Daniel Bellingradt

Anotjer initial with a human head and a blunt in his mouth.

... clearly a blunt this initial is having in its mouth, but what do I know...

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Digitalisierte Sammlungen der Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin Hier finden Sie Digitalisate in bester Qualität von Büchern, Handschriften und anderen Medien der Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin.

You may find all these details, and more, much more serious stuff for #skystorians in here, if you fancy:

Laufenberg, Heinrich: Regimen SBB Ms. germ. fol. 1191

digital.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/werkansicht/...

One more initial with a human head blowing a trumpet

And one last trumpet blowing initial from this manuscript just for fun 🎺

Anotjer initial with a human head and a blunt in his mouth.

... clearly a blunt this initial is having in its mouth, but what do I know...

An initial with human faces on bothe sides. The tongues look like trumpets.

Meet the trumpet-tongue-twins!

A detail from a handwritten manuscript of around 1400 showing a drawn hand with a long finger leading the way to a text part. This detail is from Laufenberg, Heinrich: Regimen (SBB Ms. germ. fol. 1191).

And a manicule with a loooong and hairy finger making an impression...

An initial with a human head blowing a trumpet

*tooooooooot*

Another initial, this time with human faces to both sides, and the left head is on topm of a dragon body.

This one is special in more than one way, adding a #manicule, and a second face staring not so amused into the text: the human head on the left of the initial is not only breathing out artfully but (nota bene) the human head is on top of a dragon body! #bookhistory #dragons

Another initial with a human head breathing or screaming.

*screaming-breathing*

Another inital that looks like a human head sticking the tongue out.

*blowing a raspberry*

Another initial with a head breathing.

*pfffffffft*

Another initial with a head breathing.

*long air-breathing noise*

An initial forming a human head with a face: there is a party horn in the mouth of the face, hooting.

Let's say there is a well-known manuscript, in fact a guidance for a healthful living, written in 1429, a true medical-astronomical compendium, and this very manuscript also features a lot of striking initials with human heads blowing winds, hooting noises, making faces etc.

A few impressions:

Sure, but why the (mocking) monkey?

So what’s the background story of urine bottle using monkeys with medical expertise in Europe‘s past? #skystorians

Monkey doctors in York Minster's medieval stained glass. One is consulting a flask of urine whilst another treats the patient. The most obvious condition you can test for is diabetes - the urine is sweet - but colour, smell, the presence of blood etc are all hints towards the patient's condition.

Suspect he really is asking for a medical sample. There's monkey doctors in York Minster's medieval glass, for example, with flask of piss and all...

Managing Pandemics in Early Modern Germany, edited by Peter Hess, is out now with Berghahn books, and I've just learned that the introduction (which I wrote) is free to read on the website! www.berghahnbooks.com/title/HessMa...

The history of fashion and dressing has a chapter about working men in tights! #skystorians

It was and still is: men managing the opened tabs of the internet best when wearing stylish tights.

But if you do your multitasking in tights, as the monk in the images does, it might help the process.

In a nutshell: 🤖 👻 🦜

Let me echo this: the future ghosts enslaved to AI forever are made from the stolen texts and images, and knowledge, and human work in general. If you are a writer or artist, you’ll be an AI ghost parroting weird content tomorrow.

Another way to think of it: as an exercise, I asked ChatGPT and Claude to create a table of tech competencies students should develop by the time they graduate. Each model recommended itself as an essential technology to master, but not competitors. And people want to trust this with your research?

What do you do with eight cases of Baskerville font punches?!
Have lots of digital letter fun of course!
There's even RTI and 3D Models to play with ...
cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/...

Agreed.

🛜 🌐

🌐 📚

Watching books gradually be pushed to the margins of society is one of the stories of my life.

bsky.app/profile/dbel...