- Yale has received a $3 million grant from the Goizueta Foundation to fund a digital humanities laboratory at Sterling Memorial Library.
- Researcher Jessica Linker has identified one of the printing blocks used by Benjamin Franklin to make "leaf prints" as an anti-counterfeiting measure. The block is in the collections of the Delaware County Institute of Science, but will soon be on display at the Library Company of Philadelphia.
- Paul Dingman recaps the first Transcribathon, held at Penn and sponsored by the Folger as part of their Early Modern Manuscripts Online project. I'm looking forward to the planned one at UVA this spring.
- Winchester Cathedral has put out a public call in an attempt to find eight illuminations missing from the Winchester Bible.
- Still waiting for more information about this, but type designer Robert Green, in association with a salvage team from the Port of London Authority, has reportedly recovered a "small quantity" of the type used by the Doves Press (and later dumped over Hammersmith Bridge by T.J. Cobden-Sanderson).
- The Harry Ransom Center refused to release the purchase price for the Gabriel Garcia Marquez archive after an AP request.
- Eric Rasmussen writes about the recent identification of a new First Folio, and about several long-missing copies which he'd like to find.
- The MHS has launched a new digital collection of material related to the Boston Massacre.
- The Torquay Museum plans to sell an unpublished Jane Austen letter to her sister Cassandra.
- The sale of a Neal Cassady letter to Jack Kerouac has been canceled (well, "indefinitely suspended," anyway) after the estates of both Cassady and Kerouac claimed ownership of the letter.
- Paul Romaine summarizes what looks to have been an excellent APHA panel on Early Renaissance Paper, featuring Angela Campbell and Tim Barrett.
- The DPLA announced the winners of its first "GIF IT UP" competition.
- New research at the University of York and Trinity College Dublin is exploring parchment genetics, with implications for agricultural history as well as bibliography.
- NARA launched a new online catalog, which includes transcription functionality. They've also added a public read-write API.
- A bit more has emerged on the five books from Oscar Wilde's library identified at the KB.
- Atlas Obscura covers the launch of a new series of videos highlighting the collections of the American Museum of Natural History.
- At The Collation, Erin Blake takes a close look at mezzotints.
- A new interim issue of Common-place is out.
- Simon Beattie highlights Edmund Harold's imitations of Ossian poems, published in English and German editions at Dusseldorf in 1787.
- Lauren Collins writes for the New Yorker about the Oxford University Marginalia Facebook group.
- More on "marginalia's moment" from Laura Miller at Salon.
- Over at the ABAA blog, Simon Beattie explores deckle-fetishism.
- Just a year after its grand opening, the Library of Birmingham is set to slash hours by nearly half and see some 100 layoffs due to budget cuts.
- Gerald Cloud has been appointed Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Curator of Early Modern Books and Manuscripts at the Harry Ransom Center. Congratulations to Gerald!
- John Schulman of Caliban Books has posted a guide to buying rare books as gifts, over at the ABAA blog.
Reviews
- Patricia Jane Roylance's Eclipse of Empires; review by Lindsay DiCuirci at Common-place.
- A.N. Wilson's Victoria: A Life; review by Leah Price in the NYTimes.
- John Merriman's Massacre; review by Wendy Smith in the LATimes.
- Kristina Milnor's Graffiti and the Literary Landscape in Roman Pompeii; review by Emily Gowers in the TLS.
- Jules Witcover's The American Vice Presidency; review by Ellen Fitzpatrick in the WaPo.
- Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy's The Men Who Lost America; review by Eric Hinderaker at Common-place.
- David Nokes' Samuel Johnson: A Life; review by Jonathan Bate in the Telegraph.
- Meredith Neuman's Jeremiah's Scribes; review by Wendy Roberts at Common-place.
- Alex Christie's Gutenberg's Apprentice; review by Bruce Holsinger in the WaPo.
- Marilyn Johnson's Lives in Ruins; review by Wendy Smith in the WaPo.
- Jill Lepore's The Secret History of Wonder Woman; review by Carla Kaplan in the NYTimes.
- Thomas Foster's Sex and the Founding Fathers; review by Kelly Ryan at Common-place.
