Cheap and Common

[N.B.: This post is a collaboration between myself and Marissa Nicosia (UPenn) and is cross-posted (with a few variants) both here at anchora and at the Penn libraries blog Unique at Penn. This started as another post in my "Breaking Apart" series, which has recently focused on leaf books (see here, here, and here). As you'll see below, our collaboration started when we began comparing our libraries' respective copies of the same leaf book. Marissa's post can be found here]

Adam's Wicked Heart

[N.B.: Here's the next in my "Breaking Apart" series, which has recently focused on leaf books -- including entries on Gutenberg and Shakespeare]

Because it is impolitic--at least generally speaking, and at least now--to break apart copies of rare and valuable books in order to sell them off in pieces (or to incorporate them in a luxurious leaf book) the copies chosen to be broken apart are often imperfect, or damaged, or simply and visibly used, and hence far from pristine. And so it is with this leaf from a 1535 Coverdale bible, which is covered in manicules. (And to see those manicules in action, in one of the better GIFs you're apt to come across, see this post from the UI Special Collections tumblr). No, really -- dancing manicules!

click to embiggen!