Links & Auctions

- The (virtual) Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair will be held 18–20 November.

- The Library of Congress has acquired the M.C. Migel Rare Book Collection from the American Foundation for the Blind.

- From the Bodleian blog, "Congratulations, have a fish."

- Over at Books and Borrowing, "COP26 – Part 1: Glasgow, Birthplace of the Anthropocene."

- Abbie Weinberg writes for The Collation on "Small Latin and Less Greek," explaining this month's Crocodile mystery.

- From the Mudd Manuscript Library blog, Iliyah Coles on "Secret Societies at Princeton in the 19th Century."

- The BL Medieval Manuscripts blog highlights the new exhibition on Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots in "'Not lawful nor tolerable.'"

- Peter Kidd has the second installment of his series on the Lombard Cutting.

- From The Conveyor, "Printing matters: Inspiration at the Bodleian Bibliographical Press."

- Carson Koepke writes for the Beinecke blog on "Digitally Reconstructing the Acts of Appian Papyrus."

Upcoming Auctions

- Fine Books & Works on Paper and Autographs & Memorabilia at Chiswick Auctions on 9 November.

- Contemporary Artists' Books: The Property of a Texas Collector at Swann Galleries on 9 November.

- Fine Printed Books & Manuscripts, Including Americana at Leslie Hindman Auctioneers on 9–10 November.

- Books, Maps & Prints at Dominic Winter Auctioneers on 10 November.

- Rare Autographs, Photographs & Books at University Archives on 10 November.

- Modern Firsts at Skinner ends on 10 November.

- Shelf Sale: Literature, Early Printing, Books on Books at New England Auctions on 11 November.

- Fine Judaica: Printed Books, Manuscripts, Rabbinic Letters, Ceremonial & Graphic Art at Kestenbaum & Company on 11 November.

- The Civil War Collection of James C. Frasca at Leslie Hindman Auctioneers on 12 November.

Links & Auctions

- Don't forget Oak Knoll Fest (virtual), coming up on 28–30 October.

- Derrick Spires will deliver the 2021 Lieberman Lecture for APHA on 2 December, "Nineteenth-Century Black Printing and the Matter of Black Life." Register here.

- On the Columbia Rare Books blog, Celeste Brewer "On Oudated and Harmful Language in Library of Congress Subject Headings."

- Over on the Bodleian's Archives and Manuscripts blog, "The First Black Student at Oxford University."

- From the Cambridge University Special Collections blog, "The Pilgrims' Tale: The Box that Moved the Library."

- The University of Pennsylvania has received a gift of 151 interpositive glass photographic plates by Edward S. Curtis. 

- The Lazarus Project's technique for photographing books and manuscripts without opening them more than 30 degrees is highlighted in the University of Rochester news. 

Upcoming Auctions

- The Alexander Hamilton Collection of John E. Herzog at Freeman's on 25 October.

- The Ricky Jay Collection at Sotheby's New York on 27–28 October.

- Books and Works on Paper at Forum Auctions on 28 October.

- Fine Books & Autographs at Swann Galleries on 28 October.

- Comic Books: Pre-Code Horror, Golden Age, Silver Age & Undergrounds at PBA Galleries on 28 October.

Links & Auctions

- New from AAS, "Reclaiming Heritage: Digitizing Early Nipmuc Histories from Colonial Documents."

- LC and the Copyright Office have announced a new crowdsourced transcription campaign for the Library's collection of early copyright title pages.

- The Hill Museum & Manuscript Library has launched a new open-access authority file database.

- There is a memorial post for Albert H. Small at Notes from Under Grounds.

- From Patricia Akhimie at The Collation, "Extra-Illustrating Othello."

- Elaine Treharne writes for the OUP blog on "Fragmentology: bits of books and the medieval manuscript."

- Paul Needham will deliver the 2021 Lyell Lectures beginning on 11 October, "The Genesis, Life, and Afterlife of the Gutenberg Bible."

- From Books & Borrowing, "A First Look at the Aberdeen Theological Library."

- Oak Knoll Fest (virtual) is coming up on 28–30 October.

Upcoming Auctions

- Lettres & Manuscrits Autographes – Musique at Ader on 12 October.

- Travel Books, Maps and Atlases at Forum Auctions on 14 October.

- Early Printed Books at Swann Galleries on 14 October.

- The Gary Munson Collection of Horror and Fantasy Rare Books at Heritage Auctions on 14 October.

- The Robin Satinsky Collection of Illustrated Books at Bonhams New York on 15 October.

- Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts including Americana at Christie's New York ends on 15 October.

Links & Auctions

- The Virtual Ephemera Fair runs through 8 p.m. EDT today (15 August). Coming up next on 1–2 September is the New York City Virtual Book and Ephemera Fair.

- The planned in-person New York fair for September has been cancelled, with a new planned date of April 2022.

- I missed this Atlas Obscura piece last November, looks like: Jeffrey Arlo Brown on "How German Librarians Finally Caught an Elusive Book Thief."

- Over at Penn Today, a look at the Penn Libraries' participation in a multi-institution project to digitize materials documenting early medical education.

- A very happy tenth birthday to The Collation, the excellent Folger blog. They've got a neat "by the numbers" post to celebrate. And also from them this week "Book History, Manuscript Studies, and Navigating Special Collections During COVID-19."

- On the University of Glasgow archives and special collections blog, "The Foulis Brothers Book Receipts Project: how much can an invoice tell us?"

- The St Andrews special collections blog continues their series on the recent USTC conference on gender and the book trades.

- From the Columbia University rare books blog, "Two ancient papyrus fragments and their very modern reunion." 

- Madison Rootenberg Schwartz is in the "Bright Young Booksellers" spotlight this week.

- The NYPL has acquired a collection of Russian zines.

- Newly published by Quaritch, Arthur Freeman's Historical Forgery in Romanophobe Britain: Robert Ware's Irish Fictions Revisited.

- CNBC will be airing an episode of "Super Heists" this week focusing on the 2004 Transylvania University Library thefts.

Upcoming Auctions

- LGBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & History at Swann Galleries on 19 August.

- Apple and Steve Jobs at RR Auction on 19 August.

- Americana – Travel & Exploration – Space – World History – Cartography at PBA Galleries on 19 August.

- American Historical Ephemera & Photography at Leslie Hindman Auctioneers on 20 August.

Links & Auctions

One hears of significant rumblings from within the Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies (FABS) and looks forward to learning more ... 

- Next up on Getman's Virtual, the Ephemera Society's Virtual Ephemera Fair, on 20–22 March.

- Catherine Sutherland at Magdalene College Cambridge has identified books in the collections annotated by Mary Astell!

- The great researchers at Letterlocking have managed to virtually read a folded, unopened letter. See their article in Nature Communications.

- From Jennifer Schuessler for the NYTimes, "Is a Long-Dismissed Forgery Actually the Oldest Known Biblical Manuscript?" See also Idan Dershowitz's article "The Valediction of Moses: New Evidence on the Shapira Deuteronomy Fragments."

- From Peter Kidd, "A Byzantine Miniature on a Leaf from the Forrer Collection" and "One More Montbaston Bible Historiale Cutting."

- Over at Book Historia, "Books Without Books: Digitally Communicating Materiality."

- Anne Bromer writes on "Easter Island and its Books."

- Jim Hinck has a viaLibri Beta update for us.

- From the BL's Medieval Manuscripts blog, "The curious AB-script."

- New from the Internet Archive, "Search Scholarly Materials Preserved in the Internet Archive."

Upcoming Auctions

- Lettres & Autographes Manuscrits at Ader on 16 March.

- Bibliothèque Gastronomique & Oenologique de Max Cointreau at ALDE on 17 March.

- Bibliothèque Humaniste Max Cointreau at ALDE on 18 March.

- Autographes & Manuscrits at Aguttes on 18 March.

- Maps and Atlases at Forum Auctions on 18 March.

- Fine Literature with Beats, Bukowski & the Counterculture at PBA Galleries on 18 March.

- Literature from a Private New Orleans Collection at Leslie Hindman Auctioneers on 19 March.

Links & Auctions

- The California Virtual Book Fair is coming up on 4–6 March. See also their lineup of special programs for this year's fair.

- Not to be missed the online version of Mīharo Wonder: 100 Years of the Alexander Turnbull Library.

- From Mike Widener, "Printers' devices from law books," highlighting devices found in the Yale Law Library's rare book collections (more than 330 examples now up in their Flickr).

- From Adam Smyth, "Pronting Errors."

- The HRC's rescheduled Pforzheimer Lecture by Sarah Neville will now be held on 11 March.

- Over on the BL's Medieval Manuscripts blog, "Illuminated Canon Tables."

- Eve Kahn writes for the Grolier Club blog, "A Bibliophile Went Shopping, Or Maybe Not."

- From the Princeton Graphics Arts Collection blog, an "Index to Princeton's Audubon Birds."

- More from Peter Kidd this week on the dispersal of the collection of Rodolphe Kahn.

- From the Middle Temple Library's provenance mysteries series, a manuscript translation of Senault's De L'Usage des Passions by Henry Carey, Earl of Monmouth, with a list of Italian books appended.

- At Early Modern Female Book Ownership, a 1692 missal in French, with English Catholic provenance.

- The Minute Book of the United Sons of Salem Benevolent Society at the Clements Library has been transcribed!

- Brooke Palmieri will give the Charles W. Mann Lecture in the Book Arts at Penn State on 25 March. Sign up here.

- And coming up on 3 March at the Morgan, "The Women Who Made the Morgan."

- Congratulations to Jessica Camille Jordan, winner of the 2021 California Young Book Collector's Prize.

Review

- Jonathan Senchyne's The Intimacy of Paper in Early and Nineteenth-Century American Literature; review by Tim Sommer for SHARP News.

Upcoming Auctions

- The Collectors' Sale at Fonsie Mealy Auctioneers on 3 March.

- Rare Autographs, Manuscripts & Books at University Archives on 3 March.

- Books and Works on Paper at Forum Auctions on 4 March.

- Fine Art, Photography & Prints at PBA Galleries on 4 March.

- Richard Margolis International Numismatic Library at Kolbe & Fanning on 6 March.

Links & Auctions

- In the University of Iowa magazine, "The Story of a Papermaker," in which Tim Barrett reflects on 30+ years at the University's Center for the Book.

- Coming up on 19 January, Heather O'Donnell and Rebecca Romney will present a Caxton Club evening program, "Building the Future of Rare Books: Two Booksellers' Experiences in Outreach." Register here.

- From the Peter Harrington blog, "Behind the books," an interview with Rosemary and Jasmin, two of the binders the The Chelsea Bindery.

- Over at Early Modern Female Book Ownership, a 1630 King James Bible. 

- Allie Alvis' recent Edinburgh Bibliographical Society talk, "Illumination of the Page and of the Spirit," is now available on YouTube.

- Also now available for viewing, the recent Princeton/Rutgers colloquium "The Virtual Materiality of Texts: Book History During a Pandemic."

- The University of Liverpool's medieval manuscripts are now available in a new online catalog with details and sample images.

- Elizabeth Pope notes a recent AAS acquisition of an 1874 birthday and autograph album, this copy with a letter from the publisher to author Benson Lossing.

- Brittany Nichole Adams from Northwestern is in the "Bright Young Librarians" spotlight this week.

- It's all about the fastenings in the third installment of the Polonsky Foundation Greek Manuscripts Conservation blog's series about constructing a medieval eastern Mediterranean binding model.

- The Middle Temple Library's December provenance mystery features some endleaf shorthand notes!

- A new dataset of material from the Franklin Ledgers is now available from the APS.

- Emily Spunaugle's work on the Marguerite Hicks Project at Oakland University is highlighted in Hour Detroit.

Upcoming Auctions

- Four Decades: In Celebration of AIPAD at Sotheby's New York ends on 21 December.

- Libros Raros y Valiosos at Soler y Llach on 22 December.

Links & Auctions

- Rare Books LA continues today over on Getman's Virtual platform - don't miss that!

- I was very sorry to hear of the death of antiquarian bookseller Bob Rubin of Brookline, MA (see his Boston Globe obituary as posted on the Bowdoin College website, forwarded to ExLibris with added remembrances by Garrett Scott). I met Bob years ago when I was living in Boston, and always enjoyed learning from him when we ran into each other at book fairs. I regret that I never had the chance to buy a book from him: I tried for one back in 2007, but it had already sold (and showed up later in a UK dealer's catalog for triple the price). I will miss impromptu breakfasts at the Au Bon Pain on Boylston Street before the Boston shadow show, his great stories, and his thoroughly interesting catalogs.

- The Mills College First Folio sold at Christie's this week for $9,978,000 (including premiums), to Stephan Lowentheil.

- From The Collation, "Introducing the Folger Reference Image Collection" (2,600+ images!).

- Aaron Pratt has a post in the HRC Magazine's "What is Research?" series: "Learning how to read again."

- The ARCA blog has a report on the recovery of the London warehouse theft books.

- Coming up this week, RBS' panel discussion "Race and the Boundaries of the Book" - click the link to watch the seven pre-circulated presentations prior to the live event on 20 October.

- Many congratulations to Lindsay DiCuirci, winner of the 2020 Library Company of Philadelphia First Book Award for Colonial Revivals.

- Over at Medieval Manuscripts Provenance, a two-parter on Felix Joubert: Forger and Collector?

- Hilary Mantel's in the Guardian's "You Ask the Questions" column.

- From UC Davis, "Historians to Digitize Endangered Peruvian Archive."

- The Princeton Graphic Arts collection blog highlights some of their Mame et Compagnie "chocolate box" bindings.

- Mostly paywalled, but there's a report in the Times that the Royal College of Physicians is planning an auction of "non-medical" rare books from the collection bequeathed by the Marquess of Dorchester in 1680.

- Conservator Barbara Adams Hebard takes a look at some wooden bindings in the John J. Burns Library.

- Don't miss the @RareUVA Twitter thread honoring Gayle Cooper on the occasion of her fiftieth year as UVA's Rare Book Cataloger. Huzzah, Gayle!

- Over on the BL's Medieval Manuscripts blog, "Early medieval interlace."

- This month's Middle Temple Library provenance mystery is another good puzzler!

- On the SHARP blog, "On Decolonising Book History."

- From Books & Borrowing, "Broughton House Visit."

- The Bibliographical Society (UK) has announced a couple of upcoming Zoom talks, with more to follow in the spring.

- From Carolien Stolte for the Leiden University Special Collections blog, "The Esperanto textbooks that never were."

Reviews

- Susanna Clarke's Piranesi; review by Alex Preston in the Guardian.

- Ariel Sabar's Veritas; review by David Conrads in the CSM.

Upcoming Auctions

- Livres anciens du XVe au XIXe siècle at ALDE on 20 October.

- Americana, Travel, and Natural History at Bonhams New York on 21 October.

- Books and Works on Paper at Forum Auctions on 22 October.

- Fine Photographs at Swann Galleries on 22 October.

- Fine Books – Fine Press – Fine Bindings at PBA Galleries on 22 October.

Links & Auctions

- The next iteration of Getman's Virtual Book and Paper Fair will be held 4–6 August. Mark your calendar for this and for the virtual Brooklyn Antiquarian Book Fair on 11–13 September, which will feature a series of webinars, virtual exhibits, &c.

- The Library of Congress released a new report by Ryan Cordell, "Machine Learning + Libraries: A Report on the State of the Field."

- Over at Past is Present, a video introduction to the Phillis Wheatley manuscript poems in the AAS collections by curator Ashley Cataldo.

- From Stephen Grant at The Collation, "Emily Jordan Folger and Joseph Quincy Adams."

- Leah Price talked to Maeve Emre for Public Books about "books, book tech, and book tattoos." (Missed this last fall, so many thanks to Steve Ferguson for sending it along).

- New at Exeter Working Papers in Book History, "The world of the book in 19th-century Iceland: the observations of Sabine Baring-Gould and other British travelers."

- On the Bodleian's Conveyor blog, Aoife Ní Chroidheáin on the "15th-century Booktrade and Learning in the time of Lockdown."

- The Early Book Society has a new website.

- From Joshua Piker and Karin Wulf on the Omohundro Institute blog, "NAIS is Central to Early American Scholarship." NAIS = Native American and Indigenous Studies.

- A Beginning Bibliography course offered by Anne Welsh and Yvonne Lewis has begun; you can watch the introductory section for free.

- From Gregory Wiedeman in the American Archivist, "The Historical Hazards of Finding Aids."

Review

- Eley Williams' The Liar's Dictionary; review by Alexandra Harris in the Guardian.

Upcoming Auctions

- The Library of a Greek Bibliophile: Travel books, Aldines, and an important Qur'an at Sotheby's on 28 July.

- Travel, Atlases, Maps and Natural History at Sotheby's on 28 July.

- Printed Books, Maps & Documents, including the Len Newton Cactus Library at Dominic Winter Auctioneers on 29 July.

- A prayerbook belonging to Mary, Queen of Scots will be sold as part of the Classic Art Evening Sale at Christie's on 29 July.

- Valuable Books & Manuscripts at Christie's ends on 30 July.

- Books and Works on Paper at Forum Auctions on 30 July.

- Fine Books & Manuscripts at Swann Galleries on 30 July.

- Literature – Food & Agriculture – Photography – Books in All Fields at PBA Galleries on 30 July.

- Books & Works on Paper including Aviation & Transport and Autographs & Memorabilia at Chiswick Auctions on 31 July.

Links & Auctions

- New from the University of East Anglia's Unlocking the Archive team, Discover Historic Books.

- The digital version of the BL's Harley MS 7368 (The Booke of Sir Thomas Moore), can now be viewed in full online.

- The Grolier Club's annual New Members Collect exhibition is virtual this year.

- Over on the AAS blog, a new series on their artist fellowships.

- From Richard Norman on the ABAA blog, "The History of Vellum and Parchment."

- On the Early Modern Female Book Ownership blog, Sarah Duffield's copy of Crouch's Historical Remarques.

- Teaching Manuscripts has added the first two of a series of videos about making parchment.

- Claire Voon writes for Atlas Obscura about the bookwheel built by a group of RIT engineering students.

- The booksellers of ANZAAB have issued a joint catalog.

Upcoming Auctions

- Music, Continental Books and Medieval Manuscripts at Sotheby's ends on 14 July.

- The Collection of a Connoisseur: History in Manuscripts at Sotheby's ends on 15 July.

- Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper at Forum Auctions on 16 July.

- Eureka! Scientific Breakthroughs of the 20th Century at Christie's ends on 16 July.

- Illustration Art at Swann Galleries on 16 July.

Links & Auctions

The book fairs are coming!

- Marvin Getman's first Virtual Fair opens at noon EDT on Tuesday, 2 June and runs through 6 p.m. EDT on Thursday, 4 June. He's planning a fair for the first Tuesday of each month.

- The ABAA Virtual Book Fair kicks off at 10 a.m. EDT on Thursday, 4 June, and will run through 7 June.

- Firsts London's virtual Firsts Online will open at 9 a.m. EDT on Friday, 5 June.

- Haylie Swenson has a great post for the Folger's Shakespeare & Beyond blog on "Owls in the Early Modern Imagination." See also "Meet Cornelius," about the c.1625 owl-based image that's been my online avatar apparently since 2007(!).

- Aristophil sales 29–32 will be held on 16–19 June.

- From Kurt Zimmerman at American Book Collecting, a very poignant post "A Book I Shouldn't Have Yet."

- Jason Scott-Warren talked about his new book Shakespeare's First Reader with Natale Vacalebre (English starts at about 2:50).

- Arvid Nelsen has a memorial post to Colin Franklin on the Bridwell Library's site.

- Kate Ozment's article "Rationale for Feminist Bibliography" was published in Textual Cultures.

- From Chris Burgess for the Cambridge University Special Collections blog, "'I dared not dream that this dream had come true': musings on special collections in lockdown."

- New video from two BSA webinars this week: Karen Sánchez-Eppler's on juvenile marginalia, and Elaine Treharne's on medieval mise-en-page (see also the accompanying bibliography for the latter).

- Rebecca Rego Barry recaps the Christie's "Book Collecting in the Digital Age" webinar, a video of which is coming.

- Over on the N-YHS blog, "A bibliographic mystery, courtesy of Milton Halsey Thomas."

- At Early Modern Female Book Ownership, "Books owned by the Canonesses of the Holy Sepulchre."

- Jackie Penny writes for the AAS blog about the process of designing the exhibition catalog for the Paul Revere show Beyond Midnight.

- John Garth's The Worlds of JRR Tolkien is highlighted in the Guardian. Garth seeks to identify many of the buildings and areas that may have inspired settings in Tolkien's writings.

Upcoming Auctions

- Books and Works on Paper at Forum Auctions on 3 June.

- Comic Books: Pre-Code Horror, Silver Age Marvel and Undergrounds at PBA Galleries on 4 June.

- Worlds Beyond: Fine Books and Manuscripts at Christie's ends on 4 June.

- Bibliothèque Robert Beauvillain at Binoche et Giquello on 5 June.

Links, Reviews & Auctions

- The IOBA Virtual Rare Book Fair continues through the end of the weekend - well worth having a look through the many and varied offerings, though I confess, I miss chatting with the booksellers. Much looking forward to when we can all be in the same place again!

- Dan Cohen posted this piece on guidance for reopening library facilities, put together by IFLA. See also WebJunction's information hub.

- Great biblio-human Robin Myers, 94, is walking in her garden to raise money for World Jewish Relief.

- Princeton's fabulous Shakespeare and Company Project is highlighted in the Guardian.

- New from AAS, Black Self-Publishing.

- Ariel Sabar has a piece in the April Atlantic about the Dirk Obbink scandal.

- Michael Vinson is interviewed on the AbeBooks podcast about his new biography of Johnny Jenkins.

- From Simon Beattie, a look at the second issue (1733) of The Catch Club, a collection of humorous songs by English Baroque composers.

- At Early Modern Female Book Ownership, a copy of Hannah Woolley's The Queene-like Closet.

- Over on the University of Glasgow's Special Collections blog, the first installment of a series about the conservation of a 14th-century manuscript of Higden's Polychronicon.

- Distraction reading has increased in the UK, the Guardian reports.

- Research has revealed text on four Dead Sea Scroll parchments in the John Rylands Library previously believed to be blank.

- Sarah McMillan writes for Swann about the mixographia printing process. Hadn't heard of it? Me neither.

- Karin Wulf talked to Whitney Martinko for Smithsonian about "How Historic Preservation Shaped the Early United States."

- UC Berkeley has released a set of responsible access workflows for digitization projects.

- From A Bookhunter on Safari, "A Cambridge Binding – John Bird Hawes."

- Boston Athenaeum programming for the spring has gone virtual.

- The University of Liverpool library has started a blog series taking readers on an A–Z tour of the historic counties of Britain.

- The National Archives has awarded $2.9 million in grants for historical papers publication projects.

- Stephen Grant has posted the third part of his profile of first Folger director William Adams Slade.

- Famed collector Peter Spang has died. He was on the MHS board when I worked there years ago, and was unfailingly kind and interested in what we were up to. Donald Friary has a nice memorial post on Antiques and the Arts Weekly.

Book Reviews

- Nick Gadd's Death of a Typographer; review by Alex Johnson for the Fine Books Blog.

- Kevin Hayes' The Road to Monticello; review by Breck Baumann for the Colonial Review.

Upcoming Auctions

- Churchill in Charge at Sotheby's ends on 20 May.

- Books and Works on Paper at Forum Auctions on 21 May.

- Americana from the George M. Steinmetz Collection – Literature – Miscellaneous Books at PBA Galleries ends on 21 May.

- Books and Manuscripts: A Spring Miscellany at Sotheby's ends on 21 May.

- Livres Rares et Manuscrits at Christie's on 27 May.

- Printed Books, Maps & Autographs at Dominic Winter Auctioneers on 27–28 May.

- Art & Archaeology of Asia – Travel & Exploration – Cartography at PBA Galleries on 28 May.

- The Martin Magovsky Collection of Children's Books and Books & Manuscripts at Freeman's on 28 May.

Links & Auctions

- Over at Sammelband, Cait Coker on "The Special Collections Classroom in the Time of COVID-19."

- From Aaron Pratt for the HRC blog, "Gutenberg's Blanks."

- Newly online from the Library of Congress, digitized collections of the papers of Andrew Johnson, Chester Arthur, and William McKinley.

- Jane Mainley-Piddock is editing a volume of M.R. James' letters: you can support it via Unbound (I have!)

- Over at Teaching the Codex, "Goatskin in the garden: how does it feel to prepare your own parchment?"

- Now online from the Yale Law Library, Mike Widener's exhibition "Precedents So Scrawl'd and Blurr'd: Readers' Marks in Law Books."

- Among the May Rare Book Monthly articles are Susan Halas' "Bookselling in a Time of Coronavirus" (rounding up responses from various booksellers about how they're dealing with the craziness); Michael Stillman's report on the Dirk Obbink happenings; and Bruce McKinney's check-in with Marvin Getman about the potential of holding some virtual book fairs.

- From Medieval Manuscripts Provenance, "Missing Initials from the Murano Gradual."

- In Atlas Obscura, Rebecca Rego Barry writes about a recently-sold "chocolate museum in a box."

- A large collection of Civil War photographs from the Medford History Society are now being stored at Tufts University (and are available digitally through Digital Commonwealth).

- From Jerry Morris at My Sentimental Library, "Ventures in Book Collecting During This Coronavirus Pandemic."

- Over on the Cambridge Libraries Special Collections blog, "Rare Caribbean Pamphlets."

- Cynthia Smith writes for the LC's Worlds Revealed blog about "Ortelius: A Legendary Mapmaker."

- Rebecca Rego Barry notes the upcoming Freeman's sale of William Toplis' Wodehouse collection.

- From the BL's Medieval Manuscripts blog, "Designing the Arnstein Bible."

- On the Bodleian blog, a look at a 17th-century book of magical charms from their collections.

Upcoming Auctions

- Rare Books, Manuscripts & Relics, Forbes Collection Part II, Kerouac Estate Part III at University Archives on 6 May.

- Books and Works on Paper at Forum Auctions on 7 May.

- Printed & Manuscript African-Americana at Swann Galleries on 7 May.

- The P.G. Wodehouse Collection of William Toplis at Freeman's on 7 May.

- Americana – Travel & Exploration – World History – Cartography at PBA Galleries on 7 May.

Links & Auctions

- If you need a few minutes' daily respite from <  all this  > I heartily recommend Sandi Toksvig's "Vox Tox" YouTube channel. She's doing a short segment each day from home, usually featuring some interesting bits she's found amongst her books. They are pure delight. I've also been enjoying my school-librarian aunt's readings of childrens' books, and Mary Chapin Carpenter singing songs from her kitchen (both on Facebook). And if ghost stories are your jam, Robert Lloyd Parry has been posting videos of his readings on the Nunkie Films YouTube channel.

- Today is Audubon's birthday, and over on the Library of Congress blog, Ashley Cuffia has some suggestions for "Celebrating John James Audubon with Citizen Science."

- Harvard invites crowdsourced transcription help for the recently-digitized Colonial North America collection. Get started here.

- Lisa Fagin Davis' webinar "Fragments and Fragmentology in the Twenty-First Century" is now available on YouTube.

- Also newly available on YouTube, the 9 March "Feminist Bibliographies" event at UCLA.

- Penn Today highlighted the "American Contact" conference, held virtually this week with pre-circulated video papers and then Zoom discussion sessions. The papers were excellent, and though I didn't get to join as many discussion sessions as I would have liked, those I did see were also great.

- David Pearson guest-posts on the Middle Temple Libraries "Provenance Mysteries" blog about frustrations in provenance research.

- Over on Notabilia, Eric White on some new finds among the Princeton binding fragments.

- From the Princeton Graphic Arts collection blog, "Lord Temple and His Stolen Stationery."

- Scott Ellwood writes for the Grolier Club blog about eighteenth-century Yorkshire bookseller Isabella "Tibby" Tinkler."

- The Bodleian blog highlights a new catalogue of the papers of post Edward Blunden.

- From Erin Blake at The Collation, "The 'Greco Deco' Folger Shakespeare Library."

- Devin Fitzgerald is in the "Bright Young Librarians" spotlight over on the Fine Books Blog.

- More on the continuing Dirk Obbink fallout over on the ARCA blog.

- From the Cambridge University Libraries Special Collections blog, Sally Kent on "An Earthen Pot of Bones: True Crime in Sutton."

- On the BL's Untold Lives blog, "Solving a Provenance Puzzle: Papers of Henry and Robert Dundas, Viscounts Melville."

- Over on CNN, "Solving the 1,000-year-old mystery of rare blue medieval paint." And here's the Science Advances article.

- The Book Collector has launched a podcast, featuring articles from the journal's archive.

- From Sarah Werner, "Picture Books." I love the subhead: "Pictures. That's it. Just pictures of things so you can rest your brain."

Upcoming Auctions (online)

- From the Curious to the Extraordinary at Chiswick Auctions on 28 April.

- Modern Literature, Childrens', Private Press and Original Illustrations at Forum Auctions on 29 April.

- Literature, Americana, History, Collectible Books at PBA Galleries (timed sale, no reserves) starts ending at 11 a.m. PDT on 30 April.

Links & Auctions

And I thought things were looking weird last week ... gosh. As you can, please support your local independent, used, and antiquarian booksellers in any way that they need it right now (check their websites and social media for details). Support your local public and academic libraries by strongly encouraging them (if they haven't already) to close for now and carry on their missions remotely. Trust me, there is plenty we librarians can be doing, even without being in close proximity to the books in our collections.

Speaking of which, I should have thought of this sooner, too, but if it's even the tiniest bit of help to anyone (student, teacher, professor, librarian, bookseller), the list of my library is online, and if I have a book that you need to consult for reference, need a citation from, &c., just say the word and I'll be happy to get you whatever information would be useful.

- Several exhibitors at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair (all known to many of us) have tested positive for COVID-19, according to messages sent via the ABAA and ILAB this week. Please be aware of this in case it is relevant to your personal situation, and I know all readers of this blog join me in wishing our friends a speedy recovery.

- The BSA is offering the first in a series of free webinars this week, and are calling for volunteers to help with future installments and/or to assist with other timely programming.

- From my dear friends at LibraryThing, who've been working at home for years, "Work From Home Like LibraryThing Does."

- Many university presses are offering sales on books they were planning to exhibit at conferences this spring and summer; I'm sure there are others, but here are the relevant pages for JHUP and UVA Press.

- Over on the N-YHS blog, "Martha Lamb: New-York Historical Society Pioneer."

- Rebecca Rego Barry writes for CrimeReads: "Carolyn Wells, in the Library, with a Revolver." Rebecca also has a post on the FB&C blog about "Saving the Baskerville Bible."

- From Kyle Clark for the Beyond the Reading Room blog, "Unveiling the Mystery inside a Greek Manuscript Binding."

- The Culture Minister for Wales has placed a temporary export bar on a 15th-century Lewis of Caerleon manuscript to allow a UK buyer to raise the £300,000 required to keep it in the UK.

- Megan Cook and others have been crowd-compiling a spreadsheet of Digital Repositories for Book History Teaching.

- At Medieval Manuscripts Provenance, "A Dispersed Album of Illuminated Cuttings."

- A number of NYC-based philanthropic organizations have formed the "NYC COVID-19 Response & Impact Fund to support New York City-based social services and arts and cultural organizations that have been affected by the current coronavirus public health crisis."

- More on the Dead Sea Scrolls fragments fakery from the Guardian.

- From Elizabeth DeBold and Heather Wolfe at The Collation, "A Wyncoll's Tale."

- Over on the Princeton Graphic Arts Collection blog, "Need a Project, no. 2? Chromolithography." They've also pulled together a collection of links of "Online Content for Printing History and Art History."

- More useful online resources from the Folger, too.

Upcoming Auctions

- Rare Books, Manuscripts & Relics, Forbes Collection Part I, Kerouac Estate Part II at University Archives on 25 March.

- The Birmingham Assay Office Library at Forum Auctions on 26 March.

- Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper at Forum Auctions on 27 March.

- Rare Books, Manuscripts & Ephemera at Addison & Sarova on 28 March.


Courage, friends. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day.

Links & Auctions

- David Segal writes for the NYTimes about the ongoing Aristophil scandal. This is the most in-depth account of the case I've seen so far.

- In the March Texas Monthly, "The Legend of John Holmes Jenkins" by Chris O'Connell. Michael Vinson's biography of Jenkins, Bluffing Texas Style, is scheduled for publication in March by the University of Oklahoma Press. I'm very much looking forward to this book ...

- The Chicago Sun Times has an obituary for Kenneth Nebenzahl, famed antiquarian map dealer.

- The Times (paywalled) ran a report on luxury handbags being made which each contain a fragment of a manuscript written by a well-known person (Dickens, Queen Victoria, Casanova, &c.).

- Contextual Alternate's "Drafts of History" project is calling for volunteers to send copies of their local newspapers from 10 March 2020 (in part to replicate a similar attempt made on 10 March 1888). Please join if you can!

- Antiquarian bookseller Barbara Rootenberg was honored at this year's California International Antiquarian Book Fair; an introductory speech given by her granddaughter (and third-generation bookseller) Madison Rootenberg Schwartz is up on the ABAA blog.

- Book Patrol highlights the Prismatic Jane Eyre project, which explores translations of Jane Eyre.

- From Stephen H. Grant for The Collation, "First Folger Director: William Adams Slade, Part I."

- In the "Bright Young Booksellers" spotlight, Will Baker of W. C. Baker Rare Books & Ephemera.

- The Library of Congress has acquired the archive of photographer Shawn Walker, as well as Walker's collection of the Harlem-based Kamoinge Workshop.

- Texas A&M University will host an exhibition this spring and summer, "The Eternal Passion: Nicholas A. Basbanes and the Making of A Gentle Madness." A symposium on 19 March will feature Basbanes, Rebecca Romney, Kurt Zimmerman, and curator Kevin O'Sullivan.

- Simon Beattie highlights an unrecorded variant of Goethe's edition of Ossian.

Upcoming Auctions

- Classic & Contemporary Photographs at Swann Galleries on 25 February.

- A Collection of Edward Gorey at Doyle New York (online) closes on 25 February.

- Travel & Exploration at Bonhams London on 26 February.

- Bibliothèque Georges Pompidou and Éditions Originales du XIXe au XXIe Siècle at ALDE on 26 February.

- Autographs, Books & Relics Include Kerouac Estate & Hemingway at University Archives on 26 February.

- Livres Avant Garde Surréalisme at Binoche et Giquello on 28 February.

- Magic Collection of Jim Rawlins, Part III at Potter & Potter on 29 February.

Links, Reviews & Auctions

- The Olympic Manifesto, sold at auction in December, has been donated to the museum of the International Olympic Committee by the winning bidder, Russian billionaire and president of the international fencing federation Alisher Usmanov.

- Nils Bernstein writes for Atlas Obscura about the recent digitization of the collection of Mexican and Mexican-American cookbooks at the University of Texas San Antonio.

- Stacia Friedman highlights Philadelphia Rare Books & Manuscripts for Hidden City Philadelphia.

- Stephan Salisbury writes for the Philadelphia Inquirer about recent deaccessioning moves by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

- The folks doing wonderful work on the Letterlocking project have launched a new digital exhibition, Signed, Sealed & Undelivered.

- Over at Medieval Manuscripts Provenance, "Illuminated Manuscripts from the Collection of Siegfried Laemmle (1863–1953)."

- From the BL's manuscripts blog, "Middle English manuscripts galore."

- As usual, the administration's budget called for the closure of various important cultural heritage projects. LJ Infodocket has a roundup of responses.

- From the Princeton Graphic Arts collection blog, "Vellucent bindings."

- Rebecca Nicholson writes for the Guardian, "Meet the booksellers who are fighting back against the algorithm."

- Michael Ruane reports for the WaPo on a new map collection at Mount Vernon.

- Over on the BL's Untold Lives blog, word of a new acquisition of an Italian avviso from 1589.

Review

- Adam Sisman's The Professor and the Parson; review by Lawrence Osborne in the NYTimes.

Upcoming Auctions

- Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs at Lyon & Turnbull on 19 February.

- Biblioteca Alberto Marín at Soler y Llach on 19 February.

- Livres anciens & illustrés modernes, manuscrits & lettres autographes at Aguttes on 20 February.

- Books and Works on Paper at Forum Auctions (online) on 20 February.

- Rare Americana & Cartography with the Robert M. Ebiner Zamorano 80 Collection at PBA Galleries on 20 February.

- Fine Books and Manuscripts at Swann Galleries on 20 February.

Links & Auctions

- The Mapping Manuscript Migrations portal launched this week.

- Barbara Basbanes Richter wrote for the Fine Books Blog about a Zamorano 80 collection coming up for sale next week at PBA Galleries.

- Paul Erickson did a Q&A for the Clements Library blog about his first month on the job.

- Bhavya Dore writes for Atlas Obscura about Adligat, a fascinating rare book collection in Belgrade.

Upcoming Auctions

- Printed Books, Maps & Documents at Dominic Winter Auctioneers on 12 February.

- Irish Historical Interest Books, &c. at Purcell Auctioneers on 12 February.

- Vintage Posters at Swann Galleries on 13 February.

Links & Auctions

- From Georgianna Ziegler, "What were women reading? A dive into the Folger vault."

- A look at a very cool 1663 book on metametrica from the Princeton Graphic Arts collection blog.

- Over at Sammelband, "Making the Syllabus Zine."

- Coming up in May at the Center for the History of Print and Digital Culture at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, the inaugural Summer Institute in Book History & Digital Humanities, on the theme "Acting on the Book."

- The Washington Post reported this week that the Library of Congress also chose not to highlight a photo of the 2017 Women's March in an exhibit because of "anti-Trump messages" appearing in the photograph.

- Tulane University has acquired the Anne Rice archives, with support from Stuart Rose and the Stuart Rose Family Foundation.

- Things don't appear to be quite so devastating as first reports indicated for the collections of the Museum of Chinese in America—still awful, but not a total loss, at the very least. Atlas Obscura ran a report on the first round of retrievals from the building.

- Don't miss the February Rare Book Monthly articles.

Upcoming Auctions

- Paul Destribats: Bibliothèque des avant-gardes, Partie II at Christie's Paris on 4 February.

- Sporting & Travel Books from the Library of Arnold "Jake" Johnson at Doyle (online) on 4 February.

- Rare Books & Manuscripts at the Pasadena Book Fair at PBA Galleries on 6 February.

- Lettres & Manuscrits Autographes at Ader on 6 February.

Links & Auctions

- The University of Edinburgh's fundraising campaign to keep the Charles Lyell notebooks in the UK has been successful!

- In similar news, the judge's copy of Lady Chatterley's Lover, also made subject to an export bar, has been acquired by Bristol University after a successful fundraising effort.

- A new film about antiquarian bookselling, The Booksellers, will debut tomorrow at the New York Film Festival. More from LitHub.

- Beverly Rogers, who recently established a $5 million endowment for the rare books and special collections program at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, talked to UNLV news about some of the favorite books in her collection.

- Nicola Davis writes for the Guardian on some of the recent advances made in the painstaking process being deployed in an attempt to "read" the Herculaneum scrolls.

- October's Rare Book Monthly articles include a Susan Halas interview with bookseller Simon Beattie and Michael Stillman on "Collections Moving On, But Where To?"

- Princeton's exhibition Gutenberg & After includes a number of important and interesting online components.

- The HRC's permanent exhibition of the Niépce Heliograph has been updated with new introductory material, &c.

- Commonplace has relaunched at a new URL, http://commonplace.online/

- Over at Sammelband, "Teaching in the Maker Studio."

- The ABAA passed along an alert for two seventeenth-century titles missing from a San Francisco building lobby.

- From Janalyn Martinez for the Grolier Club, "A Noble Fragment."

Upcoming Auctions

- Livres Rares et Manuscrits at Christie's Paris on 7 October.

- Rare Books, Maps, Manuscripts & Photography at Lyon & Turnbull on 9 October.

- Books and Documents of the History of Mexico at Morton Subastas on 9 October.

- Fine Literature at PBA Galleries on 10 October.

- Fine Books & Manuscripts at Swann Galleries on 10 October.