#rarebooks is an active hashtag on Bluesky. In the last 30 days, 42 people shared 80 posts with it — around 3 a day. Activity is down 8% versus the previous week, peaking on Jul 29 with 11 posts.

Posts with #rarebooks

Stephanie J. Lahey PhD

@sjlahey.bsky.social

over 1 year ago

Please enjoy this 14th century depiction of the Virgin Mary wrestling a ferocious demon while an angel babysits (because why not? 🤷🏻‍♀️). #MedievalManuscripts #Manuscripts #RareBooks #Women 📜 📚

Detail from a medieval manuscript: folio 155 verso in British Library, Yates Thompson manuscript 13. At the top of the image, a single line of Latin text in black ink. To the left of it and below it runs a bar border in blue, pink, and gold. In the empty space between the border and the line of text sits a painted miniature depicting the Virgin Mary, clad in blue and red robes and crowned, straddling a huge, hairy, ferocious demon. She has grasped the monster by its horns and straddles it, wrestling it to the ground. Her face shows only the mildest irritation. To the left, stands an angel clad in pale robes, its blue and green and yellow wings unfurled. The angel looks on placidly, holding the infant Jesus in its arms, as if the situation were entirely mundane. Frowning, the infant raises its arms, as if spurring his mother to even grander deeds.

19 99 420

Zanna Van Loon

@zannavanloon.bsky.social

over 1 year ago

Quote and tell me, because I’m curious to know: what book that you are currently reading would you recommend? I’ll start: Adam Smyth’s The Book Makers. Such a lively history of mostly fragmentarily known lives of book people. #books #rarebooks #bookhistory #earlymodern

Red, black and white paper cover of a hardback book with as its titel ‘The Book Makers. A History of the Book in 18 Remarkable Lives’ by Adam Smyth. The cover depicts people working in different parts of book production, such as binding, printing, papermaking etc.

62 35 385

Marsh's Library

@marshslibrary.bsky.social

over 1 year ago

Hello Bluesky, we've finally made it! Follow Marsh's Library for quality rare books content and terrible jokes #RareBooks #Libraries

Interior of Marsh's Library showing shelves with books and portrait at hte end

11 72 356

Aj d'Wit (Audrey)

@audjde.bsky.social

3 days ago

I have been shocked and angered to learn that rare books are being bought up by AI companies, the spines broken, pages scanned, then the book destroyed. My words flowed in protest. #BlueSkyPoetry #BSPP56 #August #poetry #ShelfDust Word prompt: Shelf Dust #Verse #ECK #Wordsmith #Books #RareBooks

8 14 40

Dr Liam Sims

@liamsims.bsky.social

over 1 year ago

Squished (sixteenth-century?) spider in a vast 11-volume edition of the works of St Augustine (Basel, 1506) @theulspeccoll.bsky.social (Peterborough.A.6.1-6). #spider #marginalia #saints #christianity #rarebooks #augustine #collecting #basel

12 42 259

Zanna Van Loon

@zannavanloon.bsky.social

2 days ago

At some point, someone looked at this limp parchment binding with a copy of the Index of Prohibited Books and thought: ‘That'll do for my calculations.’ #rarebooks #bookhistory #earlymodern 💙📚📜

Detail of handwritten calculations made on an early modern parchment binding with an early modern hand

Upper cover of the limp parchment binding with straps

Title page of the book reading Index expurgatorius librorum, the imprint reads that it was printed in Antwerp by Christophe Plantin in 1571

1 1 26

University of Exeter Special Collections

@exeterunispeccoll.bsky.social

over 1 year ago

Good morning to everyone, but especially to all the bears, for today is their special day! This illustration of a bear comes from 'Animated Nature' (1828) by Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon. 📷 Reserve 590 BUF #WorldBearDay #BearDay #RareBooks

Cropped image from a book showing a colour illustration of a bear. It appears to have a cheeky expression on its face, and a little red tongue is sticking out of its mouth!

6 58 227

Zanna Van Loon

@zannavanloon.bsky.social

about 19 hours ago

Should we dismantle the collage, catalogue & preserve the fragments individually, so that they can be identified, studied & made accessible to researchers? Or keep the collage intact, recognising it as a museological object in its own right? /2 #earlymodern #bookhistory #rarebooks

Detail of the different printed sheets pasted on the frame, displaying printed text, red-inked ornaments, copperplate engravings, and music print.

4 3 22

Old Paper Collector

@oldpapercollector.bsky.social

over 1 year ago

Collecting bookbindings made from reused medieval manuscript fragments offers a fascinating glimpse into the history of recycling and craftsmanship. Each cover tells a dual story: the book it protects and the manuscript it once was. #BookHistory #RareBooks #MedievalManuscripts

10 45 219

Zanna Van Loon

@zannavanloon.bsky.social

10 months ago

☞☞ Hands-on reading ☜☜ The manicules in #rarebooks are fantastically diverse. Some are tiny & discreet, others take up half the margin; some have flowing sleeves, or even little faces. They’re glimpses into the personality of readers/scribes highlighting passages worth reading. #bookhistory 💙📚📜