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OMG OMG OMG
Dec. 15th, 2010 11:43 pmYOU GUYS YOU GUYS I TOUCHED A SHAKESPEARE FIRST FOLIO TODAY! And also a first edition of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice! And surveys that George Washington drafted in his youth, and one of the twenty-five copies of the Declaration of Independence printed just after it was signed!
I went to IU to visit my friends today, and we stopped by the Lilly Library and asked the librarian to bring up a smorgasbord of the most interesting rare books. The librarian, a bespectacled white-haired man, brought up a laden cart and laid his treasures before us one by one. "Go ahead and touch," he said, because we were craning our heads so we could look without breathing on the books.
And! And! There was a display of illuminated manuscripts in the library's foyer. Most in plexiglass cases, of course, but pages from one out in the open to be touched: less fragile than I expected. All the books were. It was lovely.
I went to IU to visit my friends today, and we stopped by the Lilly Library and asked the librarian to bring up a smorgasbord of the most interesting rare books. The librarian, a bespectacled white-haired man, brought up a laden cart and laid his treasures before us one by one. "Go ahead and touch," he said, because we were craning our heads so we could look without breathing on the books.
And! And! There was a display of illuminated manuscripts in the library's foyer. Most in plexiglass cases, of course, but pages from one out in the open to be touched: less fragile than I expected. All the books were. It was lovely.
