Stori3d Past
@stori3dpast.bsky.social
Harold Johnson. Maine (from away!). Bookseller. Pilgrim. Word Guy. Skeptic. History & Archaeology. Tolkien. Trek. Italy. Old English. Used to make YouTubes, now I make typos. 19th C antiquarian — Sideburns included! 🏺📖🧙🏻♂️
I turned to this page days ago, and I'm still absorbing the fact that this is a painting. Made 350+ years ago. The Baroque insight into light, shadow, texture, atmosphere - it was truly next level.
November 28, 2025 at 3:24 PM
I turned to this page days ago, and I'm still absorbing the fact that this is a painting. Made 350+ years ago. The Baroque insight into light, shadow, texture, atmosphere - it was truly next level.
New read: "Northland" by Porter Fox. A coast-to-coast journey along the US's 4000-mile northern border. Among wild landscapes visited by few, deep history known by fewer, and communities where blood & heritage blend across borders and memories are long.
November 28, 2025 at 3:48 AM
New read: "Northland" by Porter Fox. A coast-to-coast journey along the US's 4000-mile northern border. Among wild landscapes visited by few, deep history known by fewer, and communities where blood & heritage blend across borders and memories are long.
Pushing a Pushing a
Manicule to Manicule past
the breaking the breaking
point point
Manicule to Manicule past
the breaking the breaking
point point
November 28, 2025 at 1:27 AM
Pushing a Pushing a
Manicule to Manicule past
the breaking the breaking
point point
Manicule to Manicule past
the breaking the breaking
point point
Learning today that 17th "emblem books" like this tie right into the Baroque. The emblems were in general allegories & metaphors, just as the wildly popular 17th C still life paintings. They work on a superficial level as objects to admire, but also hold deeper levels of meaning & reflection.
November 27, 2025 at 1:44 PM
Learning today that 17th "emblem books" like this tie right into the Baroque. The emblems were in general allegories & metaphors, just as the wildly popular 17th C still life paintings. They work on a superficial level as objects to admire, but also hold deeper levels of meaning & reflection.
I'm kinda partial to the king's attendants who had to strip out of their pants and carry the king's menagerie to his boat for him.
November 27, 2025 at 3:16 AM
I'm kinda partial to the king's attendants who had to strip out of their pants and carry the king's menagerie to his boat for him.
"You'll be visited by three spirits."
November 26, 2025 at 9:51 PM
"You'll be visited by three spirits."
You see venerable looking 18th C Englishmen like this with their powdered wigs and smart jackets and waistcoats. And you never think they're the authors of books like "The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle" or "Roderick Random."
November 26, 2025 at 9:46 PM
You see venerable looking 18th C Englishmen like this with their powdered wigs and smart jackets and waistcoats. And you never think they're the authors of books like "The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle" or "Roderick Random."
Here are the eBay book auctions I'm listing this week. This is what happens when you offer 4 super-niche things and one bestselling blockbuster.
November 26, 2025 at 8:51 PM
Here are the eBay book auctions I'm listing this week. This is what happens when you offer 4 super-niche things and one bestselling blockbuster.
And Happy Thanksgiving to you too, DuoLingo.
November 26, 2025 at 5:24 PM
And Happy Thanksgiving to you too, DuoLingo.
Always found it interesting that Sauron used the beautiful Tengwar script for his harsh Black Speech incantation.
November 26, 2025 at 12:03 AM
Always found it interesting that Sauron used the beautiful Tengwar script for his harsh Black Speech incantation.
Pretty incredible what a quality set of facsimile dustjackets does to elevate these old books.
November 25, 2025 at 11:56 PM
Pretty incredible what a quality set of facsimile dustjackets does to elevate these old books.
Just learned it was the early Baroque & Annibale Carracci that introduced the caricature portrait. It makes sense - the Baroque era was the first to try to portray the essence of a person's individuality. What is caricature if not being *intimately* aware of the features that identify a person?
November 25, 2025 at 8:26 PM
Just learned it was the early Baroque & Annibale Carracci that introduced the caricature portrait. It makes sense - the Baroque era was the first to try to portray the essence of a person's individuality. What is caricature if not being *intimately* aware of the features that identify a person?
Me: I've been restoring damaged old Bibles for years, nothing can faze me.
eBay: Hold my beer.
eBay: Hold my beer.
November 25, 2025 at 4:11 AM
Me: I've been restoring damaged old Bibles for years, nothing can faze me.
eBay: Hold my beer.
eBay: Hold my beer.
Just remembering one subscriber in Oliver Evans "Young Mill-Wright" I had forgotten. Senator Aaron Burr!
November 25, 2025 at 2:39 AM
Just remembering one subscriber in Oliver Evans "Young Mill-Wright" I had forgotten. Senator Aaron Burr!
It can be tough to define what an artistic period is, often easier to compare it to what it is not.
This detail from Velazquez's Baroque "Triumph of Bacchus" (1629) shows a rough & real peasant's face & manner that would have been unthinkable a century or half-century before.
This detail from Velazquez's Baroque "Triumph of Bacchus" (1629) shows a rough & real peasant's face & manner that would have been unthinkable a century or half-century before.
November 23, 2025 at 3:00 AM
It can be tough to define what an artistic period is, often easier to compare it to what it is not.
This detail from Velazquez's Baroque "Triumph of Bacchus" (1629) shows a rough & real peasant's face & manner that would have been unthinkable a century or half-century before.
This detail from Velazquez's Baroque "Triumph of Bacchus" (1629) shows a rough & real peasant's face & manner that would have been unthinkable a century or half-century before.
New read: "Baroque" by John Rupert Martin.
"What we regard as a normal historical development [in art] was frequently pictured by contemporary critics in moralizing terms, as if it represented a triumph of virtue over vice."
"What we regard as a normal historical development [in art] was frequently pictured by contemporary critics in moralizing terms, as if it represented a triumph of virtue over vice."
November 23, 2025 at 2:00 AM
New read: "Baroque" by John Rupert Martin.
"What we regard as a normal historical development [in art] was frequently pictured by contemporary critics in moralizing terms, as if it represented a triumph of virtue over vice."
"What we regard as a normal historical development [in art] was frequently pictured by contemporary critics in moralizing terms, as if it represented a triumph of virtue over vice."
Really great examples! 18th C French books don't do well on eBay & I probably paid too much for these. But I'm having trouble feeling sorry.
November 22, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Really great examples! 18th C French books don't do well on eBay & I probably paid too much for these. But I'm having trouble feeling sorry.
Elsewhere in the book traditional in-line woodcuts are used for the chapter headpieces & tailpieces. Compare the uneven detail of this image to the precise lines in the copperplate.
November 22, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Elsewhere in the book traditional in-line woodcuts are used for the chapter headpieces & tailpieces. Compare the uneven detail of this image to the precise lines in the copperplate.
This 18th C set of science books has great example of copperplate engravings in the back.
Copperplates offer much more detail than woodcuts. But unlike woodcuts, which were set just like bits of type, copperplates had to be pressed extremely hard in a separate process, leaving a telltale crimp.
Copperplates offer much more detail than woodcuts. But unlike woodcuts, which were set just like bits of type, copperplates had to be pressed extremely hard in a separate process, leaving a telltale crimp.
November 22, 2025 at 7:27 PM
This 18th C set of science books has great example of copperplate engravings in the back.
Copperplates offer much more detail than woodcuts. But unlike woodcuts, which were set just like bits of type, copperplates had to be pressed extremely hard in a separate process, leaving a telltale crimp.
Copperplates offer much more detail than woodcuts. But unlike woodcuts, which were set just like bits of type, copperplates had to be pressed extremely hard in a separate process, leaving a telltale crimp.
And thanks to the Internet Archive - another priceless resource - I have facsimiles of the two missing plates. Now that I have sizing right, I'll be reprinting them on aged stock to insert into the book & make it whole again.
November 22, 2025 at 3:27 PM
And thanks to the Internet Archive - another priceless resource - I have facsimiles of the two missing plates. Now that I have sizing right, I'll be reprinting them on aged stock to insert into the book & make it whole again.
George Washington & Thomas Jefferson each tried Evans' mill systems on their own farms. They saw how priceless the technology was for the security of the nation, & became top-line subscribers to the book in order to fund its publication! As did dozens of Senators & Representatives! I just love it.
November 22, 2025 at 3:23 PM
George Washington & Thomas Jefferson each tried Evans' mill systems on their own farms. They saw how priceless the technology was for the security of the nation, & became top-line subscribers to the book in order to fund its publication! As did dozens of Senators & Representatives! I just love it.
Eli Whitney & his cotton gin are household names in history. But have you heard of Oliver Evans? In 1795 he published a book with radical new techniques for milling flour at 5x the rate that had been possible. Evans' work literally fed the nation. I have one. With 24 of its orig 26 plates intact!
November 22, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Eli Whitney & his cotton gin are household names in history. But have you heard of Oliver Evans? In 1795 he published a book with radical new techniques for milling flour at 5x the rate that had been possible. Evans' work literally fed the nation. I have one. With 24 of its orig 26 plates intact!
Wow. "The Way to Eden" may not be a great episode. But in it, the writers of 1969 predict a technology for discovering planets that became reality in 1992, 23 years later!
November 20, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Wow. "The Way to Eden" may not be a great episode. But in it, the writers of 1969 predict a technology for discovering planets that became reality in 1992, 23 years later!
The cloister at Monte Oliveto monastery in Tuscany has a full cycle of 16th C frescoes recounting St Benedict's life (as told by Pope Gregory I). Not once but *twice* monks & priests tried to poison him. We're supposed to believe that the devil made them do it. But maybe Benedict was just a di*k?
November 19, 2025 at 10:24 PM
The cloister at Monte Oliveto monastery in Tuscany has a full cycle of 16th C frescoes recounting St Benedict's life (as told by Pope Gregory I). Not once but *twice* monks & priests tried to poison him. We're supposed to believe that the devil made them do it. But maybe Benedict was just a di*k?