The Vespiary Book Binding & Book Conservation

Fixin’ books in the Wild West

Archive for the 'history' Category

omertá, (ital.) n. - conspiracy of silence

I often curse when I have to reverse patch up jobs done on books with poor materials and inept hands, so it’s somewhat comforting to hear that this happens on a much larger scale as well.

The Ambrosiana Library of Milan has announced that they are going to dismantle the Codex Atlanticus, a huge collection of […]

philately, n. - stamp collecting.

Sorry folks: grad school = fewer posts.  I’m currently pursuing my Master’s of Information and Library Science at the University of Washington, and class resumed for me last week.  Bear with me.  It just means that you’ll likely be innundated with posts during the holidays.

During my stay in Seattle, the NYT featured an article whose […]

ubi sunt, n. - “where are…”

I just quickly wanted to share a unique archive with you on this day of remembrance.
StoryCorps is an independent nonprofit project whose mission is to honor and celebrate one another’s lives through listening.
By recording the stories of our lives with the people we care about, we experience our history, hopes, and humanity. Since 2003, tens […]

exposé, n. - a showing up of something discreditable

Recently I repaired a whole number of Baedeker’s travel guides. This publishing house was yesterday’s equivalent of Lonely Planet, or perhaps Fodor’s. It was mildly titillating (can I say that anymore?) for me because I had never come across one in real life before; I had only heard about them in the movie […]