It all started Friday morning with an innocent query to ExLibris by Columbia University Rare Books Librarian Jane Rodgers Siegel, whose husband had asked her what a group of librarians is called (you know, like a pride of lions). His own guess was "a quire of librarians." But that was just the beginning. The suggestions poured in over the course of the day. I include some of them here, with their contributors:
- shush of librarians (Robert Beasecker) ... or "a shoosh of librarians," which is, as Ashley Large noted, the 'official' Uncylopedia term.
- gathering of librarians (C.J. Scheiner, Martin Howley)
- fascicle of librarians (Eric White) ... someone later suggested this should only apply to serials librarians, while Jay Dillon added it might be used for temps.
- google of librarians (Eric White)
- sammelband of librarians (Eric White)
- collation of librarians (Fred Schreiber)
- bibliogeekerie of librarians (Merfyn Jones)
- classification of librarians (Steve Mauer)
- catalogue of librarians (Eric White)
- stack of librarians (Jane Wickenden)
- spectacle of librarians (David Anderson)
Edward Hoyenski, admitting "yes, I've had caffeine," suggested "a cutter of librarians," "a press of rare book librarians," "a subscription of serials librarians," "a search of reference librarians," and "a catalog of catalogers."
Kevin Mac Donnell went all out, even tossing in some timely references:
- folio of librarians (large group)
- duodecimo of librarians (small group)
- gauffering of librarians (fringe group)
- errata of librarians (a very dumb group)
- slug of book-thieves (very dumb book-thieves who appeal their sentence and get a longer sentence)
- collation of bibliographers
- pagination of cataloguers
- deckle of papermakers
- font of typesetters
- register of printers
- case of binders
- prospectus of publishers
- blurb of booksellers
- oozing of Roycroft imprints
It took a very long time for anyone to suggest the one a friend came up with instantly at work (collection of librarians). Another friend (the cynic) threw out "backlog of librarians" (harsh, but probably fair).
After quite a few hours of this, Jay Dillon quipped "Oh, I don't know. I rather liked the first one, 'a quire of librarians'. Thus, for example, certain contributors to this list have been preaching to the quire."
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Another Blog to Read
This one crossed the transom just a little too late for this morning's post, but I didn't want it to wait another week. The author of Not in WorldCat describes the blog as "an outlet for one bookseller/librarian (me) to feature unusual, rare and interesting items that exist outside of WorldCat’s vast reach." Basically it's photos and descriptions of books for sale on ABE that don't have entries in WorldCat (or didn't when the booksellers wrote up the descriptions, at least).
I've added a sidebar link.
[h/t The Little Professor, Cliopatria]
I've added a sidebar link.
[h/t The Little Professor, Cliopatria]
Links & Reviews
- A blog-birth announcement: Special Collections Research Center, written by the SCRC staff at the University of Chicago. Very interesting posts so far. I've put up a sidebar link and added the blog's feed to my Google Reader.
- The town of Dover, NH is set to receive three volumes of its early town records after they were nearly sold at auction in Texas last week, the Foster's Daily Democrat reports. After the town learned of the impending sale and called the auction house, the records' consignor agreed to donate the volumes to the town (rather than face a lawsuit that might have forced their return). [h/t Everett Wilkie]
- From BibliOdyssey this week, engravings from Mausoleum Potentissimorum ac Gloriosissimorum Regni Apostolici Regum et Primorum Militantis Ungariae Ducum' (Mausoleum of the Most Powerful Kings and Dukes of Hungary) by Ferenc Nádasdy, 1664; also a "geomancy almanac" from the 1550s, described as "a combination of astrological/astronomical treatise, religious almanac and prediction calendar."
- The George Washington University Law School's Jacob Burns Law Library has acquired French law book collection of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, comprising some 600 volumes of French legal texts from the 16th-19th centuries.
- The University of Iowa Special Collections has unveiled the Atlas of Early Printing, "an online, interactive map depicting the early years of printing in the fifteenth century and the spread of the new technology across Europe." The site may require a FlashPlayer update.
- Ed has another dispatch from his recent visit to Philly, where he witnessed the arrival of the Poe Toaster.
- In the Harvard Magazine, Cambridge booksellers James and Devon Gray are profiled. [h/t John Overholt]
- The University of South Carolina's Thomas Cooper Library has opened an exhibition of medieval manuscripts: "Pages from the Past: A Legacy of Medieval Books in South Carolina Collections." The catalog is available here.
- Jim Watts asks "Is there growing contempt for books?" I think his analysis here is spot-on.
- Over at Steamboats Are Ruining Everything, Caleb comments on a truly nefarious practice by publishers: selling print-on-demand copies of out-of-print backstock. "Inside hard covers deceptively similar to those of the other volumes, the publisher had stuck a text block that was only a shoddy knock-off of what ought to have been there. But, reader, they charged full price." Not cool.
- From the University of Seville, a huge list of digital books available through their website, so if you are in need of any Spanish antiquarian titles, do check here.
Reviews
- Richard Cox review and discusses Drew Gilpin Faust's This Republic of Suffering, noting that the book "provides considerable discussion about the creation of new kinds of public and private recordkeeping ... Although it is not Faust’s intent to write a meditation on the archival impulse, archivists and others interested in archives reading this book will come away with a deeper sense of why records are created and why they are preserved."
- In the LATimes, Art Winslow reviews Susan Jacoby's The Age of American Unreason.
- The town of Dover, NH is set to receive three volumes of its early town records after they were nearly sold at auction in Texas last week, the Foster's Daily Democrat reports. After the town learned of the impending sale and called the auction house, the records' consignor agreed to donate the volumes to the town (rather than face a lawsuit that might have forced their return). [h/t Everett Wilkie]
- From BibliOdyssey this week, engravings from Mausoleum Potentissimorum ac Gloriosissimorum Regni Apostolici Regum et Primorum Militantis Ungariae Ducum' (Mausoleum of the Most Powerful Kings and Dukes of Hungary) by Ferenc Nádasdy, 1664; also a "geomancy almanac" from the 1550s, described as "a combination of astrological/astronomical treatise, religious almanac and prediction calendar."
- The George Washington University Law School's Jacob Burns Law Library has acquired French law book collection of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, comprising some 600 volumes of French legal texts from the 16th-19th centuries.
- The University of Iowa Special Collections has unveiled the Atlas of Early Printing, "an online, interactive map depicting the early years of printing in the fifteenth century and the spread of the new technology across Europe." The site may require a FlashPlayer update.
- Ed has another dispatch from his recent visit to Philly, where he witnessed the arrival of the Poe Toaster.
- In the Harvard Magazine, Cambridge booksellers James and Devon Gray are profiled. [h/t John Overholt]
- The University of South Carolina's Thomas Cooper Library has opened an exhibition of medieval manuscripts: "Pages from the Past: A Legacy of Medieval Books in South Carolina Collections." The catalog is available here.
- Jim Watts asks "Is there growing contempt for books?" I think his analysis here is spot-on.
- Over at Steamboats Are Ruining Everything, Caleb comments on a truly nefarious practice by publishers: selling print-on-demand copies of out-of-print backstock. "Inside hard covers deceptively similar to those of the other volumes, the publisher had stuck a text block that was only a shoddy knock-off of what ought to have been there. But, reader, they charged full price." Not cool.
- From the University of Seville, a huge list of digital books available through their website, so if you are in need of any Spanish antiquarian titles, do check here.
Reviews
- Richard Cox review and discusses Drew Gilpin Faust's This Republic of Suffering, noting that the book "provides considerable discussion about the creation of new kinds of public and private recordkeeping ... Although it is not Faust’s intent to write a meditation on the archival impulse, archivists and others interested in archives reading this book will come away with a deeper sense of why records are created and why they are preserved."
- In the LATimes, Art Winslow reviews Susan Jacoby's The Age of American Unreason.
Saturday, February 09, 2008
Literary Ladies at LibraryThing
Over at the LT Blog, Abby notes some important additions to the growing community of Literary Luminaries: in the last month, users have catalogued the libraries of Isabella Stewart Gardner, Susan B. Anthony, Marie Antoinette, and Sylvia Plath. Browse away!
I had some comments on ISG's library back when I finished entering it; I also worked on some of the cataloguing for Anthony's collection, which seemed to be much more practically-based than the others (lots of government reports, meeting proceedings and so forth), but was just as much fun to work on.
Yet another powerful statement about the collaborative power of LT and its potential for bringing the bibliosphere to life.
I had some comments on ISG's library back when I finished entering it; I also worked on some of the cataloguing for Anthony's collection, which seemed to be much more practically-based than the others (lots of government reports, meeting proceedings and so forth), but was just as much fun to work on.
Yet another powerful statement about the collaborative power of LT and its potential for bringing the bibliosphere to life.
Friday, February 08, 2008
On Reading Handwriting
Over in Slate, author Megan Marshall (The Peabody Sisters) has an essay entitled "The Impossible Art of Deciphering Manuscripts." Megan is a longtime MHS researcher and friend, and the column includes several images from the Society's collections, comments from other frequent visitors, and background about several ongoing editorial projects here at the library (including the Adams Family Papers, Winthrop Family Papers and the Caroline Healey Dall diaries).
Marshall's inspiration for the piece is the ongoing kerfluffle over the Notebooks of Robert Frost (mentioned here), which highlights the arduous task of modern documentary editors (more on which later this weekend in another post). Marshall writes "Current editorial standards require print versions of authors' journals to reproduce as faithfully as possible every stroke of the pen, every cross-out or insertion, even sometimes the look of the handwritten page, with ragged margins and random gaps. For dead writers, diary pages are the best evidence scholars have of the ways their minds worked—their first thoughts on a poem or story, their innermost ambitions and fears as human beings. No one wants to get that wrong."
The article covers some of the most tricky aspects of reading historical handwriting, from John Winthrop's with its unfamiliar style, abbreviations and word usage to the eye-straining practice of "cross-writing" (which is tricky even when the author had readable handwriting).
Marshall mentions one of my favorite discussions of bad handwriting: In May 1858, William Lloyd Garrison writes to Theodore Parker regarding a manuscript Parker had submitted for publication in The Liberator:
"I was so interrupted by company to a late hour last night, that I have found it impossible to look over your manuscript, though I tried to do my best. You say that it is written so plain that he who runs may read it 'if he can.' I can say, on an examination of it, that its chirography is such as to furnish a very strong inducement for any man to run, who attempts to read it!
However, I trust that, by the aid of your good wife, Miss Stephenson, Wendell Phillips, Samuel May Jr., Robert H. Wallcutt, Winchell Garrison, and a few others, we shall be able to decipher it, so as to print it in the Liberator without any serious blunders."
Garrison signs his note "Your puzzled friend."
Marshall's inspiration for the piece is the ongoing kerfluffle over the Notebooks of Robert Frost (mentioned here), which highlights the arduous task of modern documentary editors (more on which later this weekend in another post). Marshall writes "Current editorial standards require print versions of authors' journals to reproduce as faithfully as possible every stroke of the pen, every cross-out or insertion, even sometimes the look of the handwritten page, with ragged margins and random gaps. For dead writers, diary pages are the best evidence scholars have of the ways their minds worked—their first thoughts on a poem or story, their innermost ambitions and fears as human beings. No one wants to get that wrong."
The article covers some of the most tricky aspects of reading historical handwriting, from John Winthrop's with its unfamiliar style, abbreviations and word usage to the eye-straining practice of "cross-writing" (which is tricky even when the author had readable handwriting).
Marshall mentions one of my favorite discussions of bad handwriting: In May 1858, William Lloyd Garrison writes to Theodore Parker regarding a manuscript Parker had submitted for publication in The Liberator:
"I was so interrupted by company to a late hour last night, that I have found it impossible to look over your manuscript, though I tried to do my best. You say that it is written so plain that he who runs may read it 'if he can.' I can say, on an examination of it, that its chirography is such as to furnish a very strong inducement for any man to run, who attempts to read it!
However, I trust that, by the aid of your good wife, Miss Stephenson, Wendell Phillips, Samuel May Jr., Robert H. Wallcutt, Winchell Garrison, and a few others, we shall be able to decipher it, so as to print it in the Liberator without any serious blunders."
Garrison signs his note "Your puzzled friend."
Mold Outbreak at Univ. of IL
Chicago papers are reporting today that the Rare Book & Manuscript Library at the University of Illinois "is infested with mold and will be closed down for several months." More than 15,000 books of the 300,000-volume collection have been found to contain mold, and that's just what's been discovered so far. "It's a significant portion of the collection," said a librarian at the university.
"The Rare Book library will close Feb. 25 so an outside firm can undertake a painstaking cleanup of each item, as well as shelves, walls, floors and the ventilation system." The library hopes to reopen by the beginning of May. The articles note that the air-handling system for the rare books department is more than 25 years old.
A statement on the RBML's website reads in part "We are very sorry about this situation. It is a problem that has been in the making for years. This crisis gives us the opportunity to make things better for users of our collections, however, so we need to proceed, despite the present inconveniences to staff, faculty, students, and researchers around the world."
I know I join librarians, researchers and bibliophiles everywhere in wishing the staff of the library the very best of luck as they take this necessary step.
[h/t NIU RB&SC]
"The Rare Book library will close Feb. 25 so an outside firm can undertake a painstaking cleanup of each item, as well as shelves, walls, floors and the ventilation system." The library hopes to reopen by the beginning of May. The articles note that the air-handling system for the rare books department is more than 25 years old.
A statement on the RBML's website reads in part "We are very sorry about this situation. It is a problem that has been in the making for years. This crisis gives us the opportunity to make things better for users of our collections, however, so we need to proceed, despite the present inconveniences to staff, faculty, students, and researchers around the world."
I know I join librarians, researchers and bibliophiles everywhere in wishing the staff of the library the very best of luck as they take this necessary step.
[h/t NIU RB&SC]
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Facsimile Signatures in Subscriber Lists
For a class visit recently, we pulled our copy of Thomas McKenney and James Hall's History of the Indian Tribes of North America (Philadelphia: E.C. Biddle, 1838-1844), a three-volume folio collection of 121 lithographic and chromolithographic portraits of American Indian leaders. McKenney, who served as Superintendant of Indian Affairs from 1824-1830 (under Presidents John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson) commissioned and collected the portraits for a gallery in the War Department, and eventually arranged for their publication in this form (with accompanying text by Hall). Since most of the original portraits were lost in the Smithsonian fire of 1865, the lithographs are the only record of them.
The portraits themselves (by Charles Bird King and George Cooke) are quite lovely, but I was particularly taken with an interesting feature of the book that I don't recall having seen before. At the end of the third volume, several pages were devoted to a list of subscribers (not uncommon at all), with each subscriber's name printed there in facsimile. The names include many if not most of the well-known politicians - national and state - of the day, as well as more than a few crowned heads of Europe.
Pretty nifty practice, even if it doesn't seem to have been very common at all. [If you know of other examples, I'd be very interested in them. I'm also looking forward to getting a chance to dig a bit more deeply into the names on the list in McKenney and Hall.]
Links:
University of Cincinnati digital edition of McKenney & Hall. Accompanying exhibit.
University of Washington Libraries ditto (good background).
Smithsonian Exhibition, 1996: "The McKenney & Hall Lithographs of Charles Bird King's Portraits of American Indians."
Garcia Street Books description of the collection, with more good background. This copy was for sale with a tag of $150,000.
The portraits themselves (by Charles Bird King and George Cooke) are quite lovely, but I was particularly taken with an interesting feature of the book that I don't recall having seen before. At the end of the third volume, several pages were devoted to a list of subscribers (not uncommon at all), with each subscriber's name printed there in facsimile. The names include many if not most of the well-known politicians - national and state - of the day, as well as more than a few crowned heads of Europe.
Pretty nifty practice, even if it doesn't seem to have been very common at all. [If you know of other examples, I'd be very interested in them. I'm also looking forward to getting a chance to dig a bit more deeply into the names on the list in McKenney and Hall.]
Links:
University of Cincinnati digital edition of McKenney & Hall. Accompanying exhibit.
University of Washington Libraries ditto (good background).
Smithsonian Exhibition, 1996: "The McKenney & Hall Lithographs of Charles Bird King's Portraits of American Indians."
Garcia Street Books description of the collection, with more good background. This copy was for sale with a tag of $150,000.
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
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]
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]
Reactions to Transy Four Decision
The Sixth Circuit's opinion in the case of the Transy Four, released yesterday, doesn't seem to have garnered too much news coverage this morning, but the Lexington Herald-Leader does have a lengthy piece on the decision.
Beth Musgrave reports "Attorneys for the men said they were not sure whether their clients would appeal the decision to the full Sixth Circuit or to the U.S. Supreme Court. Even if the appellate court's decision goes unchallenged, there is a chance that the sentence will remain the same, defense lawyers said." Fred Peters, an attorney for Eric Borsuk, said that because the sentencing guidelines are no longer mandatory, the district court judge could let her original 87-month sentence stand. Possible, I suppose, but it seems unlikely.
Peters told Musgrave that he felt the recent Vanity Fair article about the heist, published weeks before the boys argued their appeal to the Sixth Circuit, didn't do them any favors. "I really think that the Vanity Fair article hurt those guys," he said.
A lawyer for Charles Allen "said he has not yet spoken to him and said it was too early to say whether they would appeal the decision. Nash said Allen's decision would not be dependent on what the other three decide." Lawyers for Warren C. Lipka and Spencer Reinhard did not comment. Musgrave's report also notes that Reinhard and Lipka were scheduled to be moved out of the federal prison in Ashland, KY soon, "in part because of the Vanity Fair article."
Beth Musgrave reports "Attorneys for the men said they were not sure whether their clients would appeal the decision to the full Sixth Circuit or to the U.S. Supreme Court. Even if the appellate court's decision goes unchallenged, there is a chance that the sentence will remain the same, defense lawyers said." Fred Peters, an attorney for Eric Borsuk, said that because the sentencing guidelines are no longer mandatory, the district court judge could let her original 87-month sentence stand. Possible, I suppose, but it seems unlikely.
Peters told Musgrave that he felt the recent Vanity Fair article about the heist, published weeks before the boys argued their appeal to the Sixth Circuit, didn't do them any favors. "I really think that the Vanity Fair article hurt those guys," he said.
A lawyer for Charles Allen "said he has not yet spoken to him and said it was too early to say whether they would appeal the decision. Nash said Allen's decision would not be dependent on what the other three decide." Lawyers for Warren C. Lipka and Spencer Reinhard did not comment. Musgrave's report also notes that Reinhard and Lipka were scheduled to be moved out of the federal prison in Ashland, KY soon, "in part because of the Vanity Fair article."
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Transy Four Decision Released
Back in December, I noted that the Transy Four had appealed their sentences before the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. Today that court released its decision [PDF], as Travis first reported. Turns out the boys should not have held out their hands for more.
The sixteen-page decision, which consolidates all four thieves' appeals, finds "no merit to any of defendants' arguments," (those are outlined here and in today's opinion) but agreed with the government's counter-appeal that the trial court had not taken into sufficient account the books which the Four had intended to steal but dropped on the way out of the library.
"The government contends that the district court erred by omitting from its loss computation the two volumes of Birds of North America and the two volumes of Quadrupeds that Lipka and Borsuk dropped in the stairwell when they were assailed by Ms. Brown [the library director]. From this starting point, the value of the loss - even under the defendants' valuation estimates - would have been over $1,000,000 rather than $735,000; the sentence enhancement would have been 16 rather than 14; and the advisory guideline range would have been 108 to 135 months rather than 87 to 108 months [the Four received 87-month sentences]."
The decision goes on to say "Based on our reading of the cases and the guidelines, we hold that a robber 'takes' an object ... when the robber exercises dominion and control over that object, such that the robber has completed the acts necessary to seize that object." They conclude that the Four thus "took" more of the rare books than the trial court found, and remand the case to the district court "to reconsider its sentence in light of this opinion."
After initial concern, Travis concludes that the Sixth Circuit "got it right." I concur. He adds a link to his earlier discussion "At what point is an item 'stolen'?" There, he takes the precise position as the Sixth Circuit in today's opinion.
Now we'll keep an eye on the district court to see how the sentences change in light of this decision.
[Update: Travis offers part one of a more detailed legal analysis of the decision. More tomorrow.]
The sixteen-page decision, which consolidates all four thieves' appeals, finds "no merit to any of defendants' arguments," (those are outlined here and in today's opinion) but agreed with the government's counter-appeal that the trial court had not taken into sufficient account the books which the Four had intended to steal but dropped on the way out of the library.
"The government contends that the district court erred by omitting from its loss computation the two volumes of Birds of North America and the two volumes of Quadrupeds that Lipka and Borsuk dropped in the stairwell when they were assailed by Ms. Brown [the library director]. From this starting point, the value of the loss - even under the defendants' valuation estimates - would have been over $1,000,000 rather than $735,000; the sentence enhancement would have been 16 rather than 14; and the advisory guideline range would have been 108 to 135 months rather than 87 to 108 months [the Four received 87-month sentences]."
The decision goes on to say "Based on our reading of the cases and the guidelines, we hold that a robber 'takes' an object ... when the robber exercises dominion and control over that object, such that the robber has completed the acts necessary to seize that object." They conclude that the Four thus "took" more of the rare books than the trial court found, and remand the case to the district court "to reconsider its sentence in light of this opinion."
After initial concern, Travis concludes that the Sixth Circuit "got it right." I concur. He adds a link to his earlier discussion "At what point is an item 'stolen'?" There, he takes the precise position as the Sixth Circuit in today's opinion.
Now we'll keep an eye on the district court to see how the sentences change in light of this decision.
[Update: Travis offers part one of a more detailed legal analysis of the decision. More tomorrow.]
NPR Covers Lorello Thefts
Sunday's "All Things Considered" included a segment on Daniel Lorello's thefts from the New York State Library. Audio runs almost five minutes.
Stolen Maps Database Funded
Joel Kovarsky announced on the MapHist listserv yesterday that the The International Antiquarian Mapsellers Association (IAMA) "is funding the development of a stolen map database." They hope to have a prototype up and running by April 2008.
Kovarsky notes that the database will be "free of charge, fully searchable, international in scope, and accessible using individual usernames and passwords." There will be a standard submission form for reporting thefts, and the database will include images (when available) of the stolen items. He writes "We recognize that this project will evolve over time, but sincerely hope that the database will help with the increasingly publicized problem of early map theft, and will also encourage more complete descriptions of valuable materials. This project has been in the planning stages for a number of months, and is the result of cooperation between dealers, collectors, librarians and curators."
This is an excellent idea - far too long in coming but welcome just the same. Once the site is live, I'll certainly post about it again and will include a prominent link to the database.
Kovarsky notes that the database will be "free of charge, fully searchable, international in scope, and accessible using individual usernames and passwords." There will be a standard submission form for reporting thefts, and the database will include images (when available) of the stolen items. He writes "We recognize that this project will evolve over time, but sincerely hope that the database will help with the increasingly publicized problem of early map theft, and will also encourage more complete descriptions of valuable materials. This project has been in the planning stages for a number of months, and is the result of cooperation between dealers, collectors, librarians and curators."
This is an excellent idea - far too long in coming but welcome just the same. Once the site is live, I'll certainly post about it again and will include a prominent link to the database.
Monday, February 04, 2008
Erasmus Quotation
Earlier this morning, the esteemed Harvard historian and author Owen Gingerich posed a question to Ex-Libris regarding the origin of the classic biblio-quote "When I get a little money, I buy books; and, if any is left, I buy food and clothes." The quotation is all over the Internet, attributed to Desiderius Erasmus. Professor Gingerich requested the original source of the quotation, having tried the standard "quotationaries" without any luck.
Since this is one of my favorite quotes (ahem, not that it's apt at all), I figured I'd do a little digging and see what I could come up with. Naturally, I found the answer hiding in the archives of Ex-Libris itself. Back in 2000, bookseller Fred Schreiber sussed out the original quotation, which appeared in a letter from Erasmus to Jacob Batt dated 12 April 1500: "Ad Graecas literas totum animum applicui; statimque ut pecuniam accepero, Graecos primum autores, deinde vestes emam" (I have turned my entire attention to Greek. The first thing I shall do, as soon as I receive the money, is to buy Greek authors; after that, I shall buy clothes).
Since this is one of my favorite quotes (ahem, not that it's apt at all), I figured I'd do a little digging and see what I could come up with. Naturally, I found the answer hiding in the archives of Ex-Libris itself. Back in 2000, bookseller Fred Schreiber sussed out the original quotation, which appeared in a letter from Erasmus to Jacob Batt dated 12 April 1500: "Ad Graecas literas totum animum applicui; statimque ut pecuniam accepero, Graecos primum autores, deinde vestes emam" (I have turned my entire attention to Greek. The first thing I shall do, as soon as I receive the money, is to buy Greek authors; after that, I shall buy clothes).
Mystery: Solved!
In less than a day, the bibliographic conundrum I posted yesterday has been resolved. Behold, the power of the Internet! Credit goes to commenter Björn and to German bookseller Tobias Rinnelt for providing the key bibliographic data.
The book is Orbis terrarvm in nuce, sive, Compendium historiae civilis chronologicum in sculptura memoriali = Die Welt in einer Nuss, oder, Kurtzer Begriff der merckwurdigsten Welt-Geschichte in einer Gedächtnüs-hülfflichen Bilder-Lust / ausgefertiget durch Christoph Weigeln, Kupfferstechern und Kunsthändlern in Nürnberg, der Kais. Reichs-Post über wohnhafft. [Nuremberg : Christoph Weigel], anno 1722.
WorldCat shows copies at Yale, Princeton and the University of Illinois. Yale's collation of the book is "19, [1] p., [48] leaves of plates : ill. ; 21 cm. (4to)" (which means that our copy is missing the front matter and possibly four leaves of plates).
Christoph Weigel (1654-1726) was a German engraver, publisher and cartographer. Also see his German Wikipedia page (translated here).
Thanks again to Björn and Tobias Rinnelt for their kind assistance. I declare this case closed.
The book is Orbis terrarvm in nuce, sive, Compendium historiae civilis chronologicum in sculptura memoriali = Die Welt in einer Nuss, oder, Kurtzer Begriff der merckwurdigsten Welt-Geschichte in einer Gedächtnüs-hülfflichen Bilder-Lust / ausgefertiget durch Christoph Weigeln, Kupfferstechern und Kunsthändlern in Nürnberg, der Kais. Reichs-Post über wohnhafft. [Nuremberg : Christoph Weigel], anno 1722.
WorldCat shows copies at Yale, Princeton and the University of Illinois. Yale's collation of the book is "19, [1] p., [48] leaves of plates : ill. ; 21 cm. (4to)" (which means that our copy is missing the front matter and possibly four leaves of plates).
Christoph Weigel (1654-1726) was a German engraver, publisher and cartographer. Also see his German Wikipedia page (translated here).
Thanks again to Björn and Tobias Rinnelt for their kind assistance. I declare this case closed.
Sunday, February 03, 2008
Bibliographic APB
Do you know this book?I seek information on a collection of forty-four engravings showing the history of the world in 425 vignettes (on forty of the engravings, the other four being profile line portraits of various important historical figures). These engravings are mounted on individual sheets and bound together in a book described in the original R.C. Waterston collection catalog as:
"Callot, Jacques. History from the creation of the world, etched by him, in 425 pieces; groups mounted on leaves. Octavo. Plates."
The vignettes are captioned in Latin and German, and are collected by millennium and then century; the final events depicted are the War of the Spanish Succession [1701-1714] and the Siege of Belgrade [1718?]. This seems to eliminate Jacques Callot (c. 1592-1635) from contention as the engraver, unless it's either a different Callot or Jacques was an extremely prescient fellow.
Unfortunately none of the plates are signed in any way that we have been able to discover, nor is there any title page or publication information of any kind. The 'headline' on the first plate of vignettes reads simply "Mill: Antiqvvs et Delectatvs".
Any information would be appreciated.
[NB: This query was originally posted in slightly different form on Ex-Libris back in June, sans images.]
[Update: Solved! See the comments below, and this post.]
Any information would be appreciated.
[NB: This query was originally posted in slightly different form on Ex-Libris back in June, sans images.]
[Update: Solved! See the comments below, and this post.]
Links & Reviews
- There's more in the Boston Globe today about the impending closure of Somerville's McIntyre & Moore. Jan Gardner's report notes that the shop's owners are negotiating for a lease in a smaller space in Porter Square.
- UCLA announced the completion of a two-year cataloging and digitization effort to make the university's extensive collection of materials related to Italy's Orsini family available for research. "Held in the Charles E. Young Research Library Department of Special Collections, the Orsini papers offer a window into the public and private lives of this intrigue-filled family, particularly between the 16th and 19th centuries. Much of the material concerns property administration, including maps, registers, plans, inventories of houses and palaces, appointments of personnel, and reports from estate managers. The archive also contains dowries, wills and legal documents.
Not only is the UCLA Orsini archive vast in size, consisting of 572 boxes, but it is also unique among UCLA Library collections in terms of the extensive timeframe it covers - from 1150 to 1950. The archive offers information about a vast range of subject matter, including art, architecture, economics, gender issues and politics, making it "an amazingly rich resource for original scholarship," according to Victoria Steele, head of the library's department of special collections." The digital gateway into the collection is here.
- Common-place has a new companion blog, Publick Occurrences. It's written by Jeff Paisley (political historian at the University of Missouri), and seems so far to be more political than historical, but I hope he'll provide some interesting contemporary-historical intersections.
- Over at Critical Mass, NBCC member Suzanne Kleid has discovered The Diary of Samuel Pepys, the wonderful digital version of Pepys' journal.
- Paul Collins stumbles across a very strange book cover on eBay, and also notes the most recent incident of literary namejacking to cross the transom: a forged biography of Saddam Hussein not written by journalist Robert Fisk. Fisk's account of the strange saga is here.
- LibraryThing was mentioned in yesterday's Wall Street Journal; Tim responds to the story by noting "its infelicities show how complex LibraryThing's 'story' has become. The books in LibraryThing, the books in the libraries we search, and the books in the stores that integrate with us are all different. It's hard to get that across right. When you add the social side of LibraryThing, the story becomes impossible." I agree. And that's what I love about it. It's not just one thing, it's many things. And I suppose it is hard to get that into a sound bite.
- Joyce recommends Please Bury Me in the Library, a recent book of book/library-related poetry for children.
Reviews
- In the TLS, Caroline Franklin reviews The Letters of John Murray to Lord Byron (Murray was, as we've noted here before, Byron's publisher). She declares the volume an "invaluable resource with which to find out exactly how a promising early nineteenth-century author was marketed and promoted by his entrepreneurial young publisher, and how this most competitive of writers, in turn, kept his finger on the literary pulse." An excellent long review, highly recommended.
- Stuart Kelly reviews Peter Ackroyd's Poe: A Life Cut Short for The Scotsman; he turns Ackroyd's title around, describing the bio as "A Life Of Poe Cut Short." Kelly adds "What makes this frustrating is that Ackroyd is clearly fascinated with his subject. He makes the reader want to re-read Poe, and indeed to read more of Ackroyd on Poe."
- For the NYTimes, Dana Goodyear reviews a new history of the Donner Party: Ethan Rarick's Desperate Passage. Rarick's book incorporates new archaeological evidence into the standard interpretation of the Donner Party story.
- In the Washington Post, Michael Dirda reviews (favorably) Charles Nicholls' The Lodger Shakespeare, and Michael Grunwald reviews (not-quite-so-favorably) Alan Pell Crawford's Twilight at Monticello (a new treatment of Thomas Jefferson's post-presidential years).
- UCLA announced the completion of a two-year cataloging and digitization effort to make the university's extensive collection of materials related to Italy's Orsini family available for research. "Held in the Charles E. Young Research Library Department of Special Collections, the Orsini papers offer a window into the public and private lives of this intrigue-filled family, particularly between the 16th and 19th centuries. Much of the material concerns property administration, including maps, registers, plans, inventories of houses and palaces, appointments of personnel, and reports from estate managers. The archive also contains dowries, wills and legal documents.
Not only is the UCLA Orsini archive vast in size, consisting of 572 boxes, but it is also unique among UCLA Library collections in terms of the extensive timeframe it covers - from 1150 to 1950. The archive offers information about a vast range of subject matter, including art, architecture, economics, gender issues and politics, making it "an amazingly rich resource for original scholarship," according to Victoria Steele, head of the library's department of special collections." The digital gateway into the collection is here.
- Common-place has a new companion blog, Publick Occurrences. It's written by Jeff Paisley (political historian at the University of Missouri), and seems so far to be more political than historical, but I hope he'll provide some interesting contemporary-historical intersections.
- Over at Critical Mass, NBCC member Suzanne Kleid has discovered The Diary of Samuel Pepys, the wonderful digital version of Pepys' journal.
- Paul Collins stumbles across a very strange book cover on eBay, and also notes the most recent incident of literary namejacking to cross the transom: a forged biography of Saddam Hussein not written by journalist Robert Fisk. Fisk's account of the strange saga is here.
- LibraryThing was mentioned in yesterday's Wall Street Journal; Tim responds to the story by noting "its infelicities show how complex LibraryThing's 'story' has become. The books in LibraryThing, the books in the libraries we search, and the books in the stores that integrate with us are all different. It's hard to get that across right. When you add the social side of LibraryThing, the story becomes impossible." I agree. And that's what I love about it. It's not just one thing, it's many things. And I suppose it is hard to get that into a sound bite.
- Joyce recommends Please Bury Me in the Library, a recent book of book/library-related poetry for children.
Reviews
- In the TLS, Caroline Franklin reviews The Letters of John Murray to Lord Byron (Murray was, as we've noted here before, Byron's publisher). She declares the volume an "invaluable resource with which to find out exactly how a promising early nineteenth-century author was marketed and promoted by his entrepreneurial young publisher, and how this most competitive of writers, in turn, kept his finger on the literary pulse." An excellent long review, highly recommended.
- Stuart Kelly reviews Peter Ackroyd's Poe: A Life Cut Short for The Scotsman; he turns Ackroyd's title around, describing the bio as "A Life Of Poe Cut Short." Kelly adds "What makes this frustrating is that Ackroyd is clearly fascinated with his subject. He makes the reader want to re-read Poe, and indeed to read more of Ackroyd on Poe."
- For the NYTimes, Dana Goodyear reviews a new history of the Donner Party: Ethan Rarick's Desperate Passage. Rarick's book incorporates new archaeological evidence into the standard interpretation of the Donner Party story.
- In the Washington Post, Michael Dirda reviews (favorably) Charles Nicholls' The Lodger Shakespeare, and Michael Grunwald reviews (not-quite-so-favorably) Alan Pell Crawford's Twilight at Monticello (a new treatment of Thomas Jefferson's post-presidential years).
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Presidential Reading Lists
The field has narrowed a bit since the last time I posted on the presidential candidates' reading choices (back in May, when they were asked to name the most recent fiction book they'd read). This week, Katie Couric asked the candidates "If you were elected president, what is the one book other than the Bible you would think is essential to have along?" (In fact I should note that the field has even narrowed since she asked the question: Giuliani and Edwards are included).
The video and text of the candidates' responses are here, but they're worth examining a bit.
John McCain, perhaps in a continued attempt to prove his knowledge of economics, selected Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations. A standard text in the field, but perhaps just slightly dated in some senses.
Barack Obama and Mitt Romney took the political biographies route, choosing Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals and David McCullough's John Adams respectively. Obama said of his choice "[Goodwin] talks about Lincoln's capacity to bring opponents of his and people who have run against him in his cabinet. And he was confident enough to be willing to have these dissenting voices and confident enough to listen to the American people and push them outside of their comfort zone. And I think that part of what I want to do as president is push Americans a little bit outside of their comfort zone. It's a remarkable study in leadership." An excellent choice and well-considered rationale.
Romney said that McCullough's book "connected with me in an unusual way - because of [John Adams'] relationship with Abigail - their closeness, and the extensive letter-writing. You saw something about his heart and character: A truly great leader who made a difference for America. And his example is one I'd want to follow." It is a wonderful book, but I'm not sure Romney would want to run on Adams' presidential record, which is (mostly undeservedly) not particularly well regarded.
Giuliani and Clinton both took the smooth path, choosing The Federalist Papers (Clinton prefaced her choice by saying "I would certainly bring my copy of the Constitution because there was apparently not a copy in the Bush White House to the best I can determine,") while Giuliani was careful to note that his copy of The Federalist also contains the text of the Constitution.
Huckabee picked one I'd never heard of: Francis Schaeffer's Whatever Happened to the Human Race?, while Edwards opted for I.F. Stone's The Trial of Socrates (which, bizarrely, appeared directly after Huckabee's choice when I searched for the Schaeffer title in Amazon).
The video and text of the candidates' responses are here, but they're worth examining a bit.
John McCain, perhaps in a continued attempt to prove his knowledge of economics, selected Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations. A standard text in the field, but perhaps just slightly dated in some senses.
Barack Obama and Mitt Romney took the political biographies route, choosing Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals and David McCullough's John Adams respectively. Obama said of his choice "[Goodwin] talks about Lincoln's capacity to bring opponents of his and people who have run against him in his cabinet. And he was confident enough to be willing to have these dissenting voices and confident enough to listen to the American people and push them outside of their comfort zone. And I think that part of what I want to do as president is push Americans a little bit outside of their comfort zone. It's a remarkable study in leadership." An excellent choice and well-considered rationale.
Romney said that McCullough's book "connected with me in an unusual way - because of [John Adams'] relationship with Abigail - their closeness, and the extensive letter-writing. You saw something about his heart and character: A truly great leader who made a difference for America. And his example is one I'd want to follow." It is a wonderful book, but I'm not sure Romney would want to run on Adams' presidential record, which is (mostly undeservedly) not particularly well regarded.
Giuliani and Clinton both took the smooth path, choosing The Federalist Papers (Clinton prefaced her choice by saying "I would certainly bring my copy of the Constitution because there was apparently not a copy in the Bush White House to the best I can determine,") while Giuliani was careful to note that his copy of The Federalist also contains the text of the Constitution.
Huckabee picked one I'd never heard of: Francis Schaeffer's Whatever Happened to the Human Race?, while Edwards opted for I.F. Stone's The Trial of Socrates (which, bizarrely, appeared directly after Huckabee's choice when I searched for the Schaeffer title in Amazon).
Auction Report: Bloomsbury
Bloomsbury's 31 January sale of Science & Medicine, Natural History, Travel & Topography appears to have been fairly underwhelming: a fair number of the lots failed to sell, and very few lots exceeded their high estimates. Among the scattered highlights:
- Raymond de Vieussens' Neurographia universalis (Frankfurt, 1690) made £1,400 (better than doubling its estimate).
- A first edition, first issue of Darwin's Descent of Man fetched £2,500.
- A Paulus Manutius edition of Ptolemy's projections of the globe and Commandino's treatise on calibrating sundials (Venice, 1588) sold for £2,000.
- The first edition of John Wilkins' Mathematicall Magick (1648) sold for £1,000.
- The sale's high spot was an ex-library copy of John and Josiah Boydell's Picturesque Scenery of Norway, with 80 hand-colored plates. It made £9,500, better than doubling its estimate.
- Raymond de Vieussens' Neurographia universalis (Frankfurt, 1690) made £1,400 (better than doubling its estimate).
- A first edition, first issue of Darwin's Descent of Man fetched £2,500.
- A Paulus Manutius edition of Ptolemy's projections of the globe and Commandino's treatise on calibrating sundials (Venice, 1588) sold for £2,000.
- The first edition of John Wilkins' Mathematicall Magick (1648) sold for £1,000.
- The sale's high spot was an ex-library copy of John and Josiah Boydell's Picturesque Scenery of Norway, with 80 hand-colored plates. It made £9,500, better than doubling its estimate.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Lorello Press Conference Audio
The indomitable Everett Wilkie has posted the audio [mp3] from Monday's press conference announcing the arrest of Daniel Lorello. The official press release is also available. Audio runs about a half hour.
I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet, but will do so tonight and update this post with my thoughts then.
[Friday night: I forgot there was a debate last night, so this had to wait another little while; it's certainly worth listening to. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo calls Lorello's crime "especially repugnant, because it's dealing with historic documents, which is literally stealing the legacy of the state of New York, page by page." Education Commissioner Richard Mills adds "Any theft of a historic document is reprehensible. It has the effect of erasing a page of history. A free nation must have access to its history, must have access to its documents."
Mills notes in the press conference that the State Library is "assembling a number of experts in research library security" to work with the facility to "make sure this doesn't happen again." He reports that the cameras Lorello feared are "on their way," and that "we need to do more." He says there will be a public report by these experts in the near future.
Also see Lorello's eBay feedback (courtesy of Joyce). ]
I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet, but will do so tonight and update this post with my thoughts then.
[Friday night: I forgot there was a debate last night, so this had to wait another little while; it's certainly worth listening to. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo calls Lorello's crime "especially repugnant, because it's dealing with historic documents, which is literally stealing the legacy of the state of New York, page by page." Education Commissioner Richard Mills adds "Any theft of a historic document is reprehensible. It has the effect of erasing a page of history. A free nation must have access to its history, must have access to its documents."
Mills notes in the press conference that the State Library is "assembling a number of experts in research library security" to work with the facility to "make sure this doesn't happen again." He reports that the cameras Lorello feared are "on their way," and that "we need to do more." He says there will be a public report by these experts in the near future.
Also see Lorello's eBay feedback (courtesy of Joyce). ]
Mid-Week Links
Since my Google Reader is getting full:
- I've added a sidebar link to Northern Illinois University Rare Books & Special Collections, a fairly new blog very much worth adding to your reading list. Lynne Thomas' recent post on the Lorello thefts and the "Antiques Roadshow Effect" is just one of the many there that I recommend.
- Michael highlights some amusing new book covers you can use to amuse your neighbors while reading on the train (or wherever).
- fade theory notes a Boston Globe article on the typography used in presidential campaign materials. Two typographers predict the winners based on the fonts they use ... and they're not bad predictions, either ...
- For the second time in a week flooding has occurred at Montana State University's Renne Library. On 22 January, water soaked rare books in the Special Collections department, and on the 29th a frozen pipe burst and damaged a large portion of the library's reference collection.
- Jim Watts points out a James Gleick article in a recent New York Times Magazine. Gleick uses the recent Magna Carta sale noting that as "information" becomes cheaper and more widely available, the physical container may not: "[T]he same free flow that makes information cheap and reproducible helps us treasure the sight of information that is not. A story gains power from its attachment, however tenuous, to a physical object. The object gains power from the story. The abstract version may flash by on a screen, but the worn parchment and the fading ink make us pause. The extreme of scarcity is intensified by the extreme of ubiquity."
- Tim's got some thoughts on a news story that's been making its way around the library-blog-world: Amazon may not be allowing libraries to loan out their new "Kindle" e-readers.
- Rick Ring has a list of upcoming auctions - I'll keep an eye on these and if anything interesting comes out of them, I'll certainly pass it along.
- I've added a sidebar link to Northern Illinois University Rare Books & Special Collections, a fairly new blog very much worth adding to your reading list. Lynne Thomas' recent post on the Lorello thefts and the "Antiques Roadshow Effect" is just one of the many there that I recommend.
- Michael highlights some amusing new book covers you can use to amuse your neighbors while reading on the train (or wherever).
- fade theory notes a Boston Globe article on the typography used in presidential campaign materials. Two typographers predict the winners based on the fonts they use ... and they're not bad predictions, either ...
- For the second time in a week flooding has occurred at Montana State University's Renne Library. On 22 January, water soaked rare books in the Special Collections department, and on the 29th a frozen pipe burst and damaged a large portion of the library's reference collection.
- Jim Watts points out a James Gleick article in a recent New York Times Magazine. Gleick uses the recent Magna Carta sale noting that as "information" becomes cheaper and more widely available, the physical container may not: "[T]he same free flow that makes information cheap and reproducible helps us treasure the sight of information that is not. A story gains power from its attachment, however tenuous, to a physical object. The object gains power from the story. The abstract version may flash by on a screen, but the worn parchment and the fading ink make us pause. The extreme of scarcity is intensified by the extreme of ubiquity."
- Tim's got some thoughts on a news story that's been making its way around the library-blog-world: Amazon may not be allowing libraries to loan out their new "Kindle" e-readers.
- Rick Ring has a list of upcoming auctions - I'll keep an eye on these and if anything interesting comes out of them, I'll certainly pass it along.
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