM
universalstc.bsky.social
"EXTRA! EXTRA! Read all about it!"

Catch up on the news from the @universalstc.bsky.social annual conference on 'Newspapers and Periodicals', which took place in June 2025, with our newest blog by @zbrookman.bsky.social (PhD Candidate and Research Assistant).

ustc.ac.uk/news/ustc-20...
Seventeenth-century portrait of A Man Reading by Job Adriaensz Berckheyde. This painting shows an bespeckled man in three-quarters profile reading a newspaper. He is older with a beard and moustache and is dressed in a tattered jacket with a large barrel hat. On the table next to him, a case for his glasses appears alongside a book opened to reveal a title page printed in red and black ink. The colour palette is typical of 17th century Dutch portraiture, with shades of neutral colors and a similarly toned brown-gray background.
August 21, 2025 at 9:35 AM
universalstc.bsky.social
'Well, sir, learn to jest in good time; there's time for all things'-William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors

☛ New on the blog: ‘By a Lover of Ha, Ha, He’: Jest Books in a Cambridge Auction Catalogue by Anna Grace Gragg (MLitt student @standrewshist.bsky.social) 🃏📖😆

ustc.ac.uk/news/by-a-lo...
An etching by William Hogarth entitled 'The Laughing Audience', dated to 1733. In the scene an audience of people is depicted in a theatre, there are people seated in rows in the foreground, mostly men in wigs, all of whom are laughing. The upper register depicts the balcony seats were men flirt with women who are selling something out of baskets. There are lit candle sconces on the walls.
August 8, 2025 at 1:30 PM
universalstc.bsky.social
388 years ago TODAY, a chair was thrown at the Bishop of Edinburgh as he read from a book during a service. Riots followed shortly afterwards. In our latest blog, MLitt student William Lewis explores the book at the heart of the storm: www.ustc.ac.uk/news/a-war-o...
July 23, 2025 at 12:46 PM
universalstc.bsky.social
In our latest blog, MLitt student Ellen Robertson examines works that were promised by the catalogues of the Frankfurt Book Fair, but not always delivered. You can read it here: www.ustc.ac.uk/news/ellen-r...
July 10, 2025 at 12:05 PM
universalstc.bsky.social
The latest issue of our Library Quarterly, dedicated to our work on France, is out now! You can read it and subscribe here: www.ustc.ac.uk/news/ustc-li...
July 9, 2025 at 11:46 AM
universalstc.bsky.social
🚨Call for Papers: The 18th St Andrews/USTC Book History Conference on 'Print and Education' will take place 18–20 June 2026.

👉 Further details here: www.ustc.ac.uk/conference

📅 Application deadline: 12 December 2025

📖 We look forward to receiving your proposals!

#CfP #bookhistory #skystorians
July 1, 2025 at 12:08 PM
universalstc.bsky.social
📚Explore the storied lives of Suffolk's parochial library collections in a new blog post: 'Non mihi sed omnibus: Suffolk’s Last Parochial Libraries' by current MLitt student @standrewshist.bsky.social Emily Wildish.📚

#bookhistory #libraryhistory #collectionhistory

ustc.ac.uk/news/non-mih...
Theodore Bibliandri’s translation of Machumetis saracenorum principis, Image courtesy of St Edmundsbury Cathedral. A title page of the Latin translation of the Qur'an, printed in Basel by Johann Oporinus, Nikolaus Brylinger in 1543. This copy was donated to the St James parochial library in Bury St Edmunds in 1595. The marginal notation at the bottom of the page, also in Latin, describes this gift. It reads: "non mihi sed omnibus H. Blagge."
June 24, 2025 at 12:02 PM
universalstc.bsky.social
Our conference on News and Periodicals is underway with a panel on Political News Cultures! #USTC25
June 19, 2025 at 9:19 AM
universalstc.bsky.social
Our 2025 conference on Newspapers and Periodicals is underway with our hybrid workshop! #USTC25
June 17, 2025 at 8:57 AM
universalstc.bsky.social
Emma Caster, MLitt student @standrewshist.bsky.social, explores the career of the German printer, Wolfgang Stöckel (Müller) in a new blog entitled: 'Struggles and Strifes of a Reformation Printer: Printers and Debt in Germany'
ustc.ac.uk/news/struggl...

#bookhistory #Reformationhistory #earlymodern
Portrait of George the Bearded, Duke of Saxony by Lucas Cranach the Elder, c. 1534 (Museum der bildenden Künste). In the portrait, a balding and bearded man dressed in a voluminous robe of all black; he is presented in a 3/4 pose. The man's hands are clasped and he wears a two rings. Around his neck is the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece. The backround is aqua with some behind the figure's head.
June 5, 2025 at 4:35 PM
universalstc.bsky.social
Ahoy there! New blog post!

Demi van Breukelen, master's student @utrechtuniversity.bsky.social & visiting researcher @standrewshist.bsky.social explores:
🌊'A Sea of Print: Printed Treasures in the Dutch Prize Papers Collection'

ustc.ac.uk/news/a-sea-o...
#printhistory #earlymodern #maritimehistory
The Frigate Peter and Paul in the Port of Amsterdam (17th Century), by Abraham Storck, Historisch Scheepvart Museum, Amsterdam A 17th century Dutch seascape painting illustrating at least 7 sail boats of various sizes, including the frigate of Peter and Paul, as well as a smaller transport row boat. The seas are calm and the sky is covered in swirling and fluffy clouds.
May 23, 2025 at 2:53 PM
universalstc.bsky.social
The eighth issue of USTC Library Quarterly is out now!

You can download it and subscribe here: ustc.ac.uk/news/ustc-li...

This special issue is a collaboration with the COMLAWEU project.
Cover page of the USTC Library Quarterly, issue 8 (May 2025) which notes the contents.
May 19, 2025 at 1:29 PM
universalstc.bsky.social
CONCLAVE! 🗝️

As we await white smoke, read about some rare printed objects from early modern conclaves preserved in @natlibscot.bsky.social! In this post, USTC postdoc, @ciaokatet.bsky.social, explores blank conclave vote tallying sheets and sample ballots. #conclave2025 www.ustc.ac.uk/news/conclave
Detail of two of the [Four voting slips for the election of a Pope]. [Rome?: Reverenda Camera Apostolica?, 16--?], National Library of Scotland, Crawford.B.41(15). Reproduced with permission from materials on loan to the National Library of Scotland from the Balcarres Heritage Trust.
May 7, 2025 at 3:03 PM
universalstc.bsky.social
Gitika Sanjay, student of Modern History & Economics @standrewshist.bsky.social, explores the archival traces of a 18th-century text in a new post on our blog-'In Defence of ‘Abominable Practice’: Thomas Cannon’s Ancient and Modern Pederasty Investigated and Exemplify’d'!📜
ustc.ac.uk/news/in-defe...
An extract from Cannon’s text, which is held at the National Archives, Kew. 18th century manuscript writing on a warped piece of vellum with fold marks, stains and holes.
April 25, 2025 at 3:47 PM
universalstc.bsky.social
Cheers to a new blog!🍷

'Cheap Wine: A Warring Man’s Priority' by Zina Gharakhani, MLitt student in Early Modern and Reformation History @standrewshist.bsky.social

🍇 Explore wine industry regulations in Hapsburg Prague during the reign of Rudolf II.

#earlymodern

www.ustc.ac.uk/news/cheap-w...
Oil on canvas Portrait of Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolf II by Hans von Aachen, c. 1607, which is now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. Rudolf wears a bejeweled black hat topped by a feather and a fashionable lace ruff over his black jacket. Around his neck he wears the toson d'or, the symbol of the chivalric order of the Golden Fleece.
April 14, 2025 at 1:48 PM
universalstc.bsky.social
We are delighted to unveil the provisional programme for our upcoming conference on Newspapers and Periodicals, organised by @zbrookman.bsky.social, @apettegree.bsky.social and Arthur der Weduwen, which will take place on 17 June and from 19-21 June 2025. #USTC25
April 9, 2025 at 7:03 PM
universalstc.bsky.social
🎺HEAR YE, HEAR YE:

We are happy announce our latest post, 'The Fabric of Everyday Life: Sumptuary Laws in Early Modern France', written by @cmfgillain.bsky.social, a postdoctoral researcher on the Communicating the Law in Europe, 1500-1750 project!

Read all about it: ustc.ac.uk/news/the-fab...
A seventeenth-century courtier dressed in a simpler style with fancier clothes he has abandoned bing arranged on a chair by a servant. The setting is an early modern interior with a tapestry on the wall and an open leaded window behing the courtier. Chairs line the wall. Below a poem in French explains the courtier's costume changes in response to a sumptuary edict.
March 17, 2025 at 4:31 PM
universalstc.bsky.social
'the moneth of March, which entreth like a Lion 🦁, but goeth out like a Lamb 🐑.’

🌬Today’s windy weather in Scotland, where the @universalstc.bsky.social is based, shows some truth in this saying. And we certainly hope that the second part holds up as the end of March approaches!
The title page of a seventeenth-century book. The title and borders are printed using a letter press while the image below the title is an engraving. The title begins with the Greek word Dendrologia. The title below is described as Dodona's Grove, or the Vocal Forest. In the engraving two figures tend to a garden at the base of a tree: one a bearded man dressed in classicizing garb waters plants using a watering can; another figure who faces away from the viewer kneels and tends to plants. The name of God in Hebrew appears in a sunburst that emerges from the top of the tree. There are various Biblical citations and quotations from Virgil that surround the scene.
March 4, 2025 at 3:35 PM
universalstc.bsky.social
Learn more about the relationship between Polish print and the Latin language in the early modern period in our latest blog ‘We are Poles, so, of course, we print in Latin’ by COMLAWEU PhD student in @standrewshist.bsky.social, Paweł Pietrowcew!

www.ustc.ac.uk/news/we-are-...
The title page of a sixteenth century book entitled: 'LEXICON LATINOPOLONI-CUM EX OPTIMIS LATINAE LINGVAE SCRIPTORI-BUS CONCINNATUM, which is dated to 1564. There are some faded manuscript annotations under the main title of the text.
February 27, 2025 at 4:46 PM
universalstc.bsky.social
We're excited to reach 1,000 followers (and counting) on Bluesky!

In honour of this milestone, we'd like to share our catalogued edition with the USTC no. 1000:

Les illustrations de Gaule et singularitez de Troye Lyon, Etienne Baland et Jean Rocher, 1510

www.ustc.ac.uk/editions/1000
an illustrated title page of an early modern book
February 18, 2025 at 8:04 PM
universalstc.bsky.social
As Spring approaches, it's the perfect time to plan this year's garden.🌳🌹🪴🌷

In our latest blog post, Book History MLitt student, William Lewis, offers Scottish garden inspiration in ‘A Scottish Country Garden: Horticultural Handbooks in a 1700 Edinburgh Book Auction’ ustc.ac.uk/news/a-scott...
a geometric plan for a garden divided equally in a grid with four different patterns in each quadrant
February 17, 2025 at 11:18 AM
universalstc.bsky.social
In need of a love poem for your amour today? 💌 Look no further - this blog from the USTC archives explores a book of romantic poetry by Jean Bouchet, Les angoisses et remeds d’amours (The agonies and remedies of love), which was popular in sixteenth-century France. ustc.ac.uk/news/valenti...
February 14, 2025 at 2:18 PM