Category Archives: History

Just another marbled Monday

Posted on November 25, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

The wavy patterns on the edges, covers, and endpapers on this tooled and blind-stamped, half-bound book are from Carew’s Survey of Cornwall printed in London by Thomas Bensley for J. Faulder and Rees and Curtis in 1811. The marbled-paper pattern is what the University of Washington’s site … Continue reading →

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Bookstore Tourism

Posted on November 17, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

The Abecadlo Antiquarian Bookshop is located in a former 19th pharmacy, at 18 Kościuszki Street in Krakow, Poland. Its beautiful interior is made up of antique pharmacy furniture dating back to the 1890s, which the owners managed to save and … Continue reading →

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Encounters with French culture

Posted on November 13, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

Last week, the American Library in Paris announced the winner of their 2024 Book Award, which recognizes titles originally published in English “that best realizes new and intellectually significant ideas about France, the French people, or encounters with French culture.” … Continue reading →

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The more things change, etc. etc.

Posted on November 12, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

In 1951, British philosopher Bertrand Russell wrote an article titled “The Best Answer to Fanaticism—Liberalism” in The New York Times Magazine. Sadly, the piece could have easily been written this week. Russell wasn’t advocating for any particular political party or economic … Continue reading →

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Twenty Lessons

Posted on November 10, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

In 2016, Yale history professor Timothy Snyder took to Facebook to share some lessons from 20th century about how to protect our liberal democracy from fascism and authoritarianism. In response to this week’s catastrophic election, I’ve reproduced it in its entirety here. … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Europe, Freedom of Speech, History | Tagged | 4 Comments

A history of witches and wizards

Posted on October 30, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

London’s Wellcome Collection is featuring a very timely book from 1720 on witchcraft and wizardry. The history of witches and wizards: giving a true account of all their tryals in England, Scotland, Swedeland, France, and New England; with their confession … Continue reading →

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The true home of Halloween ?

Posted on October 29, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

Did you know that Halloween began on the island of Ireland? 🎃 The spooky season began as an ancient Celtic festival called Samhain (pronounced “sow-in”), celebrated over 2,000 years ago. Marking the end of the harvest season and the beginning of … Continue reading →

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Magical (not lucky) Charms

Posted on October 28, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

The Book of Magical Charms, is a handwritten occult commonplace book composed in England in the seventeenth century and currently in the holdings of the Newberry Library in Chicago, Illinois. Its author is suspected to be London attorney Robert Ashley. The Book of Magical Charms original volume, that … Continue reading →

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“Renaissance Baedeker”

Posted on October 25, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

I first learned about the 15th century incunabula Mirabilia Romae while I was researching a magazine article on the history of the travel guidebook. One of the earliest European printed guidebooks, the Mirabilia Urbis Romaea is a geographically arranged inventory of … Continue reading →

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Frankenstein Season

Posted on October 21, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

The Frankenstein Varorium is an online tool which allows the user to explore the iconic Science Fiction novel’s text through its various incarnations, allowing the user to select individual passages and see how they have evolved through different revisions of … Continue reading →

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