Museum Plantin-Moretus
I said in my post, Letterpress Rules OK, that there weren’t that many printing museums in the world.
But in Antwerp, there is the Museum Plantin-Moretus.
Museum Plantin-Moretus
The actual museum and contents are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
They have a large collection of machines, type and all the other things that proper printing entails. For example, they explain how printers in the 16th and 17th centuries actually made the movable type.
Museum Plantin-Moretus - Printing Machine
Note the virtually all wooden construction.
Museum Plantin-Moretus - More Printing Machines
There were six machines in the room. They were displayed down one wall with desks for the compositors on the other side of the room.
The building itself is immaculate with a vast collection of old books, maps and paintings, including a Gutenburg Bible and several portraits by Rubens.
Museum Plantin-Moretus - The Garden
It is a museum that is well worth a visit. Allow more time than we did, as the staff were rather hasty in chucking us out.
The Meridian Line in Naples
Naples has two of the best museums in the world, let alone Italy. In fact the collection of paintings in the Museo di Capodimonte is considered to be the second best in Italy after the Uffizzi in Florence. But the National Archaeological Museum is to me the more interesting, as I prefer my sculpture to my painting.
Sometimes, in Italy I think that if I’ve seen one Madonna and Child, I’ve seen a hundred. Or perhaps even a thousand.
But the sculptures are stunning. Most are from the Farnese Collection and have been on display in Naples for around 200 years.
The Farnese Bull
The museum is also unusual in that it has a Meridian Line, which shows midday, the seasons and the signs of the Zodiac.
Meridian Line, Naples
It’s accurate too, as this picture with my mobile phone shows. You can just see the time. I would have used a watch, but I wasn’t wearing it after the previous incident.
Meridian Line at Midday
The phone is a legendary Nokia 6310i and is about seven or eight years old. It was in my pocket when I was attacked and doesn’t seemed to have suffered. It’s still on the original battery.
The Anonymous Widower 