iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jay Moschella @jaymoschella.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Today I am doing my spreadsheets from here

Chair with a laptop surrounded by tall flowers

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Jay Moschella @jaymoschella.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

This photo of our dog in Vermont surrounded by Queen Anne’s Lace looks like a glitchy AI rendering of a poodle

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Jay Moschella @jaymoschella.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

New incredibly bleak thing just appeared on my way to work

From the website of this thing: “Looking for a private school your child can’t wait to go to each morning? At Alpha Boston, our mastery-based, AI driven approach allows students to crush their academics in 2 hours.”

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Jay Moschella @jaymoschella.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

A day of nice Cape Cod skies, Brewster and Wellfleet

Rainbow over the Atlantic from Lecount Hollow

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Jay Moschella @jaymoschella.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Oh yeah, and sorry. This is BPL H.99A.294!

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Jay Moschella @jaymoschella.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Wrangling data for a cataloging project in our early American almanacs (never do this, by the way) and came across a tricky item. Went up to the stacks to check it out and behold, an early 18th-century Boston almanac in its original uncut sheet!

The farmers almanack for the year 1714, printed in Boston, with a woodcut portrait of Queen Anne on the cover

Outer octavo forme, that is, one unfolded side of the sheet, as printed and before being cut into 8 leaves comprising 16 pages

Inner forme, showing the note to the reader, etc.

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Jay Moschella @jaymoschella.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

On more image of the fantastic and newly acquired BPL MS q Med.305: several of the illuminated initials feature an odd form that I *think* is referencing the peacock's tail in the border illumination of the penitential psalms. I've never really seen anything like this. I find it weird and wonderful.

An illuminated initial "D" with a weird, snake-like form that, on further thought, seems to be a peacock's tail. See the next image from the same manuscript

Wildly illuminated border with a peacock inhabiting almost the entire right margin. Note the blue spots on its yellow tail.

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Jay Moschella @jaymoschella.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Anyhow, working my way through these now. Though catalog records are up for both, I’m still struggling to collate the miniature one. It has a lot of strange things going on, which are difficult to pin down due to its tiny scale. But the work is still fun and the manuscripts are amazing. 11/11

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Jay Moschella @jaymoschella.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Italian books of hours are something like ten times less common than Northern European examples and tend to adhere less rigidly to any single form, often pushing the boundaries of the genre as it is commonly defined. 10/11

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Jay Moschella @jaymoschella.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

With these two acquisitions, the Boston Public Library now holds 25 more or less complete manuscript books of hours. I wrote about some of these – and how to search for them in particular – a few years back: www.bpl.org/blogs/post/m... 8/11

bpl.org

Medieval Manuscript Highlights: Books of Hours at the BPL

The book of hours is a collection of Christian devotional texts that was widely popular during the late Middle Ages and Renaissance.…

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Jay Moschella @jaymoschella.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

But also, in the case of books of hours, the nearly infinite variations in decoration, script, liturgical use, textual contents, and physical form within the genre can help show patterns of production and use in a particularly vivid way. 7/11

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Jay Moschella @jaymoschella.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

In the context of medieval manuscripts, books of hours are ridiculously common. But even still, I think they can be worth collecting. A collection of many similar kinds of things allows for the sort of close comparison and study that isolated specimens do not. 6/11

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Jay Moschella @jaymoschella.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

This manuscript seems to show the influence of the Neapolitan artist Cola Rapicano. Though Med.305 is a lot less polished, note the similar peacock and the putti in the border of this manuscript of Sallust at the Vatican that was illuminated by him: digi.vatlib.it/mss/detail/C... 5/11

digi.vatlib.it

DigiVatLib

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Jay Moschella @jaymoschella.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

The other book of hours – MS q Med.305 – was created in Naples for a patron in Brindisi. It was copied by at least two scribes and its illuminations are saturated and sometimes overwhelmingly busy, filled with putti, wild animals, golden flowers, and sensitively rendered figures. 4/11

Border of the opening of the Hours of the Virgin. Very densely illuminated border. In the lower maring, to putti support a blank escutcheon, a bird in the right margin, and a putto above. The initial "D" inhabited by the Virgin and child.

Magnification of the very finely painted Virgin and child.

Closeup showing on of the putti supporting the blank escutcheon.

Another image of the illuminated border at the opening of the penitential psalms.

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Jay Moschella @jaymoschella.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

The so-called Pico Master was an artist active in Venice from approximately 1460 to 1505. BPL also holds a 1471 Venice edition of Quintilian that is beautifully illuminated by him. archive.org/details/quin... 3/11

Opening initial of the BPL's copy of the 1471 Venice Jenson edition of Quintilian, showing two putti playing lutes in the illuminated initial "F" of FABIVS.

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Jay Moschella @jaymoschella.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

The first, now cataloged as MS q Med.304, is truly tiny at just 78 mm. The illuminations in the manuscript have been attributed to the workshop of the eponymous Master of the Pico Pliny. 2/11

Historiated initial with a dragon in the floral border.

Illuminated initial with a monk in the border.

Closeup up of the initial showing Kind David in prayer (this image was hard to capture!) Note the tiny literally microscopic individual brushstrokes

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Jay Moschella @jaymoschella.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Deep into processing these two little Italian books of hours newly acquired for BPL’s early manuscript collections. 1/11

Med.305, bound in 19th-century gilt green goatskin, on the left and Med.304, bound in modern velvet, on the right.

The deeply -- excessively? -- illuminated border at the opening of the penitential psalms in Med.305. In the lower margin, a putto rides lion. In the right margin, a peacock struts almost the full length of the page. The initial D. shows King David praying in front of a details landscape.

The opening of the penitential psalms in Med.304 shows a different view of Kind David at prayer. It is difficult to fully capture the miniature scale of this manuscript, but the full initial is about the size of a literal thumbnail.

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Jay Moschella @jaymoschella.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

It's fun to work in a huge, incredible, sprawling collection because every once in a while I'll be like, "What is in that envelope that has clearly not been opened in decades" and the answer will be something like a first-day printing of the United States Constitution from Sept. 1787

Pennsylvania Evening Gazette issued for September 19, 1787. One of three Pennsylvania newspapers to published the text of the proposed constitution on that day

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Jay Moschella @jaymoschella.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Love almanacs in all their wild forms. We're doing a huge project on our thousands of almanacs right now. Here's one that were were just working on that also doubles as the 1762 tax records for a parish the town of Newbury, Mass.

First page of the second half of this volume, used by Francis Brown, tax collector for the 5th Parish in the town of Newbury Mass in 1762

Parchment wallet binding on this 1760 edition of "Eddy's" almanack

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Reposted by Jay Moschella

Leon Jackson @drleonj.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

If you think that receipts from C19 Boston blacksmiths, plasterers, painters, and glazers were dull, think again! Here they are putting prisoners in chains, building whipping posts, and repairing holes the inmates cut in walls attempting to escape. These bills are the only record of those episodes 🗃️

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Jay Moschella @jaymoschella.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

One-night-only giant cactus flower blooming tonight out in the rain

Epiphyllum oxypetalum “queen of the night” bloom resting on a darkened background

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Jay Moschella @jaymoschella.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

Thanks! I don’t k ow of a single other copy, so I’d guess they caught it after this very sheet—or at least close to it.

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Jay Moschella @jaymoschella.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

Front garden looks good this year

Circle of grass with four year old walking across it. Surrounded by tall floral borders

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Jay Moschella @jaymoschella.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Would usually describe these as inked shoulders -- the little bits of the edge of the type that picked up ink, touched the paper enough to transfer it, but not enough to bite really deeply

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Jay Moschella @jaymoschella.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Anyhow, this was just purchased from @quaritch1847.bsky.social and will soon be cataloged (and digitized) as BPL Q.407.46.

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Jay Moschella @jaymoschella.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Claire M. Bolton has published on this phenomenon at length: 15cbooktrade.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/u...

15cbooktrade.ox.ac.uk

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Jay Moschella @jaymoschella.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

As a result, this is a fairly rare error to encounter in general, but even rarer in a 15th-century book specifically. Since so few pieces of 15th-century type survive, these little printings that show full pieces of type, are critical evidence for researchers interested in early printing

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Jay Moschella @jaymoschella.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

"Fallen type" describes and individual piece of metal type that is accidentally pulled away just before printing, *falls on its side* on top of the rest of the set type, gets inked, and leaves an impression when printed. Usually sheets with this kind of disastrous error are discarded or recycled

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Jay Moschella @jaymoschella.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Fun new acquisition here at the Boston Public Library. This is a 1476 edition of Eusebius of Caesarea's church history, printed in Rome. We bought this book for basically one reason only -- a fantastic printing error that left an impression on one page from a single piece of "fallen type."

The full opening of the book, showing the fallen type in the lower-right corner

The piece of type, in detail. You can see the full body of the type, shown from the side, as its lays across the surface of the locked type. The black part on the left is the letter itself. The body of the type has been drilled through, which is evidenced by the white circle in the middle. The purpose of drilling through type is still not entirely understood.

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Jay Moschella @jaymoschella.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Amazing! This is the zaniest of the original broadsides, but I very much though the only surviving copy of this one was at the Mass Historical Society. This is very cool to see.

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Jay Moschella @jaymoschella.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

Have managed to cultivate this shaded space under the canopy of a mimosa tree that we planted as a little bare-root stick six or seven years ago. Years of waiting now paying off. Home alone and dinner below it this evening was pretty ideal

Old wooden chairs shaded by overhead branches

Closeup of a bright pink mimosa tree flower

looking straight up at the from the ground level

Pizza with sun-dried tomatoes and olives

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Jay Moschella @jaymoschella.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

This turned out to be a lot of fun, with a huge turnout despite the absolutely searing heat. Definitely the highlight was a visit by a group of the founders and original authors of Our Bodies, Ourselves: ourbodiesourselves.org/the-latest/c...

ourbodiesourselves.org

Celebrating Independence Day with Our Bodies Ourselves | Our Bodies Ourselves

The Boston Public Library selected the first edition of "Our Bodies, Ourselves" to display alongside other historic documents from their Special Collections at an Independence Day Open House on July 2...

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Jay Moschella @jaymoschella.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

The heat must be getting to me. I forgot: three *very* rare 1862-1863 printings of the Emancipation Proclamation

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Jay Moschella @jaymoschella.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

And you can then walk over to the proper exhibition (open until mid-September) and see eight printings of the Declaration of Independence, along with the first edition of David Walker's Appeal. Did I also mention that it's air conditioned?

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Jay Moschella @jaymoschella.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

8. The Combahee River Collective Statement, from the collection of Barbara Smith 9. A collection of very rare materials created during the Haitian revolution, including letters from Toussaint Louverture, Dessalines, and Henri Christophe

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Jay Moschella @jaymoschella.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

4. 1st printing of James Forten's Letters From a Man of Colour 5. First printing of Our Bodies Ourselves, owned by one of the women who printed it 7. First printing of the report of the 1848 Seneca Falls convention, owned by Elizabeth Cady Standon

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Jay Moschella @jaymoschella.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Things you can see in our open house display today only at the Boston Public Library (which is also heavily air conditioned): 1. 1 of 8 surviving "ratification" copies of the constitution 2. The 1st printing of the Virginia Declaration of Rights 3. First public printing of the Bill of Rights

Main entrance and stairwell in the BPL's McKim building, looking pleasantly air conditioned

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Jay Moschella @jaymoschella.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Waterworks museum is so fantastic!

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Jay Moschella @jaymoschella.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

Genuinely depressed that this argument seems to almost never pushed by prominent dems. Make the system work and it will work. Purposely break the system and it will not work. Instead it's just "strong border."

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Jay Moschella @jaymoschella.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Don’t even know where to begin. Eternally shameful.

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Jay Moschella @jaymoschella.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

It’s in the alt text, but just to clarify: these are now in the collections of the Boston Public Library (where I work). They’ll soon be accessible to anyone who wants to come in and see them!

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Jay Moschella @jaymoschella.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Wish I did! These particular ones are unmarked, but clearly were used. A fantastic chapter was just published on these by Madeline Lee Zehnder in “Print for the Pocket: Circulation, Scale, and Nineteenth-Century Imaginaries of the Book”

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