For some reason, very few people these days will stand up and say it, but: the US federal bureaucracy is one of the great wonders of the world, staffed with incredibly diligent people who do their jobs well and care deeply. Trump's destruction of the federal apparaus was a historic crime.

Quiet day by the water

Johannes Balbus' Catholicon -- an immense Latin grammar and dictionary. Printed in Mainz in 1460 by Gutenberg. BPL's copy is one of relatively few printed on vellum (animal skin). Taking some pics with my iphone(!), you can see collagen fibers, hand-applied pigments, and ink squash from the press.

me again

Another day on the job, another normal day of library science

Last BPL new acquisition of the year is a copy of the very rare gradual printed by Johann Emerich for Lucantonio Giunta in Venice in 1499. This is the largest book (by dimensions) printed during the 15th century and it required a custom-manufactured paper stock to print. 1/8

Whatever works

Much solidarity here with BL workers, who are very visibly and very grievously underpaid

Spot the turkeys

An honor and dream come true to perform alongside Yo-Yo Ma, presented by Celebrity Series at Boston Symphony Hall. 💜 🎼Ave Maria (Bach/Gounod)

With the Boston International Antiquarian book fair fully in the rear view, here are two early books BPL acquired over the course of that week. We of course added a bunch of other amazing stuff to the collections as well, which I'll detail a bit later . . . 1/7

Breaking up a long Sunday this past weekend to look at minerals, fossils, taxidermy . . .

Big shout out to the 100+ British Library members out on the picket line today, on strike over pay. Thanks to @rmtunion.bsky.social general secretary Eddie Dempsey who came along to speak to the strikers in #solidarity. #BritishLibraryOnStrike #PCSonStrike

Late fall Vermont

Wild find from among my late grandfather's stuff: what appears to be a ticket to opening night of the run of April 1964 Lenny Bruce shows in Greenwich Village that ultimately led to his arrest, trial, and conviction on obscenity charges.

Some newly acquired early print at the Boston Public Library: first, an unrecorded edition of Tifi Odasi’s Macaronea printed in Rome ca. 1493-1499. A bawdy verse satire on university humanists in Padua, it's written in a playful mix of Latin and Italian. Purchased from Patrick Olson Rare Books. 1/3

Ending Cape vacation in style

Blustery bayside Cape Cod morning

A little Cape Cod beach time this week

You can check out the Boston Public Library’s unbelievable Special Collections in person at the newly renovated reading room: www.bpl.org/special-coll... We’re also working to digitize even more of these treasures & make them searchable & accessible from anywhere in the world. @bpl.boston.gov

Actually I swore an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States with my hand on @bpl.boston.gov’s 1782 edition Aitken Bible—also known as the Bible of the Revolution.

Kiting

Birthday party geode cracking

Working with the BPL Catholicon today. It’s such an ocean of information—textual and material.

This morning’s sunrise blanketed with the now more or less permanent wildfire smoke, or a backdrop from Bladerunner 2049?

Watching agog at Paul Needham's ongoing lecture on **new** physical evidence of printing in the Catholicon. Inspiring. Amazing.

Last day of Basque travels ends in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, a popular starting point for the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. Clear water, stone walls, and views of the Pyrenees.

Morning hike in Basque foothills

A week in Basque Country

Interesting things that have come across our desks in the Boston Public Library Rare Books Dept. of late (1/4) A previously unrecorded half-plate (i.e. LARGE) daguerreotype of the Boston abolitionist Wendell Phillips

Castle Island

New dog

🗃️🧵 Some scholars have drawn comparisons between the military incursions in LA in support of ICE and federalized military support for the rendition of Anthony Burns from Boston back to enslavement in 1854 under the Fugitive Slave Act, and I wanted to add to that conversation by sharing these docs

Flowers

Just finished redescribing BPL Boston’s fantastic pamphlet collection originally assembled by Aldino Felicani (1891-1967). Born in Italy, Felicani emigrated to Boston where he published the anti-fascist newspaper Controcorrente at his Excelsior press in the North End. 1/2

‘“It’s a reckoning for all museums and institutions that currently hold plundered property,” Ms. Lanier said of the settlement.’ www.nytimes.com/2025/05/28/h...

Winding down before bedtime by scurrying through this enormous habitrail for children

New BPL acquisition: a 19th-century Italian Hebrew manuscript miscellany of prayers. Amazingly, the limp parchment binding is recycled from a substantial fragment of an earlier Italian ketubah.

Quite thrilled with this new acquisition from @quaritch1847.bsky.social. A 1479 edition of Augustinus de Ancona's treatise on papal power with many fantastic layers of material evidence 1/5

For the past year or so, my colleagues and I have been working with the authors of Our Bodies Ourselves, as well as the successor org to the Boston Women's Health Course Collective to digitize the very early printings of this once (and still) radical text: ourbodiesourselves.org/the-latest/b...

If I have to fill out a 1040, I have a panic attack, but I'll happily spend 8 hours reading tax assessments from the 1820s. Here's a page from the 1821 Valuation Book for Boston's Ward 4. Plenty of African American property owners. s/o to @jaymoschella.bsky.social and @bpl.boston.gov for digitizing!

Dr Carla Hayden was a truly great Librarian of Congress. It is an outrage that she has been sacked - a national shame on the United States. I had the pleasure of knowing her and working with her - she’ll continue to do good in the next phase of her career whatever that is.

Complete ream wrapper used to bound a late 18th-century Boston carpentry account book. This would have been the outer packaging for a ream of imported Dutch paper.

Weekly collection box for the Massachusetts Antislavery Society, issued in 1839, with the original blocks used to print them. Part of the Boston Public Library’s vast collection of materials related to antislavery movements in the 19th century United States.

Brought out the good silverware for our guests today as we discussed what exactly it is a library can do with Early Modern English playbooks

Check out these owls we just saw

Moved on from a total obsession with legos and trucks to plumbing, pipes, sewers, and drains.

With two new acquisitions, BPL can now provide access to all three of the very rare editions of the autobiography of Venture Smith. Born Bruteer Furro ca. 1729, Venture Smith was captured and sold into slavery at age 6, survived the Middle Passage, and was enslaved for 26 years in RI, NY, and CT 1/

My colleagues and I hosted an open house yesterday featuring a selection of Boston Public Library new early book and manuscript acquisitions. Thanks so much to the **many** people who stopped in!