The bottom shelves of bookcases are for art books, because they’re big and heavy and stabilize everything. Partly due to their position and role they don’t get changed out or disturbed too much; they age in peace. Open them, and what the print arts could accomplish still amazes and still works. Pages to get lost in. . .

The aqueduct Lionel encounters outside Spoleto in the penultimate installment over at The Last Man blog, appears in a beautiful book that belonged to my late parents, who bought it for $10 many years ago. It’s one of a series featuring photographs and texts by Swiss publisher Martin Hürlimann (1897-1984). The home page image atop The Last Man blog is a view of Pavia from the same book, simply called called Italy, an American edition of the Thames and Hudson original from 1953. Ravenna, which Lionel visits, is in there; so is Pisa, where Mary and Percy Shelley lived for a time.