Portal:Literature/Did you know/Week 32

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... that the Bonfire of the Vanities in 1497, preached by Girolamo Savonarola, consumed pornography, lewd pictures, pagan books, gaming tables, cosmetics, copies of Boccaccio's Decameron, and all the works of Ovid which could be found in Florence?

... that in the novel The Rule of Four two students are trying to solve the mystery contained within an extremely rare, beautifully decorated and very mysterious (real) book — the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili?

... that an incunabulum (pictured) is a book, single sheet, or image that was printed — not handwritten — before the year 1501 in Europe?

... that bibliophilia is the love of books, not a reference to the Bible?

... that the early libraries located in monastic cloisters and associated with scriptoria were collections of lecterns with books chained to them?

... that the Haskell Free Library and Opera House is sometimes called "The only library in America with no books"?

... that novelty, improvisation, self-expression, and blinding inspiration are not neoclassical virtues; neoclassicism exhibits perfect control of an idiom?