Library Blogs

Around 1511, the Dutch Catholic humanist, Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466-1536), began working on an edition and Latin translation of the Greek New Testament, for which he thoroughly compared the text of several Greek manuscripts with Jerome's fourth-century Latin translation of the Bible, the so-called Vulgate.

This Wednesday's watermark feature: grape motifs in watermarked papers from our Islamic Manuscripts Collection.

This unusual historical novel tells the story of the 17th century painter Artemisia Gentileschi, one of the first women to have a successful career as an artist. The author intersperses Artemisia's story with her own experiences in Florence during World War II, and creates a dialogue between herself and Artemisia.

The Janice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archive (JBLCA) at the University of Michigan Special Collections Library documents American culinary history, defined broadly to include both influences upon American foodways and the influence of American culinary practices elsewhere. The recent acquisition of a small cookbook collection formerly belonging to Colonel Karnig “Carl” Mahakian (1926-2015) contributes to JBLCA's strength in immigrant culinary traditions and charity cookbooks.

Have you noticed more people than usual walking around town while looking at their phones? This is thanks to last week’s U.S. release of Pokémon Go. Pokémon Go is currently the most-popular augmented reality (AR) game available on Apple and Android mobile devices, and it’s getting people to go outside and get active.

In this mystery set in ancient Rome, private informer Flavia Albia is called to the scene when a dead body is found in a chest which is being put up for auction. At the same time, she helps the man she loves, Manlius Faustus, with his friend's political campaign. When a second body turns up in the chest, she realizes there might be a connection between the murders and the election.

We have several new games in the CVGA (and yes, Overwatch is among them).
Since we got several new dance games, we thought we'd highlight them here for your viewing pleasure. If you haven't gotten a chance to try out a dance game, now you have four additional choices to choose from and get started!

In the third of Steven Saylor's series of novels set in the ancient world, Roman detective Gordianus the Finder receives a message saying his former tutor, now living in Ephesus, is in great danger. He travels to Ephesus and discovers a plot by King Mithridates to kill all the Romans in the kingdom. Will Gordianus prevent the massacre from taking place?

Murder in Passy is part of a long-running mystery series set in Paris in the 1990s, featuring private detective Aimée Leduc. When Aimée's mentor becomes the prime suspect in the murder of his Basque girlfriend, her investigation leads her into the world of Basque terrorists and a kidnapped Spanish princess.

“Beauty and the Beast” is one of the most popular and frequently republished fairy tales. While it has roots and antecedents in animal groom folklore and classical mythology, such as the tale of Cupid and Psyche, the specific characters and narrative elements that compose the tale we know as “Beauty and the Beast” have their origin in the literary fairy tale “La Belle et la Běte” written in 1740 by Madame Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve.