By Stephen J. Greenberg Books today, as physical objects, have reached a very odd place in our consciousness. Readers are increasingly offered books (or at least texts—there is a difference: books are physical objects; texts are their intellectual contents) in a bewildering array of electronic alternatives. Print (on paper) is dead, we are told, at […]
Tag Archives: Rare Books
October
31
Palmistry: The Future in the Palm of Your Hand
posted by Circulating Now
By Atalanta Grant-Suttie Some people think palmistry (or chiromancy as it is sometimes known) is hocus pocus and that it is all nonsense. How can lines and bumps in the palm of the hand foretell your future? Yet, you can find palm readers all over the world; you may have one in your area. Palmistry […]
April
14
Some of the Most Beautiful Herbals
posted by Circulating Now
By Michael North This post is the sixth in a series exploring the National Library of Medicine’s rich and varied collection of “herbals,” which are books devoted to the description of medicinal plants (and sometimes other natural substances) with instructions on how to use them to treat illness. The Library’s herbals are some of the […]
March
22
Colonialism and the Plant Hunters
posted by Circulating Now
By Michael North This post is the fifth in a series exploring the National Library of Medicine’s rich and varied collection of “herbals,” which are books devoted to the description of medicinal plants (and sometimes other natural substances) with instructions on how to use them to treat illness. The Library’s herbals are some of the […]
February
03
Early Journals: What’s in a Name?
posted by Circulating Now
By Atalanta Grant-Suttie The journal is so much a part of the current apparatus of scholarly communication that one never really thinks where and how the term might have originated. The origins of the word “journal” derive from Old French, Middle English and Late Latin in the fourteen century. However, perhaps the concept of the […]
January
06
Research Reborn: Dioscorides and Mattioli
posted by Circulating Now
By Michael North This post is the fourth in a series exploring the National Library of Medicine’s rich and varied collection of “herbals,” which are books devoted to the description of medicinal plants (and sometimes other natural substances) with instructions on how to use them to treat illness. The Library’s herbals are some of the […]
November
23
An Early Look at the Turkey
posted by Circulating Now
By Michael North Turkeys were one of many animals and plants the Europeans encountered in the New World beginning in 1492. There were wild turkeys throughout much of North America, and Native peoples in what are now Mexico and the U.S. Southwest had domesticated them: the Spanish found them in pens kept by the Aztecs […]
