#lcpmarginalia

[librarycompany]

Atlases offer a fair amount of space for doodles on the verso side of plates. Our copy of Olney’s School Atlas shows some fine signature flourishes as well as some drawings of rural homes.  

Olney, J. (Jesse), (1798-1872). Olney’s School Atlas.  New York : Pratt, Woodford and Co., [not before 1847]

[librarycompany]

These characters drawn on the flyleaf of a financial daybook (1791-1792) from the Benjamin Rush papers show that doodling in otherwise meticulous notebooks is a centuries-old pastime.  

Rush Family Papers. Daybook, 1791-1792. Ms. Yi 7271 vol. 53.

[librarycompany]

It is #MarginaliaMonday and we are marveled by these leaf prints made by Francis Daniel Pastorius in our copy of Apparatus eruditionis... (1670).

Pexenfelder, Michael.  Apparatus eruditionis... . Norimbergae : Sumptibus Michaelis & Joh. Friderici Endterorum, 1670.    

[librarycompany]

Some people think this is particularly savage, to draw in books to highlight an important passage. However, we think this is evidence of a book well-loved, and gives insight to its life and should never be disposed of.

The classic “pointing finger” is also called a manicule. 

Basilius Valentinus. The triumphant chariot of antimony ... .  [Oxford : A. Lichfield], 1660.