Museum Day

I had two essays due on Wednesday, so for a break I took Thursday off and went to the Science Museum and the V&A.

Half of the main hall of the Science Museum is taken up by a wonderful gallery called ‘Making the Modern World‘ that showcases important technologies and inventions from 1750 to the present.  Some of the things I was particularly taken with included a working model of a belt-driven workshop, Watson and Crick’s DNA model, the first difference engine, the first atomic clock, glass created by the Trinity nuclear test, and a Jacquard loom with punch-cards.  I was a bit disappointed, though, that there were no examples of printing technology on display, especially since the nineteenth century was such an innovative period for the industry.  Upstairs, though, is a walkway overlooking the main gallery, and lining it are models, like this one:

A scale-model of the Timson MK III Litho Wun-Up from 1976.

(Sorry for the blurriness.)  So, not exactly revolutionary, but kind of cool anyway.  Especially that mid-century avocado green; how could you go wrong with that?

Next stop was the V&A where I wandered, completely lost, through galleries for several hours (and this wasn’t even my first visit).  Here are the bookish highlights.  First, in the twentieth-century design room, this awesome, wildly impractical bookshelf that I believe has been featured in a number of blog posts about unique bookshelves:

Next, a display on the 40th anniversary of the Booker Prize, including short-listed and winning novels from the collection of Peter Straus.  (Again, apologies for the quality, my camera does not do well in low light.)

Links

— Robert Darnton has a thought-provoking essay on Google Book Search in the most recent New York Review of Books, in which he compares the modern information economy to that of the Enlightenment.

— The Guardian’s excellent series on the 1000 novels you must read is, indeed, available online.  Check it out!

— Jeremy points out a massive Ebay autograph forgery scam as well as Obama’s first executive orders related to Presidential records policies.

— The Cynic Sang points out that Google Maps has teamed up with the Prado to display extremly high-resolution photos of fourteen paintings.  I checked this out and it is really cool; you can get close enough to see individual brushstrokes and tiny cracks.

— William found something wonderful in the back of a book.

— From the Book Cover Archive, Great War Dust Jackets.

— Via Morbid Anatomy, images from a French hypnotism manual.

— Also from the Guardian, Virginia Woolf on reading.

Happy Inauguration Day!

I’ll probably be watching the big event from my laptop.  Or, I may get really crazy and go down to the dorm lounge/bar.  Exciting!

If, like me, you can’t make it to the Mall, you can check out this photo-filled post on the Lincoln Inaugural Bible at the blog of the Library of Congress.  The LOC also has an online exhibit of inaugural materials, including Thomas Jefferson’s manuscript of his first inaugural address and a draft of the poem Robert Frost composed for the Kennedy inauguration.

Nathaniel Currier (1813-1888)
James M. Ives (1824-1895)
Washington’s reception by the Ladies, on Passing the Bridge at Trenton, N.J. , April, 1789: on his way to New York to be inaugurated first President of the United States. New York: N. Currier, ca.1845
Lithograph
Prints & Photograph Divisions (3A)
LC-USZC4-703 [cph 3b52213]

CSI: Rare Book Room (cue the dramatic music)

There’s a piece in Wired today on a North Carolina State University professor who’s investigating the use of DNA analysis for medieval manuscripts.  He hopes to create a database of manuscripts with known provenance for comparison with unknown manuscripts.  While I find this intriguing, and do think it could be a good tool in combination with textual and palaeographic methods, I find myself becoming wary at talk of one technology solving all our historical problems.

In addition to pinpointing manuscript origin, such a taxonomy could flesh out the as-yet-murky transition from monastic to commercial publishing.

“When did books become a business, as opposed to something monks did? That’s a puzzle nobody knows,” said Stinson. “This could be a social history of producing a good for trade.”

Actually, we know a lot about this subject already.  Lay scribes and illuminators (usually transient) were common in the late Middle Ages, and they often worked on books cooperatively with monastic communities.  During the twelfth century monastic influence waned and urban universities developed, increasing the need for  both secular and religious books.  Scribes began to settle down and became integrated into academic communities, and the stationer system was developed in order to protect students and provide some university control over book production (a bit like the authorized campus bookstores we have today).  Licensed stationers loaned scribes exemplars called pecia, from which they copied texts.  Because each pecia was only part of a book, multiple scribes could work on a text simultaneously.  It was this early mass production/piece-work system that paved the way for the printing press in the fifteenth century.

DNA analysis could help fill the gaps in our knowledge of this period, but I certainly wouldn’t describe it as solving ‘a puzzle nobody knows’ or the forging of a new type of social history.  I’m not inclined, however, to blame the researcher, as I assume that Wired has focused on only the most exciting bits from the interview.

Making Visible Embryos

The Cambridge University Department of the History and Philosophy of Science has created an absolutely wonderful online exhibition called Making Visible Embryos.  It looks at changing perceptions and imagery regarding human prenatal development from the late Middle Ages to the present, and includes illustrations from a number of interesting, early modern printed works.  The exhibit is extensive – make sure you go through both layers of tabs to get all the good stuff.

Doppelganger

I planned today to do some reading at the British Library on, among other things, printing during the Italian Renaissance.  At circulation I was handed three books instead of the expected two, but, as I’d ordered several other items that were supposed to take longer, I just assumed that one had arrived early.  But right after I sat down the librarian came over and told me she had just realized that one book was special material and that I’d have to use it at a different desk.  I was a little surprised, because I didn’t think I’d ordered anything unusual, but I told her she could take it back and I’d change desks later that afternoon.

So a few hours later I get the book, sit down, make myself comfortable at the special desk, and open it up to discover that the title is actually Courtesans of the Italian Renaissance.  While this sounds like a fascinating subject, all I really have time for at the moment is the printing press and the Renaissance!  Not, um, Sex & the Renaissance.  I took it back to the circulation desk and we determined that someone else with the same last name and first initial, but a different reader number, was using the rare book reading room.  To learn about the Italian Renaissance.  Who are you???

Links

My only New Year’s resolution was to do a better job getting links posts up every week.

— I’ve mentioned that I’m working on a paper on medieval bestiaries.  With excellent timing from Cake Wrecks, (though this one isn’t a wreck) here is what might be my favorite cake ever.  This might be a slightly creepy sentiment for a modern wedding, so I’m happy to report that it was actually for an SCA event.  The same artist has created some very cool cakes that look like old books, using edible prints made from digital editions of early printed works.  Maybe I should consider this for my book history graduation party.

— Via Deeplinking, the new Book Cover Archive.  Beautifully designed, you can browse based on a number of categories like genre, author, artist, and publisher.  I could look at these all day.  They have a blog, and did I mention that you can make suggestions?

— Audra shares some awesome clips of parchment production from the TV show Dirty Jobs.

— I knew The Secret must have some use.

— From Paper Cuts, stray questions for Paul Collins.  You’ll definitely want to read this short piece for the bit about the bald mice.

— The Guardian begins a seven-part series on the 1000 novels you must read, starting Saturday, 17 January.  It’s free with the paper copy, but not sure if it will be online, as well – probably not?

—  From Bibliodyssey, The Jewel Book and the Birds of New Zealand (you can check out some of my older posts for a bit of background on this book – Part I and Part II).

— I walked down to Gosh! comics yesterday morning and requested a copy of this awesomeness, which should be available next week.  Now if only Spider-Man were regulating the banks.

Pinna

At the end of Fall term I was lucky enough to have a tutorial on quill pen cutting with Alan Cole, the curator of the Museum of Writing at Senate House Library.  I really enjoy hands-on crafty things, and I went into it knowing absolutely nothing, so it was a very fun learning experience.  The process is deceptively simple—you can learn all the steps in half an hour, but it would take a lot of practice to completely master the art.  Below are some pictures of my results.  This week I’m getting more quills to practice on, and later I intend to post a more detailed description of the procedures involved, along with step-by-step photos.

Goose quills.  Primary flight feathers with barbs intact.

Here we see a comparison between correct and incorrect.  The pen in the foreground was cut by Alan and finalized with a mechanical quill cutter (a bit like nail clippers).  The sad pen in the background was, unfortunately, cut by myself.

Comparison of the backs.

Side-on view, this is the correct result of the two the cuts that create the pen shape.  I’m not even going to bother showing you mine.

Another angle.

An example using the nice pen.  You can see quite clearly the place where the ink begins to run out and the heavier areas that appear following dipping.  Imagine having to dip your pen every two to three words, alternating between too much ink and too little, at least until you became quite a good scribe.  (Oh, and it’s freezing cold and there’s very little light.  Yay the Middle Ages.)

Close-up.  Clearly, I am not an expert pen cutter or calligrapher.  I do quite like the double-line effect of the almost-dry pen, though.

Yes, the second line is written with my pen.  Not good.  I assume that part of the problem is the too-short channel for the ink.

Immediately after dipping the quill.

Same.

This was too pretty not to post.

Clearly a very good day.

The internet broke for a week and I realized that I need a hardcopy dictionary.

I’m very happy to report that the Great University of London Residence Hall Internet Outage of 08-09 has finally ended.  I spent the last week and a half snatching web time in-between sessions of ‘real work’ when the British Library was open.  On Sundays and holidays (of which there have been many recenty , if you hadn’t noticed) I was just screwed.  Opening my RSS reader again yesterday was a terrifying experience, and I’m really sorry to report that I had to strike off as unread nearly one hundred CuteOverload and I Can Has Cheezeburger posts.

But anyway, to catch up with some things that happened over the holidays:

— Jimmy of the Occam’s Razor tattoo very kindly sent me an email providing further details about it.  Here’s what he had to say regarding the script:

Font-wise, I was just going for a feather quill pen dipped into an inkwell look.  After working with my tattoo artist for a month or so, that font just fit the bill.  I originally wanted a script that was more in tune to 13th-14th century handwriting, but after seeing some actual examples, I decided to go for aesthetics in lieu of period-appropriate verisimilitude since the writing from that era looked sorta ugly.

I have to agree with that.  A 13th century blackletter hand would certainly not be first pick for a permanent inscription on my body.

— Next, two good blogs have been brought to my attention:

Mercurious Politicus, covers “early modern books, history, and culture”.  In other words, all my favorite stuff.  And the author, Nick, is an MA student at sister institution Birkbeck, just across the street.  <waves!>  Definitely check this blog out for the fantastic, in-depth posts.  I particularly like the one on bookcases.

The Cynic Sang is the collaborative blog of the William Blake Archive, which covers issues related to Blake and to digital humanities in general.  I’m very excited about this one because I love William Blake, but also because I did a lot of interesting reading about the Archive in my digital humanities course over fall term, and I’m looking forward to keeping up with their blog.

I was also quite pleased to see the recent post on criticisms of the digital era as analysed through a book history perspective.  This is exactly the same topic I chose for my digital humanities essay, (in fact, I used the Library of Alexandria as one of my main examples) but I was completely unaware of the interview with Clay Shirkey in the Columbia Journalism Review, which appeared about the time I was finalizing the paper.