Awesome Archives

"In other words we think we have found the basic copying mechanism by which life comes from life..." | Books & Manuscripts Auction | Christie's

smithsonianlibraries:

To conclude preservation week, a link to all the blog posts from our book conservation lab about what they do to preserve Smithsonian Libraries collections, including simple paper repairs, mold remediation, paper washing and even dis-binding and re-binding.*

*don’t worry, we keep the old boards

“His hands were weak and shaking from carrying far too many books from the bookshop. It was the best feeling.” 
― Joseph Gordon-Levitt, The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories: Volume 1

(via bremertonrarebks)

theparisreview:

“In our age of increasing distractions, the need for perspective and reflection is essential.”

Artists Candy Chang and writer James Reeves are transforming an abandoned gas station in the Mojave desert into a library “dedicated to pilgrimages and personal transformation.” 

While the Philosopher’s Library project is just beginning, you can share the books that have changed your life on the project’s website and they will be included in the library’s catalogue. (Sebald’s The Rings of Saturn, if interested.)

(via libraryjournal)

uispeccoll:

New Acquisition: 1878 La divina commedia di Dante with the smallest movable type ever cast. Tiny is the only word to describe this 58mm volume. Test your eyesight by stopping by.

Muhammad Ali Center to Open Soon

The Muhammad Ali Center is developing a library and archives stocked with all things Ali that will serve as an international clearinghouse for research on the three-time heavyweight boxing champion.

The library is expected eventually to house several thousand Ali-related items, including many provided by Ali and his wife, Lonnie, to the center, which opened on Sixth Street near River Road in 2005.

The items will include some of Ali’s medals and awards, newspaper clippings, magazine articles, books, films, videos and many photographs, as well as personal memorabilia such as a robe he wore in the ring, personal Korans and programs from the 1960 Olympics, at which he won a gold medal.

…

Casey Harden, the center’s associate curator, said that one goal for the Ali Center Library and Archives is to serve as a repository for a planned Ali oral history project.

Harden said the center wants to interview people who over the decades had dealings with Ali, as well as at least a few who were inspired or influenced by him. People interested in participating in the project can call the Ali Center at 992-5343.

There are archives for everything. You never know when your particular interest might make you stand out from the crowd.

hevelincollection:

From 1970, Orcrist no. 4/Tolkien Journal no. 13, with cover by Peter Poplaski.

puszcza:

the Complutensian Polyglot Bible

This masterpiece of Catholic scholarship was printed between 1514 and 1517 in Alcalá de Henares (“Complutum” in Latin), in Spain but was not issued until the Pope gave his permission in 1522.

The Library of Congress has one of the 150 some copies still extant.

erikkwakkel:

Smart bookmark

This object was in common use in medieval libraries, even though very few survive today. It’s a bookmark - and a smart one for that matter. As with our own bookmarks, it tells you where you are in the book: the rope was attached to the binding and placed between two pages. The reader subsequently pulled down the marker along the rope to the line where he had stopped reading. Since an open medieval book often presented four text columns, the reader then turned the disk to indicate in which column he had left off. In this case we read “4” in medieval Arabic numerals - the column on the far right. So this tiny piece of parchment marks it all: page, column and line. That’s what I call smart.

Source unknown, likely 13th or 14th century

LOOK AT THE FUCKING SCRIBE CHANGES ON THIS PAGE

hokuton-punch:

it’s like someone looked over the first scribe’s shoulder and said “FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, HOW CAN YOU WRITE LIKE THAT” and just physically stole the leaf out of their hands to try and show them how it’s done

“LOOK DO YOU EVEN KNOW HOW RULING WORKS”

“YOU’RE RUINING IT and I do so know how ruling works”

then the head scribe yelled at them both and made the second scribe give the leaf back

if those scribes weren’t rivals before they sure are now

… best idea for a shounen manga ever