Sam Brown

Long, rectangular, blockprinted amulet on vertical paper (technically a rotulus). The paper is a light tan/yellow color with short brown fibers still visible from the rags used to produce it. The upper print is a black square around a circle containing Arabic text, in turn around a six-pointed star. the lower print is 35 lines of angular Arabic script with blotchy smeared of ink around the border, caused by contact with the edge of the printblock. MET museum description: Talismanic Scroll 11th century On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 454 Centuries before block printing was introduced in Europe, the technique was used in the Islamic world to produce miniature texts consisting of prayers, incantations, and Qur'anic verses that were kept in amulet boxes. The text on this amulet is in the angular kufic script. The six-pointed star, a familiar symbol in Islamic art, is usually called "Solomon's seal."

This is an Arabic magical amulet, designed to be rolled up inside a necklace to provide protection to the wearer. The text includes several verses from the Quran. It was *printed* in Egypt around the 11th century, probably by a local (Romani?) magician. #medievalists #BookHistory #manuscripts

A body of knowledge: winter lectures Join us to explore recent research into how we investigate the history of libraries like the collections of the Royal College of Physicians.

Very excited for this evening's online @rcpmuseum.bsky.social event 📚 After a tour of the current bookish exhibition by @girlinthe.bsky.social, @awickenden.bsky.social will talk about libraries, and I will talk about some Arabic books. Get your ticket here ➡️ www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-body-of-...

A reminder to book for the (online) @rcpmuseum.bsky.social Winter Lectures next Tuesday! a guided tour of the exhibition by @girlinthe.bsky.social, a lecture on Lancelot Browne and Arabic books by @samuscript.bsky.social, and a lecture from me on libraries 📚 history.rcp.ac.uk/event/body-k...

7 more days 🥳

Join us next week in-person at the University of Cape Town or online!

Register here: tinyurl.com/yhayw8zy. Our conference program can be found here: sites.google.com/view/memorie...

Q and A with Kim Snyder, Director of "The Librarians" We Are Doc Women Presents an online Q&A with the director of "The Librarians", Kim Snyder.

📣 Librarian and library-loving friends! On Tuesday at 7pm GMT there’s a free online Q&A with Kim Snyder, director of ‘The Librarians’. For more details and to book visit www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/q-and-a-wi.... It’s being run by a UK documentary group but all are welcome!

Q and A with Kim Snyder, Director of "The Librarians" We Are Doc Women Presents an online Q&A with the director of "The Librarians", Kim Snyder.

📣 Librarian and library-loving friends! On Tuesday at 7pm GMT there’s a free online Q&A with Kim Snyder, director of ‘The Librarians’. For more details and to book visit www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/q-and-a-wi.... It’s being run by a UK documentary group but all are welcome!

Andrea Alpago (and it’s Browne, not Harvey annotating!)

Image of an open anatomy book showing a skeleton and other books in cases in the exhibition.

Open books in cases in the exhibition, the nearest book is in Arabic.

We are delighted to announce a virtual winter lectures for exhibition 'A body of knowledge' is open to book 👉 history.rcp.ac.uk/event/body-k...

🗓️ 6pm GMT, 9 Dec, £5
😍 Featuring a virtual exhibition tour & fascinating lectures from @awickenden.bsky.social & @samuscript.bsky.social!

#LibraryHistory

Thank you so much!! I'm very excited to see what you've found...

Oh this is very tantalising to hear!!

If there's anything more exciting than seeing a book you work on in an exhibition, it's surely being invited to talk about it. Very excited for this event next month!

📷 Lancelot Browne's annotated copy of Avicenna in Arabic at the @rcpmuseum.bsky.social exhibition, 'A body of knowledge'.

Crossing the world without an interpreter: Arabic studies in England 1550-1640

I'm thrilled to be teaching a short course on Arabic Studies in Early Modern England with Prof. Alastair Hamilton at @warburginstitute.bsky.social next month. We'll need to meet a minimum number of bookings to run, so if you're interested, sign up asap! warburg.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...

Here’s @drallotment.bsky.social & @mattsymonds.bsky.social talking about EBDO, @fredschurink.bsky.social talking about CEBEME, and @annalujz.bsky.social who has been instrumental to both projects, on our final DH panel. Very excited to play with both data sets over the coming weeks! #BuiltWithBooks

Here is Ted Simonds from @lampallib.bsky.social talking about
Sion College Library’s donors. His research is piecing together stories of people & books, both on & off the pages of the Book of Benefactors, and emphasised (for me!) how much bookish networks overlapped in the period. #BuiltWithBooks

Here is Joe Nankivell from @tcdlibrary.bsky.social talking about his very exciting project to digitally reconstruct the library of François Fagel. I think everyone in the audience left eager to play with his website, & wondering whether they could make their own digital bookshelves… #BuiltWithBooks

Here is @biblioraphic.bsky.social talking about evidence of how the Cotton Library was bound (red, green, blue, black, ancient and archival bindings!). There are Cotton MSS in my own research, so I’m very excited to learn more from Raphaëlle/ask her millions of questions #BuiltWithBooks

So pleased you enjoyed it Matilda, hope our paths cross again soon!

Here is @ellenwerner.bsky.social giving a fantastic paper about two Manchester apothecaries whose reading she is tracing through their books at @chethamslibrary.bsky.social. I obviously love early modern books and reading, but as a northerner myself, I find Ellen’s research particularly satisfying!

I had put *far* too much time into designing the programmes and conference bookmarks (zero regrets). As we prepared for people to arrive on day one we were tracking the printing order via FedEx. Cannot describe the relief and excitement I felt opening this box during the first panel… #BuiltWithBooks

I didn’t take many photos but here are a few... If you were there, do share any you have in the thread too! ⬇️ #BuiltWithBooks

I have thesis books in Chetham’s and parents not far from Manchester so I will definitely let you know if I’m around! Also, I know your whole supervisory team and they are amazing, you’re going to have such a good time.

Such exciting news, welcome to the UK - if you’re ever in London and fancy a coffee let me know!

And day 2 of #BuiltWithBooks was also a joy (so much so that I’ve spent most of today recovering from the excitement!). Thank you to all our speakers and attendees for making it a huge success - cake and merch for the win, but nothing beats a room full of interesting, generous book historians.

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Ah this would be amazing thank you, would love to hear whatever you know about Arabic books! And thank you for very kind words, I’m so pleased it went well and we all had such a good time!

And what an EXCELLENT paper it was - so excited to play with the tools and pester you with questions about using all the data (apologies in advance…)

I have such a big duplicate/used books/daybook rabbit hole to go down now, thank you!

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Such a fantastic first day at our @livesandletters.bsky.social Built with Books symposium. Heading home to finish my paper (😅) full of ideas and excited for day two. #BuiltWithBooks #EarlyModern #BookHistory

I *loved* the mummy and the pirates, and the whole paper!