Behold! The latest squished ancient bug in a book:
I guess it was a spider. Unfortunately, I've lost track of the book out of which I took the picture, but I suspect the publication date was in the 17th century. For all I know, it's an extinct species and that book holds the only sample. I'm waiting still to come across the next squashed medieval bug; I've seen them before. It's a boyish joy to find such things in books. 
Wow, these curiosities sure give me all sorts of ideas for stories. Just for example:
ReplyDeleteMaybe it had bitten Albert or Bonaventure or Aquinas or Bellarmine or somebody, and so it has some of his DNA. And then some mad biologist attempts to clone up a medieval philosopher or theologian - or maybe just the librarian, and has to patch the errant DNA with some drawn from his teenage rock musician, and decides to make an amusement center from the result. Hm. It might be called "Scholastic Park"...
You know, if I had nothing better to do, I could spend all my free time writing stories about your crazy bookstore...
Ha! I really like the "Scholastic Park" idea. I could spend days there. I am assuming there would be thematic rides, perhaps a "Tour of the Summa" roller coaster. What a blast that would be!
ReplyDelete