Book o’ the day

July 14, 2008 at 11:56 pm (Uncategorized)

Usually, there is one book that stands out each day.  Today, one of my co-workers got “The Book.”  It’s surprising what draws your interest and even better when it also affects someone else in the same way.  We call these “book o’ the day” items, the ones you just have to share with someone…immediately.  Today’s is The book of trades (Ständebuch). It’s a collection of wood block prints depicting occupations in Medieval Europe.  The book has it all, lots of pictures, cryptic German fractur script (and English translations), and a sense of history.  My first thought was, oooh, woodcuts! followed closely by the realization that this book can come in handy for those deciding how to survive a sudden time traveling accident (it’s amazing what gets discussed on the internets –link to Marginal Revolution thread). Many of the trades seem down right modern and the translation mentions some of the goods they created…a time traveller might be all right barring disease and language drift.  The German wikipedia site even has links to all the woodcuts, you’ll have to check out the book to get the English translation though!