by Aidil Yassin bin Mohamad Faisal
Tibère, Discours Politiques sur Tacite is a 342-year-old French leather-bound hardcover book edited by du Sieur de la Mothe-Josseval, d’Aronsel, later revealed as the pseudonym of Abraham-Nicolas Amelot de la Houssaye 3 years after its publication.
Upon observation on the exterior, the binding is likely to be leather with gold-tooling on the spine. Gold-tooling is a historical practice providing a touch of elegance and represents a high level of craftsmanship due to its intense attention to detail. On the spine, the book details are displayed on a sticker, and the letters have been letterpress printed, one of the oldest traditional printing techniques. Additionally, there are post-it flags serving as a modern addition to an old book, suggesting a recent reader has been actively referencing the text.
In the book, the paper is printed. On the first page, there is a name and year written on the top right, “Frederic … Wittgenstein acheté à Marbourg 1786”. It is most likely an indication of their ownership of the book. The other annotations on that page present a bunch of numbers, assuming to be its storage numbers. The ink colour and the handwriting of both annotations are different from each other, suggesting they were not written by the same person.
For the title page, someone has cancelled out the author’s name letter by letter, and written an annotation underneath it. This is most likely a deciphering method, where the reader is trying to figure out the author’s real name; from a pseudonym “De La Mothe-Josseval” to “De La Houssaie/Houssaye”. The handwriting is different from the one on the first page, suggesting Frederic did not decipher it.
Moving on to the post-it flags, someone has written page numbers on it, like for page 377 of the book, they wrote “p.377”. What is interesting, though, is what the flags represent. This book has lived through centuries, yet it is still interacted with in modern ways. The flags’ presence suggests that someone in the 20th to 21st century was engaging with it; the book was never just for decorative or storage value, it has become a functional object for readers in our time.
Then, there are these beautiful dried flowers serving as bookmarks on some of the pages; indicating a sentimental value for the reader who has placed them. Flowers, generally, are seen as symbols of beauty. In this way, it shows love, care, and appreciation for the book that has surpassed through many centuries. A few of its flowers even have a piece of paper attached onto it with handwritten texts. It could be the reader’s interpretations of certain book passages.
Overall, this book presents itself as not just something of an artifact, but a bridge between different centuries of readers. The annotations give us different information and might come from different times, yet they coexist in the same book, showing how books are continuously engaged with.