1) Renaissance Secrets: Recipes and Formulas (description & review)Bought at the bookshop of the V&A. So far I've learned the secrets of Venetian crystal, Medici porcelain, Raphael's favorite glue, and more. If I ever get sent back in time to the 1500s, I will be a very wealthy man.
Leechcraft: Early English Charms, Plant-Lore and Healing, by Stephen Pollington. Purchased at the bookshop of the British Museum.Although this does deal with early (pre-Norman Conquest) medicinal traditions in England, the title doesn't refer to leeches in the familiar, annelid, sense. Apparently the term in Old English refers to medicinal practitioners themselves. Thus, it is a book about herbs and remedies (including 3 early translated texts on the subjects). Mostly I just love reference books.
Top two books I purchased for my daughter:
50 Dresses that Changed the World - at the V&A, she was absolutely fascinated with the fashion exhibits, so I picked this up for her at the bookshop. Since then she's read about Princess Diana's wedding dress, Queen Elizabeth IIs coronation dress, and more. She loves it.Then, when she wanted to be with me in the British Museum bookshop, this caught her eye and she begged me to buy it for her.
Iznik Pottery, by John Carswell.What's a caring father to do when his six-year-old daughter suddenly takes an avid interest in ancient Turkish pottery? She spent a good part of the train ride home either reading captions or asking me to read bits of it to her. I have a feeling I'm going to know a lot about Iznik pottery before long.
5 comments:
I loved listening to you guys read and discuss pottery while I was in an alternate reality of E waging war with the horse and knight you got him at the Tower of London. Lots of carnage in our part of the train.
Drool!! All four of them! I loved the feeling of opening a book I'd judged by its gorgeous cover and entering a world I had known nothing about before. Bravo for bookbuyers, caring dads, and brilliant museum bookshops.
Awesome. I love the V&A totally. It's one of my all-time favorite museums (we went there in 1998?). I wanted to buy every postcard they had. (Books were a bit out of my budget back then.) those sounds like some really good one! Iznik Pottery... I couldn't be more proud of her....
Unbelievable. I'm already thinking of so many people I want to buy the dresses book for. I love - and envy - how Hilde has already picked up your natural curiosity and love of learning. The pottery book is a reference book of sorts, so she's already started her own collection.
Today she took the Iznik Pottery book with her to day care (they're out of school this week: half-term break).
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