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Elephants in a beautiful facsimile of the Peterborough Bestiary, an early 14th century manuscript.

These are mass-produced books: cheap to manufacture, produced in relatively large numbers, inexpensive to acquire (unless, perhaps, they are your course texts). What elevates them to the status of “rare,” and worthy of the best measures to preserve…

Edwin C. Bolles (1836-1920) was Professor of English & American History and the first chaplain of Tufts College. He built a large collection of books and other material about the history and geography of England, especially of London, much of it…

Tufts poet, professor, & critic John Holmes (1904-1962) was friend, teacher, and mentor to many fellow poets. Anne Sexton and John Ciardi A’38 were among his students in writers’ workshops and Tufts’s classes. After his death, his wife, poet,…

“Your letter came informing me of some books I sent the Tufts College Library. It is a very great pleasure for me to be able to do this and I hope to send more in the future.” - Walter F. Welch, Jr. A ‘28, writing on January 12, 1953.

Over the…

In the 16th century guild regulations forbade women to train as printers or start presses, but they could inherit and run printing houses as widows. Charlotte Guillard (d. 1557) worked at the important Soleil d’Or press in Paris from 1502 until her…

Tonight will be the full moon. Volvelles are paper or parchment devices - movable charts - used to make calculations, usually of the movements of the sun and moon. This one is in “Noui annuli astronomici,” by Ioannes Dryander, printed at Marburg in…

A selection of bindings, 15th - 19th centuries:

1. In memoriam, Alfred Tennyson, printed and bound at the Roycroft artisan community in East Aurora, NY, 1898

2. Sir Perecyvelle of Gales, printed by William Morris at his Kelmscott Press, 1895,…

We continue a week devoted to the arts of book making and book ownership with a selection of bookplates. Ex libris = From the books (library).

The first is a visual pun on the name of Alfred Church Lane, Pearson Professor of Geology & Minerology,…

#marbledmonday