This publication is made for the themed week dedicated to books and everything connected with them.

I'll start with a story about how different and unusual books can be.

A miniature song book and a prayer book in the shape of a heart.

Probably, this form shape was supposed to symbolize the heartfelt commintment of the owner of the book to God.

Another book with an unusual shape and a small size (its diameter is only 6 inches, approximately 15 cm) — Codex Rotundus. This is a 266-pages hour book, decorated with miniatures. A surprisingly hard work!

Of course, portable libraries were made for small books, such as in these photos.

There were also special tools for transfer of books of different sizes by one not to spoil them, because in the Middle Ages books were very expensive.

Some medieval manuscripts contain funny unusual patterns.

For example, the "Love Songs" manuscript of the 15th century is a unique collection of love songs with notes and miniatures:

The so-called Voynich manuscript is famous not only for its unyielding to any cryptographer cipher, but also for wonderful illustrations and an unusual format.

But such books (the Gospels in pictures) were used by missionaries to preach the Christian faith to the Indians:

The manuscript of the 9th century, kept in the British Museum. This is a book on astronomy with the images of 22 constellations, where the bodies depicting their animals are made of text:

Sometimes there was a special appendix in a book with which you could determine the position of the Moon, the Sun or, say, the date of Easter.

And this is a tutorial on handcraft which could help little seamstress to master the art of sewing:

And sometimes the book form was used for other items. For example, the pocket watches became so popular that people started to make them in a book form.

And some people even hid there... No, not money, as you might naively think, but... poisons!

That's all for now. Goodbye, and stay tuned in my blog!