Grotesque faces

"Vir perfecte pietatis "

It's been a busy time here in the Chancery Hill neighborhood, as I've been cataloguing a few hundred books for someone else, rather than for me. This work has caused me, among other things, to think more seriously about cataloguing my own collections, as well as about the very nature of cataloguing as an activity, as a way of describing and interpreting. 

It is also an act of learning, and of the transmission of learning, in many ways. Certainly, I've learned much about many books in doing this work, with all the enjoyment and frustration that goes with that.

But today, as a kind of "Shelfie Wednesday" treat, I thought I'd share something else that give me a bit of joy today: a manuscript fragment I recently purchased. This one had been recycled as the wrapper for a legal document in 1731, though it seems to have long been separated from that document, now. 

But I couldn't help but laugh when I saw the two grotesque faces adorning this capital "U" from the word "Uir,'' ("man").  With their tongues out (colored in red, no less!), and their silly hats, and their unpleasant expressions, they rather made my day. "A man of perfect piety," hardly seems to describe either one.

Here's a bit more of the context: