#bookhistory

[houghtonlib]

Marginal animals from a medieval breviary.

Ordo breviarii secundum consuetudinem Romane curie : manuscript, [ca. 1480]

MS Typ 219

Houghton Library, Harvard University

[muspeccoll]

640-year-old fly, anyone?

We're not sure how long this fly has been in this 14th-century notary's notebook, but it was a favorite among the students who spotted it in class a few weeks ago.

La Turade, Bernard de. [Notarial Registry]. 1383-1393. VAULT DC95.A2 N6 1383

[hdslibrary]

Framed

We found a glittering surprise when we opened this volume from 1501/02. The book contains the Latin text of the biblical book of Ezekiel, along with commentary by the 13th century Dominican priest, Hugh of St. Cher.

The decorated letter here (the only one found in this volume) has a frame border which itself echoes the framing of the biblical text by its commentary.

Biblia latina cum postillis Hugonis de s. Charo. [Basel : Johann Amerbach for Anton Koberger, 1498-1502]. (v.5)

[upennmanuscripts]

Today's #FloraFriday is a page from LJS 62, an herbal in the tradition of Dioscorides, a Greek pharmacologist who wrote his De Re Medica in the first century CE. This text including the illustrations were translated and copied for over 1500 years.

Online: https://bit.ly/3iT6Hq8

[alex-illustration-graphics]

Верительная грамота императора Империи Великой Цин (Китая) Пу И императору Николаю II, представленная на выставке "Всеобщий язык" в ГМИИ им. А. С. Пушкина в Москве. В январе 1909 года во все страны, с которыми Китай поддерживал дипломатические отношения, были разосланы письма о вступлении на престол нового императора - Айсиньгиоро (это название династии) Пу И. Одно из них было направлено в Санкт-Петербург. Письмо составлено на двух официальных языках империи - китайском и маньчжурском. Документ в форме гармоники в твердой обложке хранится в папке, обтянутой желтым шелком с цветной вышивкой, изображающей драконов 🐉🐲 с пятью когтями (символика императора). На папке вышита надпись: «Верительное письмо императора Великой Цин». Письмо датировано 29 декабря 1908 г. Китайский и маньчжурский языки Документ - бумага, черная тушь, ксилография, рукопись; папка - вышивка, ткань, шелковая и металлизированная нить, кость Хранится в Институте восточных рукописей РАН, Санкт-Петербург #Китайскоеискусство #историядипломатии #историякниги #искусствокниги #традиционноекитайскоеискусство #китайскийдракон #искусствоВостока #империяияцин #гмии #всеобщийязык #chineseart #diplomatichistory #bookhistory #traditionalchineseart #chinesedragon #easternart #qingempire #commonlanguage #Pushkinmuseum #daand_art #daand_photo (at Москва • Moscow) https://www.instagram.com/p/CpnXJTVN_sa/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[dddots]

SQUARES: A THESIS

What are squares? And where are they in a book? Why are they called squares and how did they even come into existence? I am about to embark on a journey to learn and discover about the mystery of squares. Book squares is the research topic for my Masters programme thesis which will take me down the road through the history of bookbinding, the evolution of squares and what problems do they cause? Yes, I am so square, I can't help it.

[bigriverbindery]

Andrew is packing up for a week near this Jefferson designed rotunda at @rarebookschool. He’s excited to learn more about Publisher’s Bindings with @pattisonpaperworks and promises to come back with good stories and photos. #rarebookschool #bookhistory #publishersbindings #summercamp https://www.instagram.com/p/CehG_OQJSB8/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[kristabella]

Coronation Bible of George III 1747

This volume, combining the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer, is the one on which George III took his Oath at his Coronation in Westminster Abbey on 22 September 1761. Instead of producing a new edition, as for later coronations, copies of Thomas Baskett’s 1747 edition were bound in velvet. According to a note inside the volume, George III gave it to Richard Osbaldson, Bishop of Carlisle, who had been among the bishops who laid it in front of the King at the service, and would serve as Bishop of London and Dean of the Chapel Royal subsequently. The Bible was preserved in the library of the Osbaldeston family seat of Hunmansby, in the County of York, until it moved into the possession of Lord Amherst of Hackney via the Osbaldeston-Mitford family. The flyleaves of the Bible contain several royal autographs from the book’s residence at Didlington Hall in Norfolk, home of Lord Amherst.  He was clearly much visited by the Royal Family when they spent time at Sandringham.  In 1996, the book was presented, with the discarded frames of the State Crown of George I, the Coronation Crown of George IV and the Coronation Crown of Queen Adelaide, to King Charles III when Prince of Wales by Prince Jefri Bolkiah of Brunei, and transferred to the Royal Collection.  The frames are now on display in the Martin Tower at the Tower of London.

Provenance

Presented to King Charles III when Prince of Wales by Prince Jefri Bolkiah of Brunei, 1996

[a-s-levynn]

You're a librarian? That's so cool! How do you like it? I'm a big reader so I always think it would be so cool to work with books in a non-selling way (aside from any book bins there may be).

~phosphorescent-spectre

@phosphorescent-spectre tagging you because i don't know when you are active and it's been a bit since you sent this in.

Usually my previous job gets the "cool" sticker, so thank you!

I'm putting in a cut because it's me, you know by now i'm unable to be brief

To be perfectly honest i'm kind of on the middle with it? It's nice, it has cool moments, it pays abysmal and no one gives a shit about the field. At least here. And the truth it that it's like any other job, if your collagues suck the work sucks. And contrary to popular belief in a regular library there is little time to read if you work there sadly.

Now what is cool about being a librarian is the versatility. It depends on the library and what you are specializing in but generally, you can do so many things, not just the lending and cataloging. Especially in smaller libraries. Because besides the traditional jobs like lending, cataloging, orginizing, ordering books and journals etc you take part in event organizing and/or helding, which can include lessons from toddlers to eldery, it could be music program, author-reader meetup, educational seminar for schools or to the public.

Children's events, movie afternoon. If your library has space for it heck you can held coffee/tea house type events or if there is a garden than gardening based ones. Small theater plays for all ages. Whatever you can imagine. The one i work at, we do not have a garden or too many spaces, but we have a so called saloon library of an old noble couple and we do guided tours in that space. And i sometimes hold classes for university students who are specializing in bookhistory just like i did.

Anything and everything community based ideas are on the table as long as there is space and budget for it. So in general, the idea of being a librarian is preatty neat, but the reality is that the money is not great, the options are limited by budgeting and there are a lot of jaded professionals on the field. But still contrary to that, it is moving forward and in certain countries there are wonderful examples of libraries being progressive community hubs basically.

I'm not sure it answers your question but it's a bit more nuanced than a "ye cool go for it".

[karinaemelie]

When I get home I am mentally broken.

I leave my jacket on the arm of the couch and go to get a beer, which I drink while leaning against the counter. My mind goes over the last month and a half spent with Lena...

The dinners eaten in bed, between the exhausted sheets that still smelled of sex; the confidences shared on the couch, or during a hot bath; Lena walking around the living room with her hair untidy and only my sweaters to cover her...

I'm crazy about this girl and I still struggle to deny it to myself. I love living with her, sharing our time.... I love waking up and seeing her face first thing in the morning. I love hearing her whisper my name when I'm inside her.... But despite being the best thing that has come into my life, I am the worst that could have happened to hers....

From my book, The Dark Side Of Us, on Amazon

[demotulibrorum]

Medical Miscellany, 15th century (Loren Carey MacKinney collection on medieval medicine).

GIFed by Liliana Sánchez.

[houghtonlib]

Marginal grotesques from a medieval English chronicle.

Here bygynneth a boke in englysche tonge that Þat ys called Brute of ynglonde : manuscript, [ca. 1430]

MS Richardson 35

Houghton Library, Harvard University

[muspeccoll]

It's dandelion season here in Columbia, and thanks to a visitor to our reading room, we found a beautiful dandelion in our copy of Leonhart Fuchs' De Historia Stirpium (1542). Dandelions are native to Eurasia and may have been brought to North America for medicinal purposes by early colonizers. VAULT OVR QK41 .F7 1542

[hdslibrary]

Eclipse(s)!

We are pleased to be positioned on Earth like one of figures in the first picture and will get to experience the 2024 solar eclipse!

These diagrams illustrating solar and lunar eclipses are from a 16th century book of astronomy. For more on this interesting little book (including its volvelles, and an inscription by Swiss Reformed theologian Simon Sulzer) see earlier post here.

Sacro Bosco, Joannes de. Libellus de sphaera : Accessit eiusdem autoris computus ecclesiasticus, et alia quaedam, in studiosorum gratiam edita...Vitebergae : Per Iohannem Crationem, 1558.

[upennmanuscripts]

Just what every scribe needs: a bagpipe serenade. Today's #drollerydonnerstag is this talented bunny between columns of the first page of Ms. Codex 729, two unbound quires written in 14th c. France, text from a work dealing with a section of canon law #medieval #manuscript #fragment #illumination #illustration #bagpipes #bunny #rabbit #scribe #initial #inhabitedinitial #bookhistory #bookstagram #librariesofinstagram https://instagr.am/p/CdL4YX_l4Az/

[alex-illustration-graphics]

Верительная грамота императора Цин Пу И императору Николаю II, представленная на выставке "Всеобщий язык" в ГМИИ им. А. С. Пушкина в Москве. Китай. 29 декабря 1908 Китайский и маньчжурский языки Документ - бумага, черная тушь, ксилография, рукопись; папка - вышивка, ткань, шелковая и металлизированная нить, кость Институт восточных рукописей РАН, Санкт-Петербург В январе 1909 года во все страны, с которыми Китай поддерживал дипломатические отношения, были разосланы письма о вступлении на престол нового императора - Айсиньгиоро Пу И. Одно из них было направлено в Санкт-Петербург. Письмо составлено на двух официальных языках империи - китайском и маньчжурском. Документ в форме гармоники в твердой обложке хранится в папке, обтянутой желтым шелком с цветной вышивкой, изображающей драконов 🐉🐲 с пятью когтями (символика императора). На папке вышита надпись: «Верительное письмо императора Великой Цин». #Китайскоеискусство #историядипломатии #историякниги #искусствокниги #традиционноекитайскоеискусство #китайскийдракон #искусствоВостока #династияцин #гмии #всеобщийязык #chineseart #diplomatichistory #bookhistory #traditionalchineseart #chinesedragon #easternart #qingdynasty #commonlanguage #Pushkinmuseum #daand_art #daand_photo (at Государственный музей изобразительных искусств имени А.С. Пушкина) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cpg8-9Foe1g/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=