finis

Today I finally reached the end of my main summer project of examining the Elzevier collection at U Penn. The librarians even took me out to lunch to celebrate the end of my project. Heck, it's not every day they manage to dislodge an insane reader who has taken the reading room hostage and demanded to see over two thousand books. Now they can all go get some rest! (The final count was actually 2039 books, quite a bit off from the original estimate of 1600 books.)

So since I have a few more days before I have to leave Philadelphia and go back to Princeton, I'm spending a few days at the Rosenbach Library looking at their Elzeviers. Little libraries have their own dubious charms--yesterday I spent over two hours mucking through the Rosenbach's typewritten/handwritten card indexes and getting hand cramps from filling in 50 call slips (25, in duplicate).

Yup, busman's holiday.