Old book illustrations wordshop

Welcome to Old book illustrations wordshop, the blog we have intended to complement our main site, Old book illustrations.
While we all like pictures and a lot of people will be fully satisfied to just look at them, download them and use them any way they want, it occured to us that some visitors might feel somewhat frustrated not to know anything about them or the books from which they were taken. So we decided to grant our illustrations some extra room to put them into context and quote one or two of the paragraphs which relate to them. In the case of the Trousset encyclopedia, we chose to reproduce the full article every time, with the secret hope that in the long run, entry after entry, it would build up to something our most benevolent visitors would think worth refering to.
This blog is also the place where we’ll add a general description of each book and a short note about its author and illustrator(s), that is if we know anything about them…
Please feel free to comment and to send us feedback and suggestions.

GENTIAN s. (lat. gentiana; after Gentius, king of Illyria who first made known the medicinal properties of this plant, in the second century BC). Bot. genus in the family Gentianaceae, which includes a large number of species of perennials plants, most of them indigenous.
The Great Yellow Gentian (gentiana lutea), common … Read more »

KERCH (formerly Panticapaeum or Bosporus), Crimean city on the Strait of Yenikale, commanding the entrance to the Sea of Azof, 170 km (105.63 miles) east-northeast of Simferopol; Pop. approximately 22.450. The present-day city is … Read more »

Jacques Fosse, merchant in Beaucaire, was gifted with one of those vigorous natures and powerful constitutions to which danger is a spur, and it is therefore not surprising that Fosse has become the major rescuer of southern France and of all places where there’s been dangers to be faced and lives to be saved.
Fosse was ten years old when, for the first time, he gave … Read more »

WAXWING s. Ornith. Name given to a group of birds of the genus cotinga⁽¹⁾, especially remarkable because the tip of the secondary feathers on its wings widens into smooth oval red discs. The Bohemian Waxwing (Ampelis garrulus, Linn.) is a … Read more »

KILKENNY. — I. County in Ireland in the province of Leinster; 2,053 km2 ; pop. 109.310. Its surface is slightly bumpy, with a few hills about 300 m high. The River Nore runs across the county, which is bounded on East and South by rivers Barrow and Suir. Abundance of anthracite of lower quality. Quarry of beautiful black marble near Kilkenny. Various stone pillars of the … Read more »

“What sort of a person do you take me for?”
“What do you mean?”
“If you know anything, why conceal it from me? If you do not know anything, why did you write so warningly?”
“True, true, I was very wrong, and I regret having done so, Raoul. It seems nothing to write to a friend and say ‘Come;’ but to have this friend face to face, to feel him tremble, and breathlessly and anxiously wait to hear what one hardly dare tell him, is very different.”
“Dare! I have courage enough, if … Read more »