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.

Links & Auctions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

- The booksellers of ANZAAB have issued a joint catalog.

Upcoming Auctions

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

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

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

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

- Illustration Art at Swann Galleries on 16 July.

Links & Auctions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Upcoming Auctions

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

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

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

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

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

Links & Auctions

- UNC-Chapel Hill has received Florence Fearrington's collection of rare books on natural history, wunderkammern, and more.

- The Allegheny County D.A. has petitioned the judge who sentenced John Schulman and Gregory Priore to house arrest last week to reconsider and impose a stricter sentence, to include jail time (with home confinement until the judge is satisfied that a risk of COVID-19 infection in prison is diminished). Marylynne Pitz's piece about this includes comments from Travis McDade urging a "more appropriate sentence."

- Fentahun Tiruneh writes for the LC's blog about a recent addition to the LC's Ethiopian collection: the first printed edition of the New Testament in the Ge'ez language, printed at Rome in 1548.

- The Folger Shakespeare Library has acquired the collection of actor Earle Hyman.

- RIT scientists are developing a low-cost multispectral imaging hardware and software system!

- Early Modern Female Book Ownership highlights a 1526 Dutch Bible this week.

- Allie Alvis has started a YouTube series of "Bite Sized Book History" videos.

- Bogdan Horbal writes for the NYPL blog about the late nineteenth-century Riga bookseller N. Kymmel.

- Barbara Basbanes Richter highlights Mark Argetsinger's new book A Grammar of Typography: Classical Book Typography in the Digital Age.

- Jerry Morris posts about some books from his collection of books about the English language with interesting ownership marks.

- From the Bodleian's Conveyor blog, "Decades of manuscript photography on Digital.Bodleian."

- Over at Past is Present, a look at the beautiful new AAS conservation lab.

Upcoming Auctions

- Livres et Manuscrits at Sotheby's ends on 30 June.

- Curiosités Typographiques – Reliures Remarquables: Collection C. L. at Binoche et Giquello on 1 July.

- Books and Works on Paper at Forum Auctions on 2 July.

Links & Auctions

- John Schulman and Gregory Priore were sentenced yesterday for the thefts from Pittsburgh's Carnegie Library. Schulman received four years of home confinement and twelve years' probation, and was ordered to pay $55,000 in restitution to purchasers of stolen books. Priore was sentenced to three years of home confinement and twelve years' probation. The judge stated that the sentences would have been "significantly more impactful" were it not for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The judge further ordered that neither Schulman nor Priore may profit in any way from books, films, &c. related to the case. Paula Reed Ward and Marylynne Pitz reported for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette earlier in the week that the day before Schulman entered his guilty plea in January, he sent an email to other booksellers declaring his innocence. This letter came up as the sentencing hearing opened on Thursday, with the judge questioning Schulman and his lawyers "Why should I accept a plea from somebody who says he's innocent?" The judge then conducted the guilty plea colloquy again before moving to sentencing. Both Schulman and Priore apologized, though Mary Frances Cooper, head of the Carnegie Library, told the court "We do not want an apology. Any apology from these thieves would be meaningless. They are only sorry we discovered what they did." See also the ABAA statement.

- Over at Medieval Manuscripts Provenance, "Whitehead-Holford-Malcolm" and "The Holford Album."

- From Heather Wolfe for The Collation, "Pandemic Paleography."

- Spencer Stuart is highlighted in the "Bright Young Things" Fine Books blog series.

- A tiny replica of John Fleming's bookselling gallery will be on the auction block this week.

- New from Library Juice Press, Archives and Special Collections as Sites of Contestation, edited by Mary Kandiuk.

- Another week, another Voynich "solution." Nope, says Lisa Fagin Davis in a Twitter-thread.

Upcoming Auctions

- Fine Books and Manuscripts, including Americana at Leslie Hindman Auctioneers on 23 June.

- Francis Hopkinson Family Americana Collection at William H. Bunch Auctions on 23 June.

- Printed Books, Maps & Documents, Modern Literature, First Editions, Children's & Illustrated Books at Dominic Winter Auctioneers on 24–25 June.

- Rare Books, Manuscripts & Relics including Forbes & Kerouac at University Archives on 24 June.

- "Tendrement vôtre" – Lettres et Manuscrits Autographes d'auteurs Français at Christie's ends on 25 June.

- Americana – Travel & Exploration – World History – Cartography at PBA Galleries on 25 June.

Links & Auctions

- SHARP in Focus events begin on Monday, 15 June, and will run through 19 June. See the full schedule and registration instructions. Lots of interesting discussions to be had.

- Scott Casper has been named the eighth president of the American Antiquarian Society. Congratulations to both Scott and to AAS!

- Anthony Tedeschi surveys the (now digitized) medieval and Renaissance manuscripts at the Alexander Turnbull Library.

- Georgianna Ziegler writes for The Collation this week: "Early women buying books: the evidence."

- The National Library of Israel is digitizing more than 2,500 Arabic, Persian, and Turkish manuscripts and books. More from Smithsonian.

- From the Princeton Graphic Arts collection blog, "Famous Wood Engravings."

- Over at Manuscript Road Trip, "Otto Ege, St. Margaret, and Digital Fragmentology, Part 2."

- Richard Sheaff writes for the Ephemera Society's blog on "Wacky Victorian Imagery."

- From the Bodleian's Conveyor blog, "The Bodleian Quarterly Record, Vol. II (1917–19); and the Legacy of a Printing Press."

- Luke Henter writes for Past is Present about the AAS' Caribbeana Project.

- From Georgia Thurston for the Cambridge University Libraries special collections blog, "Nineteenth-century dialect writing."

- Also from the Bodleian, from their Archives and Manuscripts blog, Hannah Jordan on "The Library of St. Michael's College, Tenbury."

- Ian Maxted has updated his register of Mesoamerican codices and inscriptions over at Exeter Working Papers in Book History.

- Ed Redmond writes for the LC's Worlds Revealed blog on "18th-Century Maps of North America: Perception vs. Reality."

- The Middle Temple Library has posed another provenance mystery for us all to ponder.

- Tom Bentley writes for FB&C about the Shakespeare Society of America's challenges to maintain and make available its eclection of Shakespeareana.

- If you miss Aaron Pratt's very useful demo of camera setups and software useful for sharing special collections remotely, it's now up on the BSA's YouTube channel (along with many other of the interesting virtual events they've been sponsoring).

- Amber Kehoe and Heather Brown write for the Harry Ransom Center blog about conserving daguerreotypes.

- Up on the Grolier Club's Vimeo is "Medieval MSS at Social Distance," with Barbara Shailor, Lisa Light, Lisa Fagin Davis, Consuelo Dutschke, and William Stoneman.

- An amazing new biblio-offering from Jonathan A. Hill, Bookseller: the manuscript catalogue of Claude Pierre Goujet's (1697–1767) 10,000-volume library.

Upcoming Auctions

- Beaux-Arts (Aristophil 29) at Druout on 16 June.

- Littérature Française du XXe Siècle (Aristophil 30) at Artcurial on 17 June.

- Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs at Lyon & Turnbull on 17 June.

- Travel, Natural History, Americana & Sporting Books at Doyle on 17 June.

- Bibliothèque R. & B. L.: une décennie de ventes at Sotheby's on 17 June.

- Sciences: Archéologie, Savants et Philosophies (Aristophil 31) at Ader on 18 June.

- Books and Works on Paper at Forum Auctions on 18 June.

- Selections from the Library of Lorenzo H. Zambrano: Latin Americana, Science, and Literature at Christie's ends on 18 June.

- The Open Book: Fine Travel, Americana, Literature and History in Print and Manuscript at Christie's ends on 18 June.

- Publications of the Arthur H. Clark Company at PBA Galleries ends on 18 June.

- Littérature Les Années 1920–1930 (Aristophil 32) at Aguttes on 19 June.

Links & Auctions

- The ABAA Virtual Book Fair ends later today; Firsts London continues through 12 June.

- Oak Knoll Books & Press has started posting some author interviews on their YouTube channel.

- David Pearson has a great post for Early Modern Female Book Ownership about some uniformly-bound and labeled volumes he was recently able to acquire from the library of Jane Pearce.

- Type & Forme have launched a new online exhibition and catalog, "Joseph Banks: A Lincolnshire Botanist in Australia." See also Rebecca Rego Barry's post on the Fine Books Blog.

- From Past & Present, a look at what some AAS staff members have been have up to during quarantine, sharing in the transcription of the Society's first donation book.

- Over at Jot101, a sniff at an early 20th-century book advertising gimmick, the perfumed novel.

- Henry Widener gets the "Bright Young Librarians" treatment this week.

- From the BL's Medieval Manuscripts blog, "Late manuscripts, bad manuscripts?"

- Rebecca Rego Barry has a rundown of some new books about books.

- Catherine Ansorge writes for the Cambridge University special collections blog about "Some Islamic manuscripts from Africa."

- Peter Kidd has a followup post identifying the collector(s) of a now-dispersed album of illuminated cuttings.

- BYU has acquired a collection of the Book of Mormon, including several copies of the first edition and first editions of all 149 translations.

Upcoming Auctions

- Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper at Forum Auctions on 9 June.

- Militaria Autographs at Alexander Historical Auctions on 9 June.

- Essential Genius: Ten Important Manuscripts for Modern Times at Bonhams on 10 June.

- Collecting Camelot: John & Jackie Kennedy Family Collection at University Archives on 10 June.

- Arts of the Islamic World & India at Sotheby's London on 10 June.

- Literature – Counterculture – Fine Books & Manuscripts at PBA Galleries on 11 June.

- Early Summer Sale at Arader Galleries on 13 June.

Links & Auctions

The book fairs are coming!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Upcoming Auctions

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

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

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

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

Links & Auctions

- A new short film by D.W. Young focuses on the jargon of the antiquarian book trade; Susannah Kemple has a short introduction for the New Yorker (the film is embedded at the top of the page).

- Tony Grafton did a talk for Labyrinth Books and the Princeton Humanities Council about his new book Inky Fingers: The Making of Books in Early Modern Europe, published by Harvard University Press. Watch on YouTube.

- I was able to tune into Marina Rustow's excellent talk this week on "The Cairo Geniza in the Digital Age," which is now available on YouTube.

- A former University of Illinois employee was sentenced to two years of "second-chance probation" after he pleaded guilty to the theft of two rare books from the University of Illinois Music Library.

- There's a virtual book launch for Nick Basbanes' new biography of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow on 2 June. Free, but registration is required.

- The submission deadline for this year's Honey & Wax Book Collecting Prize is 1 June.

- From the Bodleian's Conveyor blog, the medieval manuscripts team talks about how they're able to work remotely during the pandemic.

- Biblio listings for used books are now available through the Bookshop.org platform (where new copies of a title are not available).

- The University of Buffalo has received a 30,000-edition collection of pulp fiction from alumnus George Kelley.

- Kevin Wisniewski has some updates on the AAS Program in the History of the Book, including that the program's newsletter from 1983 to 2008 is now available digitally, and that they'll be hosting their first virtual book talk on 28 May, with Derrick Spires talking about his book The Practice of Citizenship: Black Politics and Print Culture in the Early United States (which I hope will be recorded, since I have to be in another meeting at the time).

- Speaking of AAS, they are selling one of their two copies of the first newspaper printing of the Star-Spangled Banner, with proceeds to benefit the collections fund. The auction ends on 18 June, and the newspaper issue is estimated at $300,000–500,000.

- From Sara Schliep at The Collation, "Inside the Folger Archives: Uncle Henry's Pipers."

- The BL's medieval manuscripts blog looks back at the 2018 Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms exhibition.

- Eric White writes for Notabilia about comparing multiple Princeton copies of 15th-century books.

- Aaron Pratt is in the "Bright Young Librarians" spotlight this week.

- UVA posted some last pictures of the now-empty Alderman Library before the renovations begin in earnest.

- Another provenance mystery from the Middle Temple Library.

- The Council of State Archivists have released a series of new emergency preparedness documents.

- Biblio-human Colin Franklin died this week. Peter Kraus has a memorial post on the ABAA blog.

Upcoming Auctions

- Books and Manuscripts: A Spring Miscellany at Sotheby's now ends on 27 May.

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

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

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

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

Links, Reviews & Auctions

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

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

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

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

- New from AAS, Black Self-Publishing.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

- Boston Athenaeum programming for the spring has gone virtual.

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

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

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

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

Book Reviews

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

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

Upcoming Auctions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Links & Auctions

- IOBA, the Independent Online Booksellers Association, has announced a Virtual Book Fair for 15–17 May, with "doors opening" at 1 p.m. ET on Friday.

- The ABAA will also hold a virtual book fair, from 4–7 June, and London's Firsts fair will be held virtually on 5 June starting at 2 p.m. UK time.

- Over on the NLS blog, "Delivering a Bestseller: Culpeper and Midwifery."

- From the Cambridge University Special Collections blog, Francis Young writes about a thirteenth-century poem marking the construction of Salisbury Cathedral. And their conservation department highlights some treatments being undertaken on some parchment deeds.

- At the Junto, "Early American Women Unmasked."

- Devon Eastland writes for Swann on "Introduction to Bookbinding: Folding & Sewing."

- From Caroline Duroselle-Melish for The Collation, "A Red Proof Sheet Used as Printer's Waste."

- Over on the Grolier Club blog, "Finding Our Marbles."

- Also at The Collation, Drew Thomas on "Following the Trail of Counterfeits in the Folger's Reformation Collection." False imprint detective work!

- The Middle Temple Library is trying to identify the annotator of their 1566 Copernicus.

- The Open University's History of Books and Reading Seminar has started a blog series on "Reading and Wellbeing."

Upcoming Auctions

- English Literature, History, Children's Books, and Illustrations at Sotheby's ends on 12 May.

- Rare Golf Books, Memorabilia & Ephemera at PBA Galleries on 14 May.

Links & Auctions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Upcoming Auctions

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

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

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

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

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

Links & Auctions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Upcoming Auctions (online)

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

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

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

Links & Auctions

- "The Booksellers" documentary is now available for streaming rental, and if you rent via this link, 50% of the proceeds go directly to the ABAA. I'm looking forward to watching later today!

- Yesterday afternoon's BSA webinar "What is a Feminist Practice in Bibliography?" was excellent. It was largely based on small-group discussion (and thus not particularly suited for video) but I found it really inspiring to hear about the great projects folks are working on.

- Dirk Obbink was arrested in March on suspicion of theft and fraud, according to the Guardian. Background and more on the ARCA blog. The arrest was first reported by the Oxford Blue, but at the time of writing their article is not currently available.

- Dawn Hoffman writes for The Collation, "Hooked on Book Furniture ..." Clasps and bosses and corners, oh my!

- Also in The Collation, Bénédicte Miyamoto on "Marks in Manuals" and Caroline Duroselle-Melish on "The Many Different Ways to Make a Lacemaking Pattern Book."

- Abram Van Engen is giving a virtual book talk about his new book City on a Hill: A History of American Exceptionalism at the MHS on 1 May. Register (free) here.

- From Kathleen Monahan on the John J. Burns Library blog, "Virtual Reference, or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Local Note."

- Over at Early Modern Female Book Ownership, a look at Thomas and Isabella Hervey's copy of Thomas More's Utopia.

- The Royal Library of Belgium has digitized 213 manuscripts from the Library of the Dukes of Burgundy.

- From the Cambridge University Library's Special Collections blog, "Spreadsheets, Shelflists & Scones: Special Collections Works from Home."

- Rebecca Rego Barry notes the ongoing celebrations marking the 500th birthday of Christophe Plantin.

- Ellen Gleason writes for the Clements Library blog about her work processing two recently-acquired whaling logbooks.

- The BL's Medieval Manuscripts blog highlights a 1547 inventory of the possessions of Henry VIII, including several extant books and manuscripts.

- From Medieval Manuscripts Provenance, the first part of a series on "A Recently Dismembered Copy of Giordana Ruffo, De Medicina Equorum."

- The Marian Library's exhibition "Mary in Miniature: Books of Hours in the Marian Library Collection" is now available for online viewing.

- Video from the ILAB seminar on COVID-19 and the antiquarian bookselling world is now available.

Upcoming Auctions (online)

- Rare Books, Autographs & Maps at Doyle New York ends on 22 April.

- Historical Manuscripts at Heritage Auctions on 22 April.

- Autograph Seeker: The Estate of Gary Combs at Doyle New York on 23 April.

- Americana from the George E. Steinmetz Collection (with additions) at PBA Galleries on 23 April.

- Books and Works on Paper at Forum Auctions on 23 April.

- Miscellaneous Books at PBA Galleries on 30 April (no catalog yet)

Links & Auctions

- CABS 2020 has been cancelled.

- Rebecca Rego Barry summarized this week's ILAB webinar about the effects of COVID-19 on the antiquarian bookselling community for the FB&C blog.

- Brian Cassidy talked to the AbeBooks "Behind the Bookshelves" podcast this week.

- Over on the Beinecke's blog, Michael Morand offers "Some Early Notes on Teaching Online with Special Collections in a Time of Quarantine."

- From Past is Present, Jeff Cooper on "Hidden Histories and the Digitization of New England's Earliest Manuscript Church Records."

- Don't miss the excellent "At Home with Books" catalog put out this week by Heather O'Donnell, Ben Kinmont, Simon Beattie, and Justin Croft.

- Devon Eastland writes about the "long s" for the Swann blog.

- Two new stories this week about the opening of Emily Hale's letters from T.S. Eliot at Princeton: James Parker writes for the Atlantic on "The Secret Cruelty of T.S. Eliot," and Princeton's Daniel Linke writes about the robust security (literal metal bands around the boxes!) used to keep the letters secure until they could be released.

- From Matt Kirschenbaum, "Bibliologistics: The Nature of Books Now, or a Memorable Fancy."

- Mike Widener has a post on the Yale Law Library's rare books blog about "Epidemics and Quarantine in 17th-century Rome."

- Hannah Alpert-Adams has a Medium post about "What the Humanities do in a Crisis."

- Over on the library blog for Catholic University, Henry Granville Widener has a post about Brazilian incunabula.

- From the BL's Medieval Manuscripts blog, "Illuminating the Worms Bible."

- From Jay Moschella, "Notes From a Lost Renaissance Library."

- More useful resource compilations, this one on #VastEarlyAmerica from the Omohundro Institute.

- Over on the Met's "In Circulation" blog, Mindell Dubansky offers some "Reminiscences of a Bookbinder."

- From Lisa Fagin Davis, "Fragmentology Under Quarantine." (Also, Lisa's "Breakfast Paleography" threads on Twitter are great, too!)

- At Medieval Manuscripts Provenance, "A Collector's Mark Re-Interpreted."

- From the Middle Temple Library blog, another fascinating provenance mystery for us to mull over.

- Over on the Princeton Graphic Arts collection blog, "Museum of the History of the Recorded Word."

- Elizabeth DeBold writes for The Collation on "All the Purposes of a Library: A Piece of Blue Ephemera."

Upcoming Auctions (online)

- Fine Literature featuring a Collection of Rudyard Kipling at Doyle on 15 April.

- Fine Books and Manuscripts at Potter & Potter on 18 April.

Links & Auctions

If you can support your favorite bookstores and booksellers and publishers in any way during all this, please do. It's rough out there. Oh, and if you're a library administrator, close the library for now, please.

Courage, friends.

- Probably inevitably, London Rare Books School has cancelled its sessions for 2020.

- The Sammelband post for April is "Teaching Materiality with Virtual Instruction." 

- Over in the Ransom Center blog, "Picturing the Plays of Shakespeare and His Contemporaries."

- Scott Ellwood has a post on the Grolier Club's blog about what seems to be Sir Thomas Phillipps' earliest book catalogue.

- Don't miss Aaron Pratt's "Sometimes You Want Your Blank Blank."

- From the Middle Temple Library blog, "Provenance Mysteries: Injury by Beard."

- Some great, timely character sleuthing by Keith Houston at Shady Characters in "Miscellany No. 87: A Coronavirus Conundrum."

- From Emily Isakson for the AAS blog, "Mapping the World: Understanding Women's Education Through Geography."

- The Bewick Society blog highlights a new book by Nigel Tattersfield, Dealing in Deceit: Edwin Pearson of the 'Bewick Repository' Bookshop, 1838–1901.

- On the N-YHS blog, "An Ambrotype Army from the Cased Image File."

- From Laura Cleaver at History Matters, "The Sauce of the Middle Ages."

- Elizabeth Ryan writes for the Stanford Hidden Treasures blog, "Encounters with Binder's Waste in Stanford Libraries' Conservation Department." 

- From Penn's Special Collections Processing blog, Cory Austin Knudson offers "Some Thoughts on my Favorite Dissertation Ever Written."

- April's Rare Book Monthly articles are up.

Upcoming Auctions (online)

- Jiao Bingzhen Album at The Potomack Company on 8 April.

- Fine Literature featuring a Collection of Rudyard Kipling at Doyle on 15 April.

- Fine Books and Manuscripts at Potter & Potter on 18 April.