Old Paper Collector
@oldpapercollector.bsky.social
I am a hobby collector (+25 years) of early modern books (1500-1800) printed in Antwerp and books with recycled manuscripts. I live in the Netherlands. https://sites.google.com/view/oldpapercollector
Pinned
Collecting bookbindings made from reused medieval manuscript fragments offers a fascinating glimpse into the history of recycling and craftsmanship. Each cover tells a dual story: the book it protects and the manuscript it once was. #BookHistory #RareBooks #MedievalManuscripts
Infographic to explain so called “frisket sheets”. Generated by Google’s Nano Banana Pro. Impressive!
The example is from my collection.
#bookhistory
#fragmentology
#recycling
The example is from my collection.
#bookhistory
#fragmentology
#recycling
November 23, 2025 at 12:34 PM
Infographic to explain so called “frisket sheets”. Generated by Google’s Nano Banana Pro. Impressive!
The example is from my collection.
#bookhistory
#fragmentology
#recycling
The example is from my collection.
#bookhistory
#fragmentology
#recycling
Reposted by Old Paper Collector
Eigenlijk is het zonde om zo'n boek te herstellen, want dan zie je die oude perkamenten stroken met tekst niet meer.
Herstel is niet zo moeilijk omdat alleen de spitsels kapot zijn gegaan. Het boekblok is zo goed als nieuw.
ORLERS Beschrijvinge der Stadt Leyden, 1641.
Herstel is niet zo moeilijk omdat alleen de spitsels kapot zijn gegaan. Het boekblok is zo goed als nieuw.
ORLERS Beschrijvinge der Stadt Leyden, 1641.
November 20, 2025 at 8:30 PM
These 16th-century Antwerp volumes still carry inked titles on their fore-edges—a reminder that they once stood the other way around on the shelf. A small detail, but a wonderful glimpse into how early readers organised their libraries. #BookHistory #OldBooks
November 16, 2025 at 11:24 AM
These 16th-century Antwerp volumes still carry inked titles on their fore-edges—a reminder that they once stood the other way around on the shelf. A small detail, but a wonderful glimpse into how early readers organised their libraries. #BookHistory #OldBooks
Just identified a fragment in my collection as a leaf from the Šaraknocʿ (Amsterdam, 1664) — the first Armenian hymnal ever printed in Europe.
It features a woodcut of the Virgin & Child by Christoffel van Sichem II, reused by Voskan Yerevantsi in Amsterdam.
#bookhistory
#Armenia
#Amsterdam
It features a woodcut of the Virgin & Child by Christoffel van Sichem II, reused by Voskan Yerevantsi in Amsterdam.
#bookhistory
#Armenia
#Amsterdam
November 11, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Just identified a fragment in my collection as a leaf from the Šaraknocʿ (Amsterdam, 1664) — the first Armenian hymnal ever printed in Europe.
It features a woodcut of the Virgin & Child by Christoffel van Sichem II, reused by Voskan Yerevantsi in Amsterdam.
#bookhistory
#Armenia
#Amsterdam
It features a woodcut of the Virgin & Child by Christoffel van Sichem II, reused by Voskan Yerevantsi in Amsterdam.
#bookhistory
#Armenia
#Amsterdam
A wonderful page from a Parisian Book of Hours (Horae Beatae Mariae Virgine, 1490-1510) with and unusual floral border in the style of Bruges-Ghent. I love it!
😍
#bookhistory
😍
#bookhistory
November 8, 2025 at 8:52 PM
A wonderful page from a Parisian Book of Hours (Horae Beatae Mariae Virgine, 1490-1510) with and unusual floral border in the style of Bruges-Ghent. I love it!
😍
#bookhistory
😍
#bookhistory
Reposted by Old Paper Collector
Ohh look at this:
Just found out about this amazing example of #manuscript #recycling . The whole manuscript is made up from the margins of an earlier liturgical manuscript, cut out and rearranged (hence the unusual format), the (mostly) blank margins then used to copy various magical texts in the mid 16th century.
November 6, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Ohh look at this:
This frontispiece of Hubert Goltzius’ “Les Images de tous les empereurs” (Antwerpen, 1557) is an early form of multi color printing (Chiaroscuro woodcuts), here shown in 3 and 2 colors. What an artist!
#bookhistory
#bookhistory
November 5, 2025 at 11:02 AM
This frontispiece of Hubert Goltzius’ “Les Images de tous les empereurs” (Antwerpen, 1557) is an early form of multi color printing (Chiaroscuro woodcuts), here shown in 3 and 2 colors. What an artist!
#bookhistory
#bookhistory
Reposted by Old Paper Collector
Colophon in red ink from a recycled unidentified MS by Johannes Gredinger, completed on the “feria vi” after the feast of S. John “ad portam Latinam” (12 May?). The exact year is masked by the book’s spine label (@stabiberlin.bsky.social, Cs 6738)
resolver.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/SBB000157260...
resolver.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/SBB000157260...
November 3, 2025 at 7:25 AM
Colophon in red ink from a recycled unidentified MS by Johannes Gredinger, completed on the “feria vi” after the feast of S. John “ad portam Latinam” (12 May?). The exact year is masked by the book’s spine label (@stabiberlin.bsky.social, Cs 6738)
resolver.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/SBB000157260...
resolver.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/SBB000157260...
Jan Luyken’s The Plate Printer (1694) from Het Menselyk Bedryf shows the heart of an early modern copperplate workshop.
The pressman strains at the rolling press while fresh prints hang to dry — a perfect tribute to human skill and ink.
#PrintHistory #Luyken #CopperplatePrinting #BookHistory
The pressman strains at the rolling press while fresh prints hang to dry — a perfect tribute to human skill and ink.
#PrintHistory #Luyken #CopperplatePrinting #BookHistory
November 2, 2025 at 10:00 AM
Jan Luyken’s The Plate Printer (1694) from Het Menselyk Bedryf shows the heart of an early modern copperplate workshop.
The pressman strains at the rolling press while fresh prints hang to dry — a perfect tribute to human skill and ink.
#PrintHistory #Luyken #CopperplatePrinting #BookHistory
The pressman strains at the rolling press while fresh prints hang to dry — a perfect tribute to human skill and ink.
#PrintHistory #Luyken #CopperplatePrinting #BookHistory
Happy All Saints!
Woodcut designed by Pieter van de Borcht and cut by Antonie van Leest. From a Missale Romanum (Plantin, Antwerp -1574).
#bookhistory
#plantin
Woodcut designed by Pieter van de Borcht and cut by Antonie van Leest. From a Missale Romanum (Plantin, Antwerp -1574).
#bookhistory
#plantin
November 1, 2025 at 8:27 AM
Happy All Saints!
Woodcut designed by Pieter van de Borcht and cut by Antonie van Leest. From a Missale Romanum (Plantin, Antwerp -1574).
#bookhistory
#plantin
Woodcut designed by Pieter van de Borcht and cut by Antonie van Leest. From a Missale Romanum (Plantin, Antwerp -1574).
#bookhistory
#plantin
Reposted by Old Paper Collector
Spilled my coffee travel mug in my backpack this morning - can you imagine the horror - so let’s just say some time with these wonderful #earlymodern miniature books was very much needed!
1) Gregorian Calendar (1585)
#rarebooks #bookhistory 💙📚📜
/1
1) Gregorian Calendar (1585)
#rarebooks #bookhistory 💙📚📜
/1
October 31, 2025 at 12:07 PM
Spilled my coffee travel mug in my backpack this morning - can you imagine the horror - so let’s just say some time with these wonderful #earlymodern miniature books was very much needed!
1) Gregorian Calendar (1585)
#rarebooks #bookhistory 💙📚📜
/1
1) Gregorian Calendar (1585)
#rarebooks #bookhistory 💙📚📜
/1
Reposted by Old Paper Collector
Not only MSS were used in early book bindings, incunabula leaves were recycled, too. Here is a short anthology! First, from the Corpus iuris civilis printed in Rom, 1476 (GW 7678). Only 15 copies are known! (@stabiberlin.bsky.social, Dq 8880)
resolver.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/SBB0001655D0...
resolver.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/SBB0001655D0...
October 29, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Not only MSS were used in early book bindings, incunabula leaves were recycled, too. Here is a short anthology! First, from the Corpus iuris civilis printed in Rom, 1476 (GW 7678). Only 15 copies are known! (@stabiberlin.bsky.social, Dq 8880)
resolver.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/SBB0001655D0...
resolver.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/SBB0001655D0...
Reposted by Old Paper Collector
October 29, 2025 at 10:16 AM
Reposted by Old Paper Collector
Book Waste Bindings
October 28, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Book Waste Bindings
Found a joyful fragment in my collection: a 15th-century parchment leaf once reused in a bookbinding! 🎶
It preserves Tantum ergo Sacramentum — the Eucharistic hymn by Thomas Aquinas — complete with neumes and traces of blind-stamped leather.
#BookHistory
#Fragmentology
It preserves Tantum ergo Sacramentum — the Eucharistic hymn by Thomas Aquinas — complete with neumes and traces of blind-stamped leather.
#BookHistory
#Fragmentology
October 25, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Found a joyful fragment in my collection: a 15th-century parchment leaf once reused in a bookbinding! 🎶
It preserves Tantum ergo Sacramentum — the Eucharistic hymn by Thomas Aquinas — complete with neumes and traces of blind-stamped leather.
#BookHistory
#Fragmentology
It preserves Tantum ergo Sacramentum — the Eucharistic hymn by Thomas Aquinas — complete with neumes and traces of blind-stamped leather.
#BookHistory
#Fragmentology
Reposted by Old Paper Collector
I have just put for sale: Books about Rubens - Rare set of 5
L'oevre de P.P. Rubens, Max Rooses
Published in Antwerp 1890
Max Rooses was the first curator of the Museum Plantin-Moretus, a renowned expert on Rubens.
Let me know if anyone is interested (2027 will be the Rubens Year).
Price neg.
L'oevre de P.P. Rubens, Max Rooses
Published in Antwerp 1890
Max Rooses was the first curator of the Museum Plantin-Moretus, a renowned expert on Rubens.
Let me know if anyone is interested (2027 will be the Rubens Year).
Price neg.
October 25, 2025 at 9:57 AM
I have just put for sale: Books about Rubens - Rare set of 5
L'oevre de P.P. Rubens, Max Rooses
Published in Antwerp 1890
Max Rooses was the first curator of the Museum Plantin-Moretus, a renowned expert on Rubens.
Let me know if anyone is interested (2027 will be the Rubens Year).
Price neg.
L'oevre de P.P. Rubens, Max Rooses
Published in Antwerp 1890
Max Rooses was the first curator of the Museum Plantin-Moretus, a renowned expert on Rubens.
Let me know if anyone is interested (2027 will be the Rubens Year).
Price neg.
Reposted by Old Paper Collector
This #FragmentFriday is found in De Thiende (1585), a groundbreaking #mathematical book by Simon Stevin, introducing the decimal separator (now , or . ) for fractions. It has a 19th century library binding, but retains the medieval parchment wrappers it was originally bound in.
📚💙
📜
📚💙
📜
October 24, 2025 at 9:29 AM
This #FragmentFriday is found in De Thiende (1585), a groundbreaking #mathematical book by Simon Stevin, introducing the decimal separator (now , or . ) for fractions. It has a 19th century library binding, but retains the medieval parchment wrappers it was originally bound in.
📚💙
📜
📚💙
📜
New to my collection. Opera by Aurelius Prudentius Clemens, printed by Merten de Keyser (Antwerp 1536). My first book of this printer.
I love the typography of this time!
#bookhistory
#Antwerpen
I love the typography of this time!
#bookhistory
#Antwerpen
October 21, 2025 at 2:57 PM
New to my collection. Opera by Aurelius Prudentius Clemens, printed by Merten de Keyser (Antwerp 1536). My first book of this printer.
I love the typography of this time!
#bookhistory
#Antwerpen
I love the typography of this time!
#bookhistory
#Antwerpen
Reposted by Old Paper Collector
It's not always easy... This #FragmentFriday is about an unidentified Latin text, B 255483:fragm.306. The text is difficult to read and overprinted with red ink - indicating that the original sheet of #parchment was used as a #Frisket sheet for printing a book in red and black ink.
October 17, 2025 at 9:18 AM
It's not always easy... This #FragmentFriday is about an unidentified Latin text, B 255483:fragm.306. The text is difficult to read and overprinted with red ink - indicating that the original sheet of #parchment was used as a #Frisket sheet for printing a book in red and black ink.
🐘🐎🐫 #WorldAnimalDay — seventeenth-century style!
Frontispiece designed by Peter Paul Rubens and engraved by Cornelis Galle for De militia equestri antiqua et nova (Antwerp: Plantin Press, 1630).
An ode to cavalry — from centaurs to camels.
#BookHistory #PlantinPress #Rubens
Frontispiece designed by Peter Paul Rubens and engraved by Cornelis Galle for De militia equestri antiqua et nova (Antwerp: Plantin Press, 1630).
An ode to cavalry — from centaurs to camels.
#BookHistory #PlantinPress #Rubens
October 4, 2025 at 7:36 AM
🐘🐎🐫 #WorldAnimalDay — seventeenth-century style!
Frontispiece designed by Peter Paul Rubens and engraved by Cornelis Galle for De militia equestri antiqua et nova (Antwerp: Plantin Press, 1630).
An ode to cavalry — from centaurs to camels.
#BookHistory #PlantinPress #Rubens
Frontispiece designed by Peter Paul Rubens and engraved by Cornelis Galle for De militia equestri antiqua et nova (Antwerp: Plantin Press, 1630).
An ode to cavalry — from centaurs to camels.
#BookHistory #PlantinPress #Rubens
Reposted by Old Paper Collector
It's #FragmentFriday! Have a look at this #Antwerp almanac for the year 1568. It's bound in a vellum fragment with writing from what seems to be the late 12th century. #Medieval #Paleography
It's (I think) a copy of the Decretum Gratiani, a compendium of canon law dated shortly after 1140.
📜 📚💙
It's (I think) a copy of the Decretum Gratiani, a compendium of canon law dated shortly after 1140.
📜 📚💙
October 3, 2025 at 1:41 PM
It's #FragmentFriday! Have a look at this #Antwerp almanac for the year 1568. It's bound in a vellum fragment with writing from what seems to be the late 12th century. #Medieval #Paleography
It's (I think) a copy of the Decretum Gratiani, a compendium of canon law dated shortly after 1140.
📜 📚💙
It's (I think) a copy of the Decretum Gratiani, a compendium of canon law dated shortly after 1140.
📜 📚💙
Reposted by Old Paper Collector
☞☞ Hands-on reading ☜☜
The manicules in #rarebooks are fantastically diverse. Some are tiny & discreet, others take up half the margin; some have flowing sleeves, or even little faces.
They’re glimpses into the personality of readers/scribes highlighting passages worth reading.
#bookhistory 💙📚📜
The manicules in #rarebooks are fantastically diverse. Some are tiny & discreet, others take up half the margin; some have flowing sleeves, or even little faces.
They’re glimpses into the personality of readers/scribes highlighting passages worth reading.
#bookhistory 💙📚📜
September 30, 2025 at 3:31 PM
☞☞ Hands-on reading ☜☜
The manicules in #rarebooks are fantastically diverse. Some are tiny & discreet, others take up half the margin; some have flowing sleeves, or even little faces.
They’re glimpses into the personality of readers/scribes highlighting passages worth reading.
#bookhistory 💙📚📜
The manicules in #rarebooks are fantastically diverse. Some are tiny & discreet, others take up half the margin; some have flowing sleeves, or even little faces.
They’re glimpses into the personality of readers/scribes highlighting passages worth reading.
#bookhistory 💙📚📜
Reposted by Old Paper Collector
De boeken van de zusters van Soeterbeeck zijn eeuwenlang intensief gebruikt. Nu hebben ze onze zorg nodig. Draag bij aan het behoud van de boeken van Soeterbeeck!
radbouduniversiteit.voorradboudfonds.nl/project/soet...
radbouduniversiteit.voorradboudfonds.nl/project/soet...
De Collectie Soeterbeeck
Aangeraakt door de handen van vele zusters: gebruikt, verweerd, uit elkaar gevallen en weer liefdevol hersteld. De meer dan vijftig handschriften en ruim zeshonderd gedrukte werken van het klooster So...
radbouduniversiteit.voorradboudfonds.nl
September 12, 2025 at 8:05 PM
De boeken van de zusters van Soeterbeeck zijn eeuwenlang intensief gebruikt. Nu hebben ze onze zorg nodig. Draag bij aan het behoud van de boeken van Soeterbeeck!
radbouduniversiteit.voorradboudfonds.nl/project/soet...
radbouduniversiteit.voorradboudfonds.nl/project/soet...
Can somebody help me deciphering this blind stamp on a book binding around 1500? The second part looks IHS to me, but I cannot read the first part.
???|IHS
Thanks in advance! 🙏
#bookbinding
#bookhistory
#gothic
???|IHS
Thanks in advance! 🙏
#bookbinding
#bookhistory
#gothic
September 27, 2025 at 7:40 AM
Can somebody help me deciphering this blind stamp on a book binding around 1500? The second part looks IHS to me, but I cannot read the first part.
???|IHS
Thanks in advance! 🙏
#bookbinding
#bookhistory
#gothic
???|IHS
Thanks in advance! 🙏
#bookbinding
#bookhistory
#gothic
Reposted by Old Paper Collector
I solved a nice puzzle this morning: unidentified Middle Dutch religious text on @fragmentarium.bsky.social (Antwerp, EHC, cf. @svanimpe.bsky.social ) turns out to be a lectionarium, comparable to the 1348 Lectionarium Amstelodamense (but with interesting variants). fragmentarium.ms/overview/F-8...
September 25, 2025 at 9:57 AM
I solved a nice puzzle this morning: unidentified Middle Dutch religious text on @fragmentarium.bsky.social (Antwerp, EHC, cf. @svanimpe.bsky.social ) turns out to be a lectionarium, comparable to the 1348 Lectionarium Amstelodamense (but with interesting variants). fragmentarium.ms/overview/F-8...