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Lydia Sigourney's Rags and Ribbons

Lydia Sigourney’s Rags and Ribbons

Processing as wide-ranging and extensive of a collection as Caroline F. Schimmel’s, I have come across many surprises—from striking illustrated covers, miniature formats, and ornately decorated bindings to eye-catching titles, like You Bet Your Boots I Can, which peppily echoes the title of the Kislak Center’s 2018 exhibition built from selections from the collection, Ok, I’ll Do It Myself:…

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Wanted! The Illicit Diamond Dealer, Isaac Joel.

Wanted! The Illicit Diamond Dealer, Isaac Joel.

Written by Shevi Epstein I find this “wanted” broadside from the Arnold and Deanne Kaplan Collection of Early American Judaica, very interesting. The broadside provides information about an illicit diamond dealer named Isaac Joel and was put forth by John Fry, the Chief of the Detective Department of Griqualand West, Kimberley, South Africa on March 10, 1884. Along with his photograph, the…

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Penn Libraries to open doors and data to PennApps hackathon

Penn Libraries to open doors and data to PennApps hackathon

This post about the PennApps Hackathon is reblogged from the fantastic Apps On Tap site. I was thrilled to see that images and data from the Penn Provenance Project on Flickr are going to be used! The event sounds like great fun and I’m looking forward to learning about all of the cool apps that get developed this weekend!

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Unique Collection of early Moroccan Printing now at Penn

Unique Collection of early Moroccan Printing now at Penn

[Ed. Note: Today’s post is written by David Giovacchini, the Middle East Studies Librarian at the Penn Libraries] Recently the Penn Libraries acquired an extraordinary collection of Moroccan manuscripts and early lithographed books.  This unique collection was assembled by Dr. Fawzi Abdulrazak, the leading scholar of the history of printing in Morocco and author of the authoritative bibliography…

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A Lost Gem? Uncovering the Carey-Colwell Library

A Lost Gem? Uncovering the Carey-Colwell Library

[Ed. Note: Today’s post is from Ariel Ron, currently a visiting research associate at Penn’s McNeil Center for Early American Studies] In 1872 the University of Pennsylvania obtained the core of what was regarded as one of the world’s “outstanding collections” of pamphlets on political economy. Several years later that collection received an infusion from the most important American economist of…

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Collecting the Turkish Spring

Collecting the Turkish Spring

A poster for the Occupy Gezi Park movement. It emphasizes the diversity and broad appeal of the movement. [Ed. Note: Today’s post is written by David Giovacchini, the Middle East Studies Librarian at the Penn Libraries] At the end of May and beginning of June, 2013, first Istanbul and then all of Turkey were shaken by widespread protests, sometimes known as “the Turkish Spring”. The protests were…

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Reading Chaucer through Dryden’s Eyes

Reading Chaucer through Dryden’s Eyes

[Ed. Note: Today’s post is by Simran Thadani who received her Ph.D. in 2013 from Penn’s Department of English with a specialization in book history and special collections] John Dryden, perhaps the most prolific seventeenth-century English poet, playwright, and commentator, is well known for his adaptations of older texts. In his last work, Fables Ancient and Modern (1700), Dryden translated…

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Reflections on a Story Revealed

Reflections on a Story Revealed

The ‘Levitt’ collection [Ed. Note: Today’s post is by Lucian McMahon a Penn Classics Post-Baccalaureate ‘14 who was a Penn Libraries Collections Student Assistant 2013–2014] Despite the seemingly inexorable conquest of the e-book and contrary to the doom-and-gloom prognostications of bibliophiles (and publishing houses) everywhere, the physical book continues somehow to eke out an existence,…

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Provenance Party!

The Penn Provenance Project on Flickr has now received over 1,000,000 views!! Congratulations to everyone who struggled to read illegible inscriptions, identified bookplates and stamps and enriched Penn’s catalog records with detailed information about the former owners of our rare books. 1,000,000 views If you haven’t visited yet, come take a look at some of our sets and begin identifying!

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Midweek Marginalia

Manicule, a photo by Penn Provenance Project on Flickr. Via Flickr: Penn Libraries call number: Inc T-503 All images from this book Penn Libraries catalog record

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Midweek Marginalia

Ms. manicule in brown ink, a photo by Penn Provenance Project on Flickr. Detail of leaf [a]6v of an incunable edition of the Bible in Latin (Nuremberg: Anton Koberger, 16 Nov. 1475; ISTC ib00543000) with rubrication and ms. manicule in brown ink. Established heading: Koberger, Anton, approximately 1440-1513 Penn Libraries call number: Inc B-543 Folio All images from this book Penn Libraries…

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Midweek Marginalia

Marginalia in the hand of grammarian and politician James Harris (1709-1780) in a 1556 edition of Aristotle’s Physics, a photo by Penn Provenance Project on Flickr. Marginalia in a 1556 edition of Aristotle’s Physics in the hand of James Harris (1709-1780), English politician, grammarian, and philosopher, best known for his work Hermes, a philosophical inquiry concerning universal grammar. His…

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Midweek Marginalia

Manicules, a photo by Penn Provenance Project on Flickr. Detail of a folio paper leaf (g5, recto visible) from an incunable edition of Justinian’s Institutiones with the glossa ordinaria of Accursius (Venice: Battista Torti, 22 Dec. 1484; ISTC ij00527000), printed in red and black in double columns surrounded by gloss with a few early ms. underlines, marks and manicules in brown ink, used as…

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Midweek Marginalia (a little bit late!)

Midweek Marginalia (a little bit late!)

Copious contemporary ms. annotations in an incunable, a photo by Penn Provenance Project on Flickr. Leaves o4v and p1r of an incunable copy of the Elegiae of Tibullus and Propertius and the Carmina of Catullus (Venice: Johannes Tacuinus de Tridino, 19 May 1500; ISTC it00374000), with woodcut initials and contemporary ms. annotations in brown ink. Established heading: Joannes, Tacuinus, de…

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Midweek Marginalia

Early ms. sketch of a bird pecking at the eye of a man hanged on a gallows, a photo by Penn Provenance Project on Flickr. Early ms. sketch of a bird pecking at the eye of a man hanged on a gallows Transcription of marginal annotation: Sic aut[em] milites sub iugu[m] mitteba[n]t[ur] vt tradat […][us]; […] auc[toritate?] terre […] […] al[…] e[…]geb[…] : [septim]a e[…] […] test & […]li & […] […]e…

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Midweek Marginalia

Leaf a5r of an incunable edition of Innamoramento di Carlo Magno e dei suoi paladini (Venice: Georgius Walch, 20 July 1481; ISTC ic00204000) with early ms. sketch of three male figures (two hatted and one with hat in hand), of whom two are clasping hands, a photo by Penn Provenance Project on Flickr. Leaf a5r of an incunable edition of Innamoramento di Carlo Magno e dei suoi paladini (Venice:…

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Midweek Marginalia

Half of a dragon? One of 4 early ms. marginal sketches in a copy of Giovanni Boccaccio’s Filocolo, printed in Venice on 24 December 1488 by Peregrinus de Pasqualibus (ISTC ib00744000): Leaf h5v: dragon[?] with caption: […]hina bochina [pictured here] Leaf k1v: flowers with caption: Ia a mo Leaf m7v: owl[?] with caption: angela .P. Leaf n5v: bird in tree with caption: […]ametta .. The leaves of…