Tag: Castalia Library

The Man Who Loved His City

A lovely little essay on Niccolo Machiavelli and his love for his native city of Florence:

The tradition of political realism has a reputation for being pessimistic—that is, for seeing and expecting the worst from the world, its individuals, and its states. Yet, despite all his realism, Niccolò Machiavelli was a romantic about his city. He famously said in a letter to his friend, diplomat Francesco Vettori, “I love my city more than my own soul.”

In 1512, the Medici retook Florence from Piero Soderini, and removed Machiavelli from his diplomatic position. The following year, they accused him of conspiring against them and tortured him for three weeks. After this, Machiavelli retired to his family home in Sant’Andrea, and never ceased to lament his “great and continued malignity of fortune” of not being able to contribute to his city’s administration.

Exiled from praxis, Machiavelli theorised about politics. He wrote two historical works—Discourses on Livy and Florentine Histories—to speak to the ways in which he thought that the Italy of his day should aspire to the glory of ancient Rome and the ways in which it failed to do so. He never rejected his being a modern man, and he did not believe that Renaissance Italy could imitate ancient Rome in all respects. However, he pushed his fellow citizens to take inspiration from it and to consider carefully that they share something with their past: it’s not “as if heaven, sun, elements, and men had varied in motion, order, and power from what they were in antiquity.”

In what you may rightly suspect to be closely related news, Castalia Library has announced the April-May-June book for the History subscription.

DISCUSS ON SG

Defectus Eclipsus

The mystery of phantom time continues as TEMPUS OCCULTUM is now up to Episode 14.

The door of the observatory creaked open, and I started, hastily covering Brother Clemens’s manuscript with a star chart. But it was the old astronomer himself who entered, looking unsurprised to find me there.

“I thought I might find you here,” he said, closing the door behind him. “Your meeting with our visitor from Rome has concluded, I see.”

“Yes,” I replied, my voice tight with excitement and anxiety. “Brother Clemens, I’ve been comparing your calculations with a reference provided by Doctor Visconti, and I’ve found—”

“Discrepancies,” he finished for me, sinking onto a stool with a sigh. “Yes, I imagined you would.”

“Then you’ve known? About the falsified eclipse records, the impossible comet appearances?”

He nodded slowly. “For many years, Brother Lukas. But knowing and proving are different matters. And proving and revealing different still.”

“But this is extraordinary evidence!” I exclaimed, gesturing to the open books. “If Halley’s Comet appeared in 530 and again in 684, with only 154 years between—”

“Then the chronology is compressed,” Clemens said, “and the missing years must lie somewhere in that interval. Yes, I reached the same conclusion decades ago.”

“Why did you never publish your findings? This overturns our entire understanding of medieval history!”

The old man’s expression was a mixture of resignation and suppressed excitement. “Publication requires approval, Brother Lukas. And such approval would never be granted for work that undermines the established chronology. Men like Visconti ensure that.”

“The guardians of true time,” I murmured.

“They have many names throughout history,” Clemens replied. “But their purpose remains constant: to maintain the fiction, to guard the secret that time itself has been manipulated.”

Also, there is a sneak preview of the stamp design for one of the two volumes of the Castalia Library edition of A SEA OF SKULLS.

DISCUSS ON SG

The Books Must Flow

First thing: the new Castalia Library book for March-April 2025 has been announced.

Second thing: DRACULA is being bound. SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON and ASOS 1 and ASOS 2 are being printed. We’ll keep you posted on when they’ve a) been approved and b) are ready to ship.

Third thing: We’ve finally completed the move from the second bindery space to the third one. This was absolutely necessary because the 50-ton foil stamper did not fit in the building. We are now testing our third and fourth glues, and we are optimistic that one of them will be the right one.

Fourth thing: We know we’ve built up a backlog, but we’re not quite as behind schedule as it seems because most of the interiors and the designs are done. We’ve delayed getting them made because we want to know what the full range of our bindery options are, as there were benefits and problems to each of them, even before the new tariffs became a potential issue. The point is, don’t worry, we will catch up fast once all of the necessary details are nailed down.

Fifth thing: The fancy-dancy HYPERGAMOUSE cover proof will arrive on Friday. Once it’s approved, the paperback, hardcover, variants, and book blocks will be printed.

Sixth thing: We’re close enough that we’ve started putting together the interior of THE ILIAD. It’s going to be an original layout with illustrations leading every chapter. It promises to be spectacular. More about it later this week on the Library substack.

DISCUSS ON SG

Ebooks at NDM Express

A few months ago, I did some groundwork with a large European distribution company to see if it was possible to set up an alternative to Amazon. Despite some initial intermediate-level interest, the project foundered for two reasons: a) the high-level decision makers weren’t willing to get sufficiently aggressive on the pricing and b) virtually none of the very authors the project was intended to save were interested in being saved.

Since I don’t believe in attempt to save people from themselves, and I’m perfectly content to permit every author and publisher who is dumb enough to rely upon Amazon see their revenues continue to decline, I abandoned my efforts. However, now that Amazon has turned ebooks into a walled-garden service by eliminating the ability to move books that one has purchased outside of Kindle, it’s necessary for Castalia to give people a means of actually purchasing our ebooks as a product.

Which is precisely what we have done courtesy of NDM Express. All of Castalia’s books, including the Library, History, and Cathedra books for which we control the digital rights, will be available via NDM Express. The books are in EPUB format, DRM-free, and will have a minimum price of $4.99. Other authors and publishers are welcome to sell their books there; at 25 percent, NDM will take a smaller percentage of the revenue than Amazon or Apple do.

Library, History, and Cathedra ebooks will sell for $9.99, but will be free to the appropriate subscribers. A code will be provided in the next few weeks, so don’t expect to download them today. Currently, there are two sections being set up, one with JDA’s ebooks, the other with the Castalia Library books. This is a brand new project, so although it is functional, please give it a few weeks to become fully operational. Eventually, we’ll get the digital Arkhaven books up there as well.

Authors and publishers who would like to make their books available there should contact NDM, not me. Below is an example of the standard cover we’ve developed for the Library books.

UPDATE: The first Castalia Library books are now up at NDM Express.

DISCUSS ON SG

Cathedra – One More Day

Tomorrow is the last day you can subscribe to CASTALIA CATHEDRA without a catchup payment being required for your subscription. Since we’re doing just two books per year for this line, it’s only $20 per month to pick up a #1 first edition of the first volume in the series, THE EVERLASTING MAN by G.K. Chesterton. We’re well ahead on the production, so it will be expected to ship soon after the subscription period ends in July.

And thanks to NDM, you can even sport the Cathedra logo in four different colors, black, blue, green, and maroon. The shirts also have the “open book” logo on the back. A Ladies t-shirt is also available.

DISCUSS ON SG

The January Books

Castalia Cathedra #1: THE EVERLASTING MAN by G.K. Chesterton (Jan-Jul)

Castalia History #8: COMMENTARII DE BELLO GALLICO by G. Julius Caesar (Jan-Mar)

Castalia Library #32: THE OLD NORSE EDDA by Tamburn Bindery (Jan-Feb)

For more information about the newly announced Castalia Library and Castalia History books, please visit the Castalia Library substack. This is a very good time to start a subscription, as no catchup payments are necessary.

DISCUSS ON SG

Introducing Castalia Cathedra

G.K. Chesterton was the best writer of the 20th century. He said something about everything and he said it better than anybody else. But he was no mere wordsmith. He was very good at expressing himself, but more importantly, he had something very good to express. The reason he was the greatest writer of the 20th century was because he was also the greatest thinker of the 20th century… this was the man who wrote a book called The Everlasting Man, which led a young atheist named C.S. Lewis to become a Christian.

After more than three years of requests, Castalia Library will be publishing a G.K. Chesterton book. However, we’re doing more than that, we’re using it to launch a new line of leatherbound Christian literature, beginning with The Everlasting Man. You can read more details about what we’re calling Castalia Cathedra at the Castalia Library substack, or you can dive right in and make sure that you receive the first edition of what we anticipate to be a very long and significant series.

DISCUSS ON SG

Thanksgiving Sale Last Day

SATURDAY UPDATE: Today is the final day of the sale. Since three more titles have sold out since Thursday, and since there are only 8 3 copies of the Library edition of A THRONE OF BONES I and A THRONE OF BONES II left, we’ve added three more Libraria titles to the sale.

At a 60 percent discount, you can pick up all three for just $100 more than the retail price of a single volume. Today only. For more details and updates, visit the Castalia Library substack.

DISCUSS ON SG

Thanksgiving Sale: Libraria Edition

The Thanksgiving Sale 2024 has gone incredibly well, so much so that four of the Library books we put on sale this week are now completely sold out. So, we’ve decided to put all seven of the LIBRARIA editions of those same seven books on sale, for subscribers and non-subscribers alike, for $200, which is 60 percent off the retail price. This is an excellent opportunity for Library subscribers to pick up a copy or two if they’re curious about the various differences between the two editions, and, of course, there are few finer gifts available in that price range than a Libraria book with its Italian goatskin and 22k gold cover stampings.

The Thanksgiving Sale will end tomorrow, November 30th, at midnight. Limited stocks are available, especially for the following Library titles:

UPDATE: NDM Express is also having a Thanksgiving sale, including three Landmark Thucydides with minor issues.

DISCUSS ON SG

Thanksgiving Sale 2024

Castalia Library is pleased to announce this year’s Thanksgiving Sale. Since last year’s sale was so successful, we decided to expand it this year to include more of our books that we still have in the warehouse in an attempt to whittle down our stock. Due to a series of issues ranging from a printer printing a double-run of interiors to losing 20 percent of our subscribers during the no-shipping debacle that inspired the creation of the bindery, we still have excess stock of six books that we’d like to address:

The following 7 books are available to everyone at a price of $64.99 for the duration of the sale. No discount code is needed.

Please note that no discount code will work on books on sale; subscribers should note that you may not even be able to use a discount code at the time of purchase if you also have a book on sale in your cart. Two separate purchases may be necessary.

Since we’re at it, the following 7 books are also available to everyone, albeit at a price of $79.99 for the duration. No discount code is needed.

The sale ends midnight on November 30. First come, first serve; we just concluded a two-day secret sale that was only available to subscribers that has resulted in six more books going out of stock, including three that we had already thought were out of stock, but managed to dig up a few more copies when we consolidated the warehouses. When we’re out, we’re out.

DISCUSS ON SG