Corrected and uncorrected pages would often coexist and be bound together into a book. Each volume would thus be uniquely incorrect! Famously this is how you can identify a Shakespeare folio, should someone be trying to sell you a stolen one.
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Before the library was the encyclopaedia, before that was compendium and anthology. All the knowledge you needed in one volume. Many cultures are very into anthologies and collections. Commissioning one is a status symbols. Many scholars spend their lives putting such together.
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But books are more than just knowledge, they're also just desirable objects and status symbols. People would be painted with their books to show themselves devout or learned, the same way others were painted with their hands on globes, etc.
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Heart shaped books are brilliant! Before the printing press, every book had to be made individually so you wouldn't buy a premade book so much as have one made specifically for you. And you can decide exactly how it would look.pic.twitter.com/Lut8UAJKqr
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Especially for the Middle Ages, books also contained prayers, calendars and the Hours, the prayers you're meant to say every few hours (much like with monks). The Book of Hours was a medieval bestseller, there are more surviving copies than of anything else.
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Girdle books are portable volume. They are often books of hours but they can also be law books or almanacs. You tuck the long end into you belt and you should be able to read it without removing it from your belt. Here's a pattern for making your own: http://cesca.weebly.com/medieval-girdle-books.html …pic.twitter.com/azKLxunPWD
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Chained libraries are arguably the opposite of girdle books, being reference libraries where you can read and copy texts out buy you can't take anything away. There are a few such libraries still extant today: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/chained-libraries-of-the-world.amp …pic.twitter.com/fGHkoS0Oie
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It is a misconception that printing immediately killed the manuscript business (ie. handwritten books) but it didn't so much as made them focus on manuscripts being unique objects of beauty. Many of the most stunning manuscripts were made to compete with boring printed books.pic.twitter.com/hWV9bCdXRQ
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Black books, ie where they pages are dyed black and then written on in gold and silver is also another thing I just really really love. Astonishingly sexy. These examples are all books of hours. Also, that's a calendar page next to Christ.pic.twitter.com/y2G1Vliq8y
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Love seeing dyed manuscripts.pic.twitter.com/oVBBYK5Tyt
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