Brooke-Hitching Edward, The madman's library: the greatest publishing curiosities

Brooke-Hitching Edward, The Madman's Library: the greatest publishing curiosities, Rebis Publishing, Poznan 2020, p. 255, [1], dimensions 19.5 x 25.5 cm. Illustrations in the text. Publisher's hardcover.

Deadly books.

Books written in blood and bound in human skin.

Books so long they could annihilate the universe.

This amazing new work by the author of the acclaimed trilogy 'Atlas of the Netherworlds,' 'The Golden Atlas' and 'Atlas of the Sky' is a unique, beautifully illustrated journey through literary history. Edward Brooke-Hitching ventures into its darkest corners, hunting down the strangest publications, and uncovers the fascinating background of their creation.

Here we find a veritable madman's library, a collection of eccentric volumes, often completely forgotten. Books written in blood; bound in human skin; crazy works; items that deceived the whole world; editions invisible to the naked eye and larger than a man; printed on the rough seas and icy wastes of Antarctica; books of codes and ciphers, the secrets of which have still not been discovered. The author has tracked down many manifestations of imaginable strangeness (as well as that which is incomprehensible) - such as a magnificently illuminated 15th-century description of the trial of Jesus by Satan or lost dramas by Shakespeare and books of the Bible - and tied them together into a one-of-a-kind collection, a spiritual feast for any lover of literature.

The above description is from the publisher.