#books

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Audible realities and phonic fantasies: The first major book on acoustics.

By Corinne Mona, Assistant Librarian at The Niels Bohr Library & Archives

Before there were walkie talkies, there was Athanasius Kircher. In 1673, Kircher published Phonurgia nova : sive Conjugium mechanico-physicum artis & naturae paranympha phonosophia concinnatum (1673), which is chock-full of inventive ways to transmit sound.

https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/ex-libris-universum/audible-realities-and-phonic-fantasies?utm_source=email%2CNBLA&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign%20=monthly_emails&dm_i=1ZJR,8M71P,4FGHXK,ZPUOX,1

A building very subtly designed for eavesdropping. From the Niels Bohr Library & Archives’ copy of Phonurgia nova by Athanasius Kircher. (Book 1 Section IV page 90) Engraved illustration depicting an architectural structure with arched ceilings and multiple columns, featuring people engaged in various activities under the archways. The building is detailed with windows and textured shading, and labeled with letters at several points.

in 1927. Virginia Woolf's stream of consciousness novel To the Lighthouse is published by Hogarth Press in London. It is seen as a landmark of high modernism.

Virginia and her husband Leonard published it together at their Hogarth Press in London in 1927. The first impression of 3000 copies of 320 pages measuring 191 by 127 mm was bound in blue cloth.The book outsold all Woolf's previous novels, and the royalties enabled the Woolfs to buy a car.

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/89

1st edition cover of To The Lighthouse designed by Vanessa Bell. Vintage book cover for "To the Lighthouse" by Virginia Woolf, featuring an abstract design of a lighthouse in black and pale blue on a beige background.

American illustrator Jessie Willcox Smith died in 1935.

Smith’s career took off when she began working for the Ladies' Home Journal, for which she created many covers and interior illustrations. She illustrated over 60 books throughout her career, including classics such as Charles Kingsley's The Water-Babies, Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses, and Clement Moore’s The Night Before Christmas.

Jessie Willcox Smith at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/7158

Jessie Willcox Smith, estimate between 1880-1910. Black and white photograph of a seated woman (Jessie Willcox Smith) in vintage clothing, wearing glasses and a dark high-collar dress, with her left arm resting on a chair.
Cover image from from The Princess and the Goblins - by George MacDonald, illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith, 1920. Jessie Willcox Smith, illustrator - http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/34339 Vintage painting of a young girl in a white headscarf and blue cloak, reaching forward with a curious expression, with a dark, shadowy background and parts of a flower barely visible.
Fairy Tales, Boston Public Library Smith, Jessie Willcox, 1863-1935 (artist); L. Prang & Co. (publisher). An illustration of a woman and two children reading a book titled "Fairy Tales" in a garden, sitting on a hammock with lush greenery and flowers in the background.

Italian mathematician and physicist Vito Volterra was born in 1860.

One of Volterra's most famous contributions came in the field of mathematical biology with his work on population dynamics. He formulated the The Lotka–Volterra equations which are frequently used to describe the dynamics of biological systems in which two species interact, one as a predator and the other as prey.

Books by Vito Volterra at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/34164

Vito Volterra (3 May 1860 – 11 October 1940) Black and white portrait of Vito Volterra with a full beard and mustache, looking directly at the camera. He wears a formal dark suit and has slightly wavy, graying hair.

Italian polymath Leonardo da Vinci died in 1519.

He was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested on his achievements as a painter, he has also become known for his notebooks, in which he made drawings and notes on a variety of subjects, including anatomy, astronomy, botany, cartography, painting, and paleontology.

Books by Leonardo Da Vinci at PG
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/1629

STUDY FOR "THE LAST SUPPER" (ACADEMY, VENICE) PHOTO, BRAUN, CLÉMENT https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/56844/pg56844-images.html
STUDIES OF HANDS (WINDSOR) PHOTO, BRAUN, CLÉMENT https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/56844/pg56844-images.html
STUDY FOR BACKGROUND OF "THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI" (UFFIZI, FLORENCE) PHOTO, BRAUN, CLÉMENT https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/56844/pg56844-images.html
STUDY OF DRAPERY FOR A KNEELING FIGURE (WINDSOR) PHOTO, BRAUN, CLÉMENT https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/56844/pg56844-images.html

"Strengthen the female mind by enlarging it, and there will be an end to blind obedience."
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (ed. 1793)

British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights Mary Wollstonecraft was born in 1759. In "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman" (1792), Wollstonecraft argued that women are not naturally inferior to men but appear so only because of a lack of education.

Books by Mary Wollstonecraft at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/84

An old, worn book opened to the title page which reads "A VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS OF WOMAN: WITH STRICTURES ON POLITICAL AND MORAL SUBJECTS. BY MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT. PRINTED AT BOSTON, BY PETER EDES FOR THOMAS AND ANDREWS, FAUST'S STATE, NO. 45, NEWBURY-STREET, MDCCXCIX." The text is in black capital letters centered on the page with a decorative monogram between the author's name and the printer information.
A classic oil painting depicts Mary Wollstonecraft wearing a white v-neck gown with a soft, flowing texture. The attire seems to be of a delicate fabric that drapes elegantly around the figure's arms and chest. The background is predominantly dark, contrasting with the bright white of the gown. The figure's hair appears to be styled up and away from the face, with hints of brown tones, which suggests a sense of sophistication and poise.

English aristocrat and society hostess Lady Ottoline Morrell died in 1938.

Her salons were frequented by key figures of the Bloomsbury Group, including Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, & Lytton Strachey, as well as writers like Aldous Huxley, T.S. Eliot, & D.H. Lawrence. Artists such as Duncan Grant & Vanessa Bell were also regular visitors. During World War I, they invited conscientious objectors such as Duncan Grant, Clive Bell & Lytton Strachey to take refuge at Garsington.

A group at Garsington Manor, country home of Lady Ottoline Morrell, near Oxford. Left to right: Lady Ottoline Morrell, Mrs. Aldous Huxley, Lytton Strachey, Duncan Grant, and Vanessa Bell.