Links & Review

- There will be a twelve-hour bookfair on Getman's Virtual on Wednesday, 6 January.

- From Heather Curtis for the St Andrews Special Collections blog, "Getting Muddy with Manuscripts."

- Elizabeth Harris and Nicole Perlroth report for the NYTimes about a mysterious phishing scam targeting unpublished book manuscripts.

- Over at Past is Present, a look back at "How Six-Year-Old Stephen Salisbury III Rescued One of the Rarest and Most Important Christmas Documents in American History."

- From the OUP blog, "Finding the Melford Hall Manuscript," by Daniel Starza Smith.

- Ted O'Reilly writes for the N-YHS blog on "A Christmas Gift from FDR, Collector, Historian, and President."

- On the BL's Medieval Manuscripts blog, "The Ox and Ass at the Nativity."

- Lisa Fagin Davis' Simmons class has completed a new virtual reconstruction of an Otto Ege manuscript - see her updated blog post for more details.

Review

- Martin Latham's The Bookseller's Tale; review by Katy Guest for the Guardian.

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

- Quite a good piece by Mark Wilding for the Guardian about the 2017 Feltham warehouse theft of rare books.

- The Cary Graphic Arts Collection at RIT has received a gift of printing equipment, rare books and ephemera from the collection of Stephen O. Saxe.

- Katarzyna Bator writes for the N-YHS blog, "Lab Notes: Preserving Rare Pamphlets."

- A video tour of Princeton University Library's 2019 Gutenberg & After exhibition is now available.

- Here's the BL's announcement of their acquisition of the Melford Hall Donne manuscript, which is also now available digitally.

- Rebecca Rego Barry has a recap of the ILAB webinar "Wrapping up 2020," held this week.

- Alison Flood writes for the Guardian about the Isaac Newton mss. notes about the Great Pyramid that sold for £380,000 this week.

- Over on the BL's Medieval Manuscripts blog, "New Prophecies of the Ancient Sibyls," an update on their effort to provide new descriptions of the Harley Collection manuscripts.

- Dave Gary points out the newly digitized American Philosophical Society Curator's Record of Donations for 1769 to 1898.

Review

- Stephen K. Galbraith's A Brief History of the Book; review by Sebastian Modrow for Bonefolder Extras.

Upcoming Auctions

- A Grand Vision: The David H. Arrington Collection of Ansel Adams Masterpieces at Sotheby's on 14 December.

- Livres et Manuscrits at Sotheby's Paris ends on 15 December.

- Éditions Originales du XIXe au XXIe Siècle at ALDE on 15 December.

- Reliures originales – Estampes & dessins – Livres illustrés modernes at ALDE on 15 December.

- La Bibliothèque de Pierre Bergé – 5e Vente at Pierre Bergé & Associés on 16 December. 

- Books and Works on Paper at Forum Auctions on 16 December.

- One Upon a Time: Rare Children's Literature from Justin G. Schiller, Ltd. at Heritage Auctions on 16 December.

- Fine Books and Manuscripts, Including Selections from the Collection of Barbara and Ira Lipman at Sotheby's New York ends on 16 December.

- Livres Anciens du XVe au XIXe Siècle at ALDE on 17 December.

- Fine Books, Atlases, Manuscripts & Historical Photographs at Bonhams London on 17 December.

- Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books at Swann Galleries on 17 December.

- Americana – Travel & Exploration – World History – Cartography at PBA Galleries on 17 December.

Links & Auctions

- Getman's Virtual Bibliophilic Holiday Gift Fair is open through tomorrow, 7 December, with new items to be added tomorrow morning.

- The manuscript volume of Donne poems identified at Melford Hall in 2018 has been acquired by the British Library, Dalya Alberge reports for the Guardian.

- Rebecca Romney's recent University of Delaware talk, "Building Bridges: Expanding the Reach of Rare Books in the Next Generation" is now available to watch, as is her Hollyer Lecture for the Toronto Public Library, "Sherlockian Collecting: A Tour of Creative, Clever, and Weird Pursuits."

- Michelle Taylor writes for the New Yorker on "The Secret History of T.S. Eliot's Muse."

- The ABAA has posted a "Missing in Transit" notice of books gone astray in Kentfield, CA.

- Jamie Cumby is in the "Bright Young Librarians" spotlight this week.

- The ABAA Women's Initiative has launched an ABAA Mentorship Program.

- From Books and Borrowing, Alex Deans on "The World in Print: Borrowings of Voyages and Travels."

- Over at Medieval Manuscripts Provenance, "Sotheby Manuscripts at Sotheby's."

- Nikki Tompkins writes for the Jesus College Libraries blog about a recent conservation project undertaken on a 1674 Bodleian Library catalogue used as a working copy to compare the Bodleian's holdings with those of Jesus College.

Upcoming Auctions

- The Otto Penzler Collection of Mystery Fiction, Part IV at Heritage Auctions ends on 7 December.

- Printed Books, Maps and Manuscripts including Fine Bindings and Science Books from the Collection of Peter and Margarethe Braune part II at Bellmans on 8 December.

- English Literature, History, Science, Children's Books and Illustrations at Sotheby's ends on 8 December.

- Valuable Books and Manuscripts at Christie's London on 9 December.

- Christmas Rare Book Sale at Fonsie Mealy Auctioneers on 9 December.

- Highlights from the Medical Library of the Late James Tait Goodrich at Bonhams New York on 10 December.

- Comics at PBA Galleries on 10 December.

- Fine Books and Manuscripts at Bonhams New York on 11 December.

Links & Auctions

- The Cambridge University Libraries have now reported the apparent theft of two Charles Darwin notebooks ("B" and "C") to the police, two decades after the notebooks were last seen (until a recent review, it was apparently thought that the notebooks had been misshelved). See the CUL public appeal for more information and images, as well as links to the digitized versions of the notebooks.

- Alea Henle writes for the NCPH blog, "Road Not Taken: Record-Making in Historical Perspective."

- Bookseller Shaun Bythell asks in the Guardian "what's the worst kind of book thief?"

- From Rebecca Rego Barry for the Fine Books Blog, "Collecting & Repatriation."

- A collection of Bob Dylan documents and manuscripts were sold at auction last week, with the individual lots realizing about $495,000.

- Alexandra Sampson has another provenance mystery from the Middle Temple Library.

- APHA is accepting applications for the 2021 Mark Samuels Lasner Fellowship in Printing History.

- From Adam Clulow for Not Even Past (as part of their Primary Source series with the HRC), "Pamphlets, Propaganda, and the Amboina Conspiracy Trial in the Classroom."

Upcoming Auctions

- Zwiggelaar Auctions will hold a three-part sale this week: Part I (Children's books, Literature, Old books, Manuscripts, Cookbooks, Amsterdam, Topography) on 30 November; Part II (Topography, Atlases, Comics, Asian arts, Fine arts) on 1 December; Part III (Photography, Sports, Chess books, Picture postcards, Erotica, Various) on 2 December.

- Music, Continental Books and Medieval Manuscripts at Sotheby's London ends on 1 December.

- Books & Works on Paper at Chiswick Auctions on 2 December.

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

- Fine Art – Photography & Prints at PBA Galleries on 3 December.

- December Sale at Arader Galleries on 5 December.

Links & Auctions

- The IOBA Virtual Book Fair continues through the weekend! And get ready for the Getman's Virtual Bibliophilic Holiday Gift Fair, coming up 4–7 December.

- Dorothy Berry is in the "Bright Young Librarians" spotlight this week.

- From Valerie-Anne Lutz for the APS blog, a look back at Laura E. Hanson, the APS librarian from 1926 to 1941.

- There's a 37-minute documentary up about the making of the first issue of Inscription.

- The British Library has acquired the Lucas Psalter, a late-15th-century illuminated psalter made in Bruges for an English patron. The volume features the work of the Master of Edward IV, and is in a roughly contemporary red velvet binding.

- Jay Moschella has been updating and generally sprucing up the BPL's guide to their collection of incunabula.

- Mitch Fraas documents a busy acquisitions week for the Penn Libraries.

- There's a new book out on art provenance (edited by Arthur Tompkins) from Lund Humphries.

- Yet another volume of previously unpublished Tolkien essays on Middle Earth will be released in June.

- From April Armstrong for Princeton's Mudd Manuscript Library blog, a post about how Princeton got its colors.

- And over on the Princeton Graphic Arts collection blog, a profile of the Hours Press.

- Erin Blake writes for The Collation, "Creating John Gregory's Bas Reliefs at the Folger."

- From the BL's Medieval Manuscripts blog, "Parchment in prison: imprisoned medieval writers."

Upcoming Auctions

- Histoire Postale: Guerre de 1870–1871 (Aristophil 40) at Aguttes on 24 November.

- Rare and Important Items at Kedem Auctions on 24 November.

- Rare Books, Autographs & Maps at Doyle on 24 November.

- Books and Works on Paper at Forum Auctions on 25 November.

Links & Auctions

- The ABAA Boston Virtual Book Fair continues through the end of the day today: don't miss either the books or the associated events.

- Swann Galleries' autographs specialist Marco Tomaschett takes a deep dive into "The Voice & Hand of Frederick Douglass."

- From James Tarmy at Bloomberg, "Retail Might be Struggling, But the Rich Are Buying Rare Books."

- Cushing Memorial Library & Archives at TAMU have launched a new blog, The Cushing Collective.

- Some of the books stolen from a London warehouse in 2017 and recovered recently in Romania were returned to their owners this week.

- Eric White writes for Princeton's Notabilia blog "Mystery Solved: A Long-Lost Spanish Vocabulario (ca. 1492–93) Comes to Light at Princeton."

- Alex Johnson highlights a new crowdfunding effort to preserve the St. Bride Library for the Fine Books Blog.

- In the NYT, William J. Broad reports on a new census of Newton's Principia. As you all know I am a huge fan of book censuses, so I am delighted to see another out in the world (and if you have an uncounted copy, please do contact the researchers). See also the Caltech press release.

- A neat offering from Peter Harrington: an illustrated script for the second theatrical adaptation of The Hobbit, a 1967 school production.

- Over at Early Modern Female Book Ownership, a fascinating-looking 1655 volume of Dickson's explications of the psalms, with lots of usage marks.

- Another interesting new blog to keep an eye on, The Fate of Books, which will focus on book history in Slovenia and central Europe. 

- Books & Borrowing has a very good breakdown of the different sorts of eighteenth-century libraries.

- The British Library has managed to secure funding to keep the 15th-century Lewis of Caerleon manuscript in the UK, and the BL has digitized the manuscript.

- It's all about the asterisk over at Shady Characters.

- A WWI carrier pigeon message has been found in France.

- Rugby School is selling off some of its rare books this week. More from the BBC.

- And from the Royal College of Physicians, after the recent outcry over their proposed plan to auction off rare books from their library, word that "no firm decision" has yet been made about the potential sale.

Upcoming Auctions

- Dada Data: Books and Boîtes by Marcel Duchamp and Others at Sotheby's New York ends on 16 November.

- Littérature: Boris Vian et les Maudits (Aristophil 33) at Aguttes on 17 November.

- Travel, Atlases, Maps & Natural History at Sotheby's London ends on 17 November.

- Fine Books & Manuscripts at Swann Galleries on 17 November.

- Histoire Postale: Guerre de 1870–1871 & Aviation (Aristophil 34) at Artcurial on 18 November.

- Littérature: Fonds Romain Gary & Littérature du XVIIe au XXe Siècle (Aristophil 35) at Artcurial on 18 November.

- Selected Books from Rugby School Library at Forum Auctions on 18 November.

- Livres, Lettres et Manuscrits Autographes (Aristophil 36) at Druout on 19 November.

- Histoire (Aristophil 37) at Aguttes on 19 November.

- Fine Books, Manuscripts, and Works on Paper at Forum Auctions on 19 November.

- Comics and Comic Art at Heritage Auctions on 19–22 November.

- Rare Books & Manuscripts at PBA Galleries on 19 November.

- Musique (Aristophil 38) at Ader on 20 November.

- Musique (Aristophil 39) at Aguttes on 20 November.

- Rare Books & Ephemera at Addison & Sarova on 21 November.

- Histoire Postale: Guerre de 1870–1871 (Aristophil 40) at Aguttes on 24 November.

Links & Auctions

Apologies if I missed any tweets, &c. this week - it's been a busy one!

- Coming soon, the ABAA Boston Virtual Book Fair (12–14 November) and the IOBA Virtual Book Fair (20–22 November). The ABAA has announced that their fair will feature a Virtual Book Fair Scavenger Hunt, too, so do have fun with that if you're so inclined!

- Coming up on Tuesday, 17 November: Heather Cole and David Gessner will hold a "Researchers in Conversation" discussion sponsored by Houghton Library: Theodore Roosevelt: Writer and Conservationist. Register at the link.

- As the debate of the proposed sale of books from the Royal College of Physicians continues (petition here opposing the scheme) another institutional sale is even closer to happening: on 18 November Rugby School is selling a selection of its rare books at Forum Auctions. 

- From Medieval Manuscripts Provenance, "The Value of the V&A's Cutting of St Giustina disputing with Maximian" and "Another Holford Cutting, Now in Lisbon."

- Over at Rare Book Digest, "The Trade in the Middle of the Pandemic."

- Rebecca Rego Barry notes for the FB&C blog the completion of the BL's seven-year project to digitize more than 40,000 maps and views from the Topographical Collection of King George III ("K. Top.")

- From Sue Donovan for the UVA Libraries blog, a mucky look at what happens to a time capsule when water gets in (spoiler alert: it ain't pretty).

- Another one to sign up for (or watch later on YouTube): Hannah Marcus and Nick Wilding will talk on 18 November about Hannah's new book Forbidden Knowledge: Medicine, Science, and Censorship in Early Modern Italy.

- Over at Not Even Pratt, Aaron Pratt on "An Elizabeth Exorcist's (very weird) Secret Press."

- The Book of Lismore, a 15th-century Irish manuscript seized by the British in the 1640s, will return to Ireland: the trustees of the Chatsworth Settlement have donated it to University College Cork.

- Kathleen Monahan writes for the John J. Burns Library blog about "Cable Code: Technology Shorthand from Another Era."

- In the Harvard Independent, Cade Williams on "A Book Made From Humans."

Upcoming Auctions

- Printed Books, Maps & Autographs, Lord Nelson, Scottish Topography, The David Smith Print Collection at Dominic Winter Auctioneers on 11–12 November.

- James Bond: A Collection of Books and Manuscripts, The Property of a Gentleman at Sotheby's London ends on 11 November.

- Rare Autographs, Manuscripts & Books at University Archives on 11 November.

- Lettres et Manuscrits Autographes at ALDE on 12 November.

- Books and Manuscripts at Freeman's on 12 November.

- Fine Books & Manuscripts at Skinner ends on 12 November.

- Fine Books and Manuscripts at Leslie Hindman on 12–13 November.

- Historical Manuscripts Signature Auction at Heritage Auctions on 12 November.

- Vintage Photography, with Books and Monographs at PBA Galleries on 12 November.

- Livres & Manuscrits at Tessier & Sarrou on 13 November.

Links & Auctions

On the weekend when the schedule as originally planned for 2020 would have seen many of us gathering in Boston, we must instead look forward to the ABAA Virtual Boston Book Fair on 12–14 November, and hope that by next year, circumstances will permit us to gather in person again. I'm very much feeling the loss of not being able to see so many friends this weekend, browsing the shelves at the Brattle and Commonwealth, and enjoying the main fair, the shadow show, and the associated delights of chatting with booksellers from around the world and viewing the biblio-delights they've brought with them to Boston. Next year!

- Not unrelatedly, a reminder to support your local or favorite independent new/used/rare bookshop as you think about your holiday shopping (and allow plenty of time for shipping).

- Christina Faraday covers the Royal College of Physicians' plan to sell rare books for Apollo. There is also a Change.org petition opposing the sale, started by two former curators of the RCP collection.

- Daniel Boffey writes for the Guardian about a recent series of thefts of Nazi artifacts from Dutch war museums, prompting new security measures, &c.

- The lineup for Princeton's "The Virtual Materiality of Texts: Book History during a Pandemic" symposium on 20 November looks really excellent (registration at the link).

- From Timothy Gress for the NYPL blog, "A Manuscript Mystery: The Fragment Within Browning's 'Columbe's Birthday.'"

- Over at the Met, they've started up a Museum of Obsolete Library Science (I love this idea).

- The BL's Untold Lives blog continues their look at the colonial legacy of the Mayflower voyage with a fifth installment in the series by Maddy Smith.

Review

- Megan Rosenbloom's Dark Archives; review by Connor Goodwin for NPR.

Upcoming Auctions

- Books and Manuscripts at Tajan on 3 November.

- Livres rares et Manuscrits at Christie's Paris on 3 November.

- Bibliothèque Guy Gaulard - Deuxième Partie at Rossini on 4 November.

- Books and Works on Paper at Forum Auctions on 5 November.

- History of Science and Technology, including Air and Space at Bonhams Los Angeles on 5 November.

- Americana – Travel, Exploration, Space – World History – Cartography at PBA Galleries on 5 November.

- Bibliothèque du Docteur Poirier II at Pierre Bergé & Associés on 6 November.

Links & Auctions

- An excellent and important acquisitions story from Vince Golden for Past is Present. 

- Over on the Grolier Club blog, a compilation of "Research Resources on Black American Book Collectors and Book Collecting."

- From the BL's Medieval Manuscripts blog, "Angels in Manuscripts."

- Some success stories from the LC's Mystery Photo Contest (with many still left to solve!)

- Over on the APHA blog, "A Golden Hind Artifact."

- It's all "Ottley-Simes-Murray" at Medieval Manuscripts Provenance this week.

- Articles from the first issue of Inscription are now available - and I highly recommend getting a physical copy while they're still available - it's a stunning production!

- New to me (and via Beth DeBold on Twitter), the great WPI Digital Archives site of pre-1945 auction catalogs (including quite a few book sales).

- Richard Ovenden will do a virtual book talk for Princeton about his new book Burning the Books on 16 November.

- From the Princeton Graphic Arts Collection blog, "Don't Touch the Money."

- Very surprising not to see more coverage of the proposed sale of books from the Royal College of Physicians library, mentioned here last week. There was one followup piece in the Times on Friday about a letter from more than 400 RCP members protesting the sale, at least. Let's shine some more sunshine on this, reporters!

Upcoming Auctions

- Early Printed Books at Swann Galleries on 27 October.

- Literature, Science Fiction, Americana, Books in All Fields on PBA Galleries ends on 29 October.

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 October Getman's Virtual fair starts on 6 October at noon.

- Everything on Oak Knoll's website is 20–50% off through 5 October.

- Twelve Romanians held responsible for the January 2017 London warehouse theft of rare books were each sentenced to 3–5 years in prison this week.

- Submissions are now being accepted for the 2020 SHARP DeLong Book Prize.

- Rebecca Rego Barry notes that two Audubon letters about his books are coming up for auction this week at Hindman.

- Over on the Leiden Special Collections blog, Doris Jedamski posts about a recent donation of several letters written during an 18th-century voyage to the Dutch East Indies.

- From the BL's Medieval Manuscripts blog, "The Bamberg Book of Relics."

- Among the Rare Book Monthly articles this month, Clarence Wolf offers a "personal history and perspective" of his decades in the book trade, and Michael Stillman has an obituary note for map collector and scholar Dr. Seymour Schwartz.

Upcoming Auctions

- Printed Books, Maps & Documents, Travel, Science & Engineering at Dominic Winter Auctioneers on 7 October.

- Maps & Atlases at Forum Auctions on 8 October.

- Selections from the Library of Gerald and Barbara Weiner at Leslie Hindman Auctioneers on 8 October.

- Fine Literature – Science Fiction – Illustrated Books at PBA Galleries on 8 October.

- October Sale at Arader Galleries on 10 October.

Links, Reviews & Auctions

- From Erin Blake for The Collation, "Rediscovering Three-Cornered Notes."

- Over on the BL's Medieval Manuscripts blog, it's the "Great Medieval Bake Off"!

- Mary Yordy writes for the Duke Libraries Preservation blog, "Sewing Models: Pandemic Edition."

- New from the Courtauld Institute, an open-access book edited by Jack Hartnell, "Continuous Page: Scrolls and Scrolling from Papyrus to Hypertext."

- From Maddy Smith for the BL's Untold Lives blog, a look at pre-1620 English colonial settlements in North America.

- A 1634 edition of Shakespeare's "Two Noble Kinsmen" has been identified in the collections of the Real Colegio de Escoceses in Salamanca.

- Michael Caines and Lindsey Tyne write for the Morgan Library & Museum blog about "Taming the Wild Things: Storage Considerations for the Bequest of Maurice Sendak."

- Rachel Fletcher is in the "Bright Young Collectors" spotlight.

- "Fakes and Forgeries" over on the Exeter Working Papers in Book History.

- The AbeBooks podcast talked to the warden of Gladstone's Library this week.

- On the Peter Harrington blog, Tomas Elliott on Leibniz and computing.

- Over on Past and Present, a look at the intensely complicated "Conservation of a Fragmentary Early Menagerie Poster."

- Shira Perlmutter has been named the Register of Copyrights.

- From Neely Tucker for the LC blog, "Darkness and Light: The European World of 15th-Century Woodcuts."

- New from Books & Borrowing, "Eighteenth-Century Borrowing from the University of Glasgow."

- Wolf von Lojewski has written an account of his four-decade quest to collect a complete Nuremberg Chronicle by acquiring disbound leaves (scroll down for the English translation).

- The NYU Abu Dhabi Library has acquired the archive of Egyptian poet/doctor/scientist Ahmed Zaki Abu Shadi.

Reviews

- Ariel Sabar's Veritas; review by James Lansdun in the LRB.

- Serena Zabin's The Boston Massacre; review by Breck Baumann for the Colonial Review.

Upcoming Auctions

- Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs, Including the Trevor Dawson Magic Collection at Lyon & Turnbull on 30 September.

- Fine Literature at Doyle on 30 September.

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

- Fine Golf Books, Clubs & Memorabilia at PBA Galleries on 1 October.

Links & Auctions

- First, there was actually a bit of surprising good news this week: the rare books stolen from a London-area warehouse in early 2017 have been recovered intact in the Romanian county of Neamt.

- Some more good news: the next Getman's Virtual event will be the CABS Virtual Antiquarian Book Fair, on 25–27 September.

- And a bit more, even! The winners of the National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest and the Honey & Wax Prize were announced this week.

- The Scottish Borrowers' Registers project will soon include the loans register of Craigston Castle in Turriff, Aberdeenshire.

- The Library of Congress has launched a new tool for searching images in historical newspapers.

- At The Collation, Sujata Iyengar offers "A Guided Tour of an Incunabulum from 1478."

- Rebecca Rego Barry rounds up some new biblio-fiction on the Fine Books Blog.

- On the Shakespeare & Beyond blog, an "Up Close" look at a 1797 caricature of the Shakespeare-forging Ireland family.

- From Medieval Manuscripts Provenance, "The Antiphonary of Marguerite de Baconel."

- Swann withdrew a 16th-century manuscript copy of an order to Cortes and Pedro de Alvorado from their 24 September sale after researchers suggested that it had very likely been stolen from the national archives of Mexico.

- Rosa Lyster writes on "Lost Libraries" for the Paris Review.

- A new virtual exhibition focuses on book edges in the KU Leuven libraries and other Belgian collections.

- "Whacky Victorian Imagery" is the order of the day on the Ephemera Society blog.

- Penn's Workshop in the History of Material Texts now has a YouTube channel, and their first talk of the season, on Milton's copy of Shakespeare with Claire Bourne and Jason Scott-Warren, is now available.

- Rare Book School's "Black Print Culture" discussion from earlier this month is also now online.

Upcoming Auctions

- Books & Manuscripts at Artcurial on 22 September.

- Books and Manuscripts at Il Ponte on 22 September.

- A Further Selection of 16th & 17th-Century English Books from the Fox Pointe Manor Library at Forum Auctions on 24 September.

- Printed & Manuscript Americana at Swann Galleries on 24 September. 

- Americana – Travel & Exploration – World History – Cartography at PBA Galleries on 24 September.

- Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper at Forum Auctions on 25 September.

VOTE

Links & Auctions

- Good news in the Guardian: the T.S. Eliot estate has stepped up with a £20,000 donation to help the Brontë Parsonage Museum in their fundraising appeal.

- Leo Cadogan writes for Early Modern Female Book Ownership on a volume of Dubreuil's La perspective pratique (1663) inscribed by Lady Louisa August Greville.

 - From Natalie Zacek for the Rylands Library blog, "Rylands Reflects: The Founder and the Fortune."

- Over at Bright Young Librarians, it's Erin Schreiner's turn in the spotlight.

- The Middle Temple Library has another provenance mystery for us this month.

- Rebecca Rego Barry has a Q&A with Bradford Morrow about his new novel The Forger's Daughter, a followup to his earlier The Forgers.

- From Manuscripts and More, "A Brief History of a 1474 Epitome Rarum Romanarum."

- Over on the Morgan Library blog, "Looking at Works of Art on Paper: An Overview of Examination and Imaging Techniques."

- IKEA have published a digital collection of their Swedish catalogs going back to the 1950s.

- From the Columbia RBML blog, a look at their recent project to edit their archival descriptions to identify women by their own names rather than as "Mrs. Such-and-Who."

Upcoming Auctions

- Science Books from the Collection of Peter and Margarethe Braune, Part I at Bellmans on 15 September.

- Final Frontier: Space Exploration & Flight Through the Ages - Fact & Fiction at PBA Galleries ends on 17 September.

- Books and Works on Paper at Forum Auctions on 17 September.

Links & Auctions

- Some great book history seminar series and book talks are happening virtually this fall: the Five College Book History Seminar, Penn's Workshop in the History of Material Texts, and the AAS' PHBAC Virtual Book Talks.

- Kathryn James offers up some Quarantine Reading: Learn to Read Secretary Hand.

- From Henry Widener for the OLL Blog, "Tracing John Locke's path to the Oliveira Lima Library."

- At Early Modern Female Book Ownership this week, the full-page bookplate of Elizabeth Percival.

- On the JHI "In Theory" podcast, Simon Brown interviews Anthony Grafton about Grafton's new book Inky Fingers.

- New! Eighteenth-Century Borrowing from the University of Glasgow.

- Jennifer Farrell will give the APHA Lieberman Lecture on 2 October, "The City is my Religion: A Typographic Memoir." Register here.

- From the Leiden University Special Collections blog, Lavinia Maddaluno on some unpublished draft letters from a Swiss mathematician to Isaac Newton on matters alchemical.

- Devon Eastland writes for the Swann Galleries blog on "Early Printed Books: Old Tombstones."

- Over on the University of St. Andrews Special Collections blog, a Walter Scott letter to George Chalmers from the Marseille Middleton Holloway autograph albums.

- RBSC at Notre Dame highlights a facsimile early modern book they've been making for use in an exhibition.

- From Not Even Past, Aaron Pratt's "Technology in Paper: Interactive Design in Early Printed Books."

- At the Emory University Scholar Blog, Kelin Michael posts on "Illuminating Medieval and Renaissance Materials at Rose Library."

- Also from Emory, news that the Rose Library has acquired the papers of Black Panther Party activist Kathleen Cleaver. 

- September's Rare Book Monthly articles include Bruce McKinney's short interview with David Lesser. 

Reviews

- Richard Ovenden's Burning the Books; review by Christopher Howse in the Telegraph.

Upcoming Auctions

- Books and Documents on the Independence of Mexico, the First Empire and the First Republic at Morton Subastas on 8 September.

- Printed Books, Maps & Documents, Spanish Books & Manuscripts, The David Wilson Library of Natural History (Part II) at Dominic Winter Auctioneers on 9–10 September.

- Comics & Comics Art Signature Auction at Heritage Auctions on 10–13 September.

- PBA Platinum: Rare Books, Manuscripts & Art at PBA Galleries on 10 September.

Links & Auctions

- The London rare book fair, Firsts, will hold a virtual fair on 10–14 September, and of course don't forget the (virtual) Brooklyn Antiquarian Book Fair, 11–13 September.

- Alison Flood reports for the Guardian on the Herzog August Bibliothek's recent purchase for £2.5 million of the Das Große Stammbuch of Philipp Hainhofer, which Duke Augustus first attempted to acquire for the library in 1647! 

- In the "Bright Young Librarians" spotlight, it's Amelia Hugill-Fontanel, Associate Curator of the Cary Graphic Arts Collection at RIT.

- Over at Early Modern Female Book Ownership, Sarah Lindenbaum and Tara Lyons examine a 1693 volume of Dryden's Satires owned by Anne Wolfreston, the granddaughter of famed book collector Frances Wolfreston.

- "Radiolab" had an excellent episode recently on Chinese keyboarding history, "The Wubi Effect."

- From the Books and Borrowing project, a guest post by Kelsey Jackson Williams on buying vs. borrowing vs. reading.

- Manicules were the order of the week over at Bite-Sized Book History.

- The NYTimes ran an obituary for Buenos Aires bookseller Alfredo Breitfield this week.

- The first part of an interview with Travis McDade about the Pittsburgh Carnegie Library heist is up at Legal Talk Network.

Upcoming Auctions

- A Partial Gentleman's Library: Important Books from Around the World at Stair on 2 September. [what happened to the other part of the gentleman?]

- Modern Literature, Private Press & Illustrated Books, Original Artwork at Forum Auctions on 3 September.

Links & Auctions

- New and excellent: Book Owners Online, a directory of English book owners, 1610–1715 (with plans to expand). Spearheaded by David Pearson with support from CELL and the Bibliographical Society.

- Registration is now open for the Brooklyn Antiquarian Book Fair (virtual) on 11–13 September, which will include a series of webinars and an exhibition.

- The Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair will also be held online, 12–14 November. Some details are now available.

- Travis McDade has a piece on the Pittsburgh Carnegie Library thefts in the September Smithsonian.

- There were many stories this week about the recent discoveries of books and manuscripts beneath the attic floorboards at Oxburgh Hall in Norfolk (most but not entirely having been used as rodent nesting material). See also Matthew Champion's fascinating and well-illustrated Twitter thread on the finds.

- Meanwhile, the National Trust's "restructuring" plans, which would eliminate many curatorial positions, are coming in for much justified derision.

- From Peter Kidd, "Another Hachette-Lehman-Yale Cutting."

- Garrett Scott has launched Antiquarian Bookseller Wiki, beginning with a series of biographical sketches of women active in the antiquarian book trades.

- Over on the Princeton Graphic Arts Collection blog, "Frances Mary Richardson Currer, Important Early Bibliophile."

- William Harris writes for the FDR Library's blog: "Unpretentious History: Alma Van Curan and the FDR Library Logbooks."

- The AAS' PHBAC has release their fall schedule of virtual events (plus videos of their spring/summer talks, all of which were excellent).

- From the BL's Medieval Manuscripts blog, "How did the Cotton Library grow?"

- Jeffrey Hamburger writes for the Houghton blog, "An 'Old Prayer Book,' Yet not a 'Dull' one: The Liber Ordinarius of Nivelles."

- Many congratulations to the Grosvenor Rare Book Room at the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library, which recently completed its collection of Kelmscott Press publications!

- From Elizabeth Gettins on the LC blog, a post highlighting the recent digitization of historical title pages submitted for copyright purposes.

- J.L. Bell has begun a series of posts on John Adams' library, including comments from the current Quincy mayor who is apparently going to try and bring the books back to Quincy from Boston ... see "When John Adams Gave Away His Library," "'The most appropriate and useful place for the collection'," and "Looking at John Adams's Things Today," with more to come.

Upcoming Auctions

- Books and Works on Paper at Forum Auctions on 27 August.

- Vintage Posters at Swann Galleries on 27 August.

- Fine Books with Americana, Travel & Arthur H. Clark Publications at PBA Galleries ends on 27 August.

- Rare Books, Art & Ephemera at Addison & Sarova on 29 August.

Links & Auctions

- Over on the Bodleian blog, a look at E.F. Benson's Mapp & Lucia, on the occasion of the book's 100th anniversary.

- Seth James is in the "Bright Young Librarians" spotlight.

- Heritage Auctions will sell books from Justin G. Schiller's collection on 16 December.

- The Philadelphia Print Shop has been acquired by David Mackey and will relocate to Wayne, PA from Chestnut Hill, with a grand reopening in October.

- The Penn Libraries have digitized selections from their Marian Anderson collection.

- Peter Kidd notes that Ariel Sabar's book on the fake Gospel of the Wife of Jesus papyrus, Veritas, has been published.

Upcoming Auctions

- Fine Books, Atlases, Manuscripts & Historical Photographs at Bonhams on 19 August.

- Rare Autographs, Manuscripts & Books at University Archives on 19 August.

Links & Auctions

- Melissa Tedone and her colleagues at Wintherthur have posted more information about the Poison Book Project, which seeks to identify and create safe handling guidelines for books whose bindings may contain toxic pigments. 

- Ken Sanders Rare Books has launched a GoFundMe to help stay afloat through the pandemic. Please help if you can.

- From the BL's Medieval Manuscripts blog, "Ludicrous figures in the margin" (you want fighting snails? They've got fighting snails!)

- There's a new provenance mystery from the Middle Temple Library blog.

- Barbara Basbanes Richter notes the publication of the catalogue covering pre-1801 titles in the Cotsen Children's Library at Princeton.

- Haylie Swenson has a post about early modern cats for Shakespeare & Beyond.

- M.L. Stapleton writes about a 1740s Shakespeare set with female provenance at Early Modern Female Book Ownership.

- Do have a look at Books and Borrowing 1750–1830, an analysis of Scottish library borrowers' registers.

- From the University of Iowa's Center for the Book, "Tim Barrett: The Story of a Papermaker."

- Two deaths from the world of books to note: Hendrik D.L. Vervliet, and Bernard Bailyn.

Review

- Christopher de Hamel's The Book in the Cathedral; review by Dennis Duncan in the Guardian.

Upcoming Auctions

- Books and Works on Paper at Forum Auctions on 13 August.

- LGTBQ+ Art, Material Culture & History at Swann Galleries on 13 August.

- Publications of the Limited Editions Club at PBA Galleries on 13 August.

Links & Auctions

- Houghton Library's digitization efforts for the 2020–2021 academic year will be focused on a new online collection, "Slavery, Abolition, Emancipation, and Freedom: Primary Sources from Houghton Library." Digital Collections Program Manager Dorothy Berry will lead the project.

- From Simon Beattie, "The first 'blank bookplate'?"

- Rebecca Rego Barry notes a Renaissance-era reliquary pendant made to look like a tiny book, currently offered by Les Enluminures.

- Over on the N-YHS blog, "Clues to the Past: The Taylor-Robert Plan."

- Nate Pedersen talks to Tamar Evangelistia-Dougherty for the FB&C "Bright Young Librarians" series.

- The prayerbook which belonged to Mary, Queen of Scots sold for £311,250.

- Elizabeth Winkler writes for the New Yorker "How Phillis Wheatley Was Recovered Through History."

- Cornell University Press received an NEH grant to upgrade and enhance its open-access monograph program, in collaboration with Cornell's libraries.

- UVA Press has a 40%-off sale through 1 September.

- The Spencer Museum of Art has mounted a virtual version of their exhibition "Audubon in the Anthropocene."

- Richard S. Newman talks to History New Network about his biography of Richard Allen, Freedom's Prophet.

- Annette Gordon-Reed has been named a University Professor, Harvard's highest faculty honor.

- Mark Royden has been sentenced to four years in prison for attempting to steal a copy of Magna Carta from Salisbury Cathedral in October 2018.

- From Lapham's Quarterly, "How Books Became Cheap."

Upcoming Auctions

- Books and Manuscripts: A Summer Miscellany at Sotheby's ends on 4 August.

- William R. Bronson Collection of Ornithological Books at Heritage Auctions on 6 August.

- Americana – Travel & Exploration – World History – Cartography at PBA Galleries on 6 August.

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

- From the Morgan Library blog, "Color and Curious Creatures: Fifteenth-Century Block Books at the Morgan."

- Thanks to Simon Beattie for calling attention to a project seeking to reconstruct the library of German writer Ludwig Tieck (1773–1853). See their guide for potential Tieck provenance (in English) for distinctive marks to watch for, and please help if you can!

- APHA and the Hamilton Wood Type Museum are collaborating on a 2020 Awayzgoose, and registration is now open.

- Library History Seminar XIV is looking for papers relating to the broad theme of "library history." Proposals are due by 1 October.

- Jasper Fforde talks to Elizabeth Flux for the Guardian about his new novel, The Constant Rabbit.

- Also in the Guardian, Justine Jordan profiles Eley Williams about her debut novel The Liar's Dictionary (out this month in the UK), hunting for mountweazels, and more.

- A set of musical scores from the collection of (and annotated by) Maria Callas is currently being offered by Christie's (sale ends 30 July).

- APHA has released an outline of steps the organization is taking to support BIPOC printers and allied craftspeople.

- Thanks to Alex Hidalgo for pointing out on Twitter the Catálogo Colectivo de Marcas de Fuego.

- From the N-YHS blog, "A Printer's Account of the Caribbean: Mahlon Day's Diary."

- The British Library has acquired the visual archive of Mervyn Peake.

- Pichaya Damrongpiwat writes for the NYPL blog on "Materiality in Eighteenth-Century Epistolary Fiction."

- The conservation staff at the John Rylands Library has posted a series of blog posts on the materiality of the book.

- The Grolier Club has launched an online exhibition of recent gifts from member Stanley D. Scott.

- ACRL and RBMS have passed a memorial resolution honoring Katharine Kyes Leab.

Review

- Jonathan Senchyne's The Intimacy of Paper and Joshua Calhoun's The Nature of the Page; review by Gill Partington at Public Books.

Upcoming Auctions

- Livres Anciens et du XIXe Siècle at ALDE on 21 July.

- Fine Books and Manuscripts, including Property from the Eric C. Caren Collection at Sotheby's ends on 21 July.

- Fine Judaica at Kestenbaum & Company on 21 July.

- Fine & Rare Books – Fine Literature at PBA Galleries on 23 July.

- Summer Auction at Arader Galleries on 25 July.