Jay Moschella
@jaymoschella
Parent, librarian, public servant, person in Boston
Wrangling data for a cataloging project in our early American almanacs (never do this, by the way) and came across a tricky item. Went up to the stacks to check it out and behold, an early 18th-century Boston almanac in its original uncut sheet!
On more image of the fantastic and newly acquired BPL MS q Med.305: several of the illuminated initials feature an odd form that I *think* is referencing the peacock's tail in the border illumination of the penitential psalms. I've never really seen anything like this. I find it weird and wonderful.
The other book of hours – MS q Med.305 – was created in Naples for a patron in Brindisi. It was copied by at least two scribes and its illuminations are saturated and sometimes overwhelmingly busy, filled with putti, wild animals, golden flowers, and sensitively rendered figures. 4/11
The so-called Pico Master was an artist active in Venice from approximately 1460 to 1505. BPL also holds a 1471 Venice edition of Quintilian that is beautifully illuminated by him. archive.org/details/quin... 3/11
The first, now cataloged as MS q Med.304, is truly tiny at just 78 mm. The illuminations in the manuscript have been attributed to the workshop of the eponymous Master of the Pico Pliny. 2/11
Deep into processing these two little Italian books of hours newly acquired for BPL’s early manuscript collections. 1/11
It's fun to work in a huge, incredible, sprawling collection because every once in a while I'll be like, "What is in that envelope that has clearly not been opened in decades" and the answer will be something like a first-day printing of the United States Constitution from Sept. 1787
Love almanacs in all their wild forms. We're doing a huge project on our thousands of almanacs right now. Here's one that were were just working on that also doubles as the 1762 tax records for a parish the town of Newbury, Mass.
Fun new acquisition here at the Boston Public Library. This is a 1476 edition of Eusebius of Caesarea's church history, printed in Rome. We bought this book for basically one reason only -- a fantastic printing error that left an impression on one page from a single piece of "fallen type."
Have managed to cultivate this shaded space under the canopy of a mimosa tree that we planted as a little bare-root stick six or seven years ago. Years of waiting now paying off. Home alone and dinner below it this evening was pretty ideal
Things you can see in our open house display today only at the Boston Public Library (which is also heavily air conditioned): 1. 1 of 8 surviving "ratification" copies of the constitution 2. The 1st printing of the Virginia Declaration of Rights 3. First public printing of the Bill of Rights
Just acquired: two tiny pamphlet printings of the preliminary and final Emancipation Proclamation, published in Boston in December 1862 and January 1863. Made to be distributed freely and to be carried south by Union soldiers and given, in particular, to formerly enslaved men who might enlist.
As is typically the case, the pages of the haggadah are stained with food and wine from centuries of use at the seder table. The gutters are actually full of matzah crumbs! Anyhow, this is not Boston Public Library f.2026.54 bpl.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S7... 7/7
. . . or this image of the infant Moses discovered by Pharaoh's daughter 5/7
For instance, contrast this image of David in prayer against this 1733 Bohemian manuscript Haggadah in BPL collections 4/7 www.digitalcommonwealth.org/book_viewer/...
The haggadah guides the retelling of the story of Exodus that forms the heart of the seder. Unlike many other liturgical books, there is no prescribed form or format, and contents often vary widely from edition to edition. 2/7
Delighted by this new acquisition. A copy of a haggadah published in Amsterdam in 1695. Known simply as the Amsterdam haggadah, it's the first haggadah to incorporate copperplate engravings and contains one of the earliest maps of the Holy Land printed in Hebrew 1/7
Johannes Balbus' Catholicon -- an immense Latin grammar and dictionary. Printed in Mainz in 1460 by Gutenberg. BPL's copy is one of relatively few printed on vellum (animal skin). Taking some pics with my iphone(!), you can see collagen fibers, hand-applied pigments, and ink squash from the press.
This copy had a long life of use, as evidenced by thick drops of candle wax and repairs throughout, often made by gluing pieces of medieval manuscripts over tears. Full leaves of prayers were also added in during the 16th and 17th centuries. 7/8
The large woodcut initials – notable unto themselves – were made specifically for this book and are based on designs by the renaissance artist and cartographer Benedetto Bordone. 6/8
Every recorded copy contains a series of varying hand-made corrections that seem to have been produced in the print shop itself. Often, these corrections are made using white paint to remove or alter notes. But notes are also scraped away, and or altered in pen, or simply reprinted. 5/8
Every 15th-century book was printed on paper stock from one of a handful of fixed sizes. The largest of these measured about 50 x 70 cm. The sheets used to print this book, when manufactured, fell outside that range at a fairly colossal 56 x 70 cm and so thick as to almost feel like leather. 3/8
A gradual is a Christian liturgical book – meant to be used during the Mass – that contains all of the chants to be sung by the choir. Graduals are therefore typically quite large so that they can be placed on a stand, then seen and read by many people at once. 2/8
Last BPL new acquisition of the year is a copy of the very rare gradual printed by Johann Emerich for Lucantonio Giunta in Venice in 1499. This is the largest book (by dimensions) printed during the 15th century and it required a custom-manufactured paper stock to print. 1/8