Endpapers From Anatole France’s Thaïs By Frank C. Pape (1926)

Edit after Eugène Leroux and Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps (Drie heksen uit Shakespeares Macbeth) (Rijksmuseum) (Ed. Lic.: CC BY-NC 3.0)

The World’s First Female Author, Enhedu’anna

This ancient clay tablet from Babylonia is inscribed in Sumerian cuneiform and dates to the 20th-17th centuries BC. It mentions King Sargon’s daughter Enhedu'anna as the author of a hymn to the goddess Inanna. The tablet has lines written first by the teacher in the first column, with 2 students repeating the hymn in columns 2 and 3.

Enhedu’anna was the daughter of King Sargon of Akkad (2334-2279 BC), founder of the first documented empire in Asia. Enhedu’anna emerges as a genuine creative talent, a poetess as well as a princess, a priestess and a prophetess. She is, in fact, the first named, non-legendary author in history. As such she has found her way into contemporary anthologies, especially of women’s literature.

Theodore Kittelsen

Spiked dog collar, 17th or 18th century.

Used for hunting dogs to protect the neck from attacks by bears, wolves, or wild boars.

Hidden allure.

John Ryland’s Library, Manchester.

Axel Torvenius

The Ruins of Holyrood Chapel (c.1824 / oil on canvas) | Louis Daguerre

Sergey Solomko (1867–1928) - Walpurgis Night