Yucky, damaged, very very used books are the BEST, and I will die on this hill! We can learn so much about book history from wear and tear, and there are plenty of projects and discoveries that do just that. This video is my love letter to well-loved books!
Sometimes it’s cool to judge a book by its cover! In my new video, learn about the history of publisher’s cloth bindings, and why they’re so eye-catching (But also, sometimes, dangerous ☠️)
Check out this INCREDIBLE Victorian scrapbook dollhouse recently sold by Type Punch Matrix Every page is a unique collage of cuttings from books and magazines, and wallpaper samples! It’s probably one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen, tbh
What’s got 5 eyes and is red all over? This wild rubricated initial!
The initials in this incunable (incunable=book printed before 1500) are all some flavor of amazing, but these three are some of my favorites In 1477, when this book was published, a book would often feature printed text but hand-finished decorative initials. The artist in charge of these initials certainly had a good time! From the Smithsonian Libraries copy of Vincent of Beauvais’s “Speculum naturale”
What’s book history got to do with Magic the Gathering? A lot, actually! From the design of the card backs to key gameplay elements, books permeate the world of Magic.
I recently gave a talk about the artistic and mechanical importance of books in Magic, and what we can learn about the concept of the book as an object through card art. I spoke with artists Heather Hudson, Aaron Miller, Randy Gallegos, and Daniel Ljunggren to get a sense of what sources they used, and how they imagined books fitting into the wider world of MTG.
What’s book history got to do with Magic the Gathering? A lot, actually! From the design of the card backs to key gameplay elements, books permeate the world of Magic.
I recently gave a talk about the artistic and mechanical importance of books in Magic, and what we can learn about the concept of the book as an object through card art. I spoke with artists Heather Hudson, Aaron Miller, Randy Gallegos, and Daniel Ljunggren to get a sense of what sources they used, and how they imagined books fitting into the wider world of MTG.
Happy Fore-Edge Friday!✨ There’s nothing like a good gauffered and gilt edge… it makes any book feel like a treasure chest Gauffering is the technique of pressing a heated tool into the edges of a book to make an indentation; it’s similar to the way book covers are tooled! This lovely edge belongs to an 1861 edition of Eliza Cook’s Poems, part of my personal collection
Do you follow me on Instagram? I’m Book_Historia over there! I tend to post with more frequency over there, so pop over and check me out!
Earlier this year the Alexander Turnbull Library received a generous bequest from the estate of Mt John Barton, a New Zealand book collector resident in the town of New Plymouth.
Mr Barton (1931-2016) was born on Mersea Island off the coast of Essex, England. Around 1954, his family immigrated to New Zealand and settled in Taranaki. He followed suit two years later, first finding work with the Department of Lands and Survey before being employed as a radiographer at the Taranaki Base Hospital in New Plymouth where he remained until 1978. A few years later he took up employment with Kea Books, a second-hand bookshop located on Devon St. Barton’s bibliophilic mind was well suited to the work. He spent the rest of his working career there and retired as manager in 1991.
The bequest comprised 20 books printed during the 15th and early 16th centuries. Theology is the most prevalent subject, with the earliest publication being a collection of Pseudo-Augustinian tracts (shown here) printed in the town of Lauingen, Germany, in 1472 - one of only two titles printed in Lauingen during the 15th century. It is a remarkable little book typographically, as its roman type is one of the earliest produced in Germany and is unique to this edition.
Cataloguing of the collection is nearing completion and the books will soon be available for study.
Pseudo-Augustine, De anima et spiritu. Add: De ebrietate. De sobrietate. De quattuor virtutibus caritatis. De contritione cordis. [Lauingen: Printer of Augustinus, ‘De consensu evangelistarum’], 9 Nov. 1472, Alexander Turnbull Library, R407716.
Happy Title Page Tuesday! This fantastic 1561 Latin edition of Mattioli’s herbal is a part of the Croughan donation, which we wrote about here. As you can see, this particular copy has not had a quiet life tucked away on library shelves - it looks like it’s been used for quite a bit of penmanship practice by previous owners! Once books arrive in our library, we don’t allow users to leave personalized marks, but it’s always fun to find traces that tells us about a book’s past, even the ones that might seem somewhat irreverent.
Next in our #SIMSseries on LJS 26, an astrological and mathematical manuscript: At some point somebody added a new bifolium. It’s clearly different from the rest of the manuscript, written in a later hand, and the parchment sheet is smaller
Today’s#MicroMondays is a close-up of the water carrier in the Aquarius illustration in the calendar of LJS 463, a compilation of German texts concerning astrology and medicine.
Next in our #SIMSseries on LJS 26, an astrological and mathematical manuscript: How do scribes deal with a hole in the parchment? This 13th century scribe outlined the hole in red on one side, and simply wrote around it.
What’s book history got to do with Magic the Gathering? A lot, actually! From the design of the card backs to key gameplay elements, books permeate the world of Magic.
I recently gave a talk about the artistic and mechanical importance of books in Magic, and what we can learn about the concept of the book as an object through card art. I spoke with artists Heather Hudson, Aaron Miller, Randy Gallegos, and Daniel Ljunggren to get a sense of what sources they used, and how they imagined books fitting into the wider world of MTG.
It’s ✨Black Friday✨ and I’m having a sale on my range of hand-made book supports and page weights! 10% off when you buy any 2 or more items on my Etsy: https://etsy.me/3yzeix1
