21–30 of 36 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Another interesting copy is the one bound in human skin at Brown. Shouldn't that be at Miskatonic?
Apparently, for a time, it was in vogue for medical students to have a medical text rebound in the skin of their human cadaver from their autopsy class.
There's a transcript of the interview here [1]. Search for "Old Anatomy Book".
The audio for the entire episode is here [2]. I don't recall how far into it this interview occurs. (I've sometimes found their interviews split into separate clips, but if that's the case here I don't know where to find it.)
[1] https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/the-aih-transcript-for-...
[2] https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-2-as-it-happens/clip/...
As you walk into the library, there is a big bronze statue of Marisilio Ficino. Ficino was peak Renaissance — he was head of the academy in Florence and hired by the Medici's to translate greek texts like Plato and the Hermetica into Latin, for the first time. He wrote a book called "De Mysteriis" (the mysteries) that is totally bananas.
Published 1497, it has never been translated. It contains a chapter on Ficino’s own philosophy on pleasure “De Voluptate”
The book got me to start collecting. My copy contains all kinds of marginalia… I’ve been translating the whole book with a scholar at Oxford. I’ve since built up a collection at the intersection of early science and philosophical magic. For instance, dellaporta’s “natural magic,” a book called “mathematical magic” from one of the founders of the Royal society, “arithmology” (a book about divine mathematics by Athenaus Kircher), “Secrets of Nature” by Anton von Leeuwenhoek (inventor of microscope), a book on “artificial curiosities” showing illustrations of steam powered autonomata from the mid 1500s, etc etc etc.
I think the themes of these books — consciousness, magic, intelligence, mathematics — all bring a peculiar perspective on our current AI Renaissance… so I want to use AI to help make these books more accessible and understandable
I am doing some work with the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica in Amsterdam. It's a rare book library with some of the most incredible and beautiful books about esoteric philosophy. I love it. Also know as “The Embassy of the Free Mind” As you walk into the library, there is a big bronze statue of Marisilio Ficino. Ficino was peak Renaissance — he was head of the academy in Florence and hired by the Medici's to tra…
One big reason I go to estate sales is to perhaps one day find a treasure like this; unfortunately many a rich home has either very few books or if they do have books they are mostly junk (estate sales being homes of older folks, the book selection invariable is heavily loaded towards WW2 history) or not of interest to me (coffee table books, cookbooks, etc.) My biggest find so far? Four volumes of the six volume set…
How do you identify a valuable book? Are there some 1000 well known valuable items you keep in mind? Or are you looking inside every jacket hoping to find an author's signature on a 1st edition? I assume the price of a false positive is low (ie I'll buy these dusty books for $20), but sounds like a lot of legwork. I imagine it is definitively less sexy than the Ninth Gate
Earlier quoted context omitted.
How do you identify a valuable book? Are there some 1000 well known valuable items you keep in mind? Or are you looking inside every jacket hoping to find an author's signature on a 1st edition? I assume the price of a false positive is low (ie I'll buy these dusty books for $20), but sounds like a lot of legwork. I imagine it is definitively less sexy than the Ninth Gate
It depends on what you’re collecting but for pre-ISBN books, AbeBooks is the central marketplace for rare books so that’s one place to look up titles but most book collectors specialize, often in a very specific niches like certain authors or topics, usually restricted to a single era. The hard part is tracking editions and verifying that you have a genuine first edition. Collectors depend on bibliographies which are…
The key now is being able to handle the non-isbn books because everyone is out there with phone scanners now.
One big reason I go to estate sales is to perhaps one day find a treasure like this; unfortunately many a rich home has either very few books or if they do have books they are mostly junk (estate sales being homes of older folks, the book selection invariable is heavily loaded towards WW2 history) or not of interest to me (coffee table books, cookbooks, etc.) My biggest find so far? Four volumes of the six volume set…
The closest I have come is a copy of a museum exhibition catalog about Dieter Rams from 1981 that is signed by him. I bought it online. The copy was described as having a scribble on the front page and priced very low as a consequence. Years after, I saw Dieter’s signature somewhere and realized that my book was signed.
The punchline here is that the book is full of the author's own copy-edit notes for a hypothetical 3rd edition of the human anatomy book. I didn't get a clear indication from the story whether anyone thought it would be worth pursuing finishing that project and publishing a new edition.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
How do you identify a valuable book? Are there some 1000 well known valuable items you keep in mind? Or are you looking inside every jacket hoping to find an author's signature on a 1st edition? I assume the price of a false positive is low (ie I'll buy these dusty books for $20), but sounds like a lot of legwork. I imagine it is definitively less sexy than the Ninth Gate
It depends on what you’re collecting but for pre-ISBN books, AbeBooks is the central marketplace for rare books so that’s one place to look up titles but most book collectors specialize, often in a very specific niches like certain authors or topics, usually restricted to a single era. The hard part is tracking editions and verifying that you have a genuine first edition. Collectors depend on bibliographies which are…
One big reason I go to estate sales is to perhaps one day find a treasure like this; unfortunately many a rich home has either very few books or if they do have books they are mostly junk (estate sales being homes of older folks, the book selection invariable is heavily loaded towards WW2 history) or not of interest to me (coffee table books, cookbooks, etc.) My biggest find so far? Four volumes of the six volume set…
How do you identify a valuable book? Are there some 1000 well known valuable items you keep in mind? Or are you looking inside every jacket hoping to find an author's signature on a 1st edition? I assume the price of a false positive is low (ie I'll buy these dusty books for $20), but sounds like a lot of legwork. I imagine it is definitively less sexy than the Ninth Gate