The Prado is overwhelming; way too much to see! I almost think you maybe have to go in and say “I have two hours, I will only look at these two rooms and really focus on them” and ignore everything else. Or you’ll just spend too much time running around trying to see EVERYTHING.

WHAT SECRETS DOES IT HOLD.

The used the botafumeiro at the Pilgrims Mass today! Quite a sight.

Another cool thing is that I am now a Dual Pilgrim! UNESCO has two recognized historic pilgrimage routes, the Camino and the Kumano Kodo in Japan. I have now done both. :)

MADE IT. (RIP my feet)

Are there any specialists in Spanish religious architecture who can tell me about what I’ve noticed on the Camino? Lots of standing stone crosses with Mary on one side and Jesus on the other. Provincial churches all following a similar template, especially the bell towers (not really towers?!?).

After three days on El Camino, I literally smell like a barnyard. It’s a lovely stretch of countryside, though.

Was setting out to do a Camino, even one consisting of a mere 135km, quixotic of me?

Buen Camino.

This is at the Museum of Sacred Art in Monforte de Lemos. SO reminiscent of anatomical Venuses (or vice versa). Art, anatomy, religion all blending together.

It feels weird to be leaving to walk a Camino right as the world starts to feel more fragile than ever, but maybe that is the best time to walk a Camino?

There are many early modern surgical procedures I don’t want to experience, but lithotomy is most definitely Up There.

I still mull over my theoretical Paracelsus Historical Fiction Novel, but the more I think of it, the more I wonder if it’s maybe Johannes Oporinus’s story?

The Best Cat in the Universe.

Can always count on Ambrose Parè to have some interesting to say about pretty much anything.

People at Japanese festival: That kimono looks so good on you! You look so put together! Me: This kimono and obi are my tea teacher’s. My tea teacher dressed me. This is only working thanks to my tea teacher.

Of course I’ll be in NYC the weekend BEFORE this opens.

Rare Books project finally approaching fruition.

Every time I go through bookseller catalogs I am reminded of how much I would like to just collect various prognostications. I want to curate early modern prophecies and prognostications. That’s it.

It me.

Last night I went to a friend’s bday party that was themed around David Lynch’s Blue Velvet. It was incredibly cool. There were blue mood lights, and actual Blue Velvet cake, vinyl records, Super Interesting Artistic guests. I was probably not cool enough to attend.

Loooooooooong neck. (From Het groot natuur-en zedekundigh Werelttoneel of Woordenboek, 1743)

Detail of a marble head of the goddess Hygeia, Goddess of Health. Dated 5th - 4th century BCE. Hygeia was the daughter of Asklepios (God of Medicine and healing) and this sculpture was found at a healing sanctuary dedicated to him in Pheneos, Peloponnese, Greece. 📷 Athenologio

Today was medical student orientation. Overhead a student on her way out: “I wasn’t expecting to see some cool art.”

We love designing an exhibit that is nothing but a loose confederation of ideas shoved into a Trenchcoat with the name tag IMAGERY tacked on to it.

Can I sneak in a trip to Baltimore to see this?

In addition to all the interesting questions about identity and agency, I’m hoping Severance reveals itself to be a modern critique of humoral medicine. The four Tempers are pretty clearly the four Humors and they’re trying to balance them? ARE THE EAGANS GALENISTS?

Seeing one complete Ring Cycle has just given me the desire to see more. I know the Met is planning on running one in 2030, and Bayreuth is launching a new one in 28…🤔

One last act of The Ring.

We did not see all the historic sites in Kulmbach because we got sidetracked by a cultural experience.

I found it. The absolute weirdest baby Jesus is the one adorning the baptismal font at St. Stephan’s in Bamberg.

First night of the Ring Cycle of Bayreuth is done! This is a bit of a controversial production (modern & the Rheingold is a child among other things), but I’m into it. And that MUSIC.

Clearly an opera town.

Made it to Wagner-land.

Our latest library swag is printer’s mark temporary tattoos.

Spotted in Richmond, VA.

That’s a wrap on Rare Book School. This was definitely more of a “think big thoughts about library nuts and bolts” than “learn this cool thing!” class, but it definitely gave more of a grounding in the nuts and bolts. And I have a cohort now, which is perhaps the best thing.

The Special Collections Leadership Seminar is undoubtedly the best class for me at this point in my career, but the History of the Tibetan Book and 20th Century Duplication Techniques classes just look so *cool.*

What does it mean?

Evening on the lawn at UVA. Fireflies starting to come out. Cicadas singing. Not bad.

We love the subject lines of emails from booksellers: New list of old medical books.

On a coast, so oysters need to happen.

July 4th feels more and more like a sick joke with each year, but as someone who is probably going to be in the US for the long haul, I think all we can do is not give up and support our communities as best we can.

The Satipatthana Sutta www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/...

I had a dream that I found I penguin wandering around the streets and had to temporarily bring it home, which was much better than the dream where I went to Josh Hawley’s office to try and force him to acquire some morals.

It seems that the only relief I can find from the current political nightmare is to post rude songs from #18thc children's books & let my Bluesky friends make the applications as they choose. Not just sure this one, also from Tommy Thumb's Pretty Songbook, will get past the moderators, but I'll try:

I, too, want to devour a week’s worth of tasty treats and then fall asleep.

Really enjoying this - definitely good for anyone with an interest in early modern Japan, and it also raises some good points about how the history of tea is pretty much dominated by information put out by the major tea schools.

The scene: a performance of Hamlet at St. Louis’s outdoor Shakespeare fest. Hamlet has begun flinging dirt around to convey signal his apparent madness. There are some giggles from the audience. My German friend leans over says, “But it is not supposed to be a comedy, ja?”