Percy Cruikshank’s Panorama of the Franco-Prussian war (1870) in context

On By europeancollectionsIn E-resources, French, Historical collections, New Acquisitions, Special collectionsLeave a comment

Two years ago, Cambridge University Library acquired a satirical pocket-size (but 3 meters long, once unfolded) Panorama of the Franco-Prussian war by Percy Cruikshank (1870) (8000.e.354). This work is a good complement to the library’s Collection of 1870-71 Franco-Prussian caricatures from a British perspective. In a talk taking place on Thursday 7 March from 5-6pm in the University Library’s Milstein room, as part of the Cambridge History of Material Texts seminar, we are going to present Cruikshank’s panorama and contextualise this work within the author’s creation of other comic cartoons produced in the concertina format.

Panorama of the Franco Prussian War, painted by PC [Percy Cruikshank], London : F. Platts, 185 Fleet Street EC, & Mann Nephews, 39 Cornhill E.C., [1870-71].
Percy Cruikshank, The Comic History of the Russian War, London : Read & Co., 1856-57.

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Postage stamps : the Ukrainian item(s) of the month

On By europeancollectionsIn New Acquisitions, Slavonic, UkrainianLeave a comment

Books about stamps are not a huge business in modern purchasing at the University Library, but they can be incredibly interesting to more than the dedicated philatelist.  We recently bought two volumes about Ukrainian stamps more for the principles and attitudes reflected in the stamps than for the images themselves.  What inspires a government agency in its selection of images?  It’s a particularly keen question when it comes to a country whose last 10 years have seen parts of its territory overtaken by illegal annexation and ruined by a growing war.

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24.02.2022 in the words of Ukrainians

On By europeancollectionsIn English, New Acquisitions, Slavonic, UkrainianLeave a comment

Today Ukrainians remember the shock of the air strikes in the early hours of 24 February 2022 that heralded Russia’s full-scale invasion of their country and mark the appalling destruction and loss that continue to this day.  A great deal has been written across the world about Russia’s move from the previous 8 years of conflict to this open war (“special military operation”) but in this post we focus on what has been written specifically by Ukrainians, including new translations into English.

Interest in the Ukrainian language outside the country leapt following Russia’s assault, as awareness of Ukrainian culture and identity grew and as those working with and hosting refugees from the war worked to gain at least basic knowledge of the language.  But the many resources we collect in the UL in Ukrainian to capture Ukrainians’ experience of the devastating war will still have a fairly small audience, so we try to pick up translations into English as much as possible too, so that all our library readers have the chance to hear directly from those facing the attack.

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Ukraine, 20 February 2014, and a decade of the Russo-Ukrainian War

On By europeancollectionsIn English, Slavonic, UkrainianLeave a comment

The 20th of February is full of significance for Ukraine, and this post looks at new library material about the events it recalls.

February 2014 saw the culmination of the Euromaidan protests in the Revolution of Dignity and also the start of the Russo-Ukrainian War.   The 20th specifically saw both the greatest loss of life in Kyïv during the Revolution with over 20 protestors killed by the security services and also the start of Russia’s armed invasion of Crimea which would soon be followed by the outbreak of war in the east of Ukraine.  With the second anniversary of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine coming this Saturday, it would be easy to roll the anniversaries together but it’s important to acknowledge separately the events of 2014 and contemplate the fact of a decade of war, occupation, and lost lives.

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Albrecht Altdorfer: bringing landscape to the fore

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February 12 marks the anniversary of the death of Albrecht Altdorfer (1480-1538), little known today but an artist who lived at the same time as the much better known Albrecht Dürer (subject of an earlier blog post here) in Regensburg on the river Danube, just 60 miles from Dürer’s native Nuremberg. I only became aware of him in autumn 2023 when I saw an impressively detailed etching in the Graves Gallery in Sheffield with the caption “one of the first to take an interest in landscape as an independent subject”, i.e. treating the landscape as the subject of the work rather than just a background. The etching on display was of a large spruce; the same etching, in a version with watercolour, appears on the front cover of a book devoted to an exploration of Altdorfer’s landscape works: Albrecht Altdorfer and the origins of landscape by Christopher S. Wood (2014 2nd ed., 405:82.c.201.3). Continue reading “Albrecht Altdorfer: bringing landscape to the fore” →

La Complainte de Badinguet by André Gill (1870): translation and exhibition

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A new exhibition of a selection of facsimiles of Cambridge University Library’s collection of 1870-71 caricatures is opening on 12 February at the Seeley Library (History faculty). This accompanies an ongoing translation project. This year, Geordie Cheetham worked on the translation and commentary of the song “La Complainte de Badinguet” (Badinguet’s Lament, CUL, KF.3.9, p. 162), published in Paris c. 1870 and attributed to the caricaturist, painter and song-writer André Gill (1840-1885).

This satirical piece imagines the (by that point former) French Emperor Napoleon III writing a lament following his defeat and capture in the Franco-Prussian war (1870-71). He was nicknamed ‘Badinguet’ after the name of a worker who helped him escape from prison following an attempted coup in 1846. The image shows the demoted emperor playing a barrel organ inscribed “Sedan” and his son Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte picking his nose and making a collection, accompanied by a skeletal eagle. Continue reading “La Complainte de Badinguet by André Gill (1870): translation and exhibition” →

Finnish municipal architecture

On By europeancollectionsIn Finnish, New Acquisitions, ScandinavianLeave a comment

At the end of 2023, we received a donation of architecture books from Roger Shrimplin, a Cambridge MA and practising architect.  The books we had selected from the list Mr Shrimplin had sent to us were mainly in English, Spanish, and various East European languages, but among them was also this lovely 1985 book in Finnish and Swedish.

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