Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 05/10/2026So here is the Real Universidad with its holdings limited to 1700, and I have also put information from Mathes, 1982 to make a map for the Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco holdings. 110
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 05/10/2026So here's data from the recent monograph "La alhaja más preciosa: Historia de la Biblioteca de la Real Universidad de México (1761-1815)" (second prize for Breslauer) and the earlier data from UST (only up to 1700). Just to give you some big views of colonial holdings and their places of origin. 291
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 02/10/2026Does it come with food stamps? Presume it does, since cost of living + MLIS loans make this insane 180
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Already on my way by making maps like this. 110
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 25/09/2026My brain is already melting with doing work on holdings in Manila. Here is a chart with places of publication for 16th century books. I have some major news for you about the reading habits of Iberian colonial worlds. 2244
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 22/09/2026You all may enjoy me earning some brian damage. I believe Andy Kong punched an entire language out of my head during my boxing debut. (I thought it would be funny to be a boxing rare book librarian, and I did about as well as the title implies) 250
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 16/09/2026This timeline really keeps you guessing. 160
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 10/09/2026One of the highlights of my year was serving on this jury. They brought me on to increase global outreach, and it was thrilling that not only did get great stuff from Latin Am and East Asia, but that a Mexican bibliography won second prize overall! ilab.org/article/alai... 170
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 25/08/2026The end of this slack from our public serves to illustrate August here: 320
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 25/08/2026Many of the Chinese studies librarians in North America are here at UCLA this week for an intensive in working with Chinese rare books 1290
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 18/08/2026Love the meta fail on the part of the journal in this article on translation and movable type with all fucked up Arabic. 171
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 14/08/2026Reading about the first Greek MS on paper, dating to 800 CE. Also learning the limits of my terrible Greek and Greek paleography skills. 0100
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 04/08/2026I like working in a place with boxes labeled 'do not open.' We discussed opening it today, but with the hellmouth just up in Sunnydale, decided against it. 2382
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 23/07/2026Covered some stuff in this exhibition I had, not joking, less than two weeks to do from start to finish (labels for 51 objects coming now) 080
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 23/07/2026This gilt paper that I still don't know about after a week of working on it is in the lower right. Italian? Sure, why not. Just an exhibition object. 160
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 23/07/2026If you are curious about different paper wrappers as bindings, this catalogue has it all. Paste papers, Dutch gilt, marbled papers, a feast for the eyes. Truly an impressive collection. ilab.org/assets/catal... 26715
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 22/07/2026So excited for this book! Not the least because I literally have no idea what I would be doing with my life without Ann's early support and mentorship. One of my favorite thinkers in all ways. 0132
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 15/06/2026RIP to the mighty Robert Gore, the UCLA Arts Librarian. Robert knew everything about every artist book at UCLA. Robert was always such joy and light and seriousness. Feel so lucky that I managed to convince him to read his poetry in a bar last May. He was the best of what it meant to be a librarian. 0160
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 13/06/2026Grateful to have been gobsmack out of intellectual ennui by Manila and the brilliant @periodeye.bsky.social I needed a bit of a reset, a bit of familiar/strange. Finally feeling optimistic about this early mid career moment... and maybe someday finishing my damn book. 1110
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 10/06/2026Everyone in LA has this exact same job. 160
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 07/06/2026You could center it on paintings like these: knowledge is labor. It is hard. It is sometimes fun, but mostly, it is work. 1251
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 28/05/2026Between my final leg in Manila and getting back to New Spain (i.e. LA), this is going to happen. It has been real folks 030
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 28/05/2026There is much more. But this is the final indignity. The rubber ear bud went awol between the curb and where I am now drinking wine. 160
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 26/05/2026Off to London tomorrow to judge these bad boys. Happy that we have three entries from East Asia. The Japanese submission is, funnily enough, on Conrad Gessner ilabprize.org/breslauer-ye... 170
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 12/05/2026It is wild to me that I am in charge of this collection: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmer_B... Unfortunately, because it was rolled into special collections, it lost its dedicated librarian. Now, it is only occasionally used. I feel as a queer, dyslexic, eccentric, I really should get people into it. 1202
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 08/05/2026Ok Bluesky. I am planning on buying this for UCLA, but neither the dealer nor I have ever seen one. Probably circa 1780s, prints are from a 1730s series. You spin the knows and the picture scrolls through narratives of the old testament. Anyone seen one before? Know what they are called? 42912
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 24/04/2026This is like ultimate nerd fan girl content for me: Jean Mabillon letter. Aka Paleography daddy 0130
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 15/04/2026The is a book I helped a private collector get off ebay in 2019 or so. If it sells, I will have given him a 300k+ k profit (counting comission). 161
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 14/04/2026A simple example, but you can see the toc of vol 2, which is in the hand of Huang Siyong 黄思永 next to the ch in the hand of Wang Renkan 王仁堪. I have never seen a litho that recruited famous artists like this! It's listed in any description anywhere. 160
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 16/03/2026Well, it is a bluesky musing and not historiography. But a lot of writing on it says stuff like this screen shot: But for the sake of argument, I mostly don't care - and rather like using it as a chance to reflect on work coming from misfortune and growing in interesting ways. 300
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 14/03/2026Tokugawa print culture is just beyond rich. Kobayashi Fumiko's talk is blowing my mind. 170
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 05/02/2026A visiting scholar found quite the provenance hiding in a heavily annotated book. Signature had been washed, but it's definitely en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatus_... 3250
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 20/01/2026Just a note on the book, which is a mid Mind government edition, although water damaged. Probably printed just before Gutenberg 040
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 20/01/2026Love notes like this left in books by earlier librarians. This profession runs on the hope of ever having time to love things as they deserve, and our archives are full of the epitaphs of good intentions. 37914
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 15/01/2026Totally nutty: A rubbing of the calligraphy of Yan Zhenqing (d. 785), cut and pasted into a Ming 1600s directorate of education Song history. 0131
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 08/01/2026Metal AF, from 1751 'Vida, maritirio, y beatificación del invicto proto-martir del Japón San Felipe de Jesus, patrón de México su patria, imperial corte de Nueva España en el Nuevo Mundo' printed in Mexico city. A biography of the San Felipe de Jesus, the first Mexican saint, martyred in Japan. 1153
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 04/01/2026I have a basic pattern I stick to: Routledge Colloquial (until about ch 8), LingQ for as many mini stories (very good for high input audio and getting vocab), and pimsleur. Usually I do that for a month or two before having a conversation. I tend to prefer to have most grammar done before tutors. 111
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 19/12/2025Can I get three chapters in a readable form by Jan 5? No! Will I be disappointed that I failed? Yes! Happy holidays from the beginning of my final failures of 2025. May you and yours also find impossible self imposed expectations and epigenetic Protestant shame! 2190
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 19/12/2025As an example of the LOW hanging fruit of visual analysis. Everyone talks about how important it is that Fujian printers crowed the page for profit etc. in the 12th century. But you know what, a Fujian commercial imprint also looks.... Exactly like a Northern Song government imprint (1 above) 1131
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 19/12/2025While there probably aren't more than... 60 or 70 books/fragments surviving from this period, I think they have a lot to tell us. For example, this imperially sponsored classic of filial piety and encyclopedia - compared to Buddhist printing or this later Southern Song (1126-1279) example. 1142
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 19/12/2025This book is interesting. While it no doubt furthers the case that print had a major impact during the Song dynasty(960 to 1279), when it was adopted by the state and state actors, a couple of areas were completely unexplored. For ex, not a single surviving material text is discussed. 1218
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 18/12/2025Me when it comes to asking for books (I'm on the beast) 050
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 18/12/2025Also, I'm not too picky. Would really like a Theuerdank or Durer's apocolypse. Think of the state school children of California and how they would benefit from this Christmas miracle. 170
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 18/12/2025Someone donate a blockbook or blockbook fragment to UCLA. They are expensive and I promise I would use it all the time. You will be very happy, just like these little devils: 1160
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 15/12/2025As part of a field where we still regularly work with scrolls, let me dispell your technological relativism and assure you: they are an utter pain in the ass. Text only scrolls such. Handscrolls with images are tons of fun, but still a pain in the ass. 1364
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 09/12/2025Some news: UCLA CMRS is taking over Manuscripta (www.brepols.net/series/mss), and I am going to be the general editor. The new blurb is below. To wit, the journal is going to now focus on GLOBAL premodern manuscripts. Still, I am going to keep the focus. This is your nerd shit: codicology, single ms 1276
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 04/12/2025An antiquarian catalog starting with a scale and explaining that measurement standards have changed in the last 1500 years. He, however, is using the Qing standards which you can see from the opening image (for when they change someday). Each antiquarian object is given with its dimensions. 1211
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 25/11/2025My siblings in book history, thank you for your work. But especially my German friends, please write shorter books. (Also I am so excited for this) 0140
Devin Fitzgerald, bibliothot @devinfitz.bsky.social · 21/11/2025Great turnout in honor of the man, myth, and legend, Peter Gregory (1945-2025). 0111