Upcoming Friends of the Library event - a woven Book of Hours

Early computer science applied to weaving in silk

A Friends of the Library Discovery Event

Don’t miss the presentation and display of this amazing book artifact from the Barr Smith Library.

For the 1889 Paris Exposition Universelle world fair, bookseller and publisher A. Roux of Lyon, entered his award winning Livre de Prières tissé d'après les enluminures des manuscrits du XIVe au XVI siecle. This is no ordinary book - it was fabricated from silk threads woven on a Jacquard Loom . The Jacquard Loom, patented by Joseph Marie Jacquard in 1804, used the concept of punched cards to control the weaving operation. Considered an important step in the history of computing, it is known to have inspired Charles Babbage 's Analytical Engine .