1 comments about Bookbanning in America: Who Bans Books?--And Why?.

1. This incredibly interesting insight into irrational injection of irritating interpersonal ideas is ideal in intellectually identifying inspiring intercourse.

No comments about Provenance Research in Book History: A Handbook (The British Library Studies in the History of the Book).

2 comments about The Perfect Game: America Looks at Baseball.

1. Beautiful photos of baseball folk art and an informative text which discusses the specific pieces of art shown and the artists who created them -something many art books don't do- this book is a treat for baseball fans and art lovers, as well as a deserving CASEY Award Finalist for 2003.



2. I don't usually buy "art" books, but as a baseball fan I couldn't resist this one. I'm glad that I didn't, since I don't remember when I had so much fun with a book. Page after page surprised, entertained, and informed me. I don't know which I enjoyed more, the illustrations or the text. One intriquing aspect of the book is the way in which it ties the changing folk art and ephemera of baseball to a changing American society.

   Would I have enjoyed the book if I weren't a baseball fan? Probably. I lent my copy to a friend with an interest in art, but absolutely no interest in sports. She liked it enough to visit the show at the American Folk Art Museum. (But not enough that I could talk her into attending an actual baseball game.)

   In summary, I strongly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in EITHER baseball or folk art.

1 comments about The Most Mysterious Manuscript: The Voynich "Roger Bacon" Cipher Manuscript.

1. The Voynich Manuscript is a mysterious late mediæval text, written in an unknown script in an unknown language or cypher. It reads as if written fluently, not by someone who was painfully calculating each next character, but by someone who understood what he was writing. It looks like a curious herbal or alchemical treatise, full of diagrams of unknown plants, unknown constellations, and elaborate networks of plumbing inhabited by plump, naked, crowned women. The text seems to contain all the redundancies expected in a natural language and then some. It can be traced back as far as the hands of Athanasius Kircher, the Jesuit polymath, who was but the first of many to have tried and failed to read the text.
   
   

   For a time, this book was the best general overview of the history of the Voynich Manuscript. It still is a good one, though it has been superseded in that regard by Mary d'Imperio's -The Voynich Manuscript: An Elegant Enigma.-
   
   Brumbaugh proposes in this book a partial "solution" that yields texts like ILEXER ILUS YUS PURUS POURLY ILUY YJSUUS PURUS PLUS URICUS. These decipherments have the merit of seeming to read like the repetitious text of the manuscript itself. He interprets this text, though, as "The Elixir is a game, purely, purely a pure game; and European." Even if he has deciphered the script, no doubt you can probably think of other interpretations on your own.
   
   His method of reading seems to involve first turning the script into Arabic numerals, reading those numerals as any of several possible letters in the Latin alphabet. He got this by forcing letters into the script based on his attempts to identify some of the plants in the diagrams, and then attempting to extract a method of reading the characters. His decypherments are occasionally tantalising, but if this is the actual text behind the symbols, there doesn't seem to be much point in further effort. The readings appear to be flawed by the polyvalence of the script he believes he sees.

No comments about Omne Bonum: A Fourteenth-Century Encyclopedia of Universal Knowledge (Studies in Medieval and Early Renaissance Art History, 18) 2-Volume Set.

No comments about Original Comic Art: Identification and Price Guide (The confident collector).

No comments about Poetry of Ink: The Korean Literati Tradition 1392-1910.

2 comments about Early Paper Money of America: An Illustrated, Historical, and Descriptive Compilation of Data Relating to American Paper Currency from Its Inception in ... the Year 1800 (Early Paper Money of America).

1. This is a must for money buffs and the like.



2. Wonderful pictures, and even identification of the signers of the bills. Some signatures are hard to make out even if clearly written in dark ink due to the style of writting, but are identified here. Worth every penny!

No comments about How to Buy Rare Books: A Practical Guide to the Antiquarian Book Market (Christie's Collectors Guides).

No comments about Green's Guide to Collecting TV, Music and Comic Book Annuals.