#book wheel

[sleepy-bebby]

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/behold-the-renaissance-bookwheel?fbclid=IwAR26ALH2SSx46o4DVevwh4_uAWkt6ALLMtgjAqZyBXpa_SUq43zFFRQKzpk

An illustration from the Ramelli’s 1588 book Le diverse et artificiose machine (left). The finished, 600-pound bookwheel, complete with books (right). PUBLIC DOMAIN; MIREYA SALINAS

[internetpotpourri]

(via https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2f/Detalle_de_la_Biblioteca_Palafoxiana_06.jpg/1200px-Detalle_de_la_Biblioteca_Palafoxiana_06.jpg?20230520225902)

[emperornorton47]

Early Kindle

[flittermousemoth]

[smithsonianlibrariesarchives]

Look Ma, no hands!

From Rare Books in the collection of the Cooper-Hewitt Museum (1985), here's another view of the book wheel. 

The Smithsonian Libraries actually has three copies of Recueil d'Ouvrages Curieux de Mathematique et de Mecanique, in which this book wheel is one of many fascinating contraptions. The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Library's rare book collection holds a 1751 copy, while the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology holds another 1751 copy along with a first edition from 1719. Archive.org has a copy digitized from the University of Toronto. Definitely worth perusing!

[erikkwakkel]

Medieval book gadget

This image shows the famous Italian scholar and writer Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) at work, pen in hand. Damaged as it may be, the full-page miniature provides a unique sneak peek into the study of a scholar around 1400. There are books with colourful bindings all around: in cupboards, on his desk, on the floor, and, most strikingly, on a book wheel. The latter is the centre piece of the drawing: the author’s eyes are fixed on the wheel, which is placed in the centre of the image. It is one of the oldest images of such a device that I have seen. A little book lays open on the wheel and parts of its contents are copied down by Petrarch into his own text - plagiarizing others was the thing to in his day. How fascinating: Petrarch’s sources spinning in front of his and our eyes, thanks to this depiction of his study.

Pic: Darmstadt, Universität- und Landesbibliothek, MS 101 (Petrarch, De viris illustribus, c. 1400). Here is another, younger book wheel I tumbled a while ago.

[eng400]

The Renaissance book wheel, referenced in Hayles' article.  Scanning, skimming, and other so-called "digital" forms have a long history.  The problem of information overload has been with us for a long time, and technological devices (think today's productivity "apps") are just the latest in a string of techniques to change how we read.  So much more could be said about these images, but I wanted to get them posted as soon as possible.  Feel free to comment if they inspire anything in your digitally enhanced minds.