Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #globalbookhistory
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Robert Hooke's "Micrographia" of 1665 invented and fueled the myth of the existance of a paper eating "book-worm". According to the inventor, the worm was "silver-shining" and "eats holes through leaves and covers" (p. 208).
diglib.hab.de/drucke/38-2-ph…
#bookhistory #bookworms
diglib.hab.de/drucke/38-2-ph…
#bookhistory #bookworms
I am curious to learn if the non-Western book cultures invented the bookworm (or similar small animals eating books or paper/parchment etc.) as well? #globalbookhistory to the rescue. Thanks for spreading the word.
What kind of insect Hooke found around 1665 in one of his damaged books remaines unclear. However, Hooke's invention still fuels the idea of a living book thread, an ememy. "This Animal probably feeds upon the Paper and covers of Books, and perforates in them several small ...
In order to get a better understanding of the manuscript trade in (and beyond) Cairo around 1900 and especially of how European libraries got to contain so many Arabic manuscripts, we have to look at the Yahuda family fo Jerusalem.~tw 1/23
In particular, the two brothers Isaac Ezekiel (1863-1941) and Abraham Shalom (1877-1951) are central in this regard. Both were scholars of Semitic languages as well as manuscript collectors. At different points both traveled to Germany but neither stayed there.~tw 2/23
I.E., the older brother, first dealt in MSS in Darmstadt, Germany, in 1904 and a member of the German Orientalist Society (DMG). In 1906, he set up his store close to al-Azhar and engaged in scholarship and MS collection until 1920.~tw 3/23
blog.nli.org.il/en/yahuda/
blog.nli.org.il/en/yahuda/
