book note : library crime and punishment

A sixteenth-century sign, posted in the Biblioteca de Salamanca in Spain, threatens excommunication to anyone stealing a book from the premises. seen here (PDF)

The text :

Hai excomunion reservada a su santidad contra qualesquiera personas, que quitaren, distraxeren, o de otro qualquier modo enagenaren algun libro, pergamino o papel de esta biblioteca, sin que puedan ser absueltas hasta que esta esté perfectamente reintegrada.

In English :

There is excommunication reserved to his holiness against any person who takes, loses, or other any way alienates any book, parchment or paper from this library, they can not be absolved until it is fully repaid.

On 14 November 1568 Pope Pius V established a decree excommunicating book thieves leading to this sign. (almost related - Seinfeld s3e22 The Library)

The sign in context

What a marvelous looking library :

Erasing the Past - Mohammed Statue

(Erasing the past is a continuing series; see previously part 1 and part 2)

Sculpture of Mohammed in turban with curved sword in hand atop the New York Supreme Court Appellate Division, First Department in Manhattan  Courthouse c 1903

from the nonsearchable, crookedly scanned PDF from NYCourts.gov

When the Courthouse opened [it opened in 1900 and with the statues in 1901], a statue of Mohammed (580-632AD, representing Islamic Law, by Charles Albert Lopez, stood on the westernmost point of the roof facing 25th Street, where Zoroster is now positioned. In 1955, ;at the request of the governments of Egypt Pakistan, and Indonesia, the statue of Mohammed was removed and destroyed, since images of him are prohibited under Muslim Law. The statues that previously had stood to his left were each moved over one place, leaving an empty pedestal on the easternmost point.

The statue was destroyed! What a terrible waste of taxpayer dollars. 

 New York Supreme Court Appellate Division, First Department in Manhattan after the removal and destruction.

 New York Supreme Court Appellate Division, First Department in Manhattan before the removal circa 1903 (image from the Library of Congress).

Added : the muslim's objection is generally iconoclastic, that depictions of gods leads to the worshiping of the idols rather than the deity, so one has to wonder if people were worshiping the statue from the sidewalk? 

Preserve history! No, not that history.

Clip from Secrets of Althorp - The Spencers (2013) :

Narrator : What you see now is an illusion designed to look like grey brick. The exterior is made up of 106,000 thin clay tiles, called mathematical tiles. But centuries of wet English weather wreaked havoc with this outer shell
…
Jan Bialek (Althorp Building Manager) : Originally, the mathematical tiles were fixed on a quite think lime mortar bed. And then iron nails would be fixed through the holes that are in there and the nails went through the lime mortar and into the red brick. The problem with the nails is that they are iron nails and they rust. And there's no secure fixing to the tiles. So the tiles are gradually coming loose and moving away
Narrator : The Earl embarked on a massive renovation project . A new lead roof and secure fixings for every tile on the walls.
Jan Bialek (Althorp Building Manager) : one or two people have asked "well, why didn't you restore it back to its original red brick?" Physically, it couldn't be done because the red brick was damaged behind.
Narrator : And there was another problem. Althorp's historical importance means that the house is protected by England's strict national heritage rules and regulations. The Earl would not have been allowed to strip the unique façade away from the building. …

"We must preserve history! But no, not that history." I suspect it is less about an interest in history and more about a dislike of change or a need for someone to boss people around.

(to whoever might be interested , the clip continues and explains how they fixed the mathematical tiles in place)

Like a ship in the sky

The KK100 in Shenzhen, China looks like the Titanic sinking. It's like a ship in the sky … which has sunk and  embedded into the earth.

A Nazi Corn Palace?

click to embiggen

The Corn Palace of Mitchell, South Dakota in 1905 with a swastika on the front. A Nazi Corn Palace? It does have a swastika on the front but the photo is from 1905. So it is a non-nazi swastika.

The Corn Palace is a building decorated with ears of corn all over the exterior. "WTF" you say? I was there once as a kid and that was my thoughts exactly.