Sorry I don't have my age verification thing set up, could you email me instead at anna-lujz [dot] gilbert [at] manchester [dot] ac [dot] uk ?

Thank you!!

Thank you! Yes and so hard to find the evidence (for books at least: sale catalogues are great but they only really give detail for the high end of the market)

Thank you!

This is so nice to hear Alex! Hope it's useful

Thank you Katie!

Noooo!

I had no idea of this and I grew up on the Wirral! There I was, doing my history A Level module on the Tudor Court with the star chamber ceiling hanging out a few miles down the road

So cute! Round here (Exeter) we also get Lucombe Oaks with similarly cool acorns because they were bred by an Exeter plantsman in the 18th century—I love spotting them as living local heritage.

It makes me think of Andrew Stauffer's work on the at-risk book traces to be found in university circulating collections. And also opportunities for teaching using the circulating collections, rather than (or as well as!) special collections

I love Muller's note here, saying that she only wrote a simple gift dedication because she was aware that the book might be seen by others, indeed hoped it would be. She signs off as "your friend in ever living sympathy". There's so much going on here for books, sociability, and nature of evidence.