It’s always fun to come across evidence of provenance in our collection. From bookplates belonging to eighteenth century aristocrats, to the carefully written name of a young reader on the front page of a nineteenth century children’s book, I can’t help but imagine the life of a book’s previous owners. For our newly accessioned copy…Continue Reading Hollywood Bookshelves
Season of the Witch
With Halloween approaching, I went searching for the spookiest book I could find in the DeGolyer stacks. We’ve got items on vampires, ghosts, and creatures that go bump in the night, and one work that claims to offer “full and plain evidence concerning witches.” Printed in 1681, Saducismus triumphatus, or, full and plain evidence concerning…Continue Reading Season of the Witch
Maximum Marginalia
One of my favorite parts of working in a Special Collections library is finding books featuring marginalia—the notes and drawings that readers leave in the margins of books they’re reading. I’ve come across pristine handwriting and illegible scribbles, thoughtful commentary and brief notes, and drawings that ran the gamut from cute to comical to crude….Continue Reading Maximum Marginalia