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• Post #4190858

  https://www.fromoldbooks.org/ModerneKunst-13/pages/097-man-in-costume/ Another print from the huge book with the ornate cover. “A celebration at the Imperial Court in Berlin. The Royal Porter in gala attire.” or, Ein Fest am Kiserlichen Hofe zu Berlin Der Kgl. Portier in Galatracht. He looks so _serious_! Posting after a hiatus, software now works on the new server (ImageMagick has super complex commandline syntax and it changed!) #GIMP #costume #HistoricCostume #German #fobo #vintageArt...

• Post #4190857

  https://www.fromoldbooks.org/OldEngland/pages/0257-harrowing-and-sowing/ 1840s reproduction from the Bayeux Tapestry. Text is actually about Anglo-Saxon farming _before_ the Conquest, and uses lfriċ’s desc. of an enslaved ploughman and his boy, says he works hard, but omits the essential but unfashionable (1840s) fact he was a slave. Slavery was common before 1066, mostly died out by the end of the 12th C; the church was the main holdout. #vintageEngraving #fobo #angloSaxon #slavery #england...

• Post #4190856

  Just listed a 1581 Geneva (Breeches) Bible for sale on ebay, after selling the Golden Cockerel Greek Anthology i bought in the 1990s.

• Post #4190855

  https://www.fromoldbooks.org/Paley-Fonts/pages/decorated-stoke-golding/ An engraving of a font from the English Decorated church architecture period (roughly 1250 to 1350). #vintageEngravings #baptism #fonts #carving #christian #fobo

• Post #4190854

  https://www.fromoldbooks.org/Mathers-Goetia/pages/127-Pentagram-of-Solomon/ Not really anything to do with Solomon of course. Its a talisman of protection for when you summon demons, something we all do at times, right? True magic is not summoning demons. It’s when people show kindness to one another. #magicCircle #magic_circle #Aleister_crowley #occult #vintageEngraving #fobo #DontDoThisAtHome

• Post #4190853

  https://www.fromoldbooks.org/SewardTravels/pages/443-interior-of-imperial-palace-delhi/ The Red Fort of Delhi, Diwan-I-Khas, the seat of the Emperor. Until it wasn’t. William H Seward retired from public life and went on a world tour. The text is as bigoted as one might expect from 1873, but i transcribed some of the more acceptable parts. #india #architecture #interiorr #pillars #arches #vintageEngraving #fobo #travel #GIMP #redFort

• Post #4190852

  This past thursday we had our first XML user group meeting, an informal exchange of ideas with one formal guest presentation. Third thursday of each month, so let’s see if we can make it grow. Contact me for coordinates. #XMLisAlive #MarkupMonday #XML #XSLT #XQuery #XSL #XPath #Awesome #BetterThanYouThink

• Post #4190851

  https://fromoldbooks.org/r/5j/pages/000-frontispiece-image-withdrawal-from-troy/ and cover and title page at https://www.fromoldbooks.org/Sachsen-Odyssey/ Bought Homer’s Odyssey (cheaply) in Germany in 2019 on a GIMP meetup. Maybe it’s a good time to post some scans :-) The bookseller turned quite hostile when i mentioned the Web, said the Web was putting him out of business. #homer #odysseus #Odyssey #vintageEngraving #vintageArt #fobo #greekMyth #bookCover #GIMP

• Post #3432957

  https://www.deviantart.com/barefootliam/art/Img-9090-Poppies-da-1349623300 Orange poppies near our Further Barn, a week or two ago, in the afternoon with the sun shining through them. (more vintage art coming soon, i’m busy moving the server to a new machine!) #poppy #poppies #sunlight #canon #canonPhotography #nature #naturePhotography #flower #flowers

• Post #3067282

  Doing THREE presentations at XML Prague this year - one in the main conference with fabulous co-authors, and two in the pre-conference day. Sadly, wasn’t able to travel to the conference, so pre-recording two of them. #XML #XML_Prague

• Post #3020016

  @FranceskaMann Google Gemini gave me instructions on getting to a non-existent European castle yesterday, told me it was a ruin people liked to explore, and said sources conflict on the age of it.

• Post #3020015

  Noticed www.fromoldbooks was going a little slowly; lots of HTTP requests for images (mostly under /Wallpaperify) with fake user agents and dubious IPs. Banned the most common IP address (/24) and required a referer header for /Wallpaperify and system seems better behaved. AI bots? There’s already a robots.txt entry. /Wallpaperify lets you go to any image on https://www.fromoldbooks.org/ and recolour it, do light image edits, from the Colour tab. Maybe i should get rid of it.

• Post #3020014

  https://www.fromoldbooks.org/ModerneKunst-01/pages/53-mazeppa/ Another from engraving Moderne Kunst magazine (1898) Mazeppa, the youth on the horse, was a Ukrainian cossack (1639 – 1709). After going a bit too far with the wife of a nobleman of the court, was strapped naked to a wild “Tartar” horse that was then made to gallop across the Steppes. He became very badly injured, but went on to become a hetman, or commander, and a leader in Ukraine. #Mazeppa #Mazepa #vintageArt #nakedMan #vintage...

• Post #3020013

  https://www.fromoldbooks.org/ModerneKunst-01/pages/59-lieck-moselblumchen/ Moderne Kunst again. I translated the caption Moselblümchen as At the Wine Festival to try and capture the spirit of it: seems it can be the wine or the outfit or the flowers maybe round her head. Or all three. Josef Lieck was known for capturing “feminine beauty” which here seems to be the suggestion of what might follow the drink… #moderneKunst #vintageEngraving #vintageArt #folkArt #german #blackAndWhite #engraving...

• Post #2859193

  I’ve been trying to post (not always in the same place) about the usefulness of text #markup for documents - #XML especially - using the tag #MarkupMonday each time. The goal is to spread awareness that XML, and declarative markup, labelling of parts, is in active use, and yes is worth doing, in the right place. There was some push-back on the xml-dev (reborn) mailing list against XML being useful in a world with LLMs in it, which was discouraging. But i stick by it: XML is not dead! 😉

• Post #2859192

  https://www.fromoldbooks.org/ModerneKunst-03/pages/p041-letter-w-with-witch/ From the book with the fab cover but not an engraving - an early use of a dot screen for fine art work. The largest sizes will print well in black and white, but test carefully for possible moiré patterns. An article about a book of German poetry which used this drop cap. #vintageArt #FriedrichStahl #demon #occult #GIMP #GIMP3 #fobo #crescentMoon #blackAndWhite

• Post #2859191

  https://www.fromoldbooks.org/ModerneKunst-01/pages/09-lions/ and https://www.fromoldbooks.org/ModerneKunst-01/pages/09-lions-detail-face/ Engraving of 2 lions, and detail. This is another engraving from the books with awesome covers, vol 1 this time. Orig. painting by Paul Friedrich Meyerheim (1842 – 1915). #vintageArt #vintageEngraving #lion #lions #zoo #blackAndWhite #fobo #animalsInCaptivity #GIMP #GIMP3 #xsane #scannedArt

• Post #2859190

  The workflow i use might be interesting - scan with xsane on Linux at 16 bits per channel/2400dpi (professional scanner). Usually greyscale though. Then to #GIMP and clean up then resize for Alamy stock & for Web. Wonder if there’d be interest in videos about the clean-up process? #GIMP #GIMP3 #xsane #epson #epsonExpression10000XL #scannedArt #libreGraphics

• Post #2536096

  https://www.deviantart.com/barefootliam/art/Black-and-white-walk-into-the-woods-1332535924 Not a scan from an old book, a photo i took a while ago. #blackAndWhite #photograph #blackandwhitephotography #canon #tree #branches #silhouette #path #woods #winter #wintry

• Post #2458253

  https://www.fromoldbooks.org/ModerneKunst-03/pages/000-front-cover-moderne-kunst-band-3/ I fell in love with these huge (A3-size) books in Prague. I’ve seen the cover design described as pretentious (like me) but the full-page engravings are really fabulous. The book only just fits on the scanner i use, with a few mm (eighth of an inch) to spare. #bookCover #vintageArt #fobo #GIMP #victorianArt

• Post #2458252

  I’ll be speaking (with two others) at XML Prague about an unusual XML diff program, and maybe also participating in sessions around XQuery and around XML formatting. Come and join us at #XML_Prague #XMLPrague XML Prague! #markupMonday

• Post #2458251

  https://www.fromoldbooks.org/ModerneKunst-03/pages/plate-067-burn-the-witch/ One of the plates from the book whose cover i posted yesterday, this Albert von Keller painting shows a witch in a hypnotic trance, supposedly to negate pain. Plate is approx. 9x13 inches. The artist was criticised for showing a teenager and in the wrong historical costume, but his goal was merely painting the trance (and, originally, a bare-breasted woman). #vintageArt #vintageEngraving #GIMP #Gimp_3 #vintageArt #oc...

• Post #2327851

  https://www.fromoldbooks.org/ModerneKunst-03/pages/plate-057-farm-girl-in-frame/ I’m not sure whether the frame here was part of Dobson’s painting, but i love it. Dobson’s paintings were known for the “innocence of the young”, a popular theme in England in the 2nd half of the 18th century. There’s also a version with just the frame. The scaled-down images in Mastdon look much better in Firefox than Chrome here. #vintageArt #vintageEngraving #innocence #art #painting #engraving #fobo #William...

• Post #2082422

  https://www.fromoldbooks.org/pictures-of-old-books/pages/img_7378-stack-of-books/ Some of the more photogenic books whose images i’ve scanned for https://www.fromoldbooks.org/ - a photo i took back in 2007. Charles Knight’s two-volume “Old England’ on the bottom is what started it all. Canon EF-S 17-18mm IS lens, f/5.6 at 1/13th sec, camera EOS 400D (Digital Rebel XTi). #fobo #oldBooks #books #photograph #colour #color #canon

• Post #2082421

  https://www.fromoldbooks.org/Morris-PicturesqueViews-Vol2/pages/030-penrhyn-castle-wales/ A chromolithograph, done with maybe a dozen different impressions each with its own solid colour to build up an image. Penrhyn Castle was rebuilt c. 1830 using profits from slave labour, so it’s controversial today. Its also an unusual Neo-Norman castle. #castles #chromolytography #towers #neoNorman #gothic #vintageArt #statelyHome #fobo #park

• Post #1887064

  https://www.fromoldbooks.org/Darboy-ImitationOfChrist/pages/310-full-page-christian-border-detail-jesus-with-raised-hand/ This could be either Jesus or John, but probably Jesus. This figure was floating in the left-hand side of a full-page border used in Darboy’s 1855 edition of the Imitation of Christ; there are full-page borders on every page, but they repeat. #jesus #christFigure #drawing #jesus_Christ #WhiteJesus #vintageArt #vintageEngraving #fobo #GIMP #GIMP3 #xsane

• Post #1851071

  https://www.fromoldbooks.org/Darboy-ImitationOfChrist/pages/310-full-page-christian-border-detail-angel-with-incense/ This is a detail from the full-page border engraving i posted recently. The censer, or thurible , burns incense, with the smoke representing prayers going up to heaven. Which is where the angels are when they are not in Ethiopia. So maybe this is a fallen angel? Angels gained wings in the 4th century or so; Biblical angels don’t have them. #angel #drawing #lineDrawing #vintag...

• Post #1851068

  https://www.fromoldbooks.org/Darboy-ImitationOfChrist/pages/310-full-page-christian-border-detail-owl/ This line-drawing of an owl looks startlingly modern, with eyes wide as if in surprise, body twisted, wings spread for takeoff. It was in the bottom-left corner of a full-page border from Darboy’s 1855 edition of the Imitation of Christ. #owl #drawing #vintageArt #vintageEngraving #fobo #bird #feathers #wings #winged #GIMP #GIMP3

• Post #1775488

  https://www.fromoldbooks.org/Scranton-OrnamentalDesign-VolI/pages/123-coucy-castle-with-labels/ The Coucy Castle drawing with the letters showing the parts; i posted the version without letters some time ago. Is it better to edit posts & add images, or to make more posts? Well, it’s a fun drawing anyway 🙂 despite wonly perspective! #vintageEngraving #fobo #castle #Coucy #medievalArchitecture #diagram #drawing

• Post #1568182

  This week i am in Nuremberg for a GIMP meetup and for Libre Graphics Meeting. Nuremberg is a city in Europe near Germany 😉