Saturday, June 27, 2020

Links & Auctions

- UNC-Chapel Hill has received Florence Fearrington's collection of rare books on natural history, wunderkammern, and more.

- The Allegheny County D.A. has petitioned the judge who sentenced John Schulman and Gregory Priore to house arrest last week to reconsider and impose a stricter sentence, to include jail time (with home confinement until the judge is satisfied that a risk of COVID-19 infection in prison is diminished). Marylynne Pitz's piece about this includes comments from Travis McDade urging a "more appropriate sentence."

- Fentahun Tiruneh writes for the LC's blog about a recent addition to the LC's Ethiopian collection: the first printed edition of the New Testament in the Ge'ez language, printed at Rome in 1548.

- The Folger Shakespeare Library has acquired the collection of actor Earle Hyman.

- RIT scientists are developing a low-cost multispectral imaging hardware and software system!

- Early Modern Female Book Ownership highlights a 1526 Dutch Bible this week.

- Allie Alvis has started a YouTube series of "Bite Sized Book History" videos.

- Bogdan Horbal writes for the NYPL blog about the late nineteenth-century Riga bookseller N. Kymmel.

- Barbara Basbanes Richter highlights Mark Argetsinger's new book A Grammar of Typography: Classical Book Typography in the Digital Age.

- Jerry Morris posts about some books from his collection of books about the English language with interesting ownership marks.

- From the Bodleian's Conveyor blog, "Decades of manuscript photography on Digital.Bodleian."

- Over at Past is Present, a look at the beautiful new AAS conservation lab.

Upcoming Auctions

- Livres et Manuscrits at Sotheby's ends on 30 June.

- Curiosités Typographiques – Reliures Remarquables: Collection C. L. at Binoche et Giquello on 1 July.

- Books and Works on Paper at Forum Auctions on 2 July.

Saturday, June 20, 2020

Links & Auctions

- John Schulman and Gregory Priore were sentenced yesterday for the thefts from Pittsburgh's Carnegie Library. Schulman received four years of home confinement and twelve years' probation, and was ordered to pay $55,000 in restitution to purchasers of stolen books. Priore was sentenced to three years of home confinement and twelve years' probation. The judge stated that the sentences would have been "significantly more impactful" were it not for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The judge further ordered that neither Schulman nor Priore may profit in any way from books, films, &c. related to the case. Paula Reed Ward and Marylynne Pitz reported for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette earlier in the week that the day before Schulman entered his guilty plea in January, he sent an email to other booksellers declaring his innocence. This letter came up as the sentencing hearing opened on Thursday, with the judge questioning Schulman and his lawyers "Why should I accept a plea from somebody who says he's innocent?" The judge then conducted the guilty plea colloquy again before moving to sentencing. Both Schulman and Priore apologized, though Mary Frances Cooper, head of the Carnegie Library, told the court "We do not want an apology. Any apology from these thieves would be meaningless. They are only sorry we discovered what they did." See also the ABAA statement.

- Over at Medieval Manuscripts Provenance, "Whitehead-Holford-Malcolm" and "The Holford Album."

- From Heather Wolfe for The Collation, "Pandemic Paleography."

- Spencer Stuart is highlighted in the "Bright Young Things" Fine Books blog series.

- A tiny replica of John Fleming's bookselling gallery will be on the auction block this week.

- New from Library Juice Press, Archives and Special Collections as Sites of Contestation, edited by Mary Kandiuk.

- Another week, another Voynich "solution." Nope, says Lisa Fagin Davis in a Twitter-thread.

Upcoming Auctions

- Fine Books and Manuscripts, including Americana at Leslie Hindman Auctioneers on 23 June.

- Francis Hopkinson Family Americana Collection at William H. Bunch Auctions on 23 June.

- Printed Books, Maps & Documents, Modern Literature, First Editions, Children's & Illustrated Books at Dominic Winter Auctioneers on 24–25 June.

- Rare Books, Manuscripts & Relics including Forbes & Kerouac at University Archives on 24 June.

- "Tendrement vôtre" – Lettres et Manuscrits Autographes d'auteurs Français at Christie's ends on 25 June.

- Americana – Travel & Exploration – World History – Cartography at PBA Galleries on 25 June.

Saturday, June 13, 2020

Links & Auctions

- SHARP in Focus events begin on Monday, 15 June, and will run through 19 June. See the full schedule and registration instructions. Lots of interesting discussions to be had.

- Scott Casper has been named the eighth president of the American Antiquarian Society. Congratulations to both Scott and to AAS!

- Anthony Tedeschi surveys the (now digitized) medieval and Renaissance manuscripts at the Alexander Turnbull Library.

- Georgianna Ziegler writes for The Collation this week: "Early women buying books: the evidence."

- The National Library of Israel is digitizing more than 2,500 Arabic, Persian, and Turkish manuscripts and books. More from Smithsonian.

- From the Princeton Graphic Arts collection blog, "Famous Wood Engravings."


- Richard Sheaff writes for the Ephemera Society's blog on "Wacky Victorian Imagery."


- Luke Henter writes for Past is Present about the AAS' Caribbeana Project.

- From Georgia Thurston for the Cambridge University Libraries special collections blog, "Nineteenth-century dialect writing."

- Also from the Bodleian, from their Archives and Manuscripts blog, Hannah Jordan on "The Library of St. Michael's College, Tenbury."

- Ian Maxted has updated his register of Mesoamerican codices and inscriptions over at Exeter Working Papers in Book History.

- Ed Redmond writes for the LC's Worlds Revealed blog on "18th-Century Maps of North America: Perception vs. Reality."

- The Middle Temple Library has posed another provenance mystery for us all to ponder.

- Tom Bentley writes for FB&C about the Shakespeare Society of America's challenges to maintain and make available its eclection of Shakespeareana.

- If you miss Aaron Pratt's very useful demo of camera setups and software useful for sharing special collections remotely, it's now up on the BSA's YouTube channel (along with many other of the interesting virtual events they've been sponsoring).

- Amber Kehoe and Heather Brown write for the Harry Ransom Center blog about conserving daguerreotypes.

- Up on the Grolier Club's Vimeo is "Medieval MSS at Social Distance," with Barbara Shailor, Lisa Light, Lisa Fagin Davis, Consuelo Dutschke, and William Stoneman.

- An amazing new biblio-offering from Jonathan A. Hill, Bookseller: the manuscript catalogue of Claude Pierre Goujet's (1697–1767) 10,000-volume library.

Upcoming Auctions

- Beaux-Arts (Aristophil 29) at Druout on 16 June.

- Littérature Française du XXe Siècle (Aristophil 30) at Artcurial on 17 June.

- Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs at Lyon & Turnbull on 17 June.



- Sciences: Archéologie, Savants et Philosophies (Aristophil 31) at Ader on 18 June.

- Books and Works on Paper at Forum Auctions on 18 June.



- Publications of the Arthur H. Clark Company at PBA Galleries ends on 18 June.

- Littérature Les Années 1920–1930 (Aristophil 32) at Aguttes on 19 June.

Sunday, June 07, 2020

Links & Auctions

- The ABAA Virtual Book Fair ends later today; Firsts London continues through 12 June.

- Oak Knoll Books & Press has started posting some author interviews on their YouTube channel.

- David Pearson has a great post for Early Modern Female Book Ownership about some uniformly-bound and labeled volumes he was recently able to acquire from the library of Jane Pearce.

- Type & Forme have launched a new online exhibition and catalog, "Joseph Banks: A Lincolnshire Botanist in Australia." See also Rebecca Rego Barry's post on the Fine Books Blog.

- From Past & Present, a look at what some AAS staff members have been have up to during quarantine, sharing in the transcription of the Society's first donation book.

- Over at Jot101, a sniff at an early 20th-century book advertising gimmick, the perfumed novel.

- Henry Widener gets the "Bright Young Librarians" treatment this week.

- From the BL's Medieval Manuscripts blog, "Late manuscripts, bad manuscripts?"

- Rebecca Rego Barry has a rundown of some new books about books.

- Catherine Ansorge writes for the Cambridge University special collections blog about "Some Islamic manuscripts from Africa."

- Peter Kidd has a followup post identifying the collector(s) of a now-dispersed album of illuminated cuttings.

- BYU has acquired a collection of the Book of Mormon, including several copies of the first edition and first editions of all 149 translations.

Upcoming Auctions

- Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper at Forum Auctions on 9 June.

- Militaria Autographs at Alexander Historical Auctions on 9 June.



- Arts of the Islamic World & India at Sotheby's London on 10 June.


- Early Summer Sale at Arader Galleries on 13 June.