One of the First Parts I Remember Noticing was the Section on Mermaids

August 19, 2023 1:07 PM

Printed books from this period cover a huge range of topics and dozens of languages, but for me at least, they have one thing in common: I almost always find them far more interesting — more beautifully designed, more strange, more intriguing — than modern books. The rest of this post is a few thoughts on why. from Why Early Modern Books Are So Beautiful by Benjamin Breen

Related: Why Do Old Books Smell So Good?

posted by chavenet (4 comments total)

I love the old books. The gilt edged pages especially. The one or two color covers. They were quite creative with shading in those days. The onion skin page covering some illustrations...wonderful.
posted by Czjewel at 2:21 PM on August 19, 2023 [1 favorite]

My favorite early printed book from Europe was a natural history of North America (or the east coast thereof) that was illustrated after the fact by someone who had no idea what the author was talking about. The section on starfish was illustrated with a woodcut of a fish with weird spikes sticking out of it. In the margin, surrounded by cranky Latin, was a more accurate ink drawing. This is what I get for touring science libraries (in this case, the Mutter Museum’s).
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:36 PM on August 19, 2023 [7 favorites]

As I keep chiming in whenever the subject of books appears and the thought of ebooks pop up as the new and always better form for books to take, these early modern (~500 years old?) books still function as they did when they were new. You may have to be more careful as you turn the pages, be able to read both the letter forms and the language they represent, but the books can still be read. A book as physical object is a miracle of technology, where written language can preserve thought for centuries, illustrations can show us what is being described, and stories can take us to places we may never go and meet people we will never see. All in a container you can pick up, hold, and take with you. The pages of the book function as a time based medium, like film, and with good design, turning the page can reveal more than just another page of text. The book presented in this article is a marvel. Who knows what you might see as you turn to the next page?

It was interesting that the author chose to compare the design to web design now. But what they didn’t mention is that the online or electronic mode of reading is now littered with horribly distracting things like pop-ups, animated ads, and other forms of attention grabbers. Yes, the author mentioned ads in early books, but in these books, I, the reader, could chose to look at the ad or not.

As media is all reduced to some digital form, and the physical form of the content is just a screen connected to the internet, becoming ephemeral and transient, the idea of discussing and viewing our own current “publications” in 500 years time is not something I foresee.
posted by njohnson23 at 5:37 PM on August 19, 2023 [7 favorites]

That led me down the 🖥️🐰 🕳 to a wonderful index of old stuff, all with great descriptions
posted by rebent at 8:33 PM on August 20, 2023 [1 favorite]