- A truly mysterious book in the John Carter Brown Library, which may (or may not) contain Roger Williams' shorthand annotations and has thus far eluded bibliographic identification, will soon be online in a digital edition. The original copy is the centerpiece of a JCB exhibit this fall, "A Key into a 17th-Century Mystery: Investigating Roger Williams’ Shorthand." The book is really a wonder: I took a crack at it myself a year or so ago, but having it online in full will allow for a much more rigorous investigation (and, with any luck at all, a breakthrough).
- Leonardo da Vinci expert Martin Kemp claims to have definitively identified a portrait on vellum (sold by Christie's in 1998 for little more than £11,000 as a 19th-century pastiche) as an original Leonardo. He's even reportedly found the book from which the portrait was removed.
- From Inside Higher Ed this week, "The Promise of Digital Humanities."
- Jill Lepore writes about Noah Webster's efforts to edit the King James Bible.
- The ABAA has launched a very useful exhibitions page to highlight book-related exhibits around the U.S.
- New MacArthur "genius" Jacob Soll was interviewed on WHYY this week; well worth a listen.
- New York bookseller Donald Davis is in the news this week for successfully apprehending Andrew Hansen, 27, who's been stealing graphic novels from the NYPL and selling them to bookstores around the city.
- Over at The Cataloguer's Desk, an announcement of Peter Harrington's new glossary of rare book terms, plus the anatomy of a catalogue entry.
- From Lingua Franca, Carol Saller's post "When E-Books Need Correcting" is particularly timely this week, given the Kindle Reamde kerfuffle.
- A new exhibit highlights treasures from the Bodleian's collections; visitors are being asked to recommend which of the highlights should be on permanent display.
- The Atlantic has an interesting profile and gallery of typographer Ross MacDonald's work; he makes period-accurate literary props for movies and television shows.
Reviews
- Andrew Graham-Dixon's Caravaggio; review by Hilary Spurling in the NYTimes.
- David Liss' The Twelfth Enchantment; review by Rebecca Rego Barry at Fine Books Blog.
- Candice Millard's Destiny of the Republic; reviews by Kevin Baker in the NYTimes and Del Quentin Wilber in the Washington Post.
- Stephen Greenblatt's The Swerve; review by Sarah Bakewell in the NYTimes.
- Claire Tomalin's Charles Dickens: A Life; review by Lesley McDowell in the Scotsman.
- Joel Silver's Dr. Rosenbach and Mr. Lilly; review by Pradeep Sebastian in The Hindu.
- Willard Sterne Randall's Ethan Allen; review by Adam Tschorn in the Philadelphia Inquirer (apologies in advance; one of the most hideously advertisement-cluttered sites I've seen in a very long time)
