Source Archives Archives: University of Glasgow Special Collections

Move in a circular fashion and spokes will appear in the wheels.

A small part of a larger work found in this marvellous and heavily illustrated encyclopaedia. The Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary (Russian: Энциклопедический словарь Брокгауза и Ефрона, abbr. ЭСБЕ; 35 volumes, small; 86 volumes, large) is a comprehensive multi-volume encyclopedia in Russian. It contains 121,240 articles, 7,800 images, and 235 maps. It was published in […]

Continue Reading

Shells

A small part of a larger work found in this marvellous and heavily illustrated encyclopaedia. The Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary (Russian: Энциклопедический словарь Брокгауза и Ефрона, abbr. ЭСБЕ; 35 volumes, small; 86 volumes, large) is a comprehensive multi-volume encyclopedia in Russian. It contains 121,240 articles, 7,800 images, and 235 maps. It was published in […]

Continue Reading

Diver. Good Luck

A small part of a larger work found in this marvellous and heavily illustrated encyclopaedia. The Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary (Russian: Энциклопедический словарь Брокгауза и Ефрона, abbr. ЭСБЕ; 35 volumes, small; 86 volumes, large) is a comprehensive multi-volume encyclopedia in Russian. It contains 121,240 articles, 7,800 images, and 235 maps. It was published in […]

Continue Reading

Witchfinder General

Frontispiece of The discovery of witches. This woodcut depicts the self-styled Witchfinder General, Matthew Hopkins, with witches and their familiar spirits. Familiars were thought to be demonic imps which would assist the witches with their magic, often in animal form. Matthew Hopkins, England’s most notorious witch-hunter, centred his activities in Essex and the surrounding counties. […]

Continue Reading

Amorum, Cherubs

The Amorum Emblemata is considered to be one of the most important and influential of all emblem books. The collection was designed by Otto van Veen (1556-1629) and first published in Antwerp in 1608 in three polyglot versions: Latin, French & Dutch; Latin, Italian & French (as in this copy); and Latin, English & Italian. […]

Continue Reading

Giraffes on the Green

Giraffes Alive! Poster advertising the first giraffes on show in Scotland on Glasgow Green. The famed Bostock & Wombwell travelling Menageries, begun by George Wombwell in London in 1805, became the largest in Britain and toured the British Isles and the Continent, followed by America from coast to coast, South Africa, Australia & New Zealand […]

Continue Reading

Bird Song

The book is one of the seminal works of musicology and was hugely influential in the development of Western music – in particular on J.S.Bach (1685-1750) and Beethoven (1770-1827). Its author lived and worked at the Collegio Romano in Rome for most of his life and his position at the hub of a huge international […]

Continue Reading

The perfect form of a fruit-tree

A New Orchard and Garden and The Country Housewife’s Garden were Lawson’s only published works. They were first printed together in 1618* and proved popular enough to warrant further reprints in quick succession. Gardening had become a national passion in the Sixteenth Century. Then, as now, it was a recreation that brought peace and contentment, […]

Continue Reading

A most certain strange and true discovery of a VVitch

The pamphlet, written during the Civil War, describes how the witch was fired at by soldiers of the army of the Earl of Essex, “but with a deriding and loud laughter … she caught their bullets in her hands and chew’d them”. Eventually however one of the soldiers succeeded in shooting her. The title page of […]

Continue Reading