In praise of Moe's Books in Berkeley

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I've just returned from a quick Thanksgiving jaunt to Berkeley, loaded, as usual with books. Berkeley has seen the sad demise of two independent bookstores, but Moe's Books on Telegraph keeps on thriving: thank goodness! I always comb the stacks in the European history section. Here's what I came away with this time:

Life in the French Country House, by Mark Girouard. This is a delicious art book filled with beautiful old illustrations. A delight.

The Dirt on Clean; An Unsanitized History, by Katherine Ashenburg.

The Devils of Loudun by Aldous Huxley. I own this book in my Ontario library, but I thought it would be worthwhile to have it in my Mexico library, as well. 


The Remarkable Life of Don Diego; being the autobiography of Diego de Torres Villarroel, translated from the Spanish by William C. Atkinson. This is a treasure of a book, a Folio Society edition published in 1958, with etchings and a swirly ink cover. It's an early 18th autobiography, and not French, yet there is a great deal to be learned from accounts of the period. Every page is rich in expression. 

Vermeer's Hat; The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World, by Timothy Brook.

Malleus Malefícarum; The Hammer of Witchcraft, translated by Montague Summers. Another Folio Society treasure! This "how-to" text was first published in 1486, and is considered the most important work on demonology ever written.

As well, in the San Francisco MOMA, I picked up a gorgeous little Taschen on sale: Alchemy & Mysticism by Alexander Roob. Like all Taschen books, it has gorgeous illustrations. I'm amused by the blurb from the NYTBR on the back: "...a fast-food, high-energy fix on the topic at hand." 




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Internet enchantment

I'd stumbled onto the British Library's "Treasures in Full" site yesterday, seeking information on 17th century staging. (Links to the articles I found are on the left, under Baroque theater.) Coincidently, Sandra Taylor on the Louis XIV Yahoo list mentioned the same site today, but called my attention to specific festival books published for the court of the Sun King.  I went back and did a search, typing XIV into the searchbox, which revealed links to a number of Louis XIV festival books. Wonderful!

This one, of the L'Isle enchantée festival at Versailles the week of May 7, 1664 is my favorite. You can turn the pages to see one beautiful illustration after another.

Saint Fiacre: the patron saint of taxi drivers and gardeners

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Karen Newman's recent post, "Coach: Status Symbol" on the wonderful Wonders & Marvels site reminded me of something I'd read in A JOURNEY TO PARIS IN THE YEAR 1698 by Martin Lister.

Here is the passage (with changes made for readability):

To begin with the coaches, which are very numerous here, and very fine in gilding: there are but few, and those only of the great nobility, which are large, and have two seats or funds. But what they want in the size, beauty, and neatness of ours in London, they have infinitely in the easiness of carriage, and ready turning in the narrowest streets.


For this purpose, they are all crane-necked, and the front wheels are very low — not more than two feet and a half in diameter — which makes them easy to get into, and brings the coach-box down low, so that you have a much better view out the foremost glass (our high-seated coachmen being ever in the point of view).


Also, most coaches — even fiacres or hackneys — are hung with double springs at the four corners, which breaks all jolts. After having used the Paris coaches for four months, I  rode in the chariot of my Lord, which came from England. Every jolt could be felt, so one was more tired in one hour in that coach, than in six in the others.

Interesting! (There is so much in this book, I'm tempted to transcribe—and translate into modern English—the entire thing.)

Note: A fiacre is a small hackney coach (see illustration above). In 1640, Nicholas Sauvage, who hired out hackney coaches, lived at the Hotel St. Fiacre in the Rue St Martin, in Paris. (Now 223 rue St Martin in the Marais, according to this post.)

As well as being the patron saint of gardeners, Saint Fiacre is now the saint of taxi drivers.

In the 17th century, there was a revival of his fame, and pilgrims came to the chapel where he was buried, traveling by hired coaches known as fiacres. The first taxi stand in Paris was said to be near the Hotel St. Fiacre, and today Paris taxis are still known as fiacres.

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Website: http://www.sandragulland.com/

Blog: http://sandragulland.blogspot.com/

Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/3xzbgv

Twitter: http://twitter.com/Sandra_Gulland