the creation: division of light and darkness (fig. 1) and division of the waters above and below the firmament (fig. 2)

historiated initials from the "bible historiale complétée" by guiard des moulins, illuminated by the "fauvel master", paris, c. 1320-40

source: The Hague, KB, 71 A 23, fol. 2r and 3r

Typography Tuesday

The book Minstrel Weather by American writer, journalist, and conservationist Marian Storm (1892-1975), published by Harper and Brothers in 1920, was recently added to our collection. It includes illustrations by British artist Clinton Balmer (1879–1967) and we suspect that these delightful initials that begin each chapter we also designed by him.

We could not find much information on Balmer except for the fact that he was a painter, and although British, spent a good portion of his career in the New York area. He also seems to have been an early drawing instructor for the American artist Alexander Calder.

View more Typography Tuesday posts.

Woodcut Wednesday: I is for Iter

Coincidence? We wonder if this 16th century woodcut initial letter I might illustrate an iter, Latin for journey.

Philonis Iudaei Alexandrini Libri : Antiquitatum ; Quaestionum et solutionum in Genesin ; De essaeis ; De nominibus Hebraicis ; De mundo.  Basileae : Per Adamum Petrum, 1527.

I love you queer hockey fans I love you queer training and coaching staff I love you queer arena staff I love you queer hockey journalists I love you queer back office staff I love you queer front office staff I love you queer Zamboni drivers I love you queer mascot dudes (gn) I love you queer hockey players of all ages everywhere professional or not. You all exist and love this sport despite the efforts of many to make you invisible and unwelcome. I love you I love you I love you

New AIBOXES by GreatGRIN! Order today at Azamon.com 👍

Sacrament of Bodies         

Romeo Oriogun       

In this groundbreaking collection of poems, Sacrament of Bodies, Romeo Oriogun fearlessly interrogates how a queer man in Nigeria can heal in a society where everything is designed to prevent such restoration. With honesty, precision, tenderness of detail, and a light touch, Oriogun explores grief and how the body finds survival through migration.

Initiation ritual.

Haiti

look its beyond wild to me that in current dc canon lian has been running around gotham just being a vigilante for years. who came up with this?

personally I think she and damian should be friends and bond over having complicated relationships with their assassin moms who love them so much and yet have been painfully distant/absent from their lives far too often (and also who are victims of writer sexism and orientalism).

No thoughts in my head, just them.

Left column: chapters 47, 62, 98

Center column: chapters 137, 175, 175

Right column: chapters 201, 225, 225

as someone running a loki blog in the year 2024, finding old loki blogs is such a cultural shock. what do you mean i just found an account from a decade ago entirely devoted to manga drawings shipping loki with himself. they tried to cancel me on twitter for doing something mildly adjacent to this.

fallen angels

in an illuminated (historiated) initial b in a liturgical-musical manuscript, c. 1495

source: Munich, BSB, Clm 23042, fol. 86r

Typography Tuesday

Last week, as part of a gift, we received a 1914 copy of Days in the Open by American clergyman and angler Lathan A. Crandall with decorations by the English-born American illustrator Louis Rhead, published in New York and Chicago by the Christian publishing firm Fleming H. Revell Company. We were taken not only by Rhead’s Art Nouveau decorations and illustrations for this volume, but also by how he turned ordinary chapter-opening initial letters into Art Nouveau historiated initials through the use of five different cuts combined with the letters. 

Louis Rhead was a prolific designer and illustrator who came from a family of prominent English potters and artists. He was initially trained in art by his father and then in Paris by the neoclassical French artist Gustave Boulanger. When he emigrated to the US at the age of 24, however, he became deeply influenced by the work of Swiss Art Nouveau decorative artist Eugène Grasset. In America, Rhead also became an avid angler, and much of his work after 1900 often involved angling art, as in this publication. Rhead even died in the pursuit of his avocation, dying of a heart attack soon after hooking and then struggling to remove a 30-pound turtle that had been devastating his trout ponds. Now, that’s devotion!

View more posts with historiated initials.

View more Typography Tuesday posts.

Losing respect for a video game essayist YouTuber over how he interprets and presents Ghermin in bloodborne.

Specifically Gehrman’s relationship with The Doll and thus his relationship with Maria…

Like… if I told you an old guy made a person sized doll you’d already be “that’s sketch”. If I told you that doll looked like a young woman and was his only companion you’d be “…that doesn’t make it better.” Then I tell you that this doll was made to look like one of HIS STUDENTS! You’d want to stop hanging out with me because “why do you know this guy?”

“You’re welcome to use whatever you find. …even the doll, should it please you…”

Who hears this and sees this as anything other than unhealthy obsession and objectification? Who sees this and interprets it as ‘love’?

Like even before figuring out the whole *waves spooky tendrils around* that is Bloodborne… I want to kill Ghermin so The Doll has some company that isn’t an eternally old man in a blood pact with the moon who created her with the sole purpose of fulfilling his creepy fantasies.

Ms. Codex 723 is a 12th century French copy of the canon law collection Panormia, by Saint Ivo, Bishop of Chartres. The text is drawn from papal letters, councils, and teachings of the Church fathers. It's in a very nice wooden binding, and the pages are fairly plain, decorated only with blue and red letters and one charming inhabited initial.

🔗:

SECRET SWEETH TOOTH: Sweets turned out to be one of Sisi’s favorite over-indulgences, and she was known to splurge on confections and pastries. She frequented Demel, the official patisserie of the Imperial Court, which was conveniently located across the street from the Hofburg. She would slip in and order thick hot chocolate, homemade truffles, and sumptuous slices of chocolate cake. She was especially fond of candied sugar violets, and always went home with a box. Her passion for violets was so great that she even indulged in her favorite treat, violet ice cream, when she wasn’t starving herself. THE FAIRY QUEEN: Sisi got the idea for her famous sparkling stars after attending a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at Vienna's Burgtheater. The actress portraying Titania wore a sprinkling of glittering stars in her hair; inspired, Sisi then requested her own fairy stars from the imperial jeweler. She saw herself as the fairy queen Titania, and her bedroom (which she called "Titania's enchanted castle")  was painted at great expense with scenes from A Midsummer Night's Dream by a young Gustav Klimt. THE LOOK: Her beauty routine was legendary. She used facial waters of rose, chamomile, lavender, and violet to remove impurities, and she would slather her cheeks with pure honey, rose petals and crushed strawberries. After her Rapunzel-esque hair was done to her satisfaction, it would be sprayed with Creed’s Fantasia de Fleurs, a heady floral fragrance created especially for the Empress, with a regal bouquet of the best Bulgarian roses.

- Assorted sundries about Empress Sisi 💗