Hi #EarlyModern Bluesky - did you know that someone brilliant has built working printing presses using Lego and they are trying to get enough supporters so that Lego will release it as a kit?
They look so cool!
beta.ideas.lego.com/product-idea...
Green-blue-grey blocky soundwaves on background. Centred in black serif lettering “Sonance”, with “journal of early modern sound studies” underneath.
👀 Over the last few months, I’ve been working with the terrific triumvirate @spparkle.bsky.social, @emiliekmmurphy.bsky.social & Hannah Yip to set up “Sonance: A Journal of Early Modern Sound Studies”, a diamond open access journal dedicated to historic sounds in all their wondrous & eclectic forms.
The face of the punch of Baskerville’s 16pt roman capital S
The digitisation of the Baskerville punches is a really great resource. John Dreyfus’s account of their history is well worth a read too! They travelled all over France before ending up back in England.
#typography #bookhistory
cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/...
A close-up of a person wearing teal gloves holding a small metal type punch engraved with an ampersand symbol. In the background, part of the person’s face is softly out of focus.
A bearded man wearing teal gloves uses a green rubber air blower to clean a small metal type punch. He sits at a desk with an open wooden case filled with neatly arranged metal punches, while a computer monitor displaying a magnified image is visible in the background.
🔎 Rare 18th-century punches used to create the original Baskerville typeface have been digitised and released online.
Designers, historians and the wider public now have the opportunity to study the physical tools that shaped modern typography.
🔗https://loom.ly/1ulLaFI
A classy read. I must admit that, given the reference to “the Doctor” I did wonder if it was a Dr Who novel… 😂 All good here: just wrapping up Semester 1. Hope all well with you!
I have an entirely non-empirical pet-theory that the privatisation of the trains directly led to the downsizing of all the broadsheets through increasing overcrowding, with the exception of the FT and DT as *they* would be read in first-class…
Apply to be the 2026-7 Munby Fellow in bibliography and history of the book @theul.bsky.social
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPZ688/m...
Thank you! It's actually an adaptation of the map in Steve Rappaport's _Worlds within Worlds_ (1989), p.63. He used a b/w version of the Braun & Hogenberg map so I plotted the same lines over a colour version for my PhD thesis www.cambridge.org/core/books/w...
@tracelarkhall.bsky.social
🎉 @stationerscomms.bsky.social @bodleian.ox.ac.uk
Secretary of State Marco Rubio halted the State Department’s official use of the typeface Calibri, calling the Biden-era move “wasteful,” and ordered the return of Times New Roman as part of a push to stamp out diversity efforts. In 2023, Secretary of State Antony Blinken ordered the typeface change to Calibri to improve accessibility for readers with disabilities, such as low vision and dyslexia, and people who use assistive technologies, such as screen readers
D.E.I. shot the serif, but I will not shoot no Calibri
“scarcely see it”?
Gavlebocken stands proudly in the center of wooden fencing.
Gavlebocken being assembled with a large crane lowering horns on to its head
The head and body of Gavlebocken lie on a truck waiting to be assembled.
Parts of Gavlebocken lie on a truck waiting to be assembled.
“ Det doftar halm i luften och julkänslan gör entré. Movember ut, bockember in! ✨🐐
You can smell the straw in the air and the christmas spirit makes its entrance. Movember out, bockember in! ✨🐐” #gavlebocken #gavle
‘Centuries of printing preceded Gutenberg. As White is careful to describe, Gutenberg was born nine hundred years after printed texts were first produced in China by rubbing paper onto inked, carved woodblocks.’
Adam Smyth (@adamwithbooks.bsky.social):
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
New, and very interesting, #OpenAccess article on Early English Books Online:
Opening the black box of EEBO
academic.oup.com/dsh/advance-...
#History 🗃️
I’ve written a piece on the curious lack of media and political interest in the issues faced by our national @britishlibrary.bsky.social. This is strange given we live in a world where ideas, knowledge and research are a long-term source of innovation and insight
www.cityam.com/the-british-...
‘In focusing on the connection between print and preservation, we miss the culture of ephemeral texts that Gutenberg’s innovation unleashed.’
Adam Smyth on Gutenberg’s books
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Great to see this! Do you know if there’ll be a UK distributor? Very keen to get my hands on a copy once it’s published ☺️
A turquoise book cover with a orange-red design on the front, Illuminating Media: Transmitting the Renaissance in England, 1400-1550.
Hey hey, it’s now official on Concordia UP’s website, 20% discount code KENNEDY2026 at CUP (CAN) or Chicago (USD, link in next post) for Illuminating Media: Transmitting the Renaissance in England, 1400-1550! concordia.ca/press/illumi...
🎄✨ BRLSI Christmas Market 2025! ✨🎄
📍16–18 Queen Sq, Bath
🗓️ 27 Nov–14 Dec / 🕒 Mon–Wed 10–4 / Thu–Sun 10–6
Discover unique gifts from rotating local makers in BRLSI’s beautiful Georgian building 🎁 Plus, craft your own Christmas bauble with @lovemakerscafe! 💫
👉 brlsi.org/xmas/
Delighted to help make this happen! I studied Jann Haworth and Peter Blake’s Looking Glass School when I was an art student. Jann and I shared a friendship with Sir Ken Robinson and later we ended up working together on various experimental arts education projects. www.brlsi.org/whatson/jann...
Interested in #books and the history of #printing? Looking for something great to do this week? Explore historical objects –including the oldest letterpress book in #BRLSI collections in an #exhibition curated by #students from #BathSpaUni #MakingYourMark. #Bath #Somerset
🎨👕BRLSI’s Academy of Imagination Becky is thrilled to share the two winning designs of our T-shirt design competition.
A huge thank you to all participants! Keep an eye on the Academy of Imagination page for upcoming events! www.brlsi.org/aoi/
You are related bodily to a solid block of metal letters, to the weight of the trays, to the adroitness of spacing, to the tempo and temper of the machine. You acquire some of the weight and solidity of the metal, the strength and power of the machine. Each triumph is a conquest by the body, fingers, muscles. You live with your hands, in acts of physical deftness. Anaïs Nin, The Diary of Anais Nin, January 1942.
AnaÏs Nin ran a treadle-press in the 40s and there's this wonderful quotation of hers I printed recently.
🐴 Black Beauty in Bath 📖
Discover how Anna Sewell’s life in Bath inspired Black Beauty. Join Dr Celia Brayfield to explore the story behind the beloved novel.
🗓 5 Nov 🕢 7:30–9pm📍 BRLSI & Zoom 💷 £3–£6
👉 brlsi.org/whatson/bl...
Our latest Viewpoint article is out: 'Guilds and Companies in London, 1200–1700: Contexts and Comparisons' by @mpdavies.bsky.social.
A 🧵 on the insights provided by this article into the history and historiography of these key metropolitan institutions in the medieval and early modern periods.
📜Bath History Festival 2025 comes to BRLSI on Sat 1 Nov! A full day of talks uncovering Bath’s past, from Richard III to the secrets beneath Bath Abbey. ☕Tickets include lunch, tea & coffee.
www.brlsi.org/bathhi...
#BathHistoryFestival #BathHistory #HistoryTalks
👀 @tracelarkhall.bsky.social @shgregg.bsky.social @bathspauni.bsky.social
Join Dr Tim Moore, @nationaltrust.org.uk curator, to hear the vibrant, often overlooked histories of people of colour in Georgian-era Bath
🎟️ www.brlsi.org/whatson/peop...
💡 Ahead of the talk, read our “Five Questions With…” interview: www.brlsi.org/dr-tim-moore...
#BlackHistoryMonth #GeorgianBath
Two BRLSI speakers have been nominated for the Wolfson History Prize! 🏆
📖 Dr Eleanor Barraclough – past talk on hidden lives of Viking Age women
🌍 Kieran Connell – upcoming talk on Britain’s multicultural history
#WolfsonPrize #HistoryMatters
📷A dolphin wrapped around an anchor - the logo by #Renaissance scholar #AldusManuitius, #BRLSIarchive.
This spirit of invention links Manutius to Gutenberg, whose revolutionary press is explored by Dr Kristian Jensen in Gutenberg & the European Invention of Printing
www.brlsi.org/whatso...
