What beautiful lecterns!

These gorgeous lecterns are made by the company New Renaissance Woodcraft. I found their website through Brahm's Bookworks, and boy was I excited! These are perfect for displaying grimoires and other magickal texts! I want one . . . I am currently working with the owner on designing a custom lectern for me! I hope to have it made out of ebony, and although it would considerably jack up the price (probbly twice as much), it would definitely be worth it. Ebony is a very powerful wood. Its qualities predominantly include power, protection and strength. To top it off, my wand is made from ebony. It would be ideal for my magickal tools to have something that ties them together, as that greatly enhances their power. One of the great things about these lecterns is that they have a compartment inside! The craftsman/owner has told me that he can make it big enough to store my 12x9x4 grimoire! This will be a great advantage and will save me space! I'll have a place to store my grimoire away from dust and humidity, but when I wish to read it, I won't have to lug it very far or strain my neck whilst reading it in my lap. How ingenious! I can't wait. Now, these images are examples of the owner's craftmanship. The top one is crafted out of ash and stained darker. The one on the bottom is crafted out of purple heart, which is a very interesting wood!
You can find out more about purple heart here.
Of course, it will be a while before I can buy a lectern of my own. Right now I am waiting for the price of my book leather to be calculated, and the total of my order at Talas is probbly going to ring in round 200 dollars. After that, I'm going to have to save up around four hundred dollars for the lectern. (it would be much cheaper if I settled for a different wood, buy you know me.) Damn me and me expensive taste. But oh well. One of my sayings is "It is better to have a few objects that you care for than to have a thousand objects of little or no value to you." Yes, you may quote me.

Meren heart,
Nefabit :3

Exotic Leathers

Well, our trip to the fabric store has been delayed, so I hopped back on the computer and found myself at the cyber doorstep of an exotic leather retailer. They offer rare and strange leathers such as alligator, ostrich, stingray, shark, snake, lizard, fish and chicken! The only thing they didn't have was toad leather. But alas, I found it here. :P It would be very interesting to match the animal skin to the purpose of the book one is binding. Say if you were writing a grimoire about aquatic magick, ocean legends and astral water creatures, shark or stingray leather would be very interesting. I must admit, I am a bit tempted by the toad leather. However, as cool as that would be, I think I'll stick with calf leather. Not to mention that anyone who already had um, shall we say, notions about witchcraft, would only find justification from a grimoire made out of toad skin. Oh well. . . . We live in such a strange world.
Meren Heart,
Nefabit :3

Some assembly required

Well, the supplies for my grimoire are on the way! I ordered everything from Talas, and here's what I'm getting! I'll be using eterno bookboard, which is acid free, very durable and archival quality. You can find it here. Over that I'll be using forest green calf hide - a fine grain yet durable bookbinding leather. You can find it and other colors here. The image to the right is a Florentine book paper - unfortunately the picture does not display the vibrancy of the colors. Ah well. When I have finished assembling my grimoire, I'll be sure to post pictures of it inside and out! I want to be able to move pages around, so for the binding, I'll be using solid brass screw posts, found here. Other supplies include glue, knives, bone folders, etc. Anyway, now it's off to the fabric store to buy ribbons that match the endpaper! Ta ta for now!

Anthropodermic Bibliopegy

Wow, now that sure is a mouthful. So what is anthropodermic bibliopegy? It is the practice of binding books in human skin. Interesting and disturbing at the same time. The book on the left is a 300 year old ledger. The book below is the narrative of James Allen the Highwayman, and as he requested on his death bed, is bound in his own skin. I wonder what would make anyone wish for that . . .
The practice of binding books in human skin dates back to around the 16th century, though I imagine there are older examples that have deteriorated. Many museums have books bound in human skin, though few actually put them on display. There are also many skin bound books in private collections. I actually wouldn't mind having one. I'm such a hopeless bibliophile. (lover or collector of books)
It is also very common for fictional grimories to be bound in skin, such as The necronomicon (yes, it is fictitious). It wouldn't surprise me if some of them where, though to my knowledge there are no skin-bound grimoires that have been found. Now, once I did see a grimoire bound in toad skin. That had to have been quite a project.

Meren heart,
Nefabit :3

The Voynich Manuscript

Now this is intriguing! The Voynich Manuscript was written in an unknown language and script by an unknown author, and covers many varied topics - most of them magickal, from an herbalism to alchemy and astrology . To me, this looks like a grimoire written in code! And what a better way to write a grimoire at the height of the church's power than in an indecipherable code? Check it out
here! I'd love to get my paws on a copy of that text . . . even if I couldn't read it per se. Here's some of the text (below)
Here is a great link where you can see the entire text in high resolution photos! Here is an Amazon list with books about the Voynich manuscript! I ran out last night and purchased a book called The Voynich Manuscript by Gerry Kennedy and Rob Churchill, and it's a great buy. The Voynich Manuscript is filled with mystery. The next time I'm in that area, I want to go to Yale university and see the manuscript for myself. This is an exciting discovery with a rich history. Something interesting I found out is that it is theorized that it belonged to Roger Bacon, whom I believe to be of the same Bacon family as Sir Henry bacon, who was a friend of my Great, great, great, etc. Grandfather. Or uncle or something. I'd have to ask Mom. My family tree is more like a rat's nest. :p However, it is also proposed that it was written by John Dee, a famous occultist and author of many staple occult texts. Whomever wrote it, I feel a strong connection to the book, and whether that is due to my strong desire to understand the unknown and rare, or it an ancestor of mine wrote it, I don't know. Don't care either. I want a copy. In fact, I want to find out if I can make scans of the book and make a binding for the new pages. It would be a very interesting task.
On the right is the book I purchased on the manuscript. As far as I know, it is the best out there. You can find it here.
And now, I must do more research. *re-inserts nose into book*

Meren heart,
Nefabit :3

Tome vs Book

Today I was wondering about the real difference between the words "book" and "tome", and I found two things. The first answer is that a tome is usually considerably larger and heavier than a book. But the second answer, (and likely the better one) is that a tome is usually a compilation of several books. For instance, The Three Books of Occult Philosophy by Eliphas Levi would be a tome, as it is three books combined into one volume. My grimoire would also be a tome (yay!) because it is several books combined into one tome. (The book of foundation, the book of light, etc)
I love having mysteries cleared up!

Meren heart,
Nefabit :3