James Metcalf on the fictionality of the latest archaeological page-turners
Stephen Puddicombe looks at the unusual appeal of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot
Ciaran Rafferty investigates the science of book classification
Lost paintings, legendary seducers, and literary sculptures … what’s not to love for all you culture vultures this week?
Fashioned from fiction, an anonymous maker has been leaving their creative sculptures in literary locations all around Scotland. Dubbed the Library Phantom, their creator tells a story of the importance of literature and libraries. The first of the ten sculptures, a paper egg containing words to A Trace of Wings by Edwin Morgan, was found in March, in the Scottish poetry library. It reads ‘we know that a library is so much more than a building full of books … a book is so much more than pages full of words… This is for you in support of libraries, books, words, ideas.’ And the Writers Museum and The Scottish Storytelling Centre were among the venues to follow in the library’s footsteps. Seeming to favour Ian Rankin’s novels, the author of these wonderful creations really has captured the imagination.
Cut from the cloth of the page, these creations transfigure books into enchanting dragons and trees; even the individual feathers of a bird’s wings. A roaring dinosaur was whittled from the pages of Arthur Conan Doyle’s exhilarating The Lost World. And the last of the creations, a bird, carries a note which signs off ‘it’s important that a story is not too long … does not become tedious…’ This is a loving tribute to the bodies of books as real, physical artefacts to treasure, and to the just as significant spaces that hoard them.
Considered to be one of his finest works, Leonardo da Vinci’s The Battle of Anghiari, an incomplete painting, has been lost for over 450 years. Maurizio Seracini, an art researcher, found himself caught up in the thrill of uncovering the lost da Vinci. Last week, radar technology revealed a cavity behind a fresco in Florence that could solve the mystery. And traces of original pigment have actually been found on the cavity’s back wall. The catch? That wall being drilled through actually features its own, C16th work of art – The Battle of Marciano by Giorgio Vasari, thus angering art historians. Alessandra Mottola Molfini, the Italian Nostra President, has argued that there would have been little sense in Vasari sealing up the work, pointing to Seracini’s ‘childish Dan Brown logic.’
The Week in Culture takes a hop over the Channel to recommend a new exhibition on the legendary seducer’s story. Sold for a record-breaking 6.2 million, the original, eighteenth-century manuscript of his memoirs takes centre-stage for the first time in Casanova: The Passion for Freedom, at the National Library of France. Ooh la la. His name being shorthand for seduction, the writer set his accounts of passion to paper, spilling the beans on his illicit encounters. Colourfully written, Casanova’s life and exploits are dashed across the pages of ten volumes.
Vexed by vol-au-vents? Had it up to here with bits of pineapple and cheese on a silly stick? Pippa Middleton, professional party planner, bridesmaid extraordinaire, and now author, has the answers to all your hosting questions. Signing a book deal with a publisher for a reported £400,000, Pippa’s guide to party planning, How to Be the Perfect Party Hostess, is set to be released next Christmas. Spiffing.
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