Links & Auctions

- New and excellent: Book Owners Online, a directory of English book owners, 1610–1715 (with plans to expand). Spearheaded by David Pearson with support from CELL and the Bibliographical Society.

- Registration is now open for the Brooklyn Antiquarian Book Fair (virtual) on 11–13 September, which will include a series of webinars and an exhibition.

- The Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair will also be held online, 12–14 November. Some details are now available.

- Travis McDade has a piece on the Pittsburgh Carnegie Library thefts in the September Smithsonian.

- There were many stories this week about the recent discoveries of books and manuscripts beneath the attic floorboards at Oxburgh Hall in Norfolk (most but not entirely having been used as rodent nesting material). See also Matthew Champion's fascinating and well-illustrated Twitter thread on the finds.

- Meanwhile, the National Trust's "restructuring" plans, which would eliminate many curatorial positions, are coming in for much justified derision.

- From Peter Kidd, "Another Hachette-Lehman-Yale Cutting."

- Garrett Scott has launched Antiquarian Bookseller Wiki, beginning with a series of biographical sketches of women active in the antiquarian book trades.

- Over on the Princeton Graphic Arts Collection blog, "Frances Mary Richardson Currer, Important Early Bibliophile."

- William Harris writes for the FDR Library's blog: "Unpretentious History: Alma Van Curan and the FDR Library Logbooks."

- The AAS' PHBAC has release their fall schedule of virtual events (plus videos of their spring/summer talks, all of which were excellent).

- From the BL's Medieval Manuscripts blog, "How did the Cotton Library grow?"

- Jeffrey Hamburger writes for the Houghton blog, "An 'Old Prayer Book,' Yet not a 'Dull' one: The Liber Ordinarius of Nivelles."

- Many congratulations to the Grosvenor Rare Book Room at the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library, which recently completed its collection of Kelmscott Press publications!

- From Elizabeth Gettins on the LC blog, a post highlighting the recent digitization of historical title pages submitted for copyright purposes.

- J.L. Bell has begun a series of posts on John Adams' library, including comments from the current Quincy mayor who is apparently going to try and bring the books back to Quincy from Boston ... see "When John Adams Gave Away His Library," "'The most appropriate and useful place for the collection'," and "Looking at John Adams's Things Today," with more to come.

Upcoming Auctions

- Books and Works on Paper at Forum Auctions on 27 August.

- Vintage Posters at Swann Galleries on 27 August.

- Fine Books with Americana, Travel & Arthur H. Clark Publications at PBA Galleries ends on 27 August.

- Rare Books, Art & Ephemera at Addison & Sarova on 29 August.

Links & Auctions

- Over on the Bodleian blog, a look at E.F. Benson's Mapp & Lucia, on the occasion of the book's 100th anniversary.

- Seth James is in the "Bright Young Librarians" spotlight.

- Heritage Auctions will sell books from Justin G. Schiller's collection on 16 December.

- The Philadelphia Print Shop has been acquired by David Mackey and will relocate to Wayne, PA from Chestnut Hill, with a grand reopening in October.

- The Penn Libraries have digitized selections from their Marian Anderson collection.

- Peter Kidd notes that Ariel Sabar's book on the fake Gospel of the Wife of Jesus papyrus, Veritas, has been published.

Upcoming Auctions

- Fine Books, Atlases, Manuscripts & Historical Photographs at Bonhams on 19 August.

- Rare Autographs, Manuscripts & Books at University Archives on 19 August.

Links & Auctions

- Melissa Tedone and her colleagues at Wintherthur have posted more information about the Poison Book Project, which seeks to identify and create safe handling guidelines for books whose bindings may contain toxic pigments. 

- Ken Sanders Rare Books has launched a GoFundMe to help stay afloat through the pandemic. Please help if you can.

- From the BL's Medieval Manuscripts blog, "Ludicrous figures in the margin" (you want fighting snails? They've got fighting snails!)

- There's a new provenance mystery from the Middle Temple Library blog.

- Barbara Basbanes Richter notes the publication of the catalogue covering pre-1801 titles in the Cotsen Children's Library at Princeton.

- Haylie Swenson has a post about early modern cats for Shakespeare & Beyond.

- M.L. Stapleton writes about a 1740s Shakespeare set with female provenance at Early Modern Female Book Ownership.

- Do have a look at Books and Borrowing 1750–1830, an analysis of Scottish library borrowers' registers.

- From the University of Iowa's Center for the Book, "Tim Barrett: The Story of a Papermaker."

- Two deaths from the world of books to note: Hendrik D.L. Vervliet, and Bernard Bailyn.

Review

- Christopher de Hamel's The Book in the Cathedral; review by Dennis Duncan in the Guardian.

Upcoming Auctions

- Books and Works on Paper at Forum Auctions on 13 August.

- LGTBQ+ Art, Material Culture & History at Swann Galleries on 13 August.

- Publications of the Limited Editions Club at PBA Galleries on 13 August.

Links & Auctions

- Houghton Library's digitization efforts for the 2020–2021 academic year will be focused on a new online collection, "Slavery, Abolition, Emancipation, and Freedom: Primary Sources from Houghton Library." Digital Collections Program Manager Dorothy Berry will lead the project.

- From Simon Beattie, "The first 'blank bookplate'?"

- Rebecca Rego Barry notes a Renaissance-era reliquary pendant made to look like a tiny book, currently offered by Les Enluminures.

- Over on the N-YHS blog, "Clues to the Past: The Taylor-Robert Plan."

- Nate Pedersen talks to Tamar Evangelistia-Dougherty for the FB&C "Bright Young Librarians" series.

- The prayerbook which belonged to Mary, Queen of Scots sold for £311,250.

- Elizabeth Winkler writes for the New Yorker "How Phillis Wheatley Was Recovered Through History."

- Cornell University Press received an NEH grant to upgrade and enhance its open-access monograph program, in collaboration with Cornell's libraries.

- UVA Press has a 40%-off sale through 1 September.

- The Spencer Museum of Art has mounted a virtual version of their exhibition "Audubon in the Anthropocene."

- Richard S. Newman talks to History New Network about his biography of Richard Allen, Freedom's Prophet.

- Annette Gordon-Reed has been named a University Professor, Harvard's highest faculty honor.

- Mark Royden has been sentenced to four years in prison for attempting to steal a copy of Magna Carta from Salisbury Cathedral in October 2018.

- From Lapham's Quarterly, "How Books Became Cheap."

Upcoming Auctions

- Books and Manuscripts: A Summer Miscellany at Sotheby's ends on 4 August.

- William R. Bronson Collection of Ornithological Books at Heritage Auctions on 6 August.

- Americana – Travel & Exploration – World History – Cartography at PBA Galleries on 6 August.

Links & Auctions

- The next iteration of Getman's Virtual Book and Paper Fair will be held 4–6 August. Mark your calendar for this and for the virtual Brooklyn Antiquarian Book Fair on 11–13 September, which will feature a series of webinars, virtual exhibits, &c.

- The Library of Congress released a new report by Ryan Cordell, "Machine Learning + Libraries: A Report on the State of the Field."

- Over at Past is Present, a video introduction to the Phillis Wheatley manuscript poems in the AAS collections by curator Ashley Cataldo.

- From Stephen Grant at The Collation, "Emily Jordan Folger and Joseph Quincy Adams."

- Leah Price talked to Maeve Emre for Public Books about "books, book tech, and book tattoos." (Missed this last fall, so many thanks to Steve Ferguson for sending it along).

- New at Exeter Working Papers in Book History, "The world of the book in 19th-century Iceland: the observations of Sabine Baring-Gould and other British travelers."

- On the Bodleian's Conveyor blog, Aoife Ní Chroidheáin on the "15th-century Booktrade and Learning in the time of Lockdown."

- The Early Book Society has a new website.

- From Joshua Piker and Karin Wulf on the Omohundro Institute blog, "NAIS is Central to Early American Scholarship." NAIS = Native American and Indigenous Studies.

- A Beginning Bibliography course offered by Anne Welsh and Yvonne Lewis has begun; you can watch the introductory section for free.

- From Gregory Wiedeman in the American Archivist, "The Historical Hazards of Finding Aids."

Review

- Eley Williams' The Liar's Dictionary; review by Alexandra Harris in the Guardian.

Upcoming Auctions

- The Library of a Greek Bibliophile: Travel books, Aldines, and an important Qur'an at Sotheby's on 28 July.

- Travel, Atlases, Maps and Natural History at Sotheby's on 28 July.

- Printed Books, Maps & Documents, including the Len Newton Cactus Library at Dominic Winter Auctioneers on 29 July.

- A prayerbook belonging to Mary, Queen of Scots will be sold as part of the Classic Art Evening Sale at Christie's on 29 July.

- Valuable Books & Manuscripts at Christie's ends on 30 July.

- Books and Works on Paper at Forum Auctions on 30 July.

- Fine Books & Manuscripts at Swann Galleries on 30 July.

- Literature – Food & Agriculture – Photography – Books in All Fields at PBA Galleries on 30 July.

- Books & Works on Paper including Aviation & Transport and Autographs & Memorabilia at Chiswick Auctions on 31 July.

Links & Auctions

- From the Morgan Library blog, "Color and Curious Creatures: Fifteenth-Century Block Books at the Morgan."

- Thanks to Simon Beattie for calling attention to a project seeking to reconstruct the library of German writer Ludwig Tieck (1773–1853). See their guide for potential Tieck provenance (in English) for distinctive marks to watch for, and please help if you can!

- APHA and the Hamilton Wood Type Museum are collaborating on a 2020 Awayzgoose, and registration is now open.

- Library History Seminar XIV is looking for papers relating to the broad theme of "library history." Proposals are due by 1 October.

- Jasper Fforde talks to Elizabeth Flux for the Guardian about his new novel, The Constant Rabbit.

- Also in the Guardian, Justine Jordan profiles Eley Williams about her debut novel The Liar's Dictionary (out this month in the UK), hunting for mountweazels, and more.

- A set of musical scores from the collection of (and annotated by) Maria Callas is currently being offered by Christie's (sale ends 30 July).

- APHA has released an outline of steps the organization is taking to support BIPOC printers and allied craftspeople.

- Thanks to Alex Hidalgo for pointing out on Twitter the Catálogo Colectivo de Marcas de Fuego.

- From the N-YHS blog, "A Printer's Account of the Caribbean: Mahlon Day's Diary."

- The British Library has acquired the visual archive of Mervyn Peake.

- Pichaya Damrongpiwat writes for the NYPL blog on "Materiality in Eighteenth-Century Epistolary Fiction."

- The conservation staff at the John Rylands Library has posted a series of blog posts on the materiality of the book.

- The Grolier Club has launched an online exhibition of recent gifts from member Stanley D. Scott.

- ACRL and RBMS have passed a memorial resolution honoring Katharine Kyes Leab.

Review

- Jonathan Senchyne's The Intimacy of Paper and Joshua Calhoun's The Nature of the Page; review by Gill Partington at Public Books.

Upcoming Auctions

- Livres Anciens et du XIXe Siècle at ALDE on 21 July.

- Fine Books and Manuscripts, including Property from the Eric C. Caren Collection at Sotheby's ends on 21 July.

- Fine Judaica at Kestenbaum & Company on 21 July.

- Fine & Rare Books – Fine Literature at PBA Galleries on 23 July.

- Summer Auction at Arader Galleries on 25 July.

Links & Auctions

- New from the University of East Anglia's Unlocking the Archive team, Discover Historic Books.

- The digital version of the BL's Harley MS 7368 (The Booke of Sir Thomas Moore), can now be viewed in full online.

- The Grolier Club's annual New Members Collect exhibition is virtual this year.

- Over on the AAS blog, a new series on their artist fellowships.

- From Richard Norman on the ABAA blog, "The History of Vellum and Parchment."

- On the Early Modern Female Book Ownership blog, Sarah Duffield's copy of Crouch's Historical Remarques.

- Teaching Manuscripts has added the first two of a series of videos about making parchment.

- Claire Voon writes for Atlas Obscura about the bookwheel built by a group of RIT engineering students.

- The booksellers of ANZAAB have issued a joint catalog.

Upcoming Auctions

- Music, Continental Books and Medieval Manuscripts at Sotheby's ends on 14 July.

- The Collection of a Connoisseur: History in Manuscripts at Sotheby's ends on 15 July.

- Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper at Forum Auctions on 16 July.

- Eureka! Scientific Breakthroughs of the 20th Century at Christie's ends on 16 July.

- Illustration Art at Swann Galleries on 16 July.