Poll Books in Special Collections
With a General Election campaign in full swing, it seems like a good time for some blog posts about the sources we hold on the history of British parliamentary elections. As we all head off to our local polling stations on 7 May, one thing that we will take for granted is that when we […]
17th Century Adventures in Travel Writing
In 1627, at the age of only 21, Sir Thomas Herbert travelled to Persia and India as a low-ranking member of Charles I’s embassy to Shah Abbas I. His account of his experiences, Some Years Travels into Divers Parts of Africa and Asia the Great …, first published in 1634, was a great success and […]
Seditious works in Special Collections: the case of William Prynne (1600-1669)
One of our current projects in Special Collections is to identify material that could form the basis for undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations. To do this I’m getting the opportunity do one of the things that I enjoy most about my job: exploring our collections. Despite having worked here for two years, there’s still much that […]
Special Collections in the News
While we may be tucked away in the basement of the David Wilson Library there are plenty of exciting discoveries to be made in Special Collections, as recent media interest in our collections demonstrates. We had a busy week last week launching our new exhibition celebrating the life and work of Leicester author Sue Townsend. […]
The many languages of Sue Townsend
The Special Collections team has been joined for the last couple of weeks by Claire Preval, an undergraduate intern from the Department of the History of Art and Film. Claire spent her first few days doing a great job of sorting our extensive collection of foreign language editions of works by Sue Townsend and has […]
Incunabula in Special Collections
For a University the size and age of Leicester the Library has a surprising rich collection of incunabula (books printed before 1501). The invention of the printing press during the 15th century saw the beginning of mass production and mass circulation of texts and images across Europe. Our earliest printed work dates from the very […]
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