Iconic books are texts revered as objects of power rather than just as words of instruction, information, or insight. In religious and secular rituals around the globe, people carry, show, wave, touch and kiss books and other texts, as well as read them. This blog chronicles such events and activities. (For more about iconic books, see the links to the Iconic Books Project at left.)

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Books in French presidential portraiture

Thanks to Dan Visal on if:book for reproducing the Times Literary Supplement's one-paragraph historical survey of the use of books in the official portraits of French Presidents. The topic was stimulated by Nicolas Sarkozy's decision to have himself portrayed in a library full of leather-bound volumes (a pose favored also by many American lawyers).

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