Skip to content

purple motes

Artifacts to help you imagine more.

  • subscribe by email
  • how to navigate
  • topic index
  • about Douglas Galbi
  • terms of use / disclaimer

Highlights

  • Abelard castrated
  • Byzantine wife saves husband
  • Amphitryon & Geta duped
  • Chastelaine de Vergi tragedy
  • Aristotle’s advice to Alexander
  • Empress Theodora: woman leader
  • Tristan & Isuet
  • Xanthippe & Socrates
  • New Modern Sexism Scale

text

sea of ink: writing across Eurasia for millennia

A rhetorically complex “sea of ink” writing figure has been conserved in specificity across a wide expanse of Eurasia for at least 2000 years. … Read the post sea of ink: writing across Eurasia for millennia

illustrated books pervasive in 18th-century Japan

The Sackler exhibit, Hand-Held: Gerhard Pulverer’s Japanese Illustrated Books, shows woodblock-printed books (ehon) pervasive in Edo-period Japan. … Read the post illustrated books pervasive in 18th-century Japan

al-Nadim's Fihrist addresses poetry and sects without book titles

The Fihrist’s coverage of poetry and sects concerns poets, pages of poetry written, and sociological characteristics of sects, not titles of books. … Read the post al-Nadim's Fihrist addresses poetry and sects without book titles

al-Nadim's Fihrist provides insights into popular book demand

Al-Nadim brought the insights of a court companion and bookseller to cataloging books in his Fihrist. Social relations, not knowledge, sells books. … Read the post al-Nadim's Fihrist provides insights into popular book demand

Abdullah ibn Abbis, Ka'b al-Ahbar, and the origin of writing

In the first century of Islam, Abdullah ibn Abbas and Ka’b al-Ahbar confronted a wide variety of Jewish and Christian stories about the origin of writing. … Read the post Abdullah ibn Abbis, Ka'b al-Ahbar, and the origin of writing

Posts navigation

Page 1 Page 2 … Page 8 Next page