The Parakeet — one of several polychrome woodblock copies made in ca. 1900 from works by Itō Jakuchū (1716–1800), a Japanese painter of the mid-Edo period notable for his striking modern aesthetic. More here: buff.ly/2E01bvY

Le Petit Journal des Refusées ran to a grand total of one issue, published in the summer of 1896. At just 16 pages, printed on wallpaper in a trapezoid shape, it purported to have only one condition for inclusion — rejection from a “leading magazine”... publicdomainreview.org/collection/le-…

Laura Tradii spelunks through the artificial grottoes of the Italian Renaissance and their reception abroad, illuminating how these curious spaces transformed across the centuries: publicdomainreview.org/essay/petrifie… #longreads

Within Our Gates (1920) directed by Oscar Micheaux, is the oldest known surviving film made by an African-American director and is a searing account of the US racial situation during the early 20th century. Watch it here: publicdomainreview.org/collection/wit…

These scientific illustrations by Orra Hitchcock (1796–1863) — executed on poster-sized linen swaths and hung on classroom walls — are striking for their modern abstraction. More here in our latest post by Elaine Ayers: publicdomainreview.org/collection/hit…

Richard Jefferies’ After London (1885) is one of the most important early examples of “post-apocalyptic fiction”. The story tells of how London becomes a swampland after an unspecified natural disaster delivers England over to the mercy of nature: bit.ly/1PggnC6

In The Book of the Courtier (1528), Count Ludovico advances his compelling proposal about sprezzatura, which he calls the “one universal rule” concerning graceful behavior: “to practice in everything a certain nonchalance [sprezzatura]” — publicdomainreview.org/collection/bal…

“Likewise was to be seen with Horror, a pretty large Coffin, which was covered with three Dead heads; also a Pyramid and Serpent.” — from a 1764 pamphlet on strange scenes seen in the skies over Prussia: publicdomainreview.org/collection/a-t…

How does one visualize history or chart time? Is it a line, moving forever outward in one direction? Or could it be a tetris-like grid, as proposed by the “Polish System”, which gained widespread popularity during the 19th century... buff.ly/3tkGvUz

Young Florentines in self-isolation, 1349.

From a series of miniatures depicting scenes from Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron, a masterpiece of early Italian prose in which 100 tales are told by a group of young people isolating from the plague: buff.ly/3s9my2x

#OnThisDay in 1889, the Eiffel Tower was opened to the public in Paris. Not to be outdone, London decided to get a new tower of their own and held a competition to design it, with some interesting results! buff.ly/2RyKuji #OTD

A 1915 investigation — engorged with bons mots and brimming with pith — into the destiny of the death mask of Napoleon, who died #onthisday in 1821. publicdomainreview.org/collection/nap… #otd

#OnThisDay in 1821, after more than 5 years in exile on St Helena, #Napoleon died. While imprisoned on the remote island, le petit caporal started learning English. One resident of the island called his English “the oddest in the world”. — buff.ly/3ejYmqe #OTD

#SundayReads : Matthew Green revisits the lost city of Dunwich, a once lively port that was taken by the sea: publicdomainreview.org/essay/the-city…

“On May 5th, at night, after walking for an hour amidst the scenery of the Avon, at this period rendered exquisitely beautiful by bright moonshine; my mind being in a state of agreeable feeling, I respired six quarts of newly prepared nitrous oxide....” buff.ly/3d83wFc

In her essay “Troubled Waters”, Katherine Harvey examines the complex practices of medieval uroscopy — how physicians could divine sexual history, disease, and impending death by studying the body's liquid excretions — publicdomainreview.org/essay/troubled…

The Strange Adventures of a Pebble (1921) 'The purpose of this little book is to present the chief features in the strange story of the pebbles; and so of the larger pebble we call the earth.' By the same author: The Adventures of a Grain of Dust (1922): buff.ly/2HE0E18

Early concept art for the Death Star...

From a 15th-century catalogue of designs for a variety of fantastic and often impossible inventions. More here: buff.ly/3aUGD6K #MayThe4th BeWithYou #MayThe4th

Its dizzy heights may have passed, but the fad for adult coloring books is far from over. Many trace the origins of such publications to the 1960s, but as Melissa N. Morris and Zach Carmichael explore, the existence of such books goes back centuries. buff.ly/2t8WxHU

One of a great series of drawings depicting balloonfish and pufferfish made during the United States Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842. More here: buff.ly/2tkRT99 #fishfriday