Note to self: check how big the books are before you agree to pick them up, even if you're only collecting them from a couple of streets away. This was a heavy little pile!
— Claire Smith (@eternalmagpie) August 16, 2020
(Don't know whether I'll understand any of them, but I'll give it a go!) pic.twitter.com/H0FaLjuLck
Category: Uncategorized
Paint It Black
🎶 I see a big jar and I want to paint it black 🎶 pic.twitter.com/iyYNHTNJ3c
— Claire Smith (@wetconservatrix) August 14, 2020
Click through to read the thread
Cross-pollination
I would love love LOVE to be involved in a History & Herbarium cross-disciplinary project. There are so many ways that @UniRdg_History and @RNGherb could benefit one another! ❤️ https://t.co/kKB5X4TAiZ
— Claire Smith (@eternalmagpie) August 14, 2020
Of the Goose-tree
John Gerard included a page and a half, plus this woodcut, on the Goose Tree in his 1597 Herball. Perhaps more remarkably, Thomas Johnson – who comprehensively corrected Gerard's work – chose to keep it in both the 1633 and 1636 editions, despite knowing it was nonsense! https://t.co/HK6J8ersHt pic.twitter.com/f0Gdnw0Ivt
— Claire Smith (@eternalmagpie) August 11, 2020
“Unloved”
*adds to reading list immediately* https://t.co/8GywiCNBD2
— Claire Smith (@eternalmagpie) August 5, 2020
Phenomenal labour
Still feeling absolutely rotten. Reading Gerard is cheering me up, although it's not really a reading-in-bed kind of book. It's so heavy, I can't feel my knees! pic.twitter.com/zJkNdoTe5H
— Claire Smith (@eternalmagpie) July 31, 2020
(Click through to read the thread)
Colouring in
This morning I've been colouring in. Paul gave me some alcohol markers which I've never used before, so I thought I'd give them a go for the kids' activity I need to demonstrate. The pictures are small and the pens are thick, but I'm pretty happy with the layers on the jellyfish. pic.twitter.com/Nie9VqCipo
— Claire Smith (@eternalmagpie) July 14, 2020
Gerard!
This is my VERY EXCITED FACE.*
— Claire Smith (@eternalmagpie) July 2, 2020
While perusing extant copies of Gerard (£1,750 to £14,000 depending on the edition and how many pages are missing!) I stumbled on a full size complete facsimile of the 1633 2nd edition for £50. It weighs A TON, but I'm so happy to have found it! 😍 pic.twitter.com/7xRZ8GHIXt
“Son of a blacksmith”
I made it to page seven of Flower Hunters before my brain went off on an angry tangent about John Ray (Historia Plantarum, 1686) being described everywhere as 'the son of a blacksmith', when HIS MOTHER WAS A HERBALIST!! (See also Culpeper… and goodness knows who else!) 🤯🤯🤯
— Claire Smith (@eternalmagpie) July 1, 2020
Not yet a blog post…
Reading the foreword to a 1983 edition of Culpeper is making me want to throw things. Apparently the Doctrine of Signatures "had probably not spread to England by the beginning of the 17th century" – NOPE. It was well established, but Culpeper didn't subscribe.
— Claire Smith (@eternalmagpie) June 29, 2020
Click through to read the thread