Mandylion® was founded on New Year’s Eve 2022 by Madeline Porsella and Mabel Capability Taylor, who met studying chairs in graduate school. Mandylion unearths lost literary gems written by women and weirdos in the (very) long nineteenth century. Based between New York City, Connecticut, and the fourth dimension, Mandylion pairs special stories with inviting introductions—producing totally cute books of historical merit.

Looking to find a Mandylion book in a store near you?

Mandylion is distributed around the world by Artbook | Distributed Art Publishers and stocked in all the coolest bookstores. If our books are not yet stocked by your favorite bookstore, please ask them to order it! Learn more about Artbook.

Want more?

We use Substack to go beyond the books, painting a richer portrait of our favorite century and rambling about our favorite things. We publish newsletters every other week, exploring historical topics from a contemporary perspective and putting the present into its historical context. You’re going to like it <3 Subscribe please!

We also have a podcast called 1-800-1800! 1-800-1800 is your guide to 19th-century history, art, literature, culture, and scandal. Each episode, we dial into a random year of the 1800s to gab about the chaos that shaped the modern world. 1-800-1800 delivers rigorous research with a healthy dose of gossip. So pick up the phone, the nineteenth century’s calling! Listen on Substack, Spotify and Apple!

Who are we?

Madeline Porsella is a cofounder and editor of Mandylion. In her spare time, she is pursuing a PhD in art history at Yale University. 

Mabel Capability Taylor is a cofounder and editor of Mandylion. In her spare time, she works at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.