European civilization is built on ham and cheese, which allowed protein to be stored throughout the icy winters.
Without this, urban societies in most of central Europe would simply not have been possible.
This is also why we have hardback books. Here's why. 1/
Incunabula
18.6K posts
Bibliophile.
The history of writing and of the book - across ALL cultures, from cuneiform ๐ to scroll ๐ to codex ๐ to Kindle.
- The Tripitaka Koreana - carved on 81258 woodblocks in the 13th century - is the most successful large data transfer over time yet achieved by humankind. 52 million characters of information, transmitted over nearly 8 centuries with zero data loss - an unequalled achievement. 1/
- The guy who built this in 1347 on the banks of the River Isle in Perigeaux was like dude, I am NEVER gonna get flooded again.
- The Finnish word "kalsarikรคnni" means โdrinking alone, at home, in your underwearโ. The Finnish Tourism Agency has released two emojis for the word.
- Roald Dahl - 2001 authorized Puffin edition vs 2022 authorized Puffin edition. telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/02/1โฆ
- Lunch in the middle of nowhere, at the end of a dirt track off a rural road near Thรฉnac. The restaurant has been operated by the Mouthier family for nearly 40 years, and was packed. 5 courses with 5 wines, for โฌ49 all inclusive. That's not 5 glasses, that's 5 bottles of wine...
- Reports from Rio are of the total destruction of the museum and the loss of upwards of 20 million items. This is the Brazilian equivalent of the British Museum or the Louvre. There are simply no words for a tragedy like this.
- A heartstoppingly beautiful 15th century Timurid Qur'an copied on Ming Dynasty gold-painted colored paper, is coming up for auction @ChristiesInc in London on 25th July. Estimate $780 000 - $1.2m. Only four other similar Qur'ans written on Chinese paper like this are known. 1/2
- Replying to @incunabulaUltimately, the hardback book exists because of cheese. 4/
- Replying to @incunabulaThere's no fixed way to calculate this, but 52 million carved Chinese characters is around two gigabytes of information. So the Tripitaka Koreana has transmitted two gigabytes of data over nearly 8 centuries with no corruption or loss: nothing else created by man comes close. 8/























