Time goes by. Sometimes screening a pile of books a day. Some days just staring at the pictures on my computer. Wondering about the importance of detail, as when studying comparative literature, where every sentence could unveil a clue.
The Lisbon books do not disappoint. They appeal to me because I can read them. I can read the preliminary leaves in which the role of the inquisition and religion is illustrated beyond any doubt. I can feel the age in which they were written and published. If I were only looking for traces of use I would be disappointed: hardly any traces of use in the traditional sense. Does that matter? Researchers hope to find traces of use that will modify perception. Maybe it is also comforting to leaf through a book that clearly has been read, but has no annotations to prove it. Not a pristine copy, but thumbed pages.
And yet...
To remove the unasuming protective box and to find this on a binding is a thrill.
The Lisbon books do not disappoint. They appeal to me because I can read them. I can read the preliminary leaves in which the role of the inquisition and religion is illustrated beyond any doubt. I can feel the age in which they were written and published. If I were only looking for traces of use I would be disappointed: hardly any traces of use in the traditional sense. Does that matter? Researchers hope to find traces of use that will modify perception. Maybe it is also comforting to leaf through a book that clearly has been read, but has no annotations to prove it. Not a pristine copy, but thumbed pages.
And yet...
To remove the unasuming protective box and to find this on a binding is a thrill.
Diego de Mendoça, Guerra de Granada.
En Lisboa: Por Giraldo de la Viña. Año 1627.
U.v.A. call number OTM: O 63-6465
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