By Molly Banwart Illumination of texts didn’t end with manuscripts! Early printed books continued the tradition, and some illumination can be used to find out an item’s provenance. In recent cataloging discoveries, we’ve come across two copies of the 1524 New Testament in Greek. One copy (IUA17770) has stayed close to its original state with […]
Category: Rare Books
Isolarii at the RBML
August 6, 2025
By Molly Banwart Today we’re looking at two seminal printed isolarii, or island books, from the late 15th and mid-16th centuries. The isolarii genre can be thought of as an encyclopedia of islands containing maps along with text descriptions of significant history, maritime information, mythology, and an analysis of the physical geography of the land. […]
Livre de Prières : Tissé d’après les Enluminures des manuscrits du XIVe au XVIe siècle
July 23, 2025
By Molly Banwart and Caroline Szylowicz Have you ever seen a book made entirely of silk? One item getting a lot of reading room attention recently is this French Livre de Prières: Tissé d’après les enluminures des manuscrits du XIVe au XVIe siècle (242.802 H446l). This book was manufactured with the Jacquard process, which relied […]