“There remains nothing more, but to shew that there are some necessary Qualifications to be acquir’d, some good Improvements to be made by Ingenious Gentlemen in the Company of our Sex. Of this number are Complacence, Gallantry, Good Humour, Invention, and an Art…” An Essay in...
Silence, then, becomes the companion of lovers...
De unicornu observationes novae Thomas Bartholin (1616-1680) Second edition edited by Caspar Bartholin Amsterdam: apud JHenr. Wetstenium, 1678 For thousands of years, in literature as well as in art, the unicorn has been depicted as a white horse-like animal with a long straight horn made up of spiraling grooves...
"Polygraphice is an art, so much imitating Nature, as that by proportional lines with answerable Colours, it teacheth to represent to the life (and that in plano) the forms of all corporeal things, with their respective passions." Polygraphice; or, The arts of drawing, engraving, etching, limning, painting,...
“No man can concentrate his attention upon evil, or even upon the idea of evil, and remain unaffected. To be more against the devil than for God is exceedingly dangerous. Every crusader is apt to go mad. He is haunted by the wickedness which he...
The Wife and Husband equally conspire, To work by Night and rake the Winter fire: He sharpens Torches in the glim'ring Room, She shoots the flying Shuttle through the Loom: Or boils in Kettles Must of Wine, and Skins With leaves, the Dregs that overflow the Brims. The Works of Vigil:...
To you, my children, These lovely flowers I give. Prune ye my vines and fig trees, With care my flowers tend, But keep the pathway open Your home is at the end. from "God's Garden" -- Robert Frost The first Mesopotamian writings on clay tablets included information about plants. Ancient pharmacopoeias recorded...
"Do not believe more than what you see with your eyes." -- Montezuma to Cortés, according to Cortés, 1519 Rare Books invites you to view its most recent virtual lecture, "What You See With Your Eyes." Why are texts written? and for whom? Why are texts recorded...