Links & Reviews

- The biggest splash in the biblioblogosphere this week was a joint effort by Brooke Palmieri of 8vo and Daryl Green of Echoes from the Vault): "Bloggers of the World Unite: Rare Book Bloggers and the Links They Build." It's as excellent a discussion on the topic as any of us are likely to see, and I'm absolutely thrilled to see that it circulated so widely! Rebecca Rosen used the post as a jumping-off point for an Atlantic piece, Jennifer Schaffner added additional thoughts at hangingtogether.org, and there was much good discussion on Twitter as well. Fantastic stuff.

- Rare Book School has posted some plans and images of their big renovation project, part of which will be ready for this summer's sessions!

- Mills Kelly's George Mason University Lying About the Past course finished up this week, and he revealed the two hoaxes unleashed by his students this time around. Yoni Applebaum wrote up the story for the Atlantic, and that led to some incredibly nasty comments (plus a remarkable discussion on Wikipedia's admin forums about the site's response). Kelly noted Applebaum's piece (and its comments) on 15 May, and responded to some of the comments he was receiving the following day. Frankly I think Kelly's class is a tremendously useful one for both his students and for the world at large, and I hope he's able to teach it again in the future. Mark Sample weighed in on this as well, in "Scholarly Lies and the Deformative Humanities."

- Robert Darnton penned a defense of the NYPL's renovation plans in the NYRB. Jennifer Maloney covered the controversy over the plans for the WSJ.

- Cullen Nutt writes on the Wilson Quarterly blog about the current Smithsonian exhibit highlighting "Jefferson's Bible."

- The Folger announced this week that its Folger Shakespeare Editions texts of Shakespeare's plays will be released for free ("minus glosses, notes and interpretive material").

- From Jen Howard at the Chronicle, updates on plans to create a "central clearinghouse" for archival collections. Such a beast would be terribly useful!

- A watercolor painting believed to be of the Bronte sisters will be up for auction this week, with an estimate of £20,000-30,000.

- A new Tumblr launched this week: "Really Long Titles of Really Old Books."

- AbeBooks UK has launched a blog of their own, Pages & Proofs. I've added a link on the sidebar.

- Jen also filed a story early this week on the GSU copyright case which I mentioned in last weekend's Links. Hers is an excellent overview of the ruling and its implications. She followed up later in the week as responses rolled in. The ARL released an "issue brief" [PDF] on the case on 15 May.

- The Sunday Sun reports today that investigators from the office of the Prison and Probation Ombudsman have asked the newspaper to hand over letters written to the paper by Raymond Scott from prison prior to his suicide on 14 March.

- Brewster Kahle and Rick Prelinger argue in Technology Review for a de-centralized digital library, created by "lots of publishers, booksellers, authors and readers - and lots of libraries." They write "If many actors work together, we can have a robust, distributed publishing and library system, possibly resembling the World Wide Web."

- There's quite a storm brewing around Naples' historic Girolamini Library. In March an art professor, Tomaso Montanari, charged in an Il Fatto op/ed that the library's manager, Mariano Massimo De Caro, wasn't academically fit for the job. A petition to the Minister of Culture, Lorenzo Ornaghi, asked how the government could entrust the management of the Girolamini to "a man bereft of even the minimum academic qualifications or professional competence to honour the role." It had been signed by more than 2,000 academics by mid-April, when De Caro suddenly showed up at a prosecutor's office to report more than 1,500 books "missing" from the library. Gian Antonio Stella's 17 April Corriere della Sera article takes us that far. By 20 April the library had been seized, De Caro suspended on suspicion of embezzlement, and a caretaker head appointed. This week reports indicated that some 240 books with Girolamini library stamps had been found at a storage facility in Verona, where De Caro lives, and that police believe many others had already been sold abroad.

De Caro is described as a "former partner" in the Buenos Aires bookshop Imago Mundi. That shop is owned by Daniel Guido Pastore, who was reportedly involved in the 2007 theft of maps from Spain's national library by César Gómez Rivero. Jennifer Lowe of the RBMS Security Committee has been doing a great job posting updates to this case on Ex-Libris, so keep an eye out there; I'm sure there are more shoes yet to drop.

Reviews

- Hilary Mantel's Bring Up the Bodies; reviews by Catherine Taylor in the Telegraph and Martin Rubin in the LATimes.

- Richard Fortey's Horseshoe Crabs and Velvet Worms; review by Constance Casey in the NYTimes.

- Katherine Frank's Crusoe; review by Joanna Scutts in the WaPo.

- Andrea Wulf's Chasing Venus; review by JoAnn C. Gutin in the NYTimes.

Links & Reviews

- Paul Collins notes his new New Scientist article [subscription required, sadly] on the "Edison Test," a 1920s attempt to use standardized testing as a basis for employment. You can take the full test (slightly modified) here.

- Earlier this month I passed along the news that the Guernsey Memorial Library director had gotten herself into some hot water over improper use of library funds. LIS News has some more on that, with one attendee at a recent library board meeting describing the situation as featuring "an angry mob."

- Some movement this week in the Rivero map theft case; an El Pais article (in Spanish) reports that two other men are believed to have been involved in the thefts from Spain, as well as other thefts from libraries around South America. These are Buenos Aires bookstore owner Daniel Guido Pastore and Uruguayan Washington Luis Pereira. Tony Campbell found an earlier article from El Pais with further details.

- The Fortsas project got some very nice attention from De Papieren Man, a lovely Dutch blog which I've added to the sidebar.

- Houghton Library has acquired some very interesting manuscript library catalogs: "one, a list of books purchased for the Reading Society, Benevolent Society, and Sunday School of Bury, Lancashire from 1806-1826, and the second, the catalogue of the Dundas family’s private library at Melville Castle near Edinburgh, compiled in 1862." Very cool.

- J.L. Bell has an excellent survey of Thomas Jefferson resources online.

- My article "Enlarging the Bibliosphere: Using LibraryThing to Promote Book History" is in the next issue of Aus dem Antiquariat (you'll know it when you see it, it's the only article in English). The text isn't online, so far as I can tell.

- Richard Cox, back from vacation, has some thoughts on three new books about collecting (loosely defined): McMurty's, Israel's, and William Davies King's Collections of Nothing.

- Writing for Britannica Blog, Robert McHenry comments on Oliver Wendell Holmes' 1858 musings on youth and activity.

- Over at Ed and Edgar, Ed's been posting on "The Raven" all week, so read back through and enjoy the wide selection of posts. My favorite was the first post, featuring a reading of the poem by the great Basil Rathbone.

Review

- In Salon, Louis Bayard reviews Lee Israel's Can You Ever Forgive Me? and Jonathan Lopez' The Man Who Made Vermeers.

Stolen Map Returned to Spain

One of the fifteenth-century maps stolen this summer from the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid has officially been returned to Spanish control, the Sydney Morning Herald reported yesterday. Australian map dealer Simon Dewez purchased the 1482 Ulm Ptolemy World Map in America after it was stolen in Spain by César Gómez Rivero. "The Prime Minister's parliamentary secretary, Anthony Byrne, returned the stolen artefact to the Spanish ambassador, Antonio Cosano, yesterday [Monday] at the National Library in Canberra."

Cosano told reporters "This country is sending a very strong and firm message that it fully implements its international obligations and Australia is not a safe haven for the illicit export of the cultural heritage of any nation."

[h/t Joyce]

Spanish Library's Holiday Card Features Recovered Map

ThinkSpain notes that the Biblioteca Nacional's Christmas card this year features a photograph of one of two 15th-century Ptolemaic maps stolen from the library this summer. The pictured map has been located in Australia, but has not yet been returned to Spain.

A full-scale audit of the library's holdings - the first since 1988 - will be carried out from 14-19 January. The new director has told the media he expects "more unpleasant surprises."

Spain's Foreign Ministry Library Hit by Thefts

Hot on the heels of the recent thefts at Madrid's Biblioteca Nacional comes word this week that the library of Spain's Foreign Ministry has also been targeted by thieves in recent years. A recent inventory revealed that nearly 300 "highly valued" books are missing from the collections of the library, which is open only to scholars or specialist researchers. "Among the missing items are several maps from the late 16th century, a number of large-format books, as well as a valuable collection of 18th-century maps of the coastline of northern Europe."

Most of the losses are believed to have occurred within the last four years. "Police sources say that thieves have taken advantage of poor security at the 17th-century Ministry building in Madrid that houses the collection," and authorities are investigating possible insider involvement: "One hypothesis being explored is that a Ministry employee has taken advantage of the poor security in the building to systematically steal books to sell them on the black market."

[h/t Everett Wilkie, ExLibris]

Spain Map Thefts Update

The AP reported yesterday that ten of the fifteen maps stolen from Spain's Biblioteca Nacional this summer have been returned to the library's control. Eight of the maps were found in Buenos Aires with the accused thief, César Gómez Rivero. Two others were recovered from the United States. An eleventh map, now in Australia, will be returned once a thirty-day authorization period passes. Four additional maps - at least - remain unaccounted for.

New library director Milagros del Corral announced this week that a "major audit" of the collections will begin in January. "I can't discount that we'll find more unpleasant surprises," he said, adding that the last such audit was in 1988.

Madrid Maps Homeward Bound

The maps and other historical documents stolen this summer from Madrid's Biblioteca Nacional are now headed back to the library, their authenticity confirmed by Spanish investigators in Buenos Aires.

César Gómez Rivero "has two cases against him in the courts in Argentina, one for the fraudulent sale of two of the maps in Australia and the United States, and the other ... an extradition request from Spain."

Madrid Maps Update

The Times provides some new information about the Madrid map thefts today, reporting that Spanish police flew to Buenos Aires this weekend to recover the materials stolen from the Biblioteca Nacional and to request the extradition of the thief, César Gómez Rivero. Spanish authorities want to try Rivero in Spain, "where penalties for the theft of historical items are much stiffer" than Argentina.

This story also gives the names of the New York and Australian dealers who'd purchased maps stolen by Rivero: "Acting on requests from Spanish police, the FBI has retrieved another map from Richard Lan, a dealer in New York, who had sold it to a private client. Australian police have recovered another from Simon Dewez, a dealer in Sydney, who bought it in America. Both men insist that they bought the maps in good faith. 'I had absolutely no idea it was stolen,' Mr Dewez said. 'I thought it was a fantastic buy, a rare opportunity.'"

You know what they say about things seeming too good to be true.

This case seems to be wrapping up fairly tidily, provided that extradition proceedings go smoothly.

Stolen Maps Recovered, No Arrest Made (Yet)

Alright here's what seems to be the latest information regarding the recovery of documents and maps stolen from Madrid's Biblioteca Nacional (by way of partial update to yesterday's post).

AFP reports that a lawyer hired by the suspect (César Gómez Rivero) delivered eight documents, including two Cosmographia maps, to Argentinian police in Buenos Aires, "Argentina's assistant police commissioner Marcelo Elaide told Spanish radio Cadena Ser." The suspect "asked to not be arrested in exchange for having returned the items." Elaide added that "Argentine police have located the suspect but have not arrested him since they have not received a request from Spain."

Presumably that request will be forthcoming.

Map Thief Arrested - Maybe

The man suspected of stealing more than a dozen rare maps and documents from Spain's National Library has been arrested in Argentina, according to (some) media reports. The man, "60 year old César Gómez Rivero, has apparently handed himself into the authorities, and a team from the Spanish Civil Guard are report[ed] by some sources to be preparing to travel to Argentina on Friday. He was also carrying other documents which he claimed had also been taken from the Biblioteca Nacional."

Library director Milagros del Corral appeared to confirm the arrest on Wednesday, but El Pais reports on its website today that while Rivero's lawyer has been in contact with an Argentinian judge to discuss returning stolen documents in his client's possession, Rivero has not in fact surrendered. The judge apparently refused Rivero's demand that he not be arrested if he turned over the stolen materials. "We are continuing to look for him," said a Civil Guard spokesman.

Several of the items stolen by Rivero have been recovered, including one map each in Sydney and New York.

Stolen Maps Recovered

Everett Wilkie passes along two articles from Spain's El Pais (one from Tuesday, one from today) regarding the map thefts from Madrid's Biblioteca Nacional reported back in early September. The articles are in Spanish, but I've found condensed English versions here and here.

Tuesday's piece reveals that one of the stolen maps (from a 1482 edition of Ptolemy's Cosmographia) was recovered by the FBI in New York after it was found to be in the possession of a collector. "The identity of the collectioner [sic] was not given. It was not known whether he or she was aware that the map, which is valued at about 100,000 euros (140,000 dollars), was stolen."

Police now believe that twelve pages of maps and documents were removed from the National Library by an Uruguayan man living in Argentina, who registered with the library as a historian using the name César Ovilio Gómez Rivero (may not be his real name).

And from Australia, news that police have recovered two additional maps from the same 1482 text, these "found in Sydney at the home of an Australian antiques dealer who had bought them at an auction in London. ... The names of the Australian dealer and the London auction house were not revealed."

More as I find it.

Two 1482 Maps Stolen from Spain's National Library

[This post will be a test of my translation skills. If I screw up, somebody please tell me.]

elmundo reports (in Spanish) that two world maps from a rare 1482 edition of Ptolemy's Cosmographia were recently stolen from the Biblioteca National in Madrid. According to the article, the maps had been housed in a secure section of the library.

An investigation by a special unit of the Civil Guard has been initiated. If I find out anything more, I'll certainly pass it along.