Most of the books that came to The University of Texas at Austin as part of the John Henry Wrenn Library didn’t look like old books when they arrived in 1918 and still don’t look old now—not as old, at least, as the publication dates of the printed pages inside would suggest. [Read more…] about Revealing an English Schoolmaster’s Piers Plowman
Books + Manuscripts
Seeing stars in the Blaeu World Map
A fascinating project to preserve and display the iconic 1648 Dutch world map is now underway. In previous blog posts, we revealed the history of the Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis Tabula (Blaeu World Map) and the family of cartographers, globe makers, printers, and publishers who created it. We also have discussed the science and conservation taking place to prepare the Texas-sized 371-year-old map (learn more about the map) for public display. [Read more…] about Seeing stars in the Blaeu World Map
The conservation behind the Blaeu World Map
In an earlier blog post, we shared the science behind the Blaeu World Map. This week, Kress Paper Conservation Fellow Emily Farek dives into the treatment taking place to help extend the life of this unique 371-year-old wall map created by Dutch cartographer Joan Blaeu in 1648. [Read more…] about The conservation behind the Blaeu World Map
Celebrating 100 years of Doris Lessing
Nobel Prize–winning author Doris Lessing was born one hundred years ago, on October 22, 1919. [Read more…] about Celebrating 100 years of Doris Lessing
Why are some books collected and others merely read?
During the latter half of the nineteenth century, cheap and shoddy reprints of Jane Austen’s novels brought her work to the general public. [Read more…] about Why are some books collected and others merely read?
Gutenberg Misbound
When Johann Gutenberg and his team published their Bible in the mid-1450s, what they were selling to buyers were sets of sheets, sheets of either paper or parchment that had text printed on them. What they were not selling were books—not, at least, if we take “book,” as we usually do, to imply a codex that is ready to read by turning a series of leaves held together at one edge. As I have written before, when a monastery, church, or private individual bought a Bible from Gutenberg, they had to find a scribe to add red text to spaces that the printers had left blank. Gutenberg’s customers had to find bookbinders, too.