Mussolini’s Downfall

Contextual essay on a copy of Mussolini\u27s Diuturna [the Lasting] (Milan: Casa Editrice Imperia, 1924) held in the University of Pennsylvania libraries and annotated in 1945 using phrases from Victor Cousin by way of Cesare Cantù’s Storia Universale

A Rocket Cat? Early Modern Explosives Treatises at Penn

Contextual essay on an early modern explosives and warfare treatise held at Penn and the origin of the so-called rocket ca

Surprise Sketches

Contextual essay about a copy of Francis Grund, Die Aristokratie in Amerika, aus dem Tagebuch eines deutschen Edlemanns (Stuttgart: Cotta, 1839) held by the Penn Libraries which features hand-drawings in the place of engravings of several key figures

Among the Reels

Essay about Penn\u27s primary source microfilm collection

The Calve’s Head and Early Printing in Jamaica

Contextual essay about The *Calves’s-Head Club; or, a modest apology for Parson Alberoni, governor to King Philip, a minor; and universal curate of the whole Spanish monarchy: the whole being a short, but unanswerable Defence of Priestcraft, and a new confutation of the Bishop of Bangor. Jamaica: printed by R. Baldwin,in Kingston, 1719. [ESTC N67272]. This early printed pamphlet from Jamaica exists only in the Teerink Swift collection at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries

Moment in Time

Contextual essay about an image of librarians cataloging books in 1948 at Penn Libraries

A Special List

Contextual essay about a manuscript fragment (LJS 431) which contains a 16th century list of books seen or purchased in Italy by Juan Páez de Castro (1512-1570)

Printing News at the Front

Contextual essay about the first issue of the newspaper Stars and Stripes to be published in France following the Normandy invasion

July 4, 1788. Come for the beer, stay for the bibliography.

Contextual essay about a printed account of Independence Day celebrations in Philadelphia July 4, 1788

Ezra Pound and Overdue Poetry

Contextual essay about Ezra Pound, his time at Penn, and his overdue poetry book from the Penn Libraries