#marginaliamonday

Extra Illustration

The early reader of this early German book of sermons clearly had some artistic talent...which absolutely cannot be said for many (most?) others.

Atlases offer a fair amount of space for doodles on the verso side of plates. Our copy of Olney’s School Atlas shows some fine signature flourishes as well as some drawings of rural homes.  

Mini-cule

We are smitten with the tiny pointing hands (aka manicules) in our 1495 edition of sermons by Johannes Tauler. 

These characters drawn on the flyleaf of a financial daybook (1791-1792) from the Benjamin Rush papers show that doodling in otherwise meticulous notebooks is a centuries-old pastime.  

It is #MarginaliaMonday and we are marveled by these leaf prints made by Francis Daniel Pastorius in our copy of Apparatus eruditionis... (1670).

Some people think this is particularly savage, to draw in books to highlight an important passage. However, we think this is evidence of a book well-loved, and gives insight to its life and should never be disposed of.

The classic “pointing finger” is also called a manicule. 

Marginalia Monday: Valentine’s Edition

The annotator of this 16th century Latin bible (one of our favorites for all its interesting markings) always adds what looks like a little heart to the “nota” abbreviation and pointing finger.

Annotated Annotations

What a complete surprise to open this book and find that the printed text on Jewish antiquities and religion by Adriaan Reelant (1676-1718) has been interleaved with pages full of manuscript notes and drawings. There are foldout maps and plans–all drawn by hand–and sometimes even the annotations have annotations. Both printed text and manuscript text are in Latin, though the annotator clearly has facility in Hebrew and some Greek as well.

The drawing in the final image illustrates the position of the hands in the priestly blessing.

Who is the reader? When, why, how? A fascinating piece that merits further study.