Links, Reviews & Auctions

- More than 1,600 pieces of metal moveable type preliminarily dated to the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries have been found during an excavation in Seoul; the sorts contain both Chinese and Hangeul characters.

- One of Charles Carroll's copies of the Stone facsimile Declaration of Independence sold at Freeman's this week for $4.42 million, setting a new record for a Stone facsimile and for an American nineteenth-century printed document.

- Jesse R. Erickson and Sarah Werner have been announced as the new editors of PBSA. Congratulations and best wishes to the new team!

- Over at Books and Borrowing, "Return from Orkney," by Katie Halsey about her trip to Orkney to photograph early library records.

- The Royal Horticultural Society is seeking help finding more information about an Isabella A. Allen who annotated a copy of The English Flora (1830).

- From the Mondays at Beinecke video series available on YouTube, Kristen Herdman on "Ethiopic Manuscripts and Global Books."

- Among the Rare Book Monthly articles for July, Michael Stillman's report on the sale of the Hofmann forged Oath of a Freeman, and Bruce McKinney on "Shifting Gears." And Susan Halas has an update on how Sotheran's has fared during Pandemic Times.

- Scott Ellwood writes for the Grolier Club blog on "Sir Thomas Phillipps's Earliest Catalogue."

- The UK government has placed a temporary export ban on two volumes of process drawings, watercolors, and proofs by John and Elizabeth Gould and Henry Constantine Richter. More from Rebecca Rego Barry on the Fine Books Blog. The albums are valued at £1,287,500.

- Keith Houston has a new "field trip" for Shady Characters, "Roman all over the place."

- Now also available on YouTube, an event from May to mark the 700th anniversary of Dante's death, in which seventeen copies of the 1481 Florence Landino edition of the Divina Commedia were compared in a "large-scale, live, online comparative bibliography" session. Fascinating! There will be a followup discussion on 6 July, for which you can register here. See also the Bodleian's Conveyor blog for more info and background on this project.

- Zubairul Islam is in the "Bright Young Booksellers" spotlight.

- The Middle Temple Library's provenance mystery for June features some very extensive notes in their copy of an early printed history of Scandinavia.

- From me, a new post in the "Changing Hands" provenance blog series, this time about some volumes from Longfellow's library newly transferred to Special Collections from the stacks.

Reviews

- Jewish Treasures from Oxford Libraries, edited by Rebecca Abrams and César Merchán-Hamann; review by Philip Getz for the Jewish Review of Books.

- The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray; review by Heller McAlpin in the CSM.

Upcoming Auctions

- The Roger Martin Collection of Western Manuscripts and Miniatures and other properties at Bloomsbury Auctions on 6 July. 

- Livres Anciens du XVe au XIXe Siècle at ALDE on 7 July.

- Signed and Inscribed: A Gentleman's Library of Modern Literature at Forum Auctions on 7 July.

- Autographs & Memorabilia at Chiswick Auctions on 7 July.

- Books and Works on Paper at Forum Auctions on 8 July.

- The Exceptional Sale at Christie's London on 8 July.

- Lettres & Manuscrits Autographes – Dessins – Aquarelles – Photographies (Aristophil 42) at Aguttes on 8 July. 

- Elite Americana & Rare Cartography at PBA Galleries on 8 July.

- Bibliothèque Angelo Mariani – Illustrateurs russes – Reliures originales at ALDE on 9 July.

- Valuable Books and Manuscripts at Christie's London on 14 July.

- Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper at Forum Auctions on 15 July.

- Focus on Women at Swann Galleries on 15 July.

- Fine Books and Manuscripts at Sotheby's New York on 16 July.

- Americana Rare Books, Maps, Prints and Photos at Donald Heald Auctions on 17 July.

Links & Auctions

- The American Philosophical Society has identified a paper copy of the Stone Declaration of Independence facsimile among their holdings.

- Nick Dall writes for the Guardian with more about losses at the University of Cape Town in the April fires, including a collection of rare historical photographs housed in the Department of Biological Sciences. 

- Over at Medieval Manuscripts Provenance, "The St. Albans Bible," with a brief followup post.

- And from the BL's Medieval Manuscripts blog, "Prefacing the Psalms," and a caption competition!

- On the Peter Harrington blog, "Behind the Books: Collecting Chinese books with Matt Wills."

- If ever wondered how the Daily Mail would cover the T.J. Wise forgeries, wonder no more.

- Rare Book School's summer lecture series is underway.

Upcoming Auctions

- Books and Decorative Graphics at Dorotheum on 28 June.

- American Historical Ephemera and Photography at Cowan's Auctions ends on 28 June.

- Lettres et Manuscrits Autographes (1-288) at Ader on 29 June.

- Lettres et Manuscrits & Bibliothèque Victor Segalen at ALDE on 29 June.

- Highlights from the Medical Library of the late James Tait Goodrich, Part III at Bonhams New York ends on 29 June.

- Fine Books & Ephemera at New England Book Auctions on 29 June.

- Lettres et Manuscrits Autographes (289-494) at Ader on 30 June.

- Fine Books & Works on Paper at Chiswick Auctions on 30 June.

- Rare Autographs, Manuscripts & Books at University Archives on 30 June.

- The Curtis Studio at Bonhams Los Angeles on 30 June.

- Céline, 1961-2021 at ALDE on 1 July.

- Charles Carroll's copy of the Stone facsimile Declaration of Independence at Freeman's on 1 July.

- Manuscrits & Livres Anciens et Modernes at Ader on 2 July.

Links & Auctions

- Getman's Virtual Book & Paper Fair for July opens at noon on Tuesday, 7 June. And the Brooklyn Antiquarian Book Fair goes virtual - it will be held 11–13 September.

- Ashley Cataldo from AAS is in the "Bright Young Librarians" spotlight this week.

- Yale's Beinecke Library has acquired the incredible Frederick Douglass collection of Dr. Walter Evans (I am in the middle of David Blight's wonderful biography of Douglass at the moment, which makes clear just how important this collection is). See also Michael Morand's announcement for Yale.

- A biblio-deal alert: A. Franklin Parks' William Parks: The Colonial Printer in the Transatlantic World of the Eighteenth Century (Penn State University Press) is available at $7.95 from Edward R. Hamilton, Bookseller (the list price was $84.95). It looks like they've also got Roderick Cave and Sara Ayad's The History of the Book in 100 Books for $7.95 too, which is also a very good deal.

- Over at Philobiblon, the 2020 Bind-o-Rama, of fish-skin bindings!

- There's a new "Crocodile Mystery" from the Folger this week.

- Rick Stattler has a new basic collector's guide to the Declaration of Independence for Swann.

- Over on the Grolier Club blog, Meghan Constantinou writes about a "Fifteenth-Century Manuscript Wrapper on a Rare Incunable" in the club's library.

- Rebecca Rego Barry notes a large collection of bookplates being offered at Swann this week.

- From the Bodleian's Conveyor blog, "Alice in Medieval Oxford."

- Another interesting provenance/marginalia mystery from the Middle Temple Library blog.

- July's Rare Book Monthly articles include Michael Stillman's report on the Schulman/Priore sentencing and a "brief update on the field" from Bruce McKinney.

- The National Library of Scotland has released datasets drawn from the library catalogs of the Advocates Library covering 1692 through 1878.

- Will Hansen is collecting contributions for his second issue of a zine about dreams concerning rare books and special collections.

Upcoming Auctions

- Fine Books and Manuscripts at Bonhams ends on 8 July.

- Livres de la Bibliothèque du Docteur Henri Polaillon: Livres Anciens et de Costumes Militaires at Binoche et Giquello on 9 July.

- Livres de Voyages – Atlas – Cartes at ALDE on 9 July.

- Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books at Swann Galleries on 9 July.

- Fine Art – Photography & Prints – Food & Drink – Illustrated Books at PBA Galleries on 9 July.

Links & Reviews

We lost one of the greats this week. Bill Reese was not just an extraordinary bookman and bookseller, but also an indefatigable supporter of biblio-institutions and causes. I had long been a great admirer and somewhat voracious collector of his catalogs, but I first went up and introduced myself at the 2010 Boston Book Fair, to thank him for his support of the Reese Fellowships at Rare Book School (I had been the recipient that year). Frequently thereafter we were able to chat briefly at various book fairs, something I always looked forward to (usually he shared some very funny anecdote about past book fairs). In 2016 he came and gave a wonderful Rare Book School talk, "Starting Out: My Early Days as a Rare Book Dealer." The next day he joined an RBS class, "Reference Sources for Researching Printed Americana," and talked to the students about his favorite reference sources. I had the great pleasure of sitting in on that session, and will remember it very fondly. Nobody wanted to go to coffee break at the end of that one. My deepest condolences to Bill's family and colleagues, and here's to many more years of great books and great catalogs to come from Temple Street.

There will certainly be more posts to come, but for now, see the ABAA's In Memoriam, Kurt Zimmerman's post at American Book Collecting, and Rare Book School's news post, which contains a list of his other RBS lectures.

- Along with the Portland Audubon coming up this week, Christie's will also offer a proof copy on wove paper (one of just six known) of the Stone facsimile of the Declaration of Independence.

- The National Library of Scotland's collection of early Scottish Gaelic manuscripts has been added to UNESCO's UK Memory of the World register. Sir Robert Cotton's manuscripts at the BL have also been added.

- Erin Blake writes for The Collation about a proof print from the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery.

- Mary Yacovone posts on "The Joy of Bookplates" over on the MHS blog. Also on the Beehive this week, Kate Viens explores the history and origins of the Massachusetts Historical Review.

- The BBC reports on a fascinating "hidden diary" from 1880–1 discovered written on the underside of a parquet floor of a French chateau.

Book Reviews

- Carys Davies' West; review by David Vann in the NYTimes.

- Fiona Sampson's In Search of Mary Shelley; review by Charlotte Gordon in the WaPo.

- Stuart Kells' The Library; review by Steve Donoghue in The National.

Upcoming Auctions

- Fine Books and Manuscripts at Bonhams New York on 12 June.

- Rare Books & Manuscripts at PBA Galleries on 14 June.

- The Portland Audubon, followed by Fine Printed Books & Manuscripts, Including Americana at Christie's New York on 14 June.

Links & Reviews

- From Malcolm Gay in the Boston Globe, "Turmoil Strikes the Boston Athenaeum."

- Cara Giaimo also has an "Exit Interview" with Athenaeum curator Stanley Cushing for Atlas Obscura.

- Rare Book Week in New York is approaching - lots and lots and lots going on, as usual! On the ABAA blog, some hints and tips about attending your first book fair.

- At The Collation, Elizabeth DeBold highlights a new Folger acquisition: an elaborate Restoration binding perhaps from the workshop of the Naval Binder.

- Michael Ruane writes for the WaPo about a newly resurfaced copy of the Stone facsimile of the Declaration of Independence, this one originally presented to James Madison.

- Jerry Morris has a new post at My Sentimental Library about collecting James Boswell.

- I noted last week the new census of Curtis' The North American Indian. Nate Pedersen has a short interview with Tim Greyhavens, the census coordinator, for the Fine Books Blog.

- Over on the Ransom Center blog, Elizabeth Page notes the centennial of the acquisition of the Wrenn Library.

- Antiquarian bookseller Ian Jackson died this week; there is a very nice post about his life and works at Laudator Temporis Acti.

- You can watch Sarah Werner's HRC Pforzheimer Lecture, "Early Digital Facsimiles," on the HRC's Facebook page.

- Lucy Scholes writes for the Financial Times about "the rise of the bibliomemoir."

- From Ethan Reed for the UVA Scholars' Lab blog, "Transcription is Complicated."

- New from the Beinecke Library, The Gutenberg at Beinecke, which will feature a series of essays and other content to "explore the many different meanings of the Gutenberg Bible as historical and cultural object."

- The BL has digitized and made available some 350 recordings of English folk songs made by Percy Grainger in the early years of the twentieth century.

- Trent Toone profiles Curt Bench, owner of Salt Lake City's Benchmark Books, for the Deseret News.

Review

- Rob Iliffe's Priest of Nature; review by Oliver Moody in the TLS.

Upcoming Auctions

- Illustrated & Animated: The Collections of Burningham & Blundall at Lyon and Turnbull on 28 February.

- Vintage Posters at Swann Galleries on 1 March.

- The Magic Collection of John Daniel at Potter & Potter on 3 March.

Links & Reviews

Just back from a trip to New York for the last couple days of Bibliography Week. Missed the booksellers' showcase on Thursday, which was a bummer, but it was very pleasant to see so many friends at the various events. I haven't been on Twitter much the last few days, so forgive me if this is a bit shorter than some weeks.

- The great Ursula K. Le Guin died this week. The roundup on Slate of writers reacting to the news is worth a look, I urge you to watch her speech at the 2014 National Book Awards ceremony (and Neil Gaiman's introduction). Her appearances on "TTBOOK" are also recommended. The Guardian has a full obituary.

- Oak Knoll Fest 2018 is a go: mark your calendars for 5–7 October 2018.

- Maev Kennedy writes for the Guardian about an upcoming sale of Sylvia Plath books and possessions to be sold at Bonhams in March.

- The odd volume from George Washington's library sold for $115,000 yesterday.

- The first-round deadline for admission to spring/summer Rare Book School courses is 19 February. Submission of your application(s) by then is encouraged.

- Rebecca Romney writes for Mental Floss about Poe's great "balloon hoax."

- Jerry Morris highlights some of his sources for keeping up to date on rare book news over at My Sentimental Library. Thanks to him for including this blog!

- Over on the Past is Present podcast, an interview with Gregory Nobles.

- The folks working on the Declaration Resources Project have identified an early broadside printing of the Declaration (unique copy at the BPL) as coming from the press of Thomas and Samuel Green in New Haven.

- Another month, another reported "solution" to the Voynich Manuscript.

Reviews

- Catherine Kerrison's Jefferson's Daughters; review by Mary Beth Norton in the NYTimes.

- Three recent books on birding; review by Richard O. Prum in the NYTimes.

- The new Library of American edition of John Quincy Adams' diaries; review by Diana Schaub at Law and Liberty.

- Henry Wessells' A Conversation Larger than the Universe; review by Michael Dirda for the WaPo.

Upcoming Auctions

- Printed Books & Manuscripts at Chiswick Auctions on 31 January.

- Printed Books, Maps & Documents at Dominic Winter Auctioneers on 31 January.

- Modern Books and Works on Paper at Forum Auctions on 31 January.

Links & Reviews

- Rebecca Romney has "13 Secrets of Rare Book Dealers" for Mental Floss.

- Noah Sheola's got a great post up on the Houghton blog about the importance of good cataloging.

- The November Rare Book Monthly includes Marc Sena Carrel on "Exiting the Bookseller Business," Michael Stillman on an upcoming auction of an early Declaration of Independence broadside, and a Bruce McKinney note about bookseller William Reese being honored by the AAS this week with the Christopher Columbus Baldwin medal (a well-deserved honor, to be sure).

- Hewlett-Packard's extensive archives were destroyed in the recent California wildfires.

- Cynthia Zarin writes for the New Yorker about "The Original Master of Ghost Stories" (M.R. James, of course).

- The manuscript of John Donne's "Courtier's Library" has been identified in the Westminster Abbey archives.

- Kurt Zimmerman is on "The Hunt for Early American Women Bibliographers" at American Book Collecting.

- MITH has launched Books.Files, a Mellon-funded project to "assess the potential for the archival collection and scholarly study of digital assets associated with today’s trade publishing and bookmaking."

- The Folger has launched Miranda, a new platform for the library's digital content. See the blog post for lots of good background.

- Tim Carmody writes for Kottke.org about "Card catalogs and the secret history of modernity."

- Several more panel overviews from the recent APHA conference in "The Process of Innovation."

- A Titanic letter (one of the last known to be written on the ship) sold at auction this week for £126,000.

- Booktryst will publish a fine-press book celebrating the late Martin Stone.

- A Thomas Bewick sketchbook has been identified and purchased by Bewick collector David Bolam.

Reviews

- Alison Weir's Queens of the Conquest; review by Dan Jones in the WaPo.

- Russell Shorto's Revolution Song; review by Lynne Cheney in the NYTimes.

- Walter Isaacson's Leonardo da Vinci; review by Jennifer Senior in the NYTimes.

- Noah Feldman's The Three Lives of James Madison; review by Susan Dunn in the NYTimes.

- Gordon S. Wood's Friends Divided; review by Richard Brookhiser in the NYTimes.

Upcoming Auctions

- The Library of an English Bibliophile, Part VII at Sotheby's London on 7 November.

- Autographs at Swann Galleries on 7 November.

- Rare Books, Autographs & Maps at Doyle New York on 7 November.

- Fine Golf Books at PBA Galleries on 12 November.

- Fine Books & Manuscripts at Skinner, Inc. on 12 November.

- Travel, Atlases, Maps & Natural History at Sotheby's London on 14 November.

- 19th & 20th Century Literature at Swann Galleries on 14 November.

- Fine Books, Atlases, Manuscripts, and Photographs at Bonhams London on 15 November.

Links & Reviews

- The ABAA put out a security alert this week about the theft of a shipment of rare books from a West London warehouse.

- Mike Cummings has a piece in YaleNews, "Authenticating the Oldest Book in the Americas," about the recent scholarly work on dating the Grolier Codex.

- Two notebooks from the collections of Philadelphia's Girard College were recently returned; they went missing from Girard sometime between 1964 (when they were microfilmed) and the early 2000s, when their absence was noted.

- The February Rare Book Monthly features Michael Stillman's analysis of 2016 book auction prices, Bruce McKinney writing about a new book on the Eberstadt firm, and more.

- The AAS has acquired a collection of more than fifty manuscript sermons by Massachusetts minister Joseph Avery.

- David Sellers guest-posts on the Oak Knoll blog about printing, design, and bookselling in Havana, with some pictures from his recent trip there.

- Barbara Bair posts for the LC blog about the recently-digitized Whitman papers from the Charles E. Feinberg Collection.

- Peter Dobrin provides an update on the Sendak library matter.

- Provenance images from the collections at Bryn Mawr can now be found in the Provenance Online Project.

- The Concord Free Public Library has acquired a collection of Louisa May Alcott manuscripts.

- Over at Echoes From the Vault, the first post in a series on "book use and marginal contentions" in 18th-century books from the St. Andrews collections.

- Amy McDonald writes for the Devil's Tale blog about the Aldine Press Metadata Project.

- The ABAA has published an "In Memoriam" post for Bernard Rosenthal, with some wonderful stories from his colleagues.

- New: the Needham Calculator, useful for determining the category and size of 15th-century paper.

- Lorraine Berry writes for the Guardian on bibliomania.

- Lisa Fagin Davis has launched an Ege Field Guide, for identifying Otto Ege manuscript leaves "in the wild."

- Derek O'Leary posts on the JHI Blog about "Jared Sparks' American Archives."

- Over on the Course of Human Events blog, a look at the custodians of the engrossed parchment copy of the Declaration of Independence over the years.

Reviews

- Michael Sims' Arthur and Sherlock; reviews by Graham Moore in the NYTimes and Amy Henderson in the WaPo.

- Laurel Thacher Ulrich's A House Full of Females; review by Beverly Gage in the NYTimes.

- Robert McCracken Peck's The Natural History of Edward Lear; review by Adam Kendon in the TLS.

- Raymond Clemens' new edition of the Voynich Manuscript; review by Dustin Illingworth in the LARB.

- Matthew Mason's Apostle of Union; review by Daniel Crofts for Reviews in History.

- The Royal College of Physicians' exhibit on Sir Thomas Browne, "A Cabinet of Rarities;" review by Ruth Scurr in the TLS.

Upcoming Auctions

- Livres et Manuscrits at Sotheby's Paris, 8 February.

- Rare Books & Manuscripts at PBA Galleries (in Oakland), 12 February.

- Icons & Images: Photographs & Photobooks at Swann, 14 February.

- Remaining Books from the Library of Franklin Brooke-Hitching at Forum Auctions (online sale), 15 February.

- Books, Maps & Manuscripts at Freeman's, 17 February.

Links & Reviews

- Angelique Chrisafis reports for the Guardian about a remarkable legal battle in France over the manuscript of Chateaubriand's memoirs. Lawyer Pascal Dufour faces trial this week for "aggravated breach of trust" for attempting to sell the manuscript, which has been kept under lock and key since 1847, passed down through generations of notaries. Dufour claimed ownership of the ten volume memoir and tried to consign it for sale in 2012, but the state prosecutor maintains that Dufour can't sell it and that it should be returned to the author's heirs (who, apparently, may include Dufour's wife!). Meanwhile, Chateaubriand's will mandates that all copies by burnt without being read ... so there's that. Quite a story.

- In the New Yorker, Tim Wu asks "What ever happened to Google Books?"

- An early and unpublished Stravinsky work, "Funeral Song," has been located at the St. Petersburg Conservatory.

- The AAS has acquired a copy of the first authorized American edition of Martin Chuzzlewit, in seven parts with their original wrappers.

- Bernard A. Barton, Jr. has been appointed CIO at the Library of Congress.

- Nick Basbanes writes in Humanities about Philip Kelley's efforts to publish the works of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

- Rare books from the collection of W.A. Cadbury (son of a co-founder of the chocolate company) will be sold at a Mellors & Kirk auction this week.

- From David Levy, an inside look at the XML schema he's using for his bibliography of the works of Edmond Hoyle.

- Michael Daly writes for The Daily Beast about the process of returning Jefferson's manuscript copy of the Declaration of Independence to the NYPL from the British Library, where it was on display as part of the Magna Carta exhibition.

- Over on the Houghton Library Tumblr, an animated look at progressive proofs of a color image from Alice in Wonderland.

- There's a roundup of recent rare book catalogs at The New Antiquarian.

- Oak Knoll Press announced the creation of a new editorial board (list here).

- Pierre Bergé talked to WWD about the upcoming sale of books from his collection.

- From Christopher Minty at The Junto, "Finding Its Way: Gordon Wood and the William and Mary Quarterly."

- David Finkelstein has posted a Storify of the tweets from the Cultures of Communication conference in Edinburgh.

- The AHA has released guidelines for evaluation of digital scholarship.

- Lyrics written by Tupac Shakur while in jail are to be sold at Sotheby's Rock & Pop sale; they've rated an estimate of £30,000–50,000.

- Also up for sale, the manuscript of Wagner's "wedding march," available from the website Moments in Time for £2.3 million.

- John Palfrey will chair the search committee for the next BPL president.

- Dan Gillmor, writing for Slate, urges the appointment of Brewster Kahle as the next Librarian of Congress.

- The BPL highlights five recently-digitized rare books, including a 1613 title with "mourning pages."

- A new train line in Scotland is aimed (at least in part) at literary tourists interested in the scenes of Sir Walter Scott.

- At Fast Company, Tina Amirtha explores "The Trouble With Digitizing History."

- Open Culture highlights the digitized theater ephemera from the collections of the NYPL.

- Lew Jaffe's new post at Confessions of a Bookplate Junkie concerns the disposal of bookplate collections.

- CLIR has issued a new report, "Changing and Expanding Libraries," by Amy Chen, Sarah Pickle, and Heather Waldroup.

- Thanks to an increase in funding, the NYPL will expand hours and hire more than 100 new staff members.

Reviews

- Lauren Groff's Fates and Furies; reviews by Robin Black in the NYTimes, Ron Charles in the WaPo, and Edan Lepucki in the LATimes.

- Irwin Gellman's The President and the Apprentice; review by Timothy Naftali in the NYTimes.

- M.L. West's The Making of the Odyssey; review by Peter Green in the TLS.

Links & Reviews

I'm more likely than usual to have missed relevant links this week, since I had the great pleasure of taking a Rare Book School course (The History of European & American Papermaking, taught by Tim Barrett and John Bidwell), and was thus paying less attention than usual to whatever was crossing the transom. So feel free to send along anything I missed and I'll be sure to add it next week. The course was absolutely fantastic!

- David Leonard, the director of administration and technology at the Boston Public Library, was named interim BPL president this week. Board member John T. Hailer was chosen as the new chair of the library's board. Author Dennis Lehane also submitted his resignation from the BPL board this week.

- Rebecca Rego Barry has a piece in the Guardian this week about the planned sale of Edwin Booth's copy of the Second Folio at Sotheby's on Friday. The volume was consigned by the Manhattan's Players Club, but failed to find a buyer.

- At the same sale, which realized more than $3.5 million, the Gutenberg Bible fragment sold by the Jewish Theological Seminary did better than anticipated, fetching $970,000, and a copy of Virgil signed by Declaration of Independence signer Thomas Lynch, Jr. sold for $43,750.

- The WSJ ran a piece on the "value" of a Gutenberg Bible, a complete copy of which hasn't been to auction since 1978.

- Two books stolen from the National Library of Sweden by a senior librarian there in the 1990s were repatriated this week at a ceremony in Manhattan. Both had been acquired by New York booksellers between 1999 and 2001 from the German auction house Ketterer Kunst; one had been sold on to Cornell University. The library maintains a list of the books still missing. The librarian, Anders Burius, committed suicide in 2004 after confessing to the thefts.

- From Yale, a more detailed story on the recent hyperspectral analysis of the 1491 Martellus map.

- The debate over the play Double Falsehood continues, with a new linguistic study outlined in a New Yorker blog post by Alastair Gee. The study, based on the use of particular "function words," finds that Shakespeare and John Fletcher's linguistic fingerprints predominate in the play's text.

- From Eric Kwakkel, "Medieval Letter-People."

- New to me: the Library of Virginia has launched a crowdsourced transcription project, allowing folks to work on small segments of the library's collections.

- The University of Michigan has digitized a collection of more than 2,000 political posters.

Reviews

- Robert Hutchinson's The Audacious Crimes of Colonel Blood; review by Jessie Childs in the TLS.

- Deborah Lutz's The Brontë Cabinet; review by Claudia Fitzherbert in the Telegraph.

Links & Reviews

I've updated the blog list at right, removing now-dead links, indicating those that haven't been updated within the last year, and adding a few. As always, if there are blogs, &c. you think I ought to be linking to there, let me know!

- The Telegraph reports today on the 16 July sale at Christie's of a fascinating library collected by multiple generations of English bibliophiles, containing quite a few bibliographic treasures.

- A new Neatline/Omeka presentation of the Declaration of Independence by David McClure launched this week, and it's very much worth a look.

- David Rubenstein has funded a new facsimile of the 1823 Stone facsimile of the Declaration of Independence, to allow one framed copy of be displayed in each U.S. embassy. Seth Kaller, Inc. produced a 24-page booklet to accompany the facsimiles.

- The NYPL displayed a copy of the Declaration in Jefferson's hand this week, drawing more than 10,000 visitors.

- Jennifer Howard reported for the Chronicle this week on the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation's preparations for a new strategic plan, to be released this summer.

- The NYTimes reported on a punctuation question that has arisen around the text of the Declaration of Independence as presented by NARA. Danielle Allen's full paper on which the article is based is here, and Joe Adelman weighed in.

- Simon Beattie reminds us other things happened during 1776, highlighting a new collection of material printed at Stargard Szczeciński (Poland) to document the celebrations held to welcome Catherine the Great's son, Paul, who visited the town enroute to Berlin where he was to meet a new wife.

- Michael Beschloss wrote about the 1952 transfer of the major American founding documents from the Library of Congress to the new National Archives building.

- Amazon's Jeff Grandinetti spoke to the WSJ about the company's ongoing feud with Hachette; Melville House's Alex Shephard responds.

- The Yale Digital Edition of the Works of Samuel Johnson are currently available in beta form.

Reviews

- Richard W. Oram and Joseph Nicholson's Collecting, Curating, and Researching Writers' Libraries: A Handbook; review by Peter Steinberg at Sylvia Plath Info.

- Fred Kaplan's John Quincy Adams; review by Edward Cuddihy in the Buffalo News.

- Diana Scarisbrick & Benjamin Zucker's Elihu Yale; review by Martin Rubin in the Washington Times.

- Alex Beam's American Crucifixion; review by Benjamin Moser in the NYTimes.

- Michael Blanding's The Map Thief; review by Pradeep Sebastian in The Hindu.

- Danielle Allen's Our Declaration; review by Steven B. Smith in the NYTimes.

Links & Reviews

- Your must-read piece this week is John Overholt's "Five Theses on the Future of Special Collections," which will appear in a forthcoming issue of RBM but is available now via Harvard's OA DASH repository. It is an excellent, timely, and provocative essay which I hope will receive the large audience it very much deserves.

- The editors of the OED have issued a public appeal for help in identifying a book cited in the dictionary but which doesn't seem to be held in any libraries and is only found mentioned in a few places (so far). Quite a fun rabbit-hole to lose yourself down, as I've discovered. Let's help them find this book!

- At The Collation, Erin Blake explores "Two disciplines separated by a common language" - that is, "print culture" as either pertaining to printed pictures or printed words.

- Jennifer Howard profiles Bethany Nowviskie of UVA's Scholars Lab for The Chronicle.

- The Bodleian Library has acquired a manuscript of Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem "Binsey Poplars" for £50,000.

- In today's New York Times, a look at how the sequester budget cuts are affecting the Library of Congress.

- The National Library of Wales announced this week that they will no longer be claiming copyright over digitized copies of items from its collections.

- From the medievalfragments blog, a summary of a recent (and very awesome) find: 132 medieval notes and fragments found in the binding of a 1577 book.

- Sarah Werner expands on her recent Collation post on digitized copies of the First Folio at Wynken de Worde, asking just what it is that we should want as users of such digital surrogates (and not just of the First Folio, but of such things generally).

- New from the Massachusetts Historical Society, a digital presentation of the wonderfully interesting Harbottle Dorr annotated newspapers. See the blog post announcing the launch.

- David Rubenstein has lent a copy of the Stone Declaration of Independence to the State Department and will fund reproductions of the broadside to be displayed in every U.S. embassy.

- Over at EMOB, Anna Battigelli summarizes a recent Beinecke Library conference on digital archiving, Beyond the Text: Library Archives in the 21st Century.

- From Cultural Compass, the blog of the Harry Ransom Center, a post about the process used to create a digital version of the Center's Blaeu "great wall map."

- At Boston 1775 this week, J.L. Bell talked to Nat Philbrick about Philbrick's new book on the Battle of Bunker Hill: Part I, Part II.

- The Society of Nineteenth-Century Americanists announced the launch of their new journal this week: J19: The Journal of Nineteenth-Century Americanists.

- Over at Brown's curio blog, a look at a first edition Great Gatsby inscribed to T.S. Eliot by Fitzgerald (who spelled Eliot's name wrong) with Eliot's pencilled marginal notes throughout.

- I'm not sure if this is new or not, but it's new to me so I wanted to mention it: The Morgan Library & Museum has posted a piece on the provenance of their copy of the Gutenberg Bible.

Reviews

- Randall Woods' Shadow Warrior; review by Evan Thomas in the NYTimes.

- Steve Vogel's Through the Perilous Fight; review by Joyce Appleby in the WaPo.

Links & Reviews

- New this week, and already bustling, The Junto: A Group Blog on Early American History. I've added a link to the sidebar.

- I rather love this: the signed copy of the seventh edition of A Christmas Carol sold recently at auction was purchased by the people of the town of Malton, the small Yorkshire town where the woman to whom Dickens inscribed the book lived (and which may have partly inspired the story).

- A complete set of Signer autographs was up for auction at New Hampshire's RR Auction yesterday. I haven't seen a result yet; estimates suggested that the collection might fetch $1.2-1.5 million.

- New from Harvard Law School, a digital exhibition on the life and work of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

- The Daily Mail got an early look at the BL's new newspaper storage facility.

- More on the Roger Williams shorthand, from Slate and (discussing the Slate piece in part) on the JCB blog.

- The Folger Library announced this week that they were the buyer of a beautiful copy of Gerard's Herball, with contemporary hand-coloring and the cipher binding of the Earl of Essex. Also from the cool new acquisitions department, the Houghton Library is now the owner of a fantastic sermon manuscript in print-facsimile.

- A good bit of provenance reporting, from the Cardiff University rare books blog.

- Over at The Collation, Sarah Werner considers the wonderful volvelle.

- From the Clements Library blog, a look at a Revolutionary War-era rebus.

- In the Houghton "You've Got Mail" bag this week, a letter from Delia Bacon to Ralph Waldo Emerson in which she lays out some of her theories about the authorship of Shakespeare's plays.

- It's not entirely clear whether this is an actual surprising discovery, or one of those stories, but an early Hans Christian Andersen tale has been identified.

Reviews

- David Von Drehle's Rise to Greatness; review by Harold Holzer in the WaPo.

- Victoria Glendenning's Raffles and the Golden Opportunity; review by Ann Chisholm in The Telegraph.

- Alberto Manguel's All Men are Liars; review by Michael Jauchen in the NYTimes.

- Stan Knight's Historical Types from Gutenberg to Ashendene; review by Alastair Johnson at Booktryst.

- David Schoenbaum's The Violin; review by Tim Page in the WaPo.

- Robin Sloan's Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore; review by Roxane Gay in the NYTimes.

- Joyce Chaplin's Round About the Earth; review by A. Roger Ekirch in the WSJ.

Auction Report: December 10-31

Here's what's up for the remainder of 2012:

- Swann Galleries sells Fine Photographs and Photobooks on 11 December, in 417 lots.

- Sotheby's sells English Literature, History, Children's Books & Illustrations on 12 December, in 186 lots. Austen friend Anne Sharp's copy of Emma rates the top estimate, at £150,000-200,000. The earliest known photo album compiled by Julia Margaret Cameron could fetch £100,000-150,000: a gun used by Sean Connery in James Bond publicity photos rates the same estimate, as does a first edition of Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Bronte containing six manuscript Bronte letters. Eight of Virginia Woolf's pocket engagement diaries could fetch £40,000-60,000, while an imperfect Second Folio is estimated at £30,000-50,000.

- Also on 12 December at Sotheby's, The Art of Illustration - From the Collection of Michael Winner, in 157 lots. E.H. Shepard, Beatrix Potter, Arthur Rackham, Kay Nielsen, Edmund Dulac, they're all here.

- Bloomsbury sells Astronomy and Space Exploration-related lots on 12 December, in 403 lots.

- At Sotheby's on 14 December, Fine Books & Manuscripts, Including Americana, in 191 lots. A first edition, first issue of Newton's Principia is up for grabs, with a $400,000-600,000 estimate. A set of The Pennsylvania Evening Post for 1776, including the first newspaper printing of the Declaration of Independence (the second printing overall after the Dunlap broadside) rates a $300,000-400,000 estimate. The largest collection of Charles Schulz drawings and letters ever to come to auction, romantic notes and drawings to Tracey Claudius, is estimated at $250,000-350,000. A first edition of Audubon's Quadrupeds could sell for $250,000-350,000.

- PBA Galleries sells Fine Literature, Illustrated and Children's Books, and Books in All Fields on 13 December. A first edition Ulysses rates the top estimate, at $25,000-35,000.

- At Bloomsbury on 14 December, Antiquarian Books and Manuscripts, in 418 lots.

- On 20 December at PBA Galleries, Treasures from Our Warehouse with Books by the Shelf.

And that should be just about it for December! Will have updates as required.

Links & Reviews

Apologies for another delayed links & reviews.

- After appearing in the International Herald Tribune earlier in the week, Elisabetta Povoledo's piece on the Girolamini Library thefts and the Galileo forgeries was published in the NYTimes on Saturday. Some important new details here on the case.

- Leah Price offers a history of the "death of the book" trope in "Dead Again."

- Over at The Collation, Sarah Werner posts a primer on deciphering signature marks, drawing on R.A. Sayce's article and offering some great Folger examples. Meanwhile, Heather Wolfe examines early modern jokes.

- The Library Company of Philadelphia has acquired Peter Collinson's copy of William Maitland's History of London.

- Andrew Albanese at Publisher's Weekly published an update last week on the Authors Guild v. HathiTrust and Authors Guild v. Google cases, both of which could go to trial as early as this fall.

- From New York magazine, "Dead Books Club," a history of pulping.

- The Beinecke Library at Yale has acquired additional Ezra Pound manuscripts, mostly from his time at St. Elizabeth's Hospital (1945-1958).

- In a happy result for scholarship and good sense, publishing house Thomas Nelson has pulled pseudo-historian David Barton's The Jefferson Lies after a strong NPR takedown of the book. Less happily, Barton says he's found another publisher willing to print the book. For more on this, see Tim Murphy's Mother Jones piece on Barton.

- Trevor Owens poses "The Key Questions of Cultural Heritage Crowdsourcing Projects" [h/t @foundhistory]

- From Brooke at 8vo, comparing the current "debate" over who invented the internet with the longstanding arguments over who exactly first developed moveable-type printing.

- On the occasion of an NYRB Classics edition of two of his works, Thomas Browne is profiled in the NYTimes.

- Manuscript corrections and additions in a copy of the Aldine De Aetna at Cambridge University have been identified as those of the author, Pietro Bembo. The copy was formerly in the library of Stanley Morison.

- The NYTimes covers Larry McMurtry's "Last Book Sale," held last week in Archer City. More from the San Antonio Times.

- Via Boston 1775: Princeton's Sid Lapidus '59 Collection on Library and the American Revolution, consisting of 179 books, pamphlets, and prints, is now online.

- Laura Massey at The Cataloguer's Desk asks "Do Misprints or Typos Make a Book Valuable?"

- Want to make your syllabus into a format folding exercise? Sarah Werner shows you how.

- Errol Morris' two-part series on fonts and our perceptions of them is worth a read. It starts here.

Reviews

- Alexander Tsesis' For Liberty and Equality; review by Jack Rakove in TNR.

- Jill Lepore's The Mansion of Happiness; review by Dani Shapiro in the NYTimes.

- Debates in the Digital Humanities; review by Jennifer Howard in the TLS.

- Ann Durkin Keating's Rising Up from Indian Country; review by Lee Sandlin in the WSJ.

- Carlos Ruiz Zafón's The Prisoner of Heaven; review by Yvonne Zipp in the WaPo.

Links & Reviews

Sorry for the delay this week. Here's some of what's been going on:

- In case you missed it in my auction post, Jane Austen's turquoise/gold ring sold for £152,450 at auction last week.

- Heather Wolfe has a Collation post on cadel initials (with some great images).

- At Bookplate Junkie, Lew Jaffe examines an early American bookplate in his collection, that of Georgia doctor Alexander Fothringham.

- Newly available, "The Poetry of the Gentleman's Magazine, 1731-1800." Includes searchable databases of titles, authors, and first lines.

- From Booktryst, a great provincial booksellers' advertisement from 1770, and a look at a forged Poe signature.

- Glenn Fleishman writes for the Economist about those faux deckle edges publishers sometimes include on modern hardcover books.

- Michael Witmore and Robin Valenza's "What Do People Read During a Revolution?" sparked interesting responses from Joe Adelman (here) and Ben Schmidt (here and here).

- At the JCB books blog, an update on the effort to decipher Rogers Williams' shorthand.

- Recent theft reports via the ABAA security blog: two large books have gone missing from the offices of the Edinburgh World Heritage Trust Library, and two manuscripts and an early printed book have been reported stolen from St. John's University.

- Several key decisions on copyright were handed down last week by the Supreme Court of Canada. Good rundown here.

- A 1714 version of Vivaldi's "Orlando Furioso" has been located among Vivaldi's papers in the Biblioteca Nazionale in Turin; it had previously been incorrectly cataloged as a later revision of the opera (which was originally published and performed in 1727).

- Michael Dirda writes in The American Scholar about one of his favorite places to browse for books.

- The upcoming "Last Book Sale" at Larry McMurtry's Booked Up, rated an overview article in the WSJ.

- A new (to me) useful database resource: British Armorial Bindings. Via The Collation.

- Over at Fonts in Use, a look at the Dunlap broadside printing of the Declaration of Independence.

- A small collection of Eliot Ness memorabilia will be sold at auction in September.

- Dave Eggers is featured in the NYTimes "By the Book" feature this week.

- From Eliga Gould in Foreign Policy, "How Did the British Press Cover the American Revolution?"

- Pamela Samuelson's "Reforming Copyright is Possible" is well worth a read.

- A large Gandhi archive was pulled from a Sotheby's auction last week after being sold directly to the Indian government for $1.1 million.

- A new short film introduces "Epilogue," a forthcoming documentary on the future of print culture.

- Rory Litwin at Library Juice posts an email sent to current MLIS students at St. Catherine's University  (St. Paul, MN), announcing that after an academic reorganization the LIS program will be part of the business school.

- Over at Anchora, Adam G. Hooks deconstructs Ben Jonson's Workes.

Reviews

- Rebecca Stott's Darwin's Ghosts; review by Hugh Raffles in the NYTimes.

- Jefferson Morley's Snow-Storm in August; review by Fergus Bordewich in the WSJ.

- A.N. Wilson's The Elizabethans; review by James Shapiro in the NYTimes.

- Stephen Prothero's The American Bible; review by Stephen L. Carter in the WaPo.

- Philip McFarland's Mark Twain and the Colonel; review by Richard Zacks in the WSJ.

- Robert Bucholz and Joseph P. Ward's London: A Social and Cultural History, 1550-1750; review by Jonathan Yardley in the WaPo.

- Stephen Carter's The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln; review by Jonathan Shapiro in the LATimes.

- Steve Kemper's A Labyrinth of Kingdoms; review by Tim Jeal in the WSJ.

Auction Report: Recent Sales

For the full April preview, go here. Also see my report on the Kenneth Nebenzahl sale. In this post, note particularly the final sale, yesterday's Jacques Levy auction at Sotheby's New York.

- At the 11 April Heritage Auctions Historical Manuscript and Rare Books sales in New York, the Stone Declaration of Independence on parchment sold for $597,500, while the book from Washington's library fetched $101,575. A copy of Alexander Gardner's Gardner's Photographic Sketchbook of the War sold for $194,500, and a presentation copy of Thomas Jefferson's A Manual of Parliamentary Practice (1801) made $113,525.

- The archive of letters from Joan London to her father Jack sold for $18,000 at PBA Galleries 12 April Fine and Rare Books sale.

- At Swann's, Fine Books sale on 12 April, the top lot was a portion of a vellum leaf from a ~1000 CE Greek Bible, with text from Philippians 2. It had been estimated at $800-1,200, but sold for $33,600. Another leaf from the same Bible sold for $26,400.

- Bonhams Mapping and Discovery of America sale on 14 April saw the 1512 manuscript  containing accounts of early voyages to America do even better than expected; it made $326,500. A copy of Jeffreys' American Atlas (1776) fetched $86,500.

- At Bonhams Titanic sale, the unused ticket to the ship's launch proved the top lot, at $56,250. A dinner menu from the ship for the night of 12 April 1912 sold for $31,250.

- The Fine Books and Manuscripts Featuring the Michael Lerner Collection at Bonhams, held 16 April, saw a presentation copy of Ginsberg's Howl sell for $74,500, and a Jonathan Swift letter fetched $56,250.

- Swann's 17 April Revolutionary Americana sale proved their best book/manuscript sale ever, making a total of $2,084,031 with 418 of 436 lots selling. A letter by Jonathan Trumbull as Washington's aide-de-camp to Gen. George Weedon reporting that Cornwallis had requested to open negotiations at Yorktown was the top seller, at $90,000. A Jefferson letter to Weedon sold for $57,600, and the David Hume letter about the stamp act made $48,000.

- Bonhams Oxford sold Printed Books and Maps on 17 April. A presentation copy of James Hosburgh's Directions for Sailing to and From the East Indies ... (1809-11) was the top lot, at £3,125.

- At Bloomsbury's Children's and Illustrated Books sale on 19 April, the top lot was an original Edmund Dulac watercolor, which fetched £11,000.

- The Library of Jacques Levy sale at Sotheby's yesterday was a big one indeed. The sale brought in a total of $6,415,964, with many lots leaving their presale estimates far behind. The collection of David Roberts' drawings (est. $120,000-180,000) sold for $482,500, while a presentation copy of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest (1899) fetched $362,500 (over estimates of $80,000-120,000). An Eragny Press volume of Camille and Lucien Pissarro watercolors and wood-engravings sold for $314,500 (better than doubling its estimate), and Ferdinand Hayden's The Yellowstone National Park (1876) sold for $254,500. Another eight lots broke $100,000.

Links & Reviews

- Don't miss Rick Gekoski's Guardian column "Reading is Overrated." Hear, hear.

- Borders' bankruptcy filing this week prompted Edward Champion to put together a list of local indie alternatives for all 200 of the closing Borders stores.

- The ABAA documentary "Bibliomania" is now on YouTube. Good stuff.

- Jennifer Howard reported this week that the AAAS has formed a new Commission on the Humanities & Social Sciences, charged with developing an answer to this question: "What are the top ten actions that Congress, state governments, universities, foundations, educators, individual benefactors, and others should take now to maintain national excellence in Humanities and social scientific scholarship and education, and to achieve long-term national goals for our intellectual and economic well-being; for a stronger, more vibrant civil society; and for the success of cultural diplomacy in the 21st century?" It's quite a cast list, and I'll be very interested to see what they come up with.

- Also from Jennifer Howard (by far the best humanities reporter on the beat), a behind-the-scenes look at the Autobiography of Mark Twain, the University of California Press' surprise bestseller.

- The family of civil rights leader James Forman has donated his papers and book collection to the Queens College Civil Rights Archive.

- From the BBC this week, an interesting video on the discovery of Button Gwinnett's autograph in a Wolverhampton church record.

- A New Rochelle, NY man has been arrested after Long Island librarians realized he'd been stealing from libraries and selling the books on eBay for 11 years. Rudolph Cecera, Jr. is due in court on 25 February.

- At Library Sphere, "Why understanding the Digital Humanities is key for libraries."

- Glasgow University's Robert Burns Centre has been awarded a £1 million grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council to publish a scholarly edition of Burns' works through Oxford University Press.

- A new exhibit at Stanford, "The American Enlightenment: Treasures from the Stanford University Libraries," will run through 15 May.

- Melville's manuscript of Billy Budd, three books from Emily Dickinson's library, and a Maine account book of British prize goods captured in the War of 1812 are among the newly-digitized items from Harvard's Houghton Library.

- From BibliOdyssey, Buffon's illustrations of quadrupeds.

- An interesting essay by Mark Bernstein on how Internet bookselling and short-run printing are creating a "second reading revolution."

- Typographers Matthew Carter and Scott-Martin Kosofsky have digitally revived a (lovely) Hebrew typeface from the sixteenth century (Le Bé).

- Voting for this year's Diagram Prize for the Oddest Book Title has opened at The Bookseller; the winner will be announced on 25 March. Read more about the shortlist here.

Reviews

- Deborah Harkness' A Discovery of Witches; review by Nick Owchar in the LATimes.

- A new edition of William Godwin's plays, and a companion volume by the editor, David O'Shaughnessy; review by Jennifer Breen in the TLS.

- Bettany Hughes' The Hemlock Cup; review by Walter Isaacson in the NYTimes.

- Edward Lengel's Inventing Washington; review by J.L. Bell at Boston1775.

- Stephen Hebron and Elizabeth Denlinger's Shelley's Ghost; review by Duncan Wu in Times Higher Education.