Four angels making music in heaven. This is a detail from a German Schreibkalender (VD17 27:713820V).
"There's a party
Don't you know today there is a party
Open up your heart, we're gonna start it" (DJ Bobo)
Today, the book needs saving again.
The National Museum of Lithuania is fundraising to restore this fragile object: lnm.lt/paramos-proj...
One surviving copy, now in the National Museum of Lithuania. And yet – it also contains something unexpected: two New Testament title pages (no Old Testament, though). A small mystery of printing, rebinding, and use that invites questions.
But the story takes a turn.
After his death, his sons converted to Catholicism – and, according to stories, began burning copies of the Bible their father had supported.
So how do you save a forbidden book?
You make it harder to recognise.
Owners tore out the Old Testament title page.
A six-year scholarly effort by a team of translators working from Hebrew and Greek was funded by Mikalojus Radvila “the Black,” Grand Chancellor of the GDL and one of the most powerful Protestant patrons in the region.
An open early printed book with visibly damaged and uneven pages. The text is printed in black ink in a historic serif typeface, with decorative initials. Several leaves are torn, misaligned, or loosely inserted, and handwritten notes appear in the margins. The binding is broken, with pages separating from the spine, revealing the book’s worn interior structure.
A heavily worn 16th-century book with a damaged brown leather binding. The cover is partially detached, exposing wooden boards and sewing structure along the spine. The edges of the pages are uneven and warped, suggesting long-term use and age. The overall condition shows significant deterioration, with torn leather, loose threads, and visible structural fragility.
A book that survived fire – by losing its first page.
The Brest Bible (1563) is one of the most remarkable witnesses of the Reformation in Lithuania. Printed in Brest (Brasta), it was the first full Bible translation in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania into a vernacular language – Polish.🧵
Close-up of a 1611 printed missal page for the feast of St Casimir, with red and black typography and an illuminated initial. At the bottom, a small handwritten slip in Latin titled Oratio in Translatione S. Casimiri is pasted onto the page, adding a prayer not included in the printed book.
1611 #OfficinaPlantiniana Missal, St Casimir section: an owner literally added in a missing prayer (Oratio in Translatione S. Casimiri). Early modern “add-on content –for #Lithuania ‘s only canonised saint.
An open early modern missal resting on dark green fabric. The right-hand page shows a hand-coloured woodcut surrounded by painted floral decoration in green, pink, blue, and gold tones, with red printed Latin text. The left page is mostly blank, bearing a handwritten ownership inscription. The book is bound in worn brown leather, with visible aging and stains on the paper.
That missal once belonged to Sigismund III Vasa – King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. History, hiding in plain sight.
Currently held at the Uppsala University Library
Close-up of an early 18th-century handwritten Latin parish record on aged paper. Beneath the text are small doodles drawn in brown ink: two cartoon-like skulls with hollow eyes
Turns out the priest of the Church of St Joseph & Nicodemus in #Vilnius was not just keeping death records – he was also expressing himself artistically in the margins.
🧟♂️
Close-up of a 16th-century printed book page with dense blackletter text. A round burn hole interrupts the page near the top right, revealing a modern photo behind it of a smiling person giving two thumbs up.
Sixteenth-century book with a perfectly placed burn hole. Proof that early modern readers lived dangerously (hello, candles).
📚🔥 #RareBooks #BookHistory #MaterialCulture #LibrarianLife
Stack of large early modern atlas volumes used as a display plinth, with a small historic drinking glass placed on top. Behind them, a wall-mounted engraving depicts the 1697 fire at Stockholm’s Tre Kronor Palace, showing flames, fleeing figures, and collapsing buildings. The scene is set against rough stone walls in a museum exhibition space.
On 7 May 1697, fire destroyed most of Stockholm’s Tre Kronor Palace.
The blaze spread fast through wooden interiors and copper roofing. Evacuation followed; servants tried to save royal possessions. That is how Bleau’s atlas and a drinking glass survived the fire!
Fragment of a page with an initial letter Oli, that has been doodled in with a face, beard and a hat on top.
Hello sir!
How to kill some time while reading.
#rarebooks #doodle #earlymodern
A black-and-white early modern woodcut printed on paper, depicting a stylised tree filled with circular labels. At the top, a crowned male figure holds branching vines; below, circles name family relations in Latin (father, mother, siblings, cousins), each marked with red Roman numerals indicating degrees. A central human figure stands mid-tree. At the bottom, a banner reads “Haec est arbor consanguinitatis” (“This is the tree of consanguinity”). The image was used in canon law to calculate degrees of kinship for marriage.
Arbor Consanguinitatis (Tree of Consanguinity) from a 1509 edition of the Sexti libri materia, printed in Paris. Clerics used these complex "trees" to map out prohibited degrees of relationship. If your family branches crossed here, a marriage was legally considered incestuous.
Pope Leo in white papal robes smiles while turning the thick pages of an illuminated Bible. On-screen text reads, “Pope Leo: ‘Can I turn the pages?’” Below, a social media comment says “No gloves for the Pope?” with dozens of likes.
Not even the Pope escapes the gloves-on brigade 😄 First comment on the reel where he’s flipping through the Borso d’Este Bible: “No gloves for the Pope?”
Book under the microscope.
Chart with a scientific instruments border and iron gall damage in the text.
Booked for the Evening?
Tonight we'll premier my favorite new acquisition, a 17th c. surveying manuscript with a Galileo link! My Conservation colleagues will explain the plan to deacidify and support areas with iron gall ink damage...
It's not too late to join us!
www.newberry.org/calendar/boo...
An open 19th-century illustrated book held in a library storage space, with stacks of old, worn volumes in the background. The title page reads Reise um die Erde nach Japan. On the open spread is a sepia-toned engraving showing a cold coastal landscape with mountains, water, and several seals (#Seehunds) resting on rocky ground. The scene visually echoes winter conditions.
While fighting −25 °C in #Lithuania, it feels oddly perfect to accidentally stumble upon #Seehunds 🦭 in a book about Japan.
Wilhelm Heine. Reise um die Erde nach Japan. Leipzig, 1856
#earlymodern #rarebooks #specialcollections
An open early modern printed book held at an angle, showing a Latin dissertation title page from Uppsala. A hand points to the printed name “PETRI EKERMAN,” highlighting the author attribution. In the background rare books in shelves.
Petrus Ekerman (1697–1783) pushed the #Uppsala system to its limits – writing ~600 master’s dissertations for pay. Ready-made theses, sold to students. The profits even built Ekerman’s House in Uppsala. 📚💸
#CarolinaRediviva #UppsalaUniversityLibrary #earlymodern
Stack of four old books with decorated edges, piled unevenly on a light-colored surface. Warm sunlight casts strong geometric shadows on the wall behind, highlighting the texture of frayed bindings, embossed page edges, and faded red cloth.
A vertically oriented photograph of a small handwritten note titled „Prižadai 1912 metams“ (“Resolutions for the year 1912”). The text is written in neat cursive Lithuanian, in dark ink on light paper, divided into five numbered sections with decorative braces. The resolutions list: waking up no later than 6 a.m.; spending 30–45 minutes daily on Lithuanian culture; reading aloud in English for 45 minutes; walking outdoors for one hour every day; and dedicating at least one hour per week to learning, writing, or translation. At the bottom, the note is dated “Su pabaiga 1911 metų” (“At the end of 1911”) and signed with a handwritten name.
#NewYearResolutions | 1912
1. To wake up no later than 6 a.m.
2. 30-45 min to cultivate Lithuania culture
3. 45 min to read aloud in English
4. To walk outdoors for 1 hour
5. To reserve 1 hour per week for the art of rhetoric, writing or translation.
May constancy triumph over distraction!
A person with colourful tattooed arms and a graphic T-shirt holds open an early printed book. The visible woodcut portrait inside shows a Martin Luther’s face that has been heavily crossed out with dark ink. Bookshelves filled with old volumes are blurred in the background.
A person with tattooed arms holds open a 16th-century printed book. The title page reads “De Captivitate Babylonica Ecclesiae Praeludium, Martini Lutheri,” with handwritten marginal notes and an old library stamp at the bottom. Shelves of historic books line the background.
Dominican #censorship
Fun fact: in the Bibliotheca Casanatense, book theft didn’t just get you in trouble—it got you excommunicated on the spot. (At least that’s the warning that was hung up at the library)
#earlymodern #bookhistory
A masterpiece of early natural history 🦋✨
Scilla’s 1715 butterfly manuscript, Italy’s first Lepidoptera collection, pairs meticulous watercolours with 211 specimens preserved between mica “windows” — centuries before modern plastics.
Kept at Biblioteca Casanatense,
An open 15th-century manuscript displayed on a wooden table. The right-hand page features a full-length illustration of a stylized male figure holding a long sword, decorated with bright colors and symbolic motifs: a green dragon head near the hilt, gold circles at the knees, and a horned or fleur-de-lis–shaped crest on the helmet. Surrounding the figure is dense handwritten Latin text in brown ink. The left-hand page contains neatly written text with rubricated initials and marginal notes. The pages show signs of age and wear.
This fencing manual - written between 1482–1487 and dedicated to Guidobaldo da Montefeltro - once sat in the Ducal Library of Urbino. Influenced by Fiore dei Liberi, cited in the ducal index, lost after Cesare Borgia’s 1502 conquest, resurfaced centuries later at the National Central Library of Rome
A painting showing Erasmus seated beside wooden shelves filled with several books. On the middle shelf, a pair of metal scissors hangs vertically. The books have clasps and ties. The man wears a dark cap and black clothing, looking downward.
A hand holding an open book with gilded page edges and a blue ribbon bookmark. The figure wears a dark garment with white lace cuffs. A small dog with brown fur is partially visible in the background, looking toward the viewer.
A close-up of a Renaissance painting showing a seated woman in a red dress and grey cloak. Beside her, on a cushion, lies a thick book with a red cover and metal fittings. Several thin metal-tipped bookmark cords hang from the lower edge of the book. The background shows an arched window and a view of buildings outside.
Books in paintings at the Bernini Palace in Rome: from Erasmus’s scissors to the delicate metal bookmarks of Mary.
Close-up photograph of a worn, reddish-brown leather book cover with an embossed silver coat of arms. The design resembles a Russian double-headed eagle, but only one eagle head remains visible; the other has been scraped away. In the center shield, instead of St. George a mounted knight (Vytis) – coat of arms of Lithuania. The leather around the emblem is scratched and scuffed, showing age and wear.
Resistance in the 18th c. could look like this.
At first glance, this coat of arms seems unmistakably Russian – a double-headed eagle with St George in the centre.
But LOOK closer.
One head is scraped off, and in the centre you find #Vytis, the #Lithuanian coat of arms, quietly reclaiming its place.
The main text reads “Laudabili, gratiulādi, cōdolēti… occasione accommodata. IN Parnasso VILNENSI proposita Anno…” followed by the chronogram “Vt Casēs CorpVs præDa beaVIt, aMor.” The writing varies between large black calligraphic capitals and smaller cursive notes added in brown ink. A blue circular ink stamp with a double-headed eagle appears on the right side. Marginal notes and a signature run along the left edge. The paper is worn and stained, with visible discoloration and small surface abrasions.
Vt Cases CorpVs præDa beaVIt aMor.
Early modern authors: “Here, decode my feelings and my calendar.”
Me: sir this is a title page.
Is it 1716, though?
#earlymodern #chronigram #handwritten #manuscript
A vintage illustrated postcard depicting a theatrical or ballroom scene. In the center, a woman in a yellow and purple gown with flowers in her hair curtsies gracefully. On her left, a man in a green and red costume with a plumed hat bows and kisses her hand; on her right, another man in a blue coat bows deeply while holding a violin. The background features draped curtains and a large arched window, suggesting a stage setting.
Monday mood: quietly losing my mind over UMARC fields and 35th sermon— all in the name of research 🪄📚
A handwritten Latin manuscript page
A handwritten Latin manuscript page
Title page of a 17th-century Latin manuscript titled Promptuarium Orationum in Omni Materia Subsequentur Epistolae Varie.
“The enemy is at the walls; we are barely holding out. If you do not come, we are all lost.”
From a textbook used by students of the Vilnius Diocesan Seminary.
#NationalLibraryofLithuania #earlymodern #manuscript
Poster for the international conference Scattered, Tracked, Connected: New Approaches to Dispersed Heritage organized by the National Museum of Lithuania. The event will take place at the National Museum of Lithuania, Arsenalo Street 1, Vilnius, on 29–30 April 2026. Logos of the organizer and partners, including the Institute of History, Vilnius University’s Faculty of History and Faculty of Communication, UNESCO, and the Baltic Audiovisual Archival Council, appear at the bottom.
Screenshot of the National Museum of Lithuania website showing the Call for Papers text for the conference Scattered, Tracked, Connected. The description invites museum professionals, historians, and heritage specialists to explore the fragmented and displaced nature of cultural heritage, emphasizing digital tools, collaboration, and ethical storytelling.
Screenshot of the National Museum of Lithuania website listing the first three themes of the Scattered, Tracked, Connected conference: 1) Mapping the Dispersed, 2) Whose Heritage Is It, and 3) Digital Reconnections. Each theme addresses topics like provenance research, ethical frameworks, restitution, digital documentation, and reuniting dispersed collections.
Screenshot of the National Museum of Lithuania website showing thematic areas 4 and 5 of the Scattered, Tracked, Connected Call for Papers — ‘Silent Absences’ and ‘Institutions and Imagination.’ The text also provides submission guidelines: 250–300 word abstracts in English or Lithuanian and a 100-word biography, to be submitted by 19 December 2025 via a registration form.
📢 #CFP is open!
Join us in Vilnius for the international conference “Scattered, Tracked, Connected: New Approaches to Dispersed Heritage” - exploring innovative ways to trace, interpret, and connect fragmented cultural collections.
🔗 lnm.lt/en/events/in...
#heritage #archives #museums #GLAM
A group photo of conference speakers
✨ Acutus et Argutus: Early Modern Print Culture in Motion has finally happened!
Three days of brilliant talks, sharp ideas, and lively discussions on early modern books, poetics & print networks — with speakers from across Europe.
#bookhistory #PrintCulture #earlymodern
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Slide with a piesia artificial example – text written in a trumpet
Acutus et argutus has begun! Why to type something easily, when you can do labirynths, roses. Should my next paper look like that? 🫢
