We’ve just launched a new site focusing on material features in our early manuscripts, with tutorials on bindings, pages, content, and decoration, and links to digitized manuscripts with those features.

harvardfineartslib:

ALT

ALT

ALT

ALT

April is National Decoration Month.

Art et décoration was first published in 1897. The publication was suspended during the two World Wars from August 1914 – April 1919, and from 1939 through 1945. The Fine Arts Library has the original volumes if you want to see them. Request to view them in the Special Collections Study Room!

Art et décoration : revue mensuelle d'art moderne
Cover title: Art et décoration et l'architecture 1936-37
Paris : Librairie Centrale des Beaux Arts,
Frequency note: Monthly
French
HOLLIS number: 990062486850203941

Tarot deck to accompany: Mathers, S. L. MacGregor, 1854-1918. Fortune-telling card; the Tarot, its occult signification, use in fortune-telling, and method of play. London: G. Redway, 1888.

24282.1*  

Houghton Library, Harvard University

Troubridge, Una Vincenzo, Lady, 1887-1963. Waslaw Nijinsky as Faun in Afternoon of a Faun, 1913.

MS Thr 414.1, (80)

Houghton Library, Harvard University

One week from today, stop by Houghton for a popup exhibition showcasing our collection of eclipse material, then pick up a free pair of eclipse glasses (while supplies last) and head outside to see the real thing! https://libcal.library.harvard.edu/calendar/main/eclipse-exhibition

Marginal illustrations from a medieval breviary.

Ordo breviarii secundum consuetudinem Romane curie : manuscript, [ca. 1480]

MS Typ 219

Houghton Library, Harvard University

hdslibrary:

Mystic Monday: Jakob Böhme in America

We’ve posted before about Jakob Böhme (1575-1624), a Lutheran theologian who experienced a direct revelation from God. Though most popular in Germany, this early 19th century printing shows that his books were also read in America. As with earlier editions, the work is heavily illustrated with symbols and diagrams to help the reader (or so it is hoped).

Böhme, Jakob. Christosophia. oder Der weg zu Christo. Verfasset in neun büchlein, nun in acht zusammen gezogen… Die 1. americanische aufl. Ephrata in Pennsylvanien, Gedruckt bey J. Ruth, 1811-12.

A true and perfect relation of that most sad and terrible earthquake, at Port-Royal in Jamaica, which happened on Tuesday the 7th. of June, 1692. London: Printed by R. Smith, 1692.

EB65 A100 B675b v.4  

Houghton Library, Harvard University

Theodore Roosevelt’s son Archie holding Josiah, a pet badger TR was given by a 12-year-old girl in Sharon Springs, Kansas while on a whistlestop tour of the Western U.S. Perhaps predictably, Josiah made for an increasingly bitey pet and eventually had to be relocated to the Bronx Zoo.

W376664_1

Houghton Library, Harvard University