Trash or Treasure?

When you have a look at the first photo, you probably won't be very impressed. What on earth is that tatty ratty looking old thing, I hear you ask? Well, it is a book cover, the front bit of it, the back was probably lost ages ago. Now, if you don't like ephemera, you won't be too impressed with whats under the cover either, lol, but ephemera lovers will realise why I am so excited about this. At least I hope so, I sure fell in love with it.


On the inside cover, I found this beautiful old seal -


And this page will give away the reason why I love this so much -



All you need to do is translate the Roman numerals ................

Done it yet? Lol, if you don't know Roman numerals, let me tell you that they translate to.......
1713!!! Yep, this is a wonderful old Italian book, just about 300 years old. The typescript is absolutely gorgeous, the printers graphics delightful, and the paper just feels amazing. The author is one Carlo Gregorio Rosignoli, who lived from 1631 to 1707. How I wish I spoke Italian! I would love to be able to read this.



The book is a wreck, no back, no spine, coming apart in sections, and a little bit of water damage to the pages, but heck, it is 300 years old! And just look at the wonderful printing! I am smitten.
The good thing about buying a wreck is that I don't feel too guilty about taking pages and using them. I think of it as giving a new and interesting life to something which would have probably ended up being thrown away one of these days.




I wish you could see the paper properly in the pics, but I couldn't get a good close up of it. The colour of the pages is gorgeous and you can see so many little bits of fibre in the paper. You just can't describe the feel of it.

There you go, doesn't take much to make me happy, lol, just a few tattered pages, and I am blissfully happy. I might take some pages and put them in an ephemera bundle for my Etsy shop if anybody else is interested in these. Maybe.

Tomorrow is Pink Saturday, and I have something perfectly pink and totally gorgeous to show you. Until then, toodlepip xxx