Passionate devotees of books from throughout history share a common thread with all of us modern-day bibiophiles, they longed to celebrate their books and mark their ownership with an Ex Libris book plate. Ever since Pharaonic Egypt, marking one’s ownership of a book has been a thing. Ex Libris bookplates are more than the stamped or printed marks denoting ownership. They represent the taste, values of their owner, how they saw themselves and the aesthetic styles of the eras when they were made.
Tag Archives: renaissance
Book Review: The Sky Atlas by Edward Brooke Hitching
* No Spoilers Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Edward Brooke Hitching, history-hound, lover of quirky things and writer for the ever-popular and erudite quiz show QI, has written The Sky Atlas. A treasury and history of some of humankind’s most beautiful maps and charts. Yet this book is more than that, it’s a sparkling and glittering array ofContinue reading “Book Review: The Sky Atlas by Edward Brooke Hitching”
The challenge of ruling a diverse nation never changes
This very weighty and important subject is as relevant right now as it was in the 16th Century. That was when a Dutch engraving by artist Pieter van der Borcht the Elder managed to capture the complexity and challenging nature of geopolitics and ruling in a country with many different ideologies and in the midstContinue reading “The challenge of ruling a diverse nation never changes”
The medieval artisans of Poland
On a visit to the Muzeum Narodowe we Wrocławiu in the Polish city of Wrocław I was astonished not by the grimly beautiful Renaissance paintings of Christ, angels and demons but of something far more tangible. Medieval shop signs and merchant guild coats of arms that illustrated the professions of artisans, traders and merchants of medieval times.Continue reading “The medieval artisans of Poland”
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