
Dirt in Medieval Books - Thevet
http://medievalbooks.nl/2015/03/27/dirty-medieval-books/
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devindotcom
I love little things like this. I ordered a nice old two-volume set of Les
Miserables and found when I opened it that someone had stuck a four-leafed
clover in at the title page. I contacted the seller and asked if they had put
that there and they said they had no idea. So now I have this wonderful little
mystery and a clover that may be a century old flattened into one of my
favorite books.

~~~
shimshim
my mom puts 4-leaf clovers she finds in her yard in books. i am sure that one
day those books will end up in someone else's hands.

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vacri
The white gloves link is interesting - you're more likely to damage books by
wearing the gloves than with clean hands, and they recommend against wearing
them.

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antimora
I was curious and found this article which might support your claim:
[https://www.ilab.org/eng/documentation/441-white_gloves_func...](https://www.ilab.org/eng/documentation/441-white_gloves_functional_or_fashionable.html)

> Collectors and dealers take note: overall, there’s a noticeable trend toward
> preferring clean, dexterous hands over clumsier gloved ones. But with
> variations in library policies, and the white gloves image so often in the
> public eye, it’s no wonder people are confused. This is one issue that would
> benefit from less heat and more light - light levels appropriate for special
> collections, of course.

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madaxe_again
I collect old manuscripts, palimpsests, incunabula, all sorts - and have had a
few interesting discoveries in my acquisitions over the years.

There's the 17th c. family bible that someone has made a fortune-telling
doohickey in the rear cover of, made of two circles of paper with different
starts and ends of fortunes, which rotate atop each other.

There's also the BBC archive copy of the Times from the outbreak of WWI,
covered in notes from radio editors who it appears got their news from re-
hashing broadsheets.

My favourite, however, is an early edition of Pope's translation of the Iliad
that came complete with a lamb-gut condom. Can only imagine it sat next to
someone's bed some centuries ago.

~~~
c-forster
Just FYI, the fortune-telling doohickey sounds like a
[volvelle]([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volvelle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volvelle)).

~~~
madaxe_again
Yes! Thank-you - spent a good minute fishing for the word in my head and gave
up.

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nsxwolf
I wonder if historians will someday uncover the annotations in people's
ebooks, because that's all digital era readers will leave behind.

~~~
partisan
I loved this article. I showed the picture of the cat prints to my wife. We
both agreed that cats have always been jerks. Our cat somehow manages to walk
all over my laptop and my wife's iPad, usually with some impact to what we are
doing. Sadly those moments won't be captured anywhere.

~~~
ajuc
> Sadly those moments won't be captured anywhere.

Now they are.

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wyclif
I seriously love Erik Kwakkel's blog. I wish it had existed back when I was
studying medieval lit.

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pontifier
For some reason, now I'm thinking about all the items that I've touched in my
lifetime. What evidence of my existence did I leave on them? How many did I
touch once, and will never touch again?

