In 1453 when Constantinople became Istanbul, marbled papers started to become more popular in the western world.
100 years later, students at German universities collected autographs of their friends and professors in books called Album Amicorum. The pages of these little books were hand marbled in subtle colours allowing the signatures to show. The marbled papers were collected and traded among the students, and then sent off to the book binder to be assembled into the Album Amicorum.
Here's an antique autograph book known as "Das Grosse Stammbuch" of Philipp Hainhofer, a man who used his connections as a clothier to various princes.
He kept busy working as a diplomat (spy) during the Thirty Years War.
Phil put this together between 1596 and 1633:
Someone picked it up recently up at Christies Auctioneers for $2,368,000.00
The photo above belongs to Christies, of course.
Before now, customs and habits lived on longer
and were passed down to succeeding generations.
550 years later, you could walk into a Five & Dime store and get this:
Now we have Facebook.
