Turning the Book Wheel
The Iconic Volute, drawn by the help of a shell.
From a lovely little volume entitled Spirals in nature and art; a study of spiral formations based on the manuscripts of Leonardo da Vinci, with special reference to the architecture of the open staircase at Blois, in Touraine, now for the first time shown to be from his designs…
Today in 1836, Richard E. Locke, writing for the New York Sun, published an account of life discovered on the moon by noted British astronomer Sir John Herschel. Here, in a portfolio of images from Leopoldo Galluzzo’s Altre scoverte fatte nella luna dal Sigr. Herschel , (1836) winged moon men (or “Moon Yetis” as we call them today) hunt moon bison and braid their girlfriend’s hair.
Ready for Carnival? you will be with these stunning hairstyle suggestions from The Virtuous Housewife (Die tüchtige Hausfrau) (1913)
Holiday Book Tree At The Keele University Library
Quick, where’s our extra set of the NUC??
Mrs. Brown, whoever you were, you had excellent taste in footwear.
From Ladies’ old-fashioned shoes from the collections of T. Watson Greig
Nothing can be ascertained about Mrs. Brown, the owner of this magnificent shoe, except her name. It is made of cloth of gold; of which, although for the most part the threads of the brocade are now tarnished and blackened with age, there still remain a few inches which have withstood the ravages of time, and which serve to indicate with what brilliancy and effect the chaussure must have gleamed and sparkled….It dates about the time of Queen Elizabeth, and …was procured in the vicinity of Kenilworth.
This year we digitized 1665 items from our History, Art, and Culture library collections including many gems that have appeared sporadically on this tumblr. This is in addition to the over 2000 items we scanned for the Biodiversity Heritage Library. All are available on the Internet Archive for free (as in beer) for reading, downloading, reusing and remixing. We’ll keep on digitizing until someone tells us to stop (in which case we will ignore them) or until we run out of books or money.
Shout out to Erin, Gilbert, JJ, Daniel, David, Stefaan and all the SIL staff who feed the scanning beast.
From Anecdotes of remarkable insects: selected from natural history, and interspersed with poetry by Joseph Taylor (1817)
To the Grasshopper. Happy Insect ! blithe and gay Seated on the sunny spray, And drunk with dew, the leaves among, Singing sweet thy chirping song. All the various season's treasures, All the products of the plains, Thus lie open to thy pleasures, Fav'rite of the rural swains. On thee, the Muses fix their choice, And Phoebus adds his own. Who first inspir'd thy lively voice. And tun'd the pleasing tone. Thy cheerful note in wood and vale Fills every heart with glee ; And summer smiles in double charms While thus proclaim'd by thee.Like Gods canst thou the Nectar sip, A lively chirping elf; From labour free, and free from care, A little God thyself!
Monkey sitting on a cushion smoking a pipe. What more do you want??
From:Johann Matthäus Bechstein’s Naturgeschichte; oder, Anleitung zur Kenntniss und Wartung der Säugethiere, Amphibien, Fische, Insecten und Würmer, welche in der Stube halten kann, 1797
Illustration of insects and flowers, from Maria Sibylla Merian’s Raupen wunderbare Verwandelung und sonderbare Blumennahrung (1730) ( “Caterpillars, Their Wondrous Transformation and Peculiar Nourishment from Flowers” ) this image is from a later translated edition of Merian’s original, which was published in 1679.
The Getty has an excellent online exhibition of some of her other work.
