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Old Paper Collector

@oldpapercollector.bsky.social

520 followers 130 following 190 posts

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

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Old Paper Collector @oldpapercollector.bsky.social · Nov 16

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

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Old Paper Collector @oldpapercollector.bsky.social · 5d

🐘🐎🐫 #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

Reposted by Old Paper Collector

Steven Van Impe @svanimpe.bsky.social · 5d

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.

📜 📚💙

Front cover of the almanac, showing handwritten text.

First opening of the almanac, showing the verso of the fragment used in binding with handwritten text, and the printed title page of the almanach with red and black text and an illustration of an armorial device.

The last page of the almanac, showing on the left a woodcut with the printer's device: two greyhounds holding a shield with 'IVG', the initials of the printer Jan van Ghelen. On the right is the inner sheet of the back cover, showing manuscript text.

The back of the almanac, showing a fragment of parchment with handwritten text. Some larger words are written in red ink.

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Reposted by Old Paper Collector

Zanna Van Loon @zannavanloon.bsky.social · 8d

☞☞ 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 💙📚📜

Detail of a manicure and a little face gesturing towards the handwritten text of a manuscript in gothic script written on parchment. The man depicted seems angry. The manicure has a sleeve

A manicule with a stretched sleeve drawn in red in the margins pointing towards a text in Gothic script written on parchment

A manicule used to highlight a rubricated section title in a medieval manuscript written in gothic script on parchment

A very large vaguely drawn manicule pointing towards text in gothic script written on parchment

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Old Paper Collector @oldpapercollector.bsky.social · 11d

Ik kreeg hier de suggestie XPS|IHS.

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Old Paper Collector @oldpapercollector.bsky.social · 11d

Ik kan vooralsnog niet zeggen dat deze methode een beter resultaat geeft.

Old Paper Collector @oldpapercollector.bsky.social · 12d

Het boek is gedrukt in 1496 in Basel.

Dialogorum libri quattuor, Gregorius de Grote.

sites.google.com/view/oldpape...

Old Paper Collector @oldpapercollector.bsky.social · 12d

Ik denk niet dat ik er de materialen voor heb. Een potlood en vloeipapier? Gaat het daat mee?

Reposted by Old Paper Collector

Johan Oosterman @johanoosterman.bsky.social · 26d

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...

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

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Old Paper Collector @oldpapercollector.bsky.social · 12d

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

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Reposted by Old Paper Collector

Remco Sleiderink @remcosleiderink.bsky.social · 13d

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...

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Reposted by Old Paper Collector

Rose A. McCandless @rosemccandless.bsky.social · 17d

Books I saw at work: last week!

An Ethiopian manuscript with a painting of St. George.

A Book of Hours printed on vellum (1480).

A printed book with manuscript binding waste and a table of contents added by hand.

A decorative binding commissioned by Robert Hor.

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Reposted by Old Paper Collector

Steven Van Impe @svanimpe.bsky.social · 27d

An in-situ fragment for #FragmentFriday. Peaking out of the binding of a small Greek edition of Polyaenus the Macedonian (G 5077) are fragments of 2 works. The colourful one is a comment on canon law (chapter "De disciplina in officinis servanda"). The smaller fragments are difficult to determine.

Title page of Polyaenus, Stratagematum libri octo (Lyon, 1589)

Spine lining with fragments of medieval manuscripts.

Back of the major fragment, showing more text.

Detail of one of the smaller fragments peeking out of the binding.

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Old Paper Collector @oldpapercollector.bsky.social · Aug 31

Just spotted not one but three different Jean Gouault watermarks in my 1583 Plantin Bible 📖👀
JGOVAULT, JGOVAVLT, and JEHAN GOVAVLT… it’s like Pokémon cards for early modern paper nerds.

Gotta catch ’em all 🧐🧵 🔎🕵️

#bookhistory
#watermarks
#Plantin

Old Paper Collector @oldpapercollector.bsky.social · Aug 30

Another wonderful example of an upside down letter (a metal cut letter in your case). Thanks for posting!

Reposted by Old Paper Collector

Steven Van Impe @svanimpe.bsky.social · Aug 29

It's #FragmentFriday! Today a 15th-century Middle Dutch manuscript, possibly a sermon or Bible commentary.

It's in a binding with 3 texts printed in Ghent, 1618-1619.

Quote: "wat sal dat scaep doen alst onder die wolve es" (what will the sheep do when it's among wolves?)

anet.be/record/opace...

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Old Paper Collector @oldpapercollector.bsky.social · Aug 29

Wat een straf…

Old Paper Collector @oldpapercollector.bsky.social · Aug 29

Thank you! What a strange way of writing your name 😅

Old Paper Collector @oldpapercollector.bsky.social · Aug 29

Does anyone knows who’s signature is the lower one on this engraving? The upper one is Crispin van den Broeck. This engraving is from a Bible (Plantin 1583).

#bookhistory
#MPM

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Old Paper Collector @oldpapercollector.bsky.social · Aug 29

Found in a book printed by Plantin (1583): a capital Lambda ("Λ") used as a V! The woodblock was made by Antoni van Leest in 1573. I love these little discoveries!

collectie.antwerpen.be/global/searc...

#bookhistory
#plantin

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Old Paper Collector @oldpapercollector.bsky.social · Aug 26

Dogs by Otto Venius (Emblemata Horatiana - 1607).

#bookhistory
#internationaldogday

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Old Paper Collector @oldpapercollector.bsky.social · Aug 24

Where am I? What happened to all the old trees on the square? 😱

Old Paper Collector @oldpapercollector.bsky.social · Aug 19

I am always happy when I see a printers mark that is signed 🙂. In this case the woodcut is made by Geeraard Jansen van Kampen in 1578. Found in IVSTI LIPSI AD LIBROS HISTORIARVM NOTÆ.

@zannavanloon.bsky.social Did you use this printer mark for The Plantin Press Online?

#bookhistory
#plantin

Reposted by Old Paper Collector

Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies @sims-mss.bsky.social · Aug 15

Sometimes books are bound in (parts of) other books. Here is LJS 195, a 15th c. Medical Miscellany bound in a leaf from a 15th c. liturgical book. At the end of the clip is an unfolded leaf that was once used to cover another book; you can see the spine and the folds around the edges. (1/2)

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Old Paper Collector @oldpapercollector.bsky.social · Aug 16

Here are some more examples by Rubens on my website:

sites.google.com/view/oldpape...

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Old Paper Collector @oldpapercollector.bsky.social · Aug 16

I think so. The central figure must be Mater Ecclesia (Mother Church).

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_...

Mother church - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org