There’s a LOT of waxing about print as a divine art (sancta ars) done by the humanists and scholars in Rome, particularly to and for the Pope’s reading. Margaret Meserve’s “Papal Bull” covers this a bit, and the primary sources I can think of are Giovanni Bussi’s 20 prefaces to his books c 1468-72

Eisenstein’s Divine Art, Infernal Machine surveys a bunch of statements from printers’ colophons. They are not as rapturous as one might assume, and certainly reflect the prejudices of the salesman pitching his wares. But the book has what you’re looking for.

Hey, #bookhistory people, especially those who work on incunabula: Do Christian printers wax poetic (literally) about the miracle of print? I've taken it for granted from the Hebrew printers (they have many wonderful poems on the glories of print), but this may have just been a Jewish thing..?

Why should people who care about the future of tech think about the origins of print? @dzkalman.bsky.social and I discussed it on his fabulous podcast about religion and tech. (Also, highly recommend this podcast in general...) beliefinthefuture.com/episodes/a-d... #bookhistory #butalsoai

Faith and the Printing Press — Belief in the Future

Yes, AI is new and unique—but we've been through an information revolution before. The printing press transformed religion, authority, and public life. Those upheavals offer insights into the age of A...

beliefinthefuture.com

Poor Gershom Soncino. He laments how he (really his family's press) printed "23 masekhtot used in yeshivot, with Rashi and Tosafot...and behold the printer from Venice [Bomberg] printed from my press..." and scooped the Talmud. David Kimhi, Mikhlol, Constantinople, 1532-4 (B893.14 K572)

Do you have an idea for a case study on early Hebrew printed books that connects with the Footprints project? Apply to be part of a collaborative research and writing project. drive.google.com/file/d/1jG8h... #JewishStudies #Bookhistory

Re-reading Elizabeth Eisenstein for a thing (more soon? maybe) and I'm pleased to see that I'm remarkably consistent my readings of general book history over the course of 20+ years.

The first result is literally an image I had out for a class last week: Chagall's father's grave www.artic.edu/artworks/122...

Paul Hennell@hennell.bsky.social · last mo.

Someone made a way to view the "lesser-viewed" art from the Art institute of Chicago. Strangely compelling. #art iamwillwang.com/notes/has-no...

Thank you! A great group! And I bet you can identify at least one of the manuscripts 😎

What amazing art! What a great privilege to have access to this manuscript in the flesh, so to speak. f.130r digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/9e48...

Love the detailed explanation of the Hebrew calendar (including the reforms of Hillel II and observation v. scheduled!): kalkal.online/calendars.ht...

Jakub Sypiański@sypianski.bsky.social · last mo.

I built a free scholary converter for 20 premodern calendar systems — Julian, Hijri, Solar Hijri, Coptic, Armenian, Byzantine, Syriac, Athenian and more: kalkal.online

Bittersweet to be at desk 1066 in BL manuscripts today

Okay, not much of a soccer person (I live too close to the stadium to be happy right now), but this is AWESOME.

G. Willow Wilson@gwillow.me · last mo.

TIL the world's new favorite himbo once bought a 13th century copy of one of the Norse Sagas for $150,000, then donated it to the library because "I'm not much of a reader."

Transcribing and studying these letters offered a unique window onto connections linking Italy, Philadelphia, and the broader Jewish world, while highlighting the possibilities of #DH, #AI assisted research, collaborative transcription, and archival accessibility.

As part of my internship at @katzcenterupenn.bsky.social through the JTS/AJL Certificate Program in Hebraica and Judaica Librarianship, I worked on the Italian correspondence of Sabato Morais (1823–1897), the Italian-born rabbi, educator, and founder of the Jewish Theological Seminary in NY.

What can 19th-century letters reveal about migration, identity, and Jewish networks? Last year at @upenn.edu, I worked on the Italian letters of Sabato Morais, tracing connections between Italy, Philadelphia, and the wider Jewish world. Read more here: www.library.upenn.edu/kislak/judai...

Letters without Borders: Exploring the Italian Correspondence of Sabato Morais

Martina Mampieri reflects on her internship as part of the AJL/JTS Librarian Certificate program. Her internship focused on transcribing the writings and correspondence of Rabbi Sabato Morais and lear...

library.upenn.edu

Someone at a session today said that my 2012 exhibition ("The People in the Books": exhibitions.library.columbia.edu/exhibits/sho...) made him want to become a librarian (all those languages! Who knew Judeo-Tatar was a thing?!) and I'm not crying you're crying #AJLCon26

@jewishlibraries.bsky.social people are the best people. That's all. #AJLCon26

I mean, doesn't everyone produce poetry and theatre for their synagogue dedications? PJ5051.T57 S5 1793 This was for the Tempio israelitico di Firenze. @perurealfonso.bsky.social :)

Here is me, pleading with museum shops. We do not want yet another bookmark and eraser with your logo for 11 euros. We. Want. Replicas. Of. Your. Nerdy. Stuff.

Scott McDonough@sjmcdonough.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I really want some knock offs of these medieval socks from Egypt (12th century CE?) at the GWU Textile Museum. collections-gwu.zetcom.net/en/collectio...

HIGHLY recommend Yakov Mayer's talk proving that the Soncino Talmuds were printed explicitly for the zemanim in the Padua yeshiva - and thus shaped Talmud study everywhere based on the Ashkenazic method. Book production is so local: youtu.be/K3efnWomUrc?... H/t @hgot.bsky.social 📚📜#bookhistory

The Soncino Talmud and Late Medieval Hebrew Book Culture

YouTube video by Library of Congress

youtu.be

Another woman, this time from 1542, with strong feelings about the Inquisition. Denounced in Lisbon for having said: "f*ck the Inquisition, f*ck those in charge of it and f*ck those who brought it [to Portugal] " (respondeu: merda pera a inquisicao e pera quem a manda e pera quem a tras).

Francois Soyer@fsoyer.bsky.social · 2mo ago

In June 1541, a woman loses her temper during an argument over dinner. According to the different witnesses present she exclaimed alternatively “the Inquisition can drink shit!” or screw the inquisitors!" Three dinner guests denounced her to the Inquisition in Lisbon.

Carlo Ginzburg, Z''L. A historian of immense stature. lavocedinewyork.com/en/people/20...

Italian Historian Carlo Ginzburg, Pioneer of Microhistory, Dies

Italian culture, history, and scholarship are poorer today with the passing of Carlo Ginzburg, the renowned Italian historian and essayist

lavocedinewyork.com

The Fine Script Comparative approaches to legal marginalia circulating in Europe and the Middle East between 1100 and 1700 Where: Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris or online When: 31.8.-1.9.2026 Online registration: www.eventbrite.com/e/the-fine-s...

The Fine Script

Conference exploring comparative approaches to legal marginalia circulating in Europe and the Middle East between 1100 and 1700

eventbrite.com

The CU Archives always does a fabulous display for Reunion. I was chuffed to see Isaac Abrahams (first Jewish CU grad, class of 1774), and the map of NYC with "(N) College" outlined in red (King's was the only option) as well as "(&) Jews Synagogue" and "Jews Cemetery." @lauraleibman.bsky.social

More on historical Jewish women scribing here: www.imj.org.il/sites/defaul...

Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg@theradr.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Wanna know something cool? This scroll of the Book of Esther was scribed by a 14 year-old named Luna Ambron in 1767 in Rome-- and it's one of the very few pieces of the sacred scribal arts that we *know* to have been scribed by a girl/woman before the 21st c. (Scribes don't sign their work sooo.)

Gearing up to teach Evidence in Handpress-Era Books, 1450–1830, @ransomcenter.bsky.social for @rarebookschool.bsky.social next week. It’s gonna be hardcore, as all good bibliography is.

#ilikedirtybooks 😍

Jay Moschella@jaymoschella.bsky.social · 2mo ago

As is typically the case, the pages of the haggadah are stained with food and wine from centuries of use at the seder table. The gutters are actually full of matzah crumbs! Anyhow, this is not Boston Public Library f.2026.54 bpl.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S7... 7/7

Delighted by this new acquisition. A copy of a haggadah published in Amsterdam in 1695. Known simply as the Amsterdam haggadah, it's the first haggadah to incorporate copperplate engravings and contains one of the earliest maps of the Holy Land printed in Hebrew 1/7

I love that our library has a pick up option, and also it feels like we're going back to closed stacks when I do it.