Theodor Nelson's "Computer Lib / Dream Machines", Chicago 1974, bound tête-bêche.
Subtitled "You can and must understand computers NOW", 'Computer Lib' is regarded as the first book about the personal computer - it was published just before the release of the Altair 8800. 1/
This is the book that pioneered the democratisation of information technology, and was hugely influential on Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and others. It was described by Howard Rheingold as "the best-selling underground manifesto of the microcomputer revolution". 2/
Loosely based on the Whole Earth Catalog, with which it shares certain characteristics, the work is divided into numerous densely packed sections, each featuring pull quotes, cartoons, photographs, diagrams, sidebars and multiple typefaces. 3/
In the volume's flipside, 'Dream Machines: New Freedom through Computer Screens - a Minority Report', Nelson explores the countercultural possibilities of personal computers further, advocating their use in education, and their availability to everyone. 4/
Nelson was responsible for coining the terms 'hypertext' & 'hypermedia', and in 'Computer Lib' he expanded these concepts, at a time when the very first global networks were first being developed. Other terms Nelson uses in the book include 'Cybercrud' and 'Intertwingularity'. 5/
Most surviving copies of the book are reprints - this first printing, published in an edition of a few hundred copies, self-funded by the author, is seldom seen. Signed by the author in red ink to Henry Tropp, creator of the Computer Oral History Collection at the Smithsonian. 6/

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More from @incunabula

12 Jul
This is all that remains of Zoli the Clown, a Jewish little person, once the most famous circus performer in Hungary, who perished, alongside 560 000 other Hungarian Jews, in the Holocaust.

We should remember him for the joy he brought, and his courage. This is his story. 1/
Zoltán Hirsch, "Zoli the Clown", was born on 6 Feb 1885, the third child of a family of Jewish merchants. Until the age of three he was treated for Rickets disease due to his small size. Later, his family moved to Pécs, where he became captivated by the world of the circus. 2/
Zoli spent his leisure time at his hometown Pécs’s major entertainment sites, the Schmitt Folk Arena Circus and the Pécs Vaudeville Theatre, where he obsessively attended all the shows and loitered backstage, eager to meet his idols, the acrobats & clowns who worked there. 3/
Read 22 tweets
12 Jul
Charles Stewart Rolls also owned this famous manuscript, now known as the Llangattock Breviary after the family's estate in Wales. Originally comprised of more than 500 leaves, it was created for Leonello d'Este, Marchese of Ferrara, by Giorgio d'Almagna in the years 1441-48. 1/
The Breviary originally included the bookplate of John Etherington Welch Rolls (1807-1870) and a note by his son John Allan Rolls: "Bought by my grandfather [John Rolls (1776-1837)]...Supposed to have been Peninsular loot. The pictures cut out by soldiers. J.A. Rolls. 1882." 2/
John Allan Rolls became the 1st Baron Llangattock in 1892, and was the father of Charles Stewart Rolls (1877-1910), the aviation and automobile pioneer who with Frederick Henry Royce co-founded Rolls Royce in 1906. 3/
Read 6 tweets
4 Jul
The 1986 movie "The Mission" is set at the Jesuit station for the Guarani, near the Iguazu Falls in Paraguay. Few know though that these Jesuits taught the Guarani not just to print, but to actually cast type. A handful of books they produced in the 1700s survive: here's one. 1/
This is Ruiz de Montoya’s "Vocabulario de la lengua Guaraní", typeset and printed by the Guarani at the Jesuit reduction in Pueblo Santa Maria la Mayor del Iguazú (Paraguay) in 1722. It was located near the Iguazu Falls portrayed so memorably in the opening scene of the movie. 2/
This book, like everything printed by the Jesuits in Paraguay, is extraordinarily rare, they are all Black Swans of the rare book world. There are AFAIK only 4 copies held in institutional libraries: Berlin Staatsbibliothek, @britishlibrary, @IULillyLibrary and @JCBLibrary. 3/
Read 4 tweets
3 Jul
Dating from the year 1080, Griefs de Guitart Isarn, seigneur de Caboet (Grievances of Guitart Isarn, Lord of Caboet) is the oldest known text in Catalan.
'Grievances' like this, were acts in which a lord demanded restitution for damages caused by breach of a feudal contract. 1/
In this text, Guitart Isarn, Lord of Caboet, describes how he has suffered at the hands of his vassals Guillem Arnall and his sons, Castilians of Caboet. The result is an almost literary text, reflecting the changes that transformed Catalonia at the end of the 11th century. 2/
The manuscript was acquired by Joaquim Miret i Sans (1858−1919), historian, archivist and Catalan scholar, who then donated it to the Bibliothèque de Catalogne during the first decade of the twentieth century. 3/
Read 4 tweets
3 Jul
Mimih Spirit bark painting, North East of Darwin, brought to the Finke River Mission Station in 1962.
Aboriginal groups living in the rocky environments of western and southern Arnhem Land share mythology which relates to the tall slender spirits they call Mimih. 1/
The belief in Mimih is thousands of years old. Mimi are seen on rock shelters as well as on bark - some of the oldest cave paintings in Western Arnhem Land are of these figures running and hunting. Mimih spirits are generally painted as extremely thin human-like beings. 2/
Mimih are credited with instructing the first Aboriginal people with the knowledge of how to survive in the barren rocky environment of the Arnhem Land plateau. Mimih are said to have taught the first humans how to hunt & butcher game, and also how to dance, sing and paint. 3/
Read 9 tweets
28 Jun
... and, incredibly, the same Gutenberg leaf has been flipped AGAIN, for the 3rd time, and just fetched a remarkable $162 500 at Heritage Auctions, more than FOUR TIMES what it fetched on eBay just a few months ago [helped, no doubt, by @HeritageAuction's misleading description].
By describing the 2 initials with the throw-away phrase "supplied as usual", @HeritageAuction fails to make clear that the original initials were cut out, and that not only have the initials been recreated, but the paper around them is entirely replaced.
historical.HA.com/itm/books/-bib…
It's not just the initials that have been recreated. The underlying paper has been replaced, and the text on the reverse side of that paper has ALSO been recreated in manuscript. This is heavily restored leaf and should rightly only be worth 50-60% of the price of a perfect leaf.
Read 10 tweets

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