Notices by The Public Domain Review (publicdomainrev@mastodon.social)

@wolfofthewisp Apologies, yes we need to sort that out.

“The hand of an over-electrified person, placed on a plate gives a very remarkable impression of the electrified cutaneous surface” — one of the many remarkable attempts to capture “vital cosmic force” in Dr. Hippolyte Baraduc's The Human Soul (1896): https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/baraduc-soul

"Woodblocks in Wonderland: The Japanese Fairy Tale Series",
our essay on how a pioneering cross-cultural endeavour gave rise to a magnificent chapter in the history of children’s publishing: buff.ly/3gOYhfg

NEW ESSAY — “Here I Gather All the Friends”, in which Andrew Hui tracks the rise of the private study by revisiting the bibliographic imaginations of Machiavelli, Montaigne, and W. E. B. Du Bois — https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/machiavelli-and-the-emergence-of-the-private-study/

A very limited number of the clothbound edition of Affinities have become available from the publisher Volume. These are leftovers from the initial 2021 crowdfunder — overage orders to ensure against missing/damaged books.

Order through Volume here: https://vol.co/products/affinities?utm_source=mastadon_ag&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=affinities&utm_id=Affinities

Leonid Meteor Storm, as seen over Niagara Falls on the night of November 12th, 1833, pictured in E. Weiß's Bilderatlas der Sternenwelt (1892).
⠀
One of 15 new prints just up in our online shop: https://publicdomainreview.org/shop/fine-art-prints/new/least-recent/ #otd #onthisday

155 years ago #onthisday, Top the wombat died. He was the pet of the poet and artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti who, upon Top's passing, created this self-portrait in mourning. More on Rossetti and co’s curious but longstanding fixation with the #wombat here: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/o-uommibatto-how-the-pre-raphaelites-became-obsessed-with-the-wombat/

Happy #JellyfishDay! The oceans are increasingly full of these gelatinous invertebrates, provoking a range of responses in humans, from disgust to awe. The biologist and artist Ernst Haeckel was most certainly in the latter camp... https://buff.ly/3q2G03j

Today Mexico celebrates the #DayOfTheDead. Skeletal imagery features heavily, influenced in no small part by the work of José Guadalupe Posada, known for his satirical and politically acute broadside prints called "calaveras" (skulls) — https://buff.ly/2tua8tS #diademuertos

“November always seemed to me the Norway of the year” — Emily Dickinson.

(Essay on Dickinson's unusual manuscript forms, which included sweet wrappers and concert programmes, here: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/the-manuscripts-of-emily-dickinson/)

“November” from the Labours of the Months section of the Très Riches Heures, one of the most important illuminated manuscripts of the 15th century. A rather majestic farmer is shown presiding over his sounder of swine feeding from the autumn acorns: https://buff.ly/2Y0Nx2U

“There is Death in the Pot” — front cover for an early 19th-century book on culinary poisoning. More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/a-treatise-on-adulteration-of-food-and-culinary-poisons-1820/

Happy All Hallows Eve! See our selection of Halloween postcards, ca. 1900-1920. Hobgoblins, joyous skeletons, and truly terrifying gourds... https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/halloween-postcards/ #halloween

Sabine Baring-Gould’s *Book of Were-Wolves: Being an Account of a Terrible Superstition* (1865) is a landmark study collecting global tales relating to lycanthropes and other human-animal transformations: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-book-of-were-wolves/

Book from 1911 showing that taking photos of cats and furnishing them with an amusing caption is far from being a phenomenon born with the internet. More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/kittens-and-cats-a-first-reader-1911-cats-and-captions-before-the-internet-age/ #NationalCatDay

Toe-licking demon, circa 1921.

One of many demonic entities found lurking in a Persian manuscript on magic and astrology from Isfahan, Iran. See our highlights here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/persian-demons-from-a-book-of-magic-and-astrology-1921/

Who ate all the pumpkins?

The Hajikkaki (はぢっかき).

More Japanese monsters from the Bakemono Zukushi scroll (18th–19th century) here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-bakemono-zukushi-monster-scroll-18th-19th-century/

Depiction of Bael, “the first king of hell”, with the head of a toad, a man, and a cat — one of the many illustrations by Louis le Breton for the 1863 edition of Jacques Collin de Plancy’s "Dictionnaire infernal". More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/defining-the-demonic/

Apologies for incomplete url , working link here! https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/compendium-of-demonology-and-magic-ca-1775/

Looking for some Halloween costume inspo? Some first-rate ideas in this 18th-century demonology book: publicdomainreview.org/collection/c...
#halloween