A guest post by the Before ‘Farm to Table’ team
This week the Before ‘Farm to Table’: Early Modern Foodways and Cultures team turned their collective attention to Hannah Woolley (or Wolley), a British woman writer who was among the first women in early modern Britain to earn a living by her writing. She wrote across various genres during her life, providing readers with instructions on how to cook, how to perform household tasks, and how to manage employees. … Continue Reading
“What is that?” someone asks, pointing to the corner of one of the books open for display.
“This? Oh, it’s a book snake. Most useful object in the library!” I reply.
This conversation happens once in nearly every book display I do. People are fascinated by these little objects that are so ubiquitous in a special collection reading room that many of us hardly notice them.… Continue Reading
A guest post by Simon Newman
His name was Quoshey [sic], an Akan day name that tells us he was quite likely born on a Sunday on the Gold Coast of West Africa. But on Christmas Day 1700 Quashey was a frightened teenager who was a long, long way from home, as this short newspaper advertisement reveals.
A Negro, named Quoshey, aged about 16 years, belonging to Capt.… Continue Reading
Yes, indeed. As many of you quickly identified, each of the images in this month’s mystery post contain at least one ligature. In fact, all of the images are from a single set of type: the Aldine italic that was used at the press in Venice run by Aldus Manutius in the early part of the 16th century. These ligatures are one of the things that make this italic type so interesting to those studying the history of books and typography.… Continue Reading
Welcome to another Crocodile Mystery! This month, we ask that you look at the images below and tell us what they have in common. (Yes, we know there are many possible answers to this. Yes, we are looking for one in particular. And do excuse the blurriness; this is the last time we try to take zoomed in shots without a proper lens!)
Leave your thoughts in the comments and we’ll be back next week with the answer.… Continue Reading
When consulting a book with plates (that is, inserted leaves printed separately from the text), it is best not to assume that they have been placed in the same location in all copies of the same edition nor that their location in the book reflects the one intended by the author or the publisher.
In our copy of Hiob Ludolf’s book on the ancient Ethiopian language of Ge’ez, for example, the portrait of the Ethiopian abbot Gregory was inserted between leaves E1 and E2 (or pages 34-35):
while in the Bavarian State Library copy, it is located before leaf A, after the preliminary leaves including the author’s preface.… Continue Reading
