Who was Mother Goose? Was she real, or just a fictional character? The truth behind the identity of the friendly woman whose nursery rhymes have charmed children for generations may never truly be known. Some believe that Mother Goose may date back to the 10th century French court. According to legend, the wife of French King […]
Non Solus Blog
Who was Mother Goose?
January 23, 2018
No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks
January 22, 2018
In mid-November, No Blue Memories premiered at the Harold Washington Library in Chicago. The paper puppet show, performed by Manual Cinema, focused on the life of Gwendolyn Brooks, the first Black recipient of the Pulitzer Prize in 1950. The show was written by Dr. Eve. L. Ewing and Nate Marshall, featured live music by Ayanna and Jamila […]
“This Never Fails if Rightly Done”: Cookery and Curatives from Regency England
December 14, 2017
A pop-up exhibit at the Rare Book & Manuscript Library 11 December – 22 December 2017 Curated by Katie Bergen The Regency era is a time often remembered for its glittering balls and the amusements of high society. These aristocratic pleasures have been canonized in literature that remains popular to this day, including works by […]
Happy Ninetieth Birthday W. S. Merwin!
September 29, 2017
The prolific and accomplished American poet and writer, William Stanley Merwin, turns ninety years young on Saturday, September 30, 2017. Since 1984 and by arrangement with the author, the formative materials for his nearly seventy books of poetry, prose, translations and plays–including notes, notebooks, drafts, typescripts, proofs, and correspondence–have been deposited in the collections of […]
Peekaboo!
August 21, 2017
We’re so excited about the eclipse, here at the Rare Book & Manuscript Library. This graphic comes from an announcement published in 1760 in Milan, alerting citizens of an upcoming eclipse to occur on June 13 of the same year. As the diagram shows, only seven-tenths of the sun would be covered. Spiegazione geografica dell’ecclisse […]
Decorated paper, German nobility, and wax seals, oh my!
July 31, 2017
The Cavagna Collection contains many surprises waiting to be discovered, and recently a particularly interesting find came across my desk. Like numerous other items in the collection, it is in a simple paper wrapper. In many instances paper wrappers served as temporary coverings until a work received a more permanent binding. In this case, however, […]
Type Under Siege
May 9, 2017
In late 1544, Henry VIII’s forces were defending the English possession of Boulogne in a series of brutal battles against the French as part of the Italian War (1542-1546). They were aided by Giovacchino da Coniano, a sergeant-major in charge of the Italians fighting on the side of the English. The king had been present […]
A Well-Traveled Atlas
March 29, 2017
As I was beginning to work on a two-volume atlas from the Cavagna Collection printed in Venice between 1740 and 1750, I noticed from the rather rudimentary catalog record that a second copy was listed as containing the bookplate of David Garrick (1717-1779), the most famous Shakespearean actor of the eighteenth-century, whose legacy is still […]
Cave of the Dogs
December 15, 2016
Next time you’re in Naples, why not take a side trip to the Grotta del Cane (Cave of the Dog)? As you can see from this engraving from the 1652 edition of Giulio Cesare Capaccio’s La vera antichita di Pozzuolo, it looks like quite the tourist trap. The Cave of the Dog takes its name […]
University of Illinois-Urbana Rare Book & Manuscript Library Invites Visiting Scholar Applications
November 22, 2016
The John “Bud” Velde Visiting Scholars Program The Rare Book & Manuscript Library University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: 2017-18 Program Cycle The Rare Book & Manuscript Library annually awards two stipends of $3,000 to scholars and researchers (unaffiliated with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) who would like to spend a month […]