Bookworms with cranks

Bokworms likewise devore the volumes of Canisius and Luther, Boccaccio and Nicholas of Lyra, the Revelations and the Malleus Maleficarum. Hunger is not choosy: anything edible will do it as well. But there is a certain bookworm with a highly selective taste. The one that struck this book has consumed exclusively and with zealous gluttony all the areas where the name of Erasmus had been printed.


Most probably the name of this bookworm stands on the flyleaf of the book below the inscription Expurgatus iuxtà Indicis expurgatorii praescripta, “cleaned according to the prescriptions of the Expurgatory Index”. Unfortunately the next owner, angered by the misdeeds of the bookworm, cancelled it as a way of condamnatio memoriae. The year of the mischief, however, has remained clearly legible: 1618.


The new owner, the Canon Giovan Maria Taviani also recorded his name and the year of 1776 when he acquired this book for 13.4 lire, and thus we know who restored carefully the name of Erasmus throughout the book. Well, actually it could have been either him or another owner, as we do not know the full path covered throughout the centuries by this beautiful emblem book of Alciato provided with the notes of Francisco Sánchez – “El Brocense”. We do not know either who decorated it with the delicate red wax seal, almost a cameo. In any case, we are touched by the attention – even if sometimes a bit greedy – with which this book was owned over times. We only want to be a humble link in this chain, and momentarily content ourselves with the restoration of the broken spine.