A few of the bits of news and good posts from over the weekend:
- A team of researchers from the Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies is working at the Public Library of St. Mark in Venice to create a 3-D copy of the Venetus A - the oldest known copy of Homer's Iliad. Wired reports on the hi-tech project, offering a detailed look at the digitization process and the subsequent transcription of the manuscript. This searchable transcription (at the Homer Multitext Project) will eventually accompany the digital facsimile. [h/t Shelf:Life]
- The Guardian reports that an English illuminated bestiary from the 13th century will soon be on display at the Getty in LA. The Getty announced last week that it had purchased the Northumberland Bestiary for an undisclosed sum. The 75-page work, considered one of the "finest examples of English Gothic illustration," contains more than a hundred colored ink drawings.
- Michael Lieberman notes the upcoming premiere of "The Hollywood Librarian: A Look at Librarians Through Film," which will debut at the ALA conference in Washington later this month. He notes that the documentary is "the first full-length documentary film to focus on the work and lives of librarians," and has links to the film's website, the trailer and some behind-the-scenes goodies.
- Nigel from Bookride has a first-hand report from the Campbell-White sale (mentioned here), which Michael also comments on.
- Via Joyce, Valley Advocate writer Andrew Varnon took a trek through the used bookshops of the Northampton-Amherst area recently; his account of the journey is here.
- Joyce also has a front-line post from this weekend's Portland Book Fair, complete with a picture of the back of Joe's head. And she notes author Matthew Pearl's work with Boston's Animal Rescue League; Pearl writes the "personality descriptions" for cats' cages.
- Some reviews: William Hague's biography of William Wilberforce gets a write-up in the Telegraph; Michael Dirda reviews Seth Larer's Inventing English; and Bunny Crumpacker discusses Animal, Vegetable, Miracle in the Washington Post.
- Paul Collins posts on his latest New Scientist article - about Polaroid founder Edwin Land's attempts to make sure that car headlights and windshields were equipped with polarizing filters to reduce glare.
- Rachel at Book Trout discusses a book on their shelve which was once in the library of bibliophile William Lyons Phelps.
- Even before Deathly Hallows makes its debut, editor and Harry Potter promoter Barry Cunningham claims to have done it again, GalleyCat reports. He's signed a deal for Tunnels, a first novel by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams about "a boy archaeologist who discovers a lost world under London by digging into tunnels beneath the city."
