Breaking vexillology news

Egypt and Nubia : from drawings made on the spot by David Roberts (London 1846-49)

Schlau, schläuer, am schläusten by Carl Maria Seyppel (Düsseldorf 1882)

Anniversaria In Memoriam Reipublicae Sacrae Et Litterariae Universae by Janus Lassen (Copenhagen 1824)

lates Illustrative of the Researches and Operations of G. Belzoni in Egypt and Nubia. London: John Murray, 1820.

Yesterday I had the pleasure to visit the Museum of Mediterranean and Near Eastern Antiquities in Stockholm and take a closer look at some of their books.

Runbleck i bly. Blecket har en beige färg och ligger på en grå bakgrund. På runblecket finns spår av runor från både den äldre och yngre runraden. Runorna är något otydliga och blecket är slitet.

Runbleck i bly är en hopvikt plåt som troligtvis bars som en skyddande amulett. Med hjälp av neutronteknik har nu Riksantikvarieämbetets runolog Magnus Källström, och forskaren Helena Berg vid Göteborgs universitet, lyckats upptäcka runskrift på runbleckens dolda sidor. www.raa.se/nyheter/2026...

Vad händer om du hittar ett fornfynd? Välkomna på föredrag!

Transcription of the recipe in Swedish:

Memma.
Tag Rågmalt wähl mältad, mala thet och
sickta thet finaste tu Kan, Koka i en grÿta
lagom tiokt och slå i näfwerskeppor och sätt
i ugnen at gräddas.

Easter is just days away – time to start your #mämmi / #memma. Here’s an early modern recipe, scribbled in a 1686 book held by @raa-se.bsky.social:

“Take good malted rye, grind and sift it fine. Cook to a thick consistency, pour into birch-bark boxes, and bake in the oven."

Engraving from the Rosenhane collection at the Swedish National Heritage Board.

Stunning engraving of Christina of Sweden’s 1655 triumphal entry into Rome (printed in Rome the same year). After abdicating her throne and converting to Catholicism, her arrival became one of the defining spectacles of the Counter-Reformation, quickly transformed into religious propaganda.

SHARPIES: A Global Book History Festival

Registration for the SHARPIES—our totally online Book History Festival—is now open and free for SHARP members! 📚😀 If you're not a member, it's easy to join (membership is between $55 and $100). The festival will take place July 7th-9th with events across time zones.

events.zoom.us/ev/Ap9iEZwmC...

Seeing this wonderful copy of Łaski's Statutes (1506) was one of the highlights of my visit to the Warsaw University Library - a beautiful library with great collections.

Ok, I kind of like how this was flagged as adult content.

Delightful title page by the German engraver Dirk Diricks (1613–1653). This Garden of Eden scene offers a splendid menagerie of animals. I’m particularly fond of the whale (a favourite motif among contemporary cartographers) and the frog, prominently placed close to Adam and Eve. #bookhistory #frog

Blind tooled pigskin binding from 16C, reused for a Swedish 1646 Bible (Swedish National Heritage Board). With image of Lady Justice with the Latin motto "Iustitie quisquis picturam | lumine cernis dic deus est [iustus iustaque facta probat]" (text within brackets only implied).

On Wednesday 28 January I’m giving a talk in Stockholm about Swedish war booty - welcome! www.raa.se/evenemang-oc...

During a recent trip to Tromsø, I had a chance to take a quick look at some recent acquisitions at @ubuit.bsky.social. Amazing stuff!

That is certainly a fun candidate!

Does anyone know who Nicolinus Beninus is?

When you've played Für Elise one time too many

My latest article is a review of Charlotte Appel and Nina Christensen's excellent "På sporet af børn og bøger" (Gads Forlag 2023). doi.org/10.14811/clr...

A very short story in two very crude woodcuts (from Tagliente's "Libro di abacho", Venice 1570)

Copy of Holger Jacobæus’ ”Museum regium” from the library of the Royal Swedish Academy for Letters, History and Antiquities. With the supralibros of queen Lovisa Ulrika.

Our copy of Holger Jacobæus’ ”Museum regium” has its own story: it was once owned by Swedish collector count Carl Gustaf Tessin and later Queen Lovisa Ulrika—who even commissioned a similar catalog for her own collections, published by Carl Linnaeus in 1764.

The theft ignited debate on crime and upbringing—and shocked many when the culprit proved Danish and not Swedish, English or Jewish (as the police had thought). It also marked the dawn of Danish Romanticism. Adam Oehlenschläger’s iconic poem “The Golden Horns" became a defining work of the era.

The originals were lost forever. But thanks to detailed depictions and descriptions—among others by the Ole Worm and Joachim Richard Paulli—credible reproductions could be made. These are now on display at the National Museum of Denmark.

The horns were found near Gallehus, southern Jutland, the first one in 1639, and the second one in 1734. Dating from the early 5th century, the horns feature unique decoration and a famous runic inscription in Proto-Norse. They have always been regarded as national treasures of Denmark.

The Louvre heist reminds me of other times when cultural treasures disappeared. One story that stays with me is the loss of the Golden Horns of Gallehus, Denmark, stolen in 1802 by a goldsmith who melted them down.

Engraving in Jacobæus' "Museum regium" [1696], The Swedish National Heritage Board.

DAN WOLGERS. Telefonkatalog, Gula Sidorna K-Ö, Stockholm, 1992. 21 x 27 cm

It's finally happed. The telephone directory has become a collector's item. auctionet.com/sv/4585726-d...

Kopparstick ur Rosenhanesamlingen av Fredsbanketten i Nürnberg år 1649.

Välkommen till årets Rettigsymposium! Det äger rum den 26 november kl 13:15. Programmet bjuder på föredrag och samtal om aktuella forskningsprojekt knutna till Riksantikvarieämbetets arkiv och bibliotek. Evenemanget är kostnadsfritt och öppet för allmänheten – men föranmälan krävs: lnkd.in/dg_yv_Tv

Upplands runinskrifter 908

Last week marked the inaugural meeting of the research network Objects of Knowledge, hosted at University of Copenhagen. It was a pleasure meeting everyone. I talked briefly about a fascinating item from our collections: one of Johannes Bureus’ copper plates.
comm.ku.dk/research/inf...

Why is it assumed that the 'lectrice' would skip the preface, unlike the 'lecteur'? Women’s reading has long been a concern. This 1833 example suggests that the way a woman read was as much a subject of critique as the content she read.

Preface in Fournier & Arnould’s "Struensée" [Paris 1833].

Three weeks to go!

Took a short break from the #SHARP2025 conference to visit the George Eastman Museum and was pleased to find a pretty library and cool book photos