Howdy – do! I haven’t posted anything in absolute ages – and most of my excuses had to do with being busy and crazy and heaps of laundry and everything else . . . but today those excuses don’t apply. As a matter of fact, I’m actually in danger of starting to get a touch bored. Today my cousin Brooke is babysitting the kids and I’ve come into town with Ben. The Christ Church library has asked him to write something about their Hebrew collection for a publication of theirs, so he had to come down and look through the collection of 16th century Hebrew manuscripts. I came along for the ride and also for the coffee and croissant that we’ll grab together afterwards.
So here I sit, in the upper gallery of the Christ Church library. This is where they keep the rare manuscripts, and you can only really come in by appointment. The lady who oversees this library told us once that they have another huge collection somewhere else with 10,000 volumes that is completely un-cataloged and they have no idea what’s in it. She pulls things out for displays occasionally, and regularly finds things like first edition Copernicus . . . you know, trifling things like that. Read More