Browse Items (22 total)

Thanks to all who have followed iPhone in the Vault. Today we invite you to make a beautiful book of your own, a pamphlet, using an easy technique seen in our 18th & 19th century pamphlets. If you make one, please consider posting a photo and tagging…

October 14 is the anniversary of the Battle of Hastings in 1066 CE. An invading force led by William of Normandy, claimant to the English throne, defeated an army led by King Harold II. The closely fought battle lasted from dawn to dusk, ending when…

Dr. Anne R. Rossi, double Jumbo and former faculty member at the School of Medicine, examines a physician’s almanac made by Julia O’Gara ‘19 (BFA, BS, pre-med) in FAH 92: Medieval Books. When Dr. Rossi retired from her medical practice, she returned…

Professor Ikumi Kaminishi of Art History & Architecture teaches with this facsimile of Shigisan-engi, a splendid reproduction of the 12th century scroll, which relates the miracles attributed to Myoren, a monk who lived on Mount Shigi, in Japan,…

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…

“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,…