Pax (nee Patrick) Crowley (they/them, þ/þs)
@pilcrow5.bsky.social
Rare Books Librarian, Classic Doctor Who nerd, Forever DM, synth dabbler, low-level crafter, gardener, likes to cook, prefers being barefoot -- In other words, a very tall Hobbit? All posts personal. No posts represent the opinions or will of my employer.
This dog & dove have been getting to know eachother for the best part of 550 years. Found in the margin of Franciscus de Retza’s ‘Comestorium Vitiorum’ (Nuremberg, 1470), on the seven deadly sins and the corresponding virtues. @theulspeccoll.bsky.social Inc.1.A.7.1a[4224].
it is truly overwhelming how amazing the Plantin-Moretus's collections are. Look at this! An actual type-making mold from 1570!!
Koperen gietvorm. Maat: 5 punt; 40 mm.
dams1.antwerpen.be
Forthcoming new book by Ann Blair on authorship & collaboration, from @princetonupress.bsky.social: 👀 📗 press.princeton.edu/books/hardco... #EarlyModern #HistBookChat
In the Scholar’s Workshop
The hidden hands behind history’s great scholarly works
press.princeton.edu
Aaron T. Pratt@aarontpratt.bsky.social · 7mo agoIf you missed Ann Blair’s @ransomcenter.bsky.social Pforzheimer Lecture last night, you can check it out on YouTube: www.youtube.com/live/u16QHaI... I think you’ll agree that it’s both sharp and a lot of fun.
Tasty signature. From Parkinson’s Theatrum Botanicum (London, 1640). @theulspeccoll.bsky.social Syn.3.64.6.
A little blue hippo made by an Egyptian artisan around 4,000 years ago! 🦛 ❤️ Decorated with river plants and lotus flowers, blue faience hippos are associated with the life-giving Nile and rebirth. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. 📷 by me #Archaeology
Our intern Audrey found this lovely drawing left by a past reader. They traced one of the bunnies from the title page onto the other side. The rabbits were part of the device or emblem of 16th century Parisian printer Simon de Colines.
"Second Thoughts On an Orgy": I'm really just fascinated by this new-ish lady from the House of the Thiasus. (Thank you Molly Swetnam-Burland for all the commentary!) With some bonus eels for the marine biologists & @greenleejw.bsky.social! archaeology.org/issues/march...
Wow! @lollardfish.bsky.social & @profgabriele.com going all in on a new study using pollen to document biodiversity at & around the Abbey of St Gall in the Carolingian Age. buttondown.com/ModernMediev... #MedievalSky #interdisciplinarity
Carolingian Biodiversity
How Interdisciplinary Can and Should Work
buttondown.com
relaxed saturday evening reading through "women designers of book plates (1902)" and flipped past a couple of beautiful professional designs only to see this perfect plate by a young Miss Page
I finally set my workstation background. It files like I am properly moved in. Also, I do not think I will ever be able to work without 2 screens again. This is the best thing ever!
Our medieval curator Alison Ray introduces Rawlinson Bodleian Library MS. Rawl. D. 252...a 15th Century necromancer's journal. This manuscript contains spells written in Latin and Middle English, and would have served as a reference for a professional sorcerer. #MedievalMonday
Spotted in the stacks as I was shelving my stack of newly cataloged books. Love the headpiece and its appropriateness for the Argonautica. #rarebooks #specialcollections #apollonios #earlyprinting
Many thanks to our friends @hyperallergic.com for spreading the word about @ransomcenter.bsky.social's 2026-27 #fellowships! Learn more by visiting the Center's website: www.hrc.utexas.edu/fellowships/ #Humanities #Photography #Literature #ArtHistory #RareBooks #Theatre #FilmHistory 🗃️📜📚
UT Austin’s Harry Ransom Center Provides Funded Fellowships in the Arts and Humanities
The humanities library and museum will award up to 50 fellowships to support scholars, artists, and writers conducting on-site archival research.
hyperallergic.com
Finishing up cataloging this lovely 1676 book of Ecuadorian poetry and prose that contains accounts of hyperlocal fetivals with syncretic religious practices (Indegineous and Catholic). But what's enchanting my at the moment are the darling collections of typographic ornament! #rarebooks #typography
Happy Pancake Day! This pancake recipe is from 'The Cook's and Confectioner's Dictionary' (1723) by John Nott, the oldest cookery book in our collections. "...it will make them crisp, look yellow as Gold, and eat very well." 📷 Reserve 640.4 NOT #PancakeDay #ShroveTuesday #RareBooks
Fer Cozzi, Audaz (custom typeface for Nike), 2023. Learn type design with Fer Cozzi, online! Create your own font, from sketch to screen (and everything in between). 10 weekly sessions, 3 hours each: Feb 26 – Apr 30, 2025 letterformarchive.org/shop/introdu... #TypeDesign #Fonts #FontDesign
Some of Hartford’s long and important black history: www.hartfordheritage.org/black-heritage
Black Heritage Project | HHP
hartfordheritage.org
A couple of great owl decorations and some lovely initials in an otherwise pretty unremarkable edition 1901 edition of Bacon’s Essays. I love how well designed even mass market books could be at the turn of the last century. #rarebooks #owls #SCSUSpecialCollections #specialcollections
If you like music, you might enjoy seeing this image. It is from a service book c.1300 (WCL Q107 folio 17v).
Happy Lunar New Year! What do you get if you cross #WatermarkWednesday with the year of the snake? A jolly snake watermark, of course! We found this happy chap on the endpapers of a 'Sacerdotale sive sacerdotum thesaurus' which was printed in 1592. 📖 F 26/103
A 'Serpens Americanus', aka giant anaconda, from Ulisse Aldrovandi's 1640 volume on snakes & dragons #YearOfTheSnake
