Here at the Rosenbach we celebrate all things bookish. Our latest exhibition, The Art of Ownership: Bookplates and Book Collectors from 1480 to the Present, celebrates the many wonderful bookplates throughout our collections and uses them to delve into the biographies of book collectors/owners. I happened to stumble upon another curiously self-referential book about books …
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The curious Sir Thomas Browne
It was a time of increasing globalization, sectarian conflict, and political polarization. No, I’m not talking about the U.S. today, but about Europe in the 1630s, when the Continent was tearing itself apart in the Thirty Years War and England was drawing the battle lines of its own Civil War, which erupted in 1642. In …
Need a last-minute Halloween costume idea?
If you’re still wondering what you’ll be for Halloween this year–and if our recent slate of Alice in Wonderland exhibitions hasn’t inspired you to go as the Queen of Hearts or the Cheshire Cat–here are some other random costume ideas drawn from creepy, silly, or just bizarre objects in our collections: Standard pirate costumes are …
Mary Shelley Acquisitions
We’re delighted to announce that the Rosenbach has recently acquired a rare first edition (1818) of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus, as well as first editions of Shelley’s novels Valperga (1823), The Last Man (1826), The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck (1830), and Falkner (1837). These terrific additions to our collections of English Romantic …
Moore on Vinyl
Marianne Moore listening to playback of her recording in Caedmon’s studio in New York, 1956. From the Rosenbach of the Free Library of Philadelphia, Moore XII:28:07, 2006.7542. Did you know June is Audio Book Month? I had no idea, but I’m a late adopter: it took a 13-hour drive to Charleston last summer for me …
Coryat’s Crudities
Title page of Coryat’s Crudities by Thomas Coryat. London: 1611. The Rosenbach of the Free Library of Philadelphia, EL1 .C833c I’ve been kicking around the idea of developing a Hands-On Tour relating to humor (if you haven’t been on one of our Hands-On Tours yet or don’t know what they are you can learn more …
Eat Your Vitamins
The first Italian edition of Gerrit de Veer’s diary of his arctic voyages (Tre Navigationi Fatte Dagli Olandesi e Zelandesi… Venice: Printed by Giovanni Battista Ciotti, 1599. A 599t). With a -2 degree windchill today seems like an appropriate day to consider a book about the arctic. You may have heard of the Northwest Passage, …
Fiasco! Act III
Act III: All Apologies Opera [Works] of Apuleius. Rome: Petri de Maximo, 1469 (edition princeps). The Rosenbach of the Free Library of Philadelphia, Incun469a. Within this fiasco-themed mini-series we’ve so far looked at collections that hint at theatrical and political debacles. This final act concerns a legal fiasco, and this one goes back to the …
Fiasco! Act II
Following on last week’s post about fiascos from our collections, we now bring you act II: Act II: Fire Ball Charles VI of France in an engraving from a later book on French kings. In The Rulers of France, MS f.233/22, The Rosenbach of the Free Library of Philadelphia. A document written by Charles …
Fiasco! Act I
Kathy is away this week working on something Sherlockian (which I’m sure you’ll read about here soon). In the meantime, this week’s blog post is motivated by perhaps the most notorious episode of NPR’s This American Life, which was the topic of lunchtime conversation recently at the Rosenbach. The theme: fiascos. If you want to …