I am occasionally, maybe often…ok lots…on the lookout for interesting books. I noticed that this morning’s email from Abebooks featured an old favourite. Last year, or maybe the year before, the State Library hosted an exhibition that included some really old books including an interesting work called “Le relationi vniversali di Giovanni Botero Benese” by Giovanni Botero. The book was open at a page with an unusual drawing, some of which the Library has digitised.

At the time I hunted around for a copy but no luck. In my quest for books, I’m not necessarily interested in first editions (though can be sometimes) but simply having any edition of an interesting work is sufficient. Facsimiles, such as my copy of The Voynich Manuscript, are certainly weclome. The book happened to pop up again today so I ran some searches and found that there were a couple of copies of the original available, though at £2,750.00, it was a little beyond my reach :-)

However, it turns out that a facsimile was published in 2010, with a European and a US edition and a much more respectable, and affordable price. I am a wee bit tempted.