Comments on: wooden library

wooden library

dhruva — Wed, 09 Nov 2005 23:08:23 -0800

A xylothek is literally a library of wood, a collection of book-like boxes made from trees--the wood and bark with the seeds, leaves, flowers, fruit--or illustrations of the soft parts (site in German), inside.

By: Smedleyman

Smedleyman — Wed, 09 Nov 2005 23:11:14 -0800

I wonder what it smells like.

By: Sticherbeast

Sticherbeast — Wed, 09 Nov 2005 23:31:24 -0800

A xylothek Just knowing this word makes you win Scrabble.

By: wakko

wakko — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 00:04:23 -0800

it's all overwhelming me, oak and elming me...

By: Cranberry

Cranberry — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 00:08:41 -0800

I pine for it, don't yew? Nice find.

By: adamvasco

adamvasco — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 01:52:36 -0800

Nice one dhruva. I find it extraordinary that there seem to be no xylotheks in an english language country, and very few in any other countries. Wood was the major resource for centuries and knowledge of this resource was certainly collected. However it seems only the Germans specialised in this. Ain't life a beech.

By: planetkyoto

planetkyoto — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 02:10:45 -0800

This is a very lovely amalgam of science and art. Something I've never heard about. Thanks.

By: iconomy

iconomy — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 02:14:41 -0800

Wonderful find, dhruva! I wonder if I could make one...

By: twistedonion

twistedonion — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 02:18:16 -0800

That's beautiful, had never heard of such a thing before - thanks dhruva!

By: Frasermoo

Frasermoo — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 03:39:26 -0800

Very interesting. Good post.

By: peacay

peacay — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 04:51:36 -0800

Great post as usual. Thanks dhruva.

By: OmieWise

OmieWise — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 05:22:00 -0800

Fabulous post. I'd never heard of a xylothek before and now I can think of nothing else.

By: wendyfairy

wendyfairy — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 05:45:00 -0800

There's a whole section of these at the Strahov Monastery here in Prague. Thank you for providing a name for them and placing them in a larger context.

By: Pollomacho

Pollomacho — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 06:13:29 -0800

There is a section of the Field Museum (or at least there used to be) of thousands of samples of seeds, leaves and a plank made from the wood of various trees and woody plants. Among the samples was a narrow plank of some of the most beautiful wood grain, the plant species? Poison ivy.

By: misteraitch

misteraitch — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 06:24:36 -0800

Thanks drhuva for these fascinating links. This page has a list of European xylotheks: sadly, many of the links are broken. Searching on xiloteca brought up some more prosaic (although still interesting) wood-collections in Italy, Spain, Brazil, Venezuela, ...

By: fungible

fungible — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 06:26:26 -0800

Metafilter: You learn something new every day.

By: gwint

gwint — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 06:59:33 -0800

Wonderful! Somehow seems as much Tolkien as it does Linnaeus.

By: loquacious

loquacious — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 07:00:06 -0800

[This is good] Thanks, dhruva.

By: taz

taz — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 07:34:52 -0800

Very wonderful post, dhruva. (it kicks Ash - maybe the most Poplar post today!)

By: mrs.pants

mrs.pants — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 07:55:26 -0800

This is why I love it here! Thanks so much!

By: vacapinta

vacapinta — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 08:12:45 -0800

Awesome. thanks!

By: Divine_Wino

Divine_Wino — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 09:02:15 -0800

So great, thanks.

By: arcticwoman

arcticwoman — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 09:04:08 -0800

Beautiful!

By: safetyfork

safetyfork — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 09:43:41 -0800

Ser gut!!! Vielen Dank.

By: dhruva

dhruva — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 15:39:01 -0800

Searching on xiloteca damn, I searched with three variant spellings, but not that one. :)

By: LeeJay

LeeJay — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 16:49:13 -0800

These are gorgeous! Great post, dhruva.

By: livii

livii — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 18:11:51 -0800

Wow, that's fantastic - thanks, dhruva!

By: adamvasco

adamvasco — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 00:25:27 -0800

Manuel Soler states that the official xilotheque with a largest number of samples is the SAMUEL JAMES RECORD COLLECTION of the Forestry School of the Yale University in New Haven (Connecticut, USA) with 60,000 samples. - Though I think this just a "wood" collection rather than boxes with related content.

By: melissa may

melissa may — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 13:14:52 -0800

Ah, dhruva, if I lived here, I would fill a shelf with these. I love, love, love this link. Thank you!

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Wed, 16 Nov 2005 11:56:49 -0800

What a treat dhruva! Thanks for the interesting links. So fun to discover trees, wood, books, science, art and surprising whimsy all intertwined. For anyone who enjoys wood textures and the poetry of exotic wood names like Cocobolo, Pink Ivory, Sapele, African Olive, Bocote, Tigerwood, Leopardwood...