Pretty Things & Monsters

[georgiatnsv-deactivated20260427]

Open air viking museum by suhajdab on Flickr.

[nevver]

Map Monsters

[arpeggia]

Reykjavik, Iceland

Photo by Gavin

[lacylite]

Sparkle

[mapmonger]

Montpellier, Bibliothèque interuniversitaire. Section Médecine, H 070, detail of f. 016v. Cartes marines, mappemonde, avec quelques cartes géographiques terrestres (16th century)

[eocene]

February 2012 (by Ro Bott)

[oskjuvatn]

[icelandwantstobeyourfriend-blog]

You and I, Ocean. 

[writing-system]

Title Divinations, magic, etc. 15th century

Source

[turtle-munch-deactivated2016022]

[paganroots]

Detail from an 11th century runic stone, Gamla Uppsala (Old Uppsala), Sweden by henrikj

[archivesjewishcultureandhistory]

Dragons!! Here are some examples of the dragons from the Medieval Rotschild Machzor (Florence 1490). See also this post.

Taken from the pages:  012v, 022r, 024r, 031r, 032v, 062v, 074v, 100v. Go check out the machzor to zoom in and discover all the other illustrations as well! (and all the other dragons)

[thegetty]

Not bad for over 2,000 years old.

Made of emerald, carnelian, amethyst, and gold, this string of Ptolemaic jewels was made into a necklace by Getty conservators. However, these beads may have been worn as earrings by the lucky Alexandrian woman whom they once adorned.

Beads and a stud, Greek, made in Alexandria, Egypt, 220–100 B.C. The J. Paul Getty Museum

[istoleroses-deactivated20230503]

It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.

Oscar Wilde

[lovely-kittens-blog-blog]

[universeobserver]

Look at the center of this image for 30sec, then watch Van Gogh’s *Starry Night* come to life

bless this post. 

[eva-christine]

This is the best thing in the history of ever.

[onlinecounsellingcollege]

So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they’re busy doing things they think are important. This is because they’re chasing the wrong things.

Morrie Schwartz

[gyri-000000-deactivated20130506]

[eva-christine]

The drawings of butterflies done by Vladimir Nabokov were intended for “family use.” He made these on title pages of various editions of his works as a gift to his wife and son and sometimes to other relatives. In Brian Boyd’s words, “in these highly personal and affectionately playful drawings the scientific accuracy Nabokov needed in thousands of illustrations of the specimens he studied under the microscope was no longer relevant, and his imagination could take flight. In the butterflies Nabokov devised and labeled for Vera he mingles fact and fancy even more sportively than in his fiction.”

None of these drawings portray real butterflies, both the images and the names he assigns to them are his invention. The names often have some connection to the book that the butterflies adorn and, in most cases, play on words in English and Russian is used: “Paradisia radugaleta”, “Verinia verae”, to name just a few.

[i-live-alone-in-a-tree]

“Go and get a job. Go and find a flat. Find somebody else. Put them in the flat. Make them stay. Get a toaster. Go to work. Get on the bus. Look at your boss. Say, “fuck”. Sit down. Pick up the thing. Go blank. Scream internally. Go home. Listen to the radio. Look at the other person. Think, “WHY? Why did this happen?”. Go to bed. Lie awake! At night! Get up. Feel groggy. Put the things on - your clothes - whatever they’re called. Go out the door, into work - same thing! Same people, again, it’s real, it is happening, to you. Go home again! Sit, Radio, Dinner - mmm, GARDENING, GARDENING, GARDENING, death!”

Dylan Moran