Old Paper Collector

Front of the fragment, a strip of parchment with handwritten text. There are a few thick red lines, and on the upper half a large red square, overprinting the handwritten text. Photo: MMFC.be

Back of the fragment.

It's not always easy... This #FragmentFriday is about an unidentified Latin text, B 255483:fragm.306. The text is difficult to read and overprinted with red ink - indicating that the original sheet of #parchment was used as a #Frisket sheet for printing a book in red and black ink.

🐘🐎🐫 #WorldAnimalDay — seventeenth-century style!

Frontispiece designed by Peter Paul Rubens and engraved by Cornelis Galle for De militia equestri antiqua et nova (Antwerp: Plantin Press, 1630).
An ode to cavalry — from centaurs to camels.

#BookHistory #PlantinPress #Rubens

Front cover of the almanac, showing handwritten text.

First opening of the almanac, showing the verso of the fragment used in binding with handwritten text, and the printed title page of the almanach with red and black text and an illustration of an armorial device.

The last page of the almanac, showing on the left a woodcut with the printer's device: two greyhounds holding a shield with 'IVG', the initials of the printer Jan van Ghelen. On the right is the inner sheet of the back cover, showing manuscript text.

The back of the almanac, showing a fragment of parchment with handwritten text. Some larger words are written in red ink.

It's #FragmentFriday! Have a look at this #Antwerp almanac for the year 1568. It's bound in a vellum fragment with writing from what seems to be the late 12th century. #Medieval #Paleography

It's (I think) a copy of the Decretum Gratiani, a compendium of canon law dated shortly after 1140.

📜 📚💙

Detail of a manicure and a little face gesturing towards the handwritten text of a manuscript in gothic script written on parchment. The man depicted seems angry. The manicure has a sleeve

A manicule with a stretched sleeve drawn in red in the margins pointing towards a text in Gothic script written on parchment

A manicule used to highlight a rubricated section title in a medieval manuscript written in gothic script on parchment

A very large vaguely drawn manicule pointing towards text in gothic script written on parchment

☞☞ Hands-on reading ☜☜

The manicules in #rarebooks are fantastically diverse. Some are tiny & discreet, others take up half the margin; some have flowing sleeves, or even little faces.

They’re glimpses into the personality of readers/scribes highlighting passages worth reading.
#bookhistory 💙📚📜

Ik kreeg hier de suggestie XPS|IHS.

Ik kan vooralsnog niet zeggen dat deze methode een beter resultaat geeft.

Het boek is gedrukt in 1496 in Basel.

Dialogorum libri quattuor, Gregorius de Grote.

sites.google.com/view/oldpape...

Ik denk niet dat ik er de materialen voor heb. Een potlood en vloeipapier? Gaat het daat mee?

De Collectie Soeterbeeck Aangeraakt door de handen van vele zusters: gebruikt, verweerd, uit elkaar gevallen en weer liefdevol hersteld. De meer dan vijftig handschriften en ruim zeshonderd gedrukte werken van het klooster So...

De boeken van de zusters van Soeterbeeck zijn eeuwenlang intensief gebruikt. Nu hebben ze onze zorg nodig. Draag bij aan het behoud van de boeken van Soeterbeeck!

radbouduniversiteit.voorradboudfonds.nl/project/soet...

Can somebody help me deciphering this blind stamp on a book binding around 1500? The second part looks IHS to me, but I cannot read the first part.

???|IHS

Thanks in advance! 🙏

#bookbinding
#bookhistory
#gothic

I solved a nice puzzle this morning: unidentified Middle Dutch religious text on @fragmentarium.bsky.social (Antwerp, EHC, cf. @svanimpe.bsky.social ) turns out to be a lectionarium, comparable to the 1348 Lectionarium Amstelodamense (but with interesting variants). fragmentarium.ms/overview/F-8...

An Ethiopian manuscript with a painting of St. George.

A Book of Hours printed on vellum (1480).

A printed book with manuscript binding waste and a table of contents added by hand.

A decorative binding commissioned by Robert Hor.

Books I saw at work: last week!

Title page of Polyaenus, Stratagematum libri octo (Lyon, 1589)

Spine lining with fragments of medieval manuscripts.

Back of the major fragment, showing more text.

Detail of one of the smaller fragments peeking out of the binding.

An in-situ fragment for #FragmentFriday. Peaking out of the binding of a small Greek edition of Polyaenus the Macedonian (G 5077) are fragments of 2 works. The colourful one is a comment on canon law (chapter "De disciplina in officinis servanda"). The smaller fragments are difficult to determine.

Just spotted not one but three different Jean Gouault watermarks in my 1583 Plantin Bible 📖👀
JGOVAULT, JGOVAVLT, and JEHAN GOVAVLT… it’s like Pokémon cards for early modern paper nerds.

Gotta catch ’em all 🧐🧵 🔎🕵️

#bookhistory
#watermarks
#Plantin

Another wonderful example of an upside down letter (a metal cut letter in your case). Thanks for posting!

It's #FragmentFriday! Today a 15th-century Middle Dutch manuscript, possibly a sermon or Bible commentary.

It's in a binding with 3 texts printed in Ghent, 1618-1619.

Quote: "wat sal dat scaep doen alst onder die wolve es" (what will the sheep do when it's among wolves?)

anet.be/record/opace...

Wat een straf…

Thank you! What a strange way of writing your name 😅

Does anyone knows who’s signature is the lower one on this engraving? The upper one is Crispin van den Broeck. This engraving is from a Bible (Plantin 1583).

#bookhistory
#MPM

Found in a book printed by Plantin (1583): a capital Lambda ("Λ") used as a V! The woodblock was made by Antoni van Leest in 1573. I love these little discoveries!

collectie.antwerpen.be/global/searc...

#bookhistory
#plantin

Dogs by Otto Venius (Emblemata Horatiana - 1607).

#bookhistory
#internationaldogday

Where am I? What happened to all the old trees on the square? 😱

I am always happy when I see a printers mark that is signed 🙂. In this case the woodcut is made by Geeraard Jansen van Kampen in 1578. Found in IVSTI LIPSI AD LIBROS HISTORIARVM NOTÆ.

@zannavanloon.bsky.social Did you use this printer mark for The Plantin Press Online?

#bookhistory
#plantin

Sometimes books are bound in (parts of) other books. Here is LJS 195, a 15th c. Medical Miscellany bound in a leaf from a 15th c. liturgical book. At the end of the clip is an unfolded leaf that was once used to cover another book; you can see the spine and the folds around the edges. (1/2)

Here are some more examples by Rubens on my website:

sites.google.com/view/oldpape...

Mother church - Wikipedia

I think so. The central figure must be Mater Ecclesia (Mother Church).

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_...

Lately I’ve been diving deep into Rubens’ frontispieces — and here’s a gem from my collection: the Generale Kerckelijcke Historie (Antwerp, 1623), with a monumental title page designed by Peter Paul Rubens and engraved by Lucas Vorsterman.

#bookhistory
#rubens

That’s Rubens’ middle name 😄

Beautiful frontispiece designed by PP Rubens and engraved by Cornelius Galle ( #Antwerp 1630).

This example is from Titles and Portraits (Max Rooses - 1877).

#bookhistory
#Plantin
#WorldElephantDay