Well that was one heck of a week, to put it politely. I'm relieved that it's over, and so very glad (and proud) that the city I know and love has shown such resilience and defiance in the face of Monday's tragedy. All credit to the those who gave of themselves this week, from the medical personnel to the tremendously efficient law enforcement officials to the responsible reporters who kept us up to speed all week long. My thoughts are with all those who lost loved ones this week and all those still recovering, and I look forward to walking down Boylston Street again soon.
- Some big news from the the Philadelphia library world this week: the Rosenbach Museum and Library and the Free Library of Philadelphia announced on Wednesday that they intend to merge and form The Rosenbach of the Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation. The Pew Charitable Trust will be providing some of the funding for the merger. Peter Dobrin reported on this for the Inquirer as well.
- From the Fine Books Blog "Bright Young Things" series, an excellent interview with Joe Fay, the manager of the rare books department for Heritage Auctions in Texas.
- At Public Domain Review, Marri Lynn writes on Vesalius' use of metaphor in his De humani corporis fabrica. And don't forget to support PDR before 1 May (I have done so, and hope others will too).
- Over at The Junto, Michael Hattem reflects on the year he worked on the Benjamin Franklin papers project at Yale.
- Whitney Trettien has a fascinating guest post at The Collation this week, on a particularly interesting interleaved Book of Common Prayer.
- At the Princeton Graphic Acts blog, Julie Mellby posts about an 1813 Old Bailey trial for book theft.
- A copy of the Kelmscott Chaucer was appraised on the Cincinnati "Antiques Roadshow" episode recently, and William and Sylvia Peterson, authors of the Kelmscott Chaucer census, would like to contact the owner so that they can document the copy.
- From Tablet, Batya Ungar-Sargon profiles the Voynich Manuscript and the quest to decipher it.
- And now for something completely ridiculous: CNBC's show "Treasure Detectives" aired a clip of "art forgery expert" Curtis Dowling on the supposedly widespread practice of forgers "faking" old books (including references to using walnut oil to fake smells and handling patterns, as well as something about painting bindings). At Bibliodeviant, Adrian Harrington's Jonathan Kearns calls this segment what it is: utter nonsense. Read the whole thing.
Reviews
- Clive James' new review of Dante's Divine Comedy; review by Joseph Luzzi in the NYTimes.
- Megan Marshall's Margaret Fuller; review by Kathryn Harrison in the NYTimes.
- Philip Gura's Truth's Ragged Edge; review by Michael Dirda in the WaPo.
