The man suspected of stealing more than a dozen rare maps and documents from Spain's National Library has been arrested in Argentina, according to (some) media reports. The man, "60 year old César Gómez Rivero, has apparently handed himself into the authorities, and a team from the Spanish Civil Guard are report[ed] by some sources to be preparing to travel to Argentina on Friday. He was also carrying other documents which he claimed had also been taken from the Biblioteca Nacional."
Library director Milagros del Corral appeared to confirm the arrest on Wednesday, but El Pais reports on its website today that while Rivero's lawyer has been in contact with an Argentinian judge to discuss returning stolen documents in his client's possession, Rivero has not in fact surrendered. The judge apparently refused Rivero's demand that he not be arrested if he turned over the stolen materials. "We are continuing to look for him," said a Civil Guard spokesman.
Several of the items stolen by Rivero have been recovered, including one map each in Sydney and New York.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Crockett Contretemps Update
The Austin American-Statesman has some news from the Crockett Letter front: Regina Davis reports that part of the reason the Texas Historical Commission moved so quickly to purchase the letter may have been that "the agency had to spend or commit to spend the money in its Texas Historic Artifacts Fund by the end of the fiscal year, Aug. 31, or the money, about $800,000, would be returned to the state treasury."
THC chairman John Nau says this isn't so: "'I'm comfortable with it,' he said of the commission's handling of the purchase process. 'We built into the agreement with the owner that we would have 120 days to authenticate the document, which is adequate time to do the work. We are right on schedule to get the right answer.'"
Davis adds details from an emergency conference call meeting of the THC on 28 August for the purpose of approving the purchase of the letter; she reports that THC member Diane Bumpas "had reservations about the cost of the letter, saying that the price did not compare with what she had seen other documents sell for at auction." She also notes that John Nau and Ray Simpson III, the letter's seller, "had a longstanding business relationship," and that Nau had purchased items for his personal collection from Simpson's gallery. "Nau said his prior dealings with Simpson had no bearing on how the situation was handled."
"Monday was the deadline for interested parties to submit proposals for forensic document analysts and handwriting experts to authenticate the document. Federal Forensic Associates Inc. of Raleigh, N.C., the only bidder, was selected for the forensic document analysis, which determines the age of the paper and ink, and tests whether a document has been falsely aged. The contract is for $17,000, which will be paid by the commission, and the firm can immediately begin its analysis, commission spokeswoman Adrienne Reams said. No proposals were submitted by handwriting experts, so the commission is extending the deadline for that position until Oct. 29, Reams said."
Handwriting experts, here's your chance!
THC chairman John Nau says this isn't so: "'I'm comfortable with it,' he said of the commission's handling of the purchase process. 'We built into the agreement with the owner that we would have 120 days to authenticate the document, which is adequate time to do the work. We are right on schedule to get the right answer.'"
Davis adds details from an emergency conference call meeting of the THC on 28 August for the purpose of approving the purchase of the letter; she reports that THC member Diane Bumpas "had reservations about the cost of the letter, saying that the price did not compare with what she had seen other documents sell for at auction." She also notes that John Nau and Ray Simpson III, the letter's seller, "had a longstanding business relationship," and that Nau had purchased items for his personal collection from Simpson's gallery. "Nau said his prior dealings with Simpson had no bearing on how the situation was handled."
"Monday was the deadline for interested parties to submit proposals for forensic document analysts and handwriting experts to authenticate the document. Federal Forensic Associates Inc. of Raleigh, N.C., the only bidder, was selected for the forensic document analysis, which determines the age of the paper and ink, and tests whether a document has been falsely aged. The contract is for $17,000, which will be paid by the commission, and the firm can immediately begin its analysis, commission spokeswoman Adrienne Reams said. No proposals were submitted by handwriting experts, so the commission is extending the deadline for that position until Oct. 29, Reams said."
Handwriting experts, here's your chance!
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
"My Dearest Friend"
The Boston Globe ran a short notice this weekend of a new book, My Dearest Friend: Letters of John and Abigail Adams (Harvard University Press). Jim Taylor and Maggie Hogan, two of the main editors of the Adams Papers project at MHS, have done a wonderful job selecting, editing and presenting some (well, almost 300) of the best letters between John and Abigail Adams. I got a chance to see the book recently - it's beautifully-designed - and look forward to having a chance to read through it more carefully.
My Dearest Friend will "launch" officially at 7 p.m. on 19 November with a public reading of some Adams letters at Faneuil Hall in Boston. Governor and Mrs. Patrick, Senator and Mrs. Kennedy, and former Governor and Mrs. Dukakis are planning to be in attendance as readers. It's going to be quite an event, so mark your calendars!
My Dearest Friend will "launch" officially at 7 p.m. on 19 November with a public reading of some Adams letters at Faneuil Hall in Boston. Governor and Mrs. Patrick, Senator and Mrs. Kennedy, and former Governor and Mrs. Dukakis are planning to be in attendance as readers. It's going to be quite an event, so mark your calendars!
Obits of Note
- Roy Rosenzweig, a professor of history at George Mason University and a leader in the field of "digital history", has died at age 57 after a fight with lung cancer. Rosenzweig founded GMU's Center for History and New Media in 1994; "as its director, he oversaw the creation of online history projects aimed mostly at high school and college students, including Web sites about U.S. history, the French Revolution and the history of science and technology. Perhaps its most visible project was the September 11 Digital Archive, a collection of 150,000 items - including e-mails, digital voice mails, BlackBerry communications and video clips - made by average citizens at the time of the 2001 terrorist attacks. The center gave the materials to the Library of Congress in September 2003.
Tributes from colleagues and other materials about Professor Rosenzweig are being collected here.
- Joe Board, 76, longtime professor of political science at my alma mater, Union College, passed away last Friday, 12 October. He also had been battling cancer. Professor Board was officially retired when I arrived at Union back in 2000, but he was still teaching some classes, and I was lucky enough to take his course in international law in the spring term of my freshman year. He was the very epitome of a scholar and a gentleman, and well-liked by all who knew him. More on his life and works here.
Tributes from colleagues and other materials about Professor Rosenzweig are being collected here.
- Joe Board, 76, longtime professor of political science at my alma mater, Union College, passed away last Friday, 12 October. He also had been battling cancer. Professor Board was officially retired when I arrived at Union back in 2000, but he was still teaching some classes, and I was lucky enough to take his course in international law in the spring term of my freshman year. He was the very epitome of a scholar and a gentleman, and well-liked by all who knew him. More on his life and works here.
Monday, October 15, 2007
More on "Processus Contra Templarios"
Since my post on the news that the Vatican will be publishing an edition of Processus Contra Templarios has proven rather popular, I thought I'd better provide a small update I just read. The BBC reports today that 800 copies of the text will be created: one copy is to be presented to Pope Benedict XVI, "while most of the remaining 799 copies of this luxury limited edition have already been reserved by libraries and collectors around the world."
The book, which is being produced by Scrinium, will be "printed on synthetic parchment, comes complete with a reproduction of the original papal wax seal, and is packaged in a soft leather case together with a scholarly commentary. Each copy will cost just over 5,900 euros ($8,000; £3,925)."
No word yet on if or when a trade edition of this text will be made available.
The book, which is being produced by Scrinium, will be "printed on synthetic parchment, comes complete with a reproduction of the original papal wax seal, and is packaged in a soft leather case together with a scholarly commentary. Each copy will cost just over 5,900 euros ($8,000; £3,925)."
No word yet on if or when a trade edition of this text will be made available.
Rare Manuscripts Prompt Diplomatic Spat
The Chicago Tribune reports on a decades-long international dispute over rare books, manuscripts and collections currently held by Krakow's Jagiellonian Library. The materials - which include letters written by Martin Luther and George Washington; original music manuscripts by Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart; and other important documents - were moved out of Berlin at the beginning of World War II and hidden in Poland to prevent their destruction by Allied bombs ... and now the Germans want them back.
"Poland insists Germany forfeited any legal and moral claim to the collection long ago. Polish President Lech Kaczynski bluntly told the Tribune last month that the collection would not be returned." Since 1977 (when it first admitted having the collection), Poland has returned several key items, including Martin Luther's Bible and the manuscript copy of the last movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.
Negotiations over the return of other items have been ongoing since 2000, but, the Trib report notes, "now with the highly nationalistic Kaczynski brothers in power [in Poland] - Lech is president, twin brother Jaroslaw is prime minister - the talks appear to be dead in the water." German rhetoric hasn't helped: "Tono Eitel, a veteran German diplomat who is handling the negotiations for his country, described the manuscripts as 'the war's last prisoners,' while an article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper referred to the collection as beutekunst, a term usually used to describe the artworks looted from Germany by the Red Army. This infuriated the Poles."
[h/t Shelf:Life]
"Poland insists Germany forfeited any legal and moral claim to the collection long ago. Polish President Lech Kaczynski bluntly told the Tribune last month that the collection would not be returned." Since 1977 (when it first admitted having the collection), Poland has returned several key items, including Martin Luther's Bible and the manuscript copy of the last movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.
Negotiations over the return of other items have been ongoing since 2000, but, the Trib report notes, "now with the highly nationalistic Kaczynski brothers in power [in Poland] - Lech is president, twin brother Jaroslaw is prime minister - the talks appear to be dead in the water." German rhetoric hasn't helped: "Tono Eitel, a veteran German diplomat who is handling the negotiations for his country, described the manuscripts as 'the war's last prisoners,' while an article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper referred to the collection as beutekunst, a term usually used to describe the artworks looted from Germany by the Red Army. This infuriated the Poles."
[h/t Shelf:Life]
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Book Review: "Footsteps"
Literary biographer Richard Holmes provides an inside look at the biographer's craft in Footsteps: Adventures of a Romantic Biographer (1985). Combining sketch-biographies of Robert Louis Stevenson, Mary Wollstonecraft, the Shelleys, and Gerard Nerval with autobiographical accounts of his travels (some physical, some mental) in pursuit of those subjects, Holmes has written an engaging and perceptive account of the process by which he went about his research and work.
Holmes follows RLS and his donkey (Modestine) through the small towns of rural France, experiences Paris during the riots of 1968 to try and relate to Mary Wollstonecraft's residency there during the post-Revolutionary Terror, and tracks the Shelleys and their various comrades during their peregrinations around Italy. I think in some senses it's difficult for anyone not so fully immersed in these lives to understand some of the revelations Holmes experienced, but that is certainly no reason for him not to share them or for us not to read them.
Holmes follows RLS and his donkey (Modestine) through the small towns of rural France, experiences Paris during the riots of 1968 to try and relate to Mary Wollstonecraft's residency there during the post-Revolutionary Terror, and tracks the Shelleys and their various comrades during their peregrinations around Italy. I think in some senses it's difficult for anyone not so fully immersed in these lives to understand some of the revelations Holmes experienced, but that is certainly no reason for him not to share them or for us not to read them.
Links & Reviews
[Lots of goodies this week - enjoy!]
- From today's Times (UK), William Sutton examines translations of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The Turkish version of the final book (Harry Potter ve Ölüm Yadigarlar) was just released last week, second only to the Ukrainian translation (Harry Potter i Smertelni Relikviyi). The French translator won't be finished until February, and in Italy "irate Potter fans have organised Operation Feather, deluging the publisher Salani with feathers to demand earlier publication, in the manner of Hogwarts' messenger owls." Sutton also discusses the many "unofficial" translations cropping up in various parts of the world, as well as the difficulties inherent in translating some of Rowling's names and ideas (Dumbledore in Norwegian? Humlesnurr, formed by combining the words for 'bee' and 'spin'). Voldemort's full name in French (to preserve the anagram)? Tom Elvis Jedusor.
- At Bookride, the first part of a two-part post on Boccaccio's Decameron. Always some interesting anecdotes here.
- Tom Pazzo posts an auction report over at Bookshop Blog. He doesn't say where the auction was, but he does report that a first edition of Hobbes' Leviathan went for $4600.
- Travis reports that Jay Miller "has [finally] been charged in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California with Interstate Transportation of Stolen Goods. He has pleaded not guilty." Another court appearance soon.
- Ed's got the latest dispatches from the Poe Wars battlefield.
- Michael Lieberman notes that police in Essex, England are on the lookout for four "Mini-Bookshop" vending machines stolen last month. "The machines, worth £10,000 each, were in a trailer attached to a lorry parked at PN Computer Services on High Street, Elsenham near Bishop's Stortford." A £2,000 reward is offered for their return.
- Over at Drawger, a gallery of endpapers.
- The Association of Research Libraries has published Celebrating Research: Rare and Special Collections from the Membership of the Association of Research Libraries. The book "includes 118 collection profiles, each from a different ARL member library. Each profile is illustrated with color photographs and tells a story of a single collection, recounting how the resources were acquired and developed. The compilation is rich with examples of how research libraries are engaging different communities to deliver library services and encourage the use of such distinctive collections." Nicholas Barker contributed the introduction. A companion website has also been released.
- Scott Brown at FB&C highlights their upcoming collection of Nicholas Basbanes essays, Editions & Impressions, and also passes along an Anne Trubek piece about collecting 'hypermoderns' (books published within the last two decades or so).
- Back in February I noted the discovery of book with Rousseau provenance at Cincinnati's [fixed, not Chicago's] Lloyd Library; they've now mounted an exhibit, "In Rousseau's Own Hand: His Book, His Notes, His Botany", complete with images of the annotations, other botany-related books used by Rousseau, &c.
- Last weekend's Paul Collins posts: comments on the Archimedes Palimpsest, and a link to a review of a recent book, Fopdoodle And Salmagundi: Words and Meanings From Dr Johnson's Dictionary That Time Forgot. Paul includes a web edition of a small portion of Edward Vaughn Kenealy's "epic and epically bonkers play A New Pantomime."
- From BibliOdyssey, images from an anonymous, undated and spectacular Arabic manuscript showing some sort of water-moving machine, a fun miscellany, and a collection of costume plates from Dutch artist Caspar Luyken (1703).
- Richard Cox examines the new book Scribal Culture and the Making of the Hebrew Bible from an archival perspective. Perceptive and relevant, as usual.
- Over at Galleycat, they spent some time this week wondering what's the oldest library in America (here and here). As usual, it's complicated.
Reviews:
Marcus Rediker's The Slave Ship: A Human History - by Colin Woodard in the Christian Science Monitor. I heard Rediker speak on this book at Northeastern this week, and am very much looking forward to reading it. His talk was riveting and excellent. Woodard says Rediker "has drawn the slave ship out of the shadows, creating a history that is elegant, readable, and entirely horrifying. It is, as Rediker warns at the outset, a painful book to read, and one the reader won't soon forget."
Eve LaPlante's Salem Witch Judge: The Life and Repentance of Samuel Sewell - by Marjorie Kehe in the Christian Science Monitor.
John Kukla's Mr. Jefferson's Women - by Stacy Schiff in the New York Times. Schiff's verdict: "Generally, Kukla is working with a thin historical record; the perhapses pile up. More disturbingly, the evidence seems honed to fit an argument. ... Kukla contrasts Jefferson unfavorably with Benjamin Rush and the Marquis de Condorcet, progressive thinkers whose ideas about women were especially advanced. If, however, the charge that Jefferson 'did nothing whatsoever to improve the legal or social condition of women in American society' holds, his entire generation stands convicted. It seems as unfair to tar him with that brush as it does to accuse him of selfishness, behavior that would hardly distinguish Jefferson, or most of the rest of us, in any century."
- Lucy Worsley's Cavalier: A Tale of Chivalry, Passion, and Great Houses - by Judith Flanders in the New York Times. Flanders says this unconventional biography of William Cavendish, first Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne doesn't quite measure up: elements "fail to cohere" and the book "sometimes reads like a historical novel. ... "The description of Newcastle’s father’s deathbed is 'extrapolated,' an endnote tells us, from 'similar scenes' in contemporary sources, including paintings. In the text, the reader is straightforwardly told that certain people are present, but the endnotes amend these assertions, revealing that documents 'do not place' these people 'in the house on the day,' although 'their presence seems likely.'” This is not history. It is fiction." Quite so, and yet another indictment of editors and publishers who allow authors to get away with blurring if not outright fudging facts. For shame.
- Angus Hawkins' The Forgotten Prime Minister: The 14th Earl of Derby (Volume I: Ascent, 1799-1851) - by Andrew Roberts in the Times. Of the subject, Roberts writes "Although he formed three ministries, was the longest-serving party leader in modern British political history and abolished slavery throughout the British Empire, Derby is not today remembered at all, even in the Tory party that he led between 1846 and 1868." Of the book: "With its genealogical tables, chapter headings based on Derby’s Iliad translation and deeply learned expositions on the minutiae of parliamentary manoeuvrings, this book hails from the elitist high-politics school of history and is (rightly) proud of it."
- Woody Holton's Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution - by Terry Shulman in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. "Holton's sour view of the framers' motivations might have been tempered by an acknowledgment of how much more democratic the Constitution has become since its ratification. This, too, can be attributed to the framers. The author gives short shrift to any higher agenda (in the fashion of most revisionists) and fails to focus the reader's attention on the Constitution's ingrained powers of reinvention. ... But Holton's book is groundbreaking in that it enlarges exponentially our understanding of the people's role in the formation of American government. Unruly they might have been, but they were canny enough to see the extent to which they were being taken advantage of by their state governments and capable enough to bring about the grass-roots upheavals that led to the drafting of the Constitution." My copy of Unruly Americans arrived this week, and is another one I'm really looking forward to.
- From today's Times (UK), William Sutton examines translations of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The Turkish version of the final book (Harry Potter ve Ölüm Yadigarlar) was just released last week, second only to the Ukrainian translation (Harry Potter i Smertelni Relikviyi). The French translator won't be finished until February, and in Italy "irate Potter fans have organised Operation Feather, deluging the publisher Salani with feathers to demand earlier publication, in the manner of Hogwarts' messenger owls." Sutton also discusses the many "unofficial" translations cropping up in various parts of the world, as well as the difficulties inherent in translating some of Rowling's names and ideas (Dumbledore in Norwegian? Humlesnurr, formed by combining the words for 'bee' and 'spin'). Voldemort's full name in French (to preserve the anagram)? Tom Elvis Jedusor.
- At Bookride, the first part of a two-part post on Boccaccio's Decameron. Always some interesting anecdotes here.
- Tom Pazzo posts an auction report over at Bookshop Blog. He doesn't say where the auction was, but he does report that a first edition of Hobbes' Leviathan went for $4600.
- Travis reports that Jay Miller "has [finally] been charged in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California with Interstate Transportation of Stolen Goods. He has pleaded not guilty." Another court appearance soon.
- Ed's got the latest dispatches from the Poe Wars battlefield.
- Michael Lieberman notes that police in Essex, England are on the lookout for four "Mini-Bookshop" vending machines stolen last month. "The machines, worth £10,000 each, were in a trailer attached to a lorry parked at PN Computer Services on High Street, Elsenham near Bishop's Stortford." A £2,000 reward is offered for their return.
- Over at Drawger, a gallery of endpapers.
- The Association of Research Libraries has published Celebrating Research: Rare and Special Collections from the Membership of the Association of Research Libraries. The book "includes 118 collection profiles, each from a different ARL member library. Each profile is illustrated with color photographs and tells a story of a single collection, recounting how the resources were acquired and developed. The compilation is rich with examples of how research libraries are engaging different communities to deliver library services and encourage the use of such distinctive collections." Nicholas Barker contributed the introduction. A companion website has also been released.
- Scott Brown at FB&C highlights their upcoming collection of Nicholas Basbanes essays, Editions & Impressions, and also passes along an Anne Trubek piece about collecting 'hypermoderns' (books published within the last two decades or so).
- Back in February I noted the discovery of book with Rousseau provenance at Cincinnati's [fixed, not Chicago's] Lloyd Library; they've now mounted an exhibit, "In Rousseau's Own Hand: His Book, His Notes, His Botany", complete with images of the annotations, other botany-related books used by Rousseau, &c.
- Last weekend's Paul Collins posts: comments on the Archimedes Palimpsest, and a link to a review of a recent book, Fopdoodle And Salmagundi: Words and Meanings From Dr Johnson's Dictionary That Time Forgot. Paul includes a web edition of a small portion of Edward Vaughn Kenealy's "epic and epically bonkers play A New Pantomime."
- From BibliOdyssey, images from an anonymous, undated and spectacular Arabic manuscript showing some sort of water-moving machine, a fun miscellany, and a collection of costume plates from Dutch artist Caspar Luyken (1703).
- Richard Cox examines the new book Scribal Culture and the Making of the Hebrew Bible from an archival perspective. Perceptive and relevant, as usual.
- Over at Galleycat, they spent some time this week wondering what's the oldest library in America (here and here). As usual, it's complicated.
Reviews:
Marcus Rediker's The Slave Ship: A Human History - by Colin Woodard in the Christian Science Monitor. I heard Rediker speak on this book at Northeastern this week, and am very much looking forward to reading it. His talk was riveting and excellent. Woodard says Rediker "has drawn the slave ship out of the shadows, creating a history that is elegant, readable, and entirely horrifying. It is, as Rediker warns at the outset, a painful book to read, and one the reader won't soon forget."
Eve LaPlante's Salem Witch Judge: The Life and Repentance of Samuel Sewell - by Marjorie Kehe in the Christian Science Monitor.
John Kukla's Mr. Jefferson's Women - by Stacy Schiff in the New York Times. Schiff's verdict: "Generally, Kukla is working with a thin historical record; the perhapses pile up. More disturbingly, the evidence seems honed to fit an argument. ... Kukla contrasts Jefferson unfavorably with Benjamin Rush and the Marquis de Condorcet, progressive thinkers whose ideas about women were especially advanced. If, however, the charge that Jefferson 'did nothing whatsoever to improve the legal or social condition of women in American society' holds, his entire generation stands convicted. It seems as unfair to tar him with that brush as it does to accuse him of selfishness, behavior that would hardly distinguish Jefferson, or most of the rest of us, in any century."
- Lucy Worsley's Cavalier: A Tale of Chivalry, Passion, and Great Houses - by Judith Flanders in the New York Times. Flanders says this unconventional biography of William Cavendish, first Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne doesn't quite measure up: elements "fail to cohere" and the book "sometimes reads like a historical novel. ... "The description of Newcastle’s father’s deathbed is 'extrapolated,' an endnote tells us, from 'similar scenes' in contemporary sources, including paintings. In the text, the reader is straightforwardly told that certain people are present, but the endnotes amend these assertions, revealing that documents 'do not place' these people 'in the house on the day,' although 'their presence seems likely.'” This is not history. It is fiction." Quite so, and yet another indictment of editors and publishers who allow authors to get away with blurring if not outright fudging facts. For shame.
- Angus Hawkins' The Forgotten Prime Minister: The 14th Earl of Derby (Volume I: Ascent, 1799-1851) - by Andrew Roberts in the Times. Of the subject, Roberts writes "Although he formed three ministries, was the longest-serving party leader in modern British political history and abolished slavery throughout the British Empire, Derby is not today remembered at all, even in the Tory party that he led between 1846 and 1868." Of the book: "With its genealogical tables, chapter headings based on Derby’s Iliad translation and deeply learned expositions on the minutiae of parliamentary manoeuvrings, this book hails from the elitist high-politics school of history and is (rightly) proud of it."
- Woody Holton's Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution - by Terry Shulman in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. "Holton's sour view of the framers' motivations might have been tempered by an acknowledgment of how much more democratic the Constitution has become since its ratification. This, too, can be attributed to the framers. The author gives short shrift to any higher agenda (in the fashion of most revisionists) and fails to focus the reader's attention on the Constitution's ingrained powers of reinvention. ... But Holton's book is groundbreaking in that it enlarges exponentially our understanding of the people's role in the formation of American government. Unruly they might have been, but they were canny enough to see the extent to which they were being taken advantage of by their state governments and capable enough to bring about the grass-roots upheavals that led to the drafting of the Constitution." My copy of Unruly Americans arrived this week, and is another one I'm really looking forward to.
Recent Acquisitions
- A Rochester, NY t.v. station reports that a first edition of Frederick Douglass' 1855 memoir My Bondage and My Freedom was found among the books destined for a Ronald McDonald House book sale in upstate New York. "Upon finding out about the book, Glen Jeter, a local McDonald's franchise owner, bought it, and then gave it back to be displayed at the new Frederick Douglass Resource Center, once the center is completed next spring." Jeter paid $400.
- "A collection of historical and rare books on Banff belonging to legendary editor of the Banffshire Journal, Dr William Barclay, has been donated to the Banff Preservation and Heritage Society by his family," the Journal notes.
- "A collection of historical and rare books on Banff belonging to legendary editor of the Banffshire Journal, Dr William Barclay, has been donated to the Banff Preservation and Heritage Society by his family," the Journal notes.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Book Review: "A More Perfect Constitution"
In his new book A More Perfect Constitution (Walker & Company, 2007) Larry Sabato, the founder and director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics lays out a series of twenty-three proposals for constitutional revision. These amendments would, he argues, bring the Constitution into the twenty-first century by making the structures of our government more fair, more representative, and more effective.
Most of us are instinctively leery of major structural changes to the Constitution, and with good reason - it's lasted for more than two centuries, and has served the United States well. At first glance, some if not many of Sabato's proposals seem unnecessary, unpalatable, or both. But after reading his justifications for them, I was convinced by both the desirability and the necessity of nearly all of them.
Since Sabato's stated purpose with his book is to promote a great debate over these ideas, and to prompt what he terms a "generational process of moderate, well-considered change," I've begun a discussion here of his proposals by outlining them in brief and adding my own views as they currently stand (I will admit that some of them changed just in the course of reading this book). I have attempted as much as possible to keep Sabato's proposals separate from my own opinions so as not to influence others' perceptions of his ideas, but I do encourage everyone interested in this discussion to read his book, where he makes his case in much greater and persuasive detail.
I don’t agree with all of Sabato’s proposals; I doubt anyone will. I certainly don’t expect everyone to agree with my views either. But I do think these points are all worth debating, and I agree with Sabato that we shouldn’t simply accept the Constitution as it stands, but should examine how it works and what, if anything, we can do to make it better for the nation. Some of the changes Sabato suggests would, I submit, make our government work better, and I applaud him for putting out this plan for us all to discuss and consider. Whether anything will come of it remains to be seen, but certainly nothing will happen if we just ignore the proposals.
Most of us are instinctively leery of major structural changes to the Constitution, and with good reason - it's lasted for more than two centuries, and has served the United States well. At first glance, some if not many of Sabato's proposals seem unnecessary, unpalatable, or both. But after reading his justifications for them, I was convinced by both the desirability and the necessity of nearly all of them.
Since Sabato's stated purpose with his book is to promote a great debate over these ideas, and to prompt what he terms a "generational process of moderate, well-considered change," I've begun a discussion here of his proposals by outlining them in brief and adding my own views as they currently stand (I will admit that some of them changed just in the course of reading this book). I have attempted as much as possible to keep Sabato's proposals separate from my own opinions so as not to influence others' perceptions of his ideas, but I do encourage everyone interested in this discussion to read his book, where he makes his case in much greater and persuasive detail.
I don’t agree with all of Sabato’s proposals; I doubt anyone will. I certainly don’t expect everyone to agree with my views either. But I do think these points are all worth debating, and I agree with Sabato that we shouldn’t simply accept the Constitution as it stands, but should examine how it works and what, if anything, we can do to make it better for the nation. Some of the changes Sabato suggests would, I submit, make our government work better, and I applaud him for putting out this plan for us all to discuss and consider. Whether anything will come of it remains to be seen, but certainly nothing will happen if we just ignore the proposals.
Art/Map Thefts Highlighted
In the Sydney Morning Herald, Philip Cornford has an article today on international art theft, which the FBI now says totals some $8 billion annually worldwide, making it "the first biggest crime [in monetary terms] behind drug dealing, arms dealing and money laundering." He notes a recent theft from the National Gallery of New South Wales, in which thieves simply entered a gallery, unscrewed a frame, and walked off with Frans van Mieris' (1635-1681) self-portrait "A Cavalier."
Cornford's piece discusses the links between the stolen-art markets in Australia and Britain, mentioning the recovery of the two Cosmographia maps from Spain's National Library. In that case, he says, no charges have yet been filed. He also examines various strategies for dealing with theft, including offering rewards or ransoms.
Well worth a read.
Cornford's piece discusses the links between the stolen-art markets in Australia and Britain, mentioning the recovery of the two Cosmographia maps from Spain's National Library. In that case, he says, no charges have yet been filed. He also examines various strategies for dealing with theft, including offering rewards or ransoms.
Well worth a read.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Stolen Maps Recovered
Everett Wilkie passes along two articles from Spain's El Pais (one from Tuesday, one from today) regarding the map thefts from Madrid's Biblioteca Nacional reported back in early September. The articles are in Spanish, but I've found condensed English versions here and here.
Tuesday's piece reveals that one of the stolen maps (from a 1482 edition of Ptolemy's Cosmographia) was recovered by the FBI in New York after it was found to be in the possession of a collector. "The identity of the collectioner [sic] was not given. It was not known whether he or she was aware that the map, which is valued at about 100,000 euros (140,000 dollars), was stolen."
Police now believe that twelve pages of maps and documents were removed from the National Library by an Uruguayan man living in Argentina, who registered with the library as a historian using the name César Ovilio Gómez Rivero (may not be his real name).
And from Australia, news that police have recovered two additional maps from the same 1482 text, these "found in Sydney at the home of an Australian antiques dealer who had bought them at an auction in London. ... The names of the Australian dealer and the London auction house were not revealed."
More as I find it.
Tuesday's piece reveals that one of the stolen maps (from a 1482 edition of Ptolemy's Cosmographia) was recovered by the FBI in New York after it was found to be in the possession of a collector. "The identity of the collectioner [sic] was not given. It was not known whether he or she was aware that the map, which is valued at about 100,000 euros (140,000 dollars), was stolen."
Police now believe that twelve pages of maps and documents were removed from the National Library by an Uruguayan man living in Argentina, who registered with the library as a historian using the name César Ovilio Gómez Rivero (may not be his real name).
And from Australia, news that police have recovered two additional maps from the same 1482 text, these "found in Sydney at the home of an Australian antiques dealer who had bought them at an auction in London. ... The names of the Australian dealer and the London auction house were not revealed."
More as I find it.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
The Poe Wars
Ed Pettit's "We're Taking Poe Back" piece in last week's Philadelphia City Paper has prompted some supportive volleys from other Philadelphia partisans, while the Baltimore gang is firing back. In a Baltimore Sun column, "We Have the Body, and We're Keeping Him," Poe House curator Jeff Jerome tells Philly "Keep your greasy, onioned, sub-stained hands off Poe!" Jerome admits to being impressed by Ed's research: "I plan to go up to Philadelphia, punch him in the eye and then say, 'Let's talk about Poe.'"
A.J. Daulerio, writing for the Philadelphia Magazine blog The Daily Examiner, calls the Baltimoreans "crabcake-stuffed cranks," and gets in a few low blows of his own. Ed says of the fracas "In his time, Poe took part in some rough and tumble literary wars (often of his own making), so I feel gratified that my piece has generated some heat. At least this battle will remain good-natured; Poe's fights were gravely serious, with his literary survival always at stake."
Well, I have to point out that Boston also can lay claim to Poe: he was, after all, born here. But as a Boston Globe story pointed out back in January, there's not much love in Beantown for the man whose literary corpse is being so viciously tussled over by his other sometime-homes: "His name is not routinely uttered on tours of the city, nor does it appear among the 1,000-plus attractions on the city's tourism website. Boston has neither a Poe statue nor a Poe museum - only a small plaque commemorating his birthplace on the outside wall of a luggage store. The Poe Studies Association, a group of scholars and fans, rejected Boston for its 2009 celebration of the bicentennial of his birth partly because this city offers little for Poe aficionados."
Following a particularly poorly-received reading at the Boston Lyceum in 1845, Poe wrote of Boston "We were born there - and perhaps it is just as well not to mention that we are heartily ashamed of the fact." He and the grand literary poobahs of the day - Hawthorne, Longfellow and their ilk - were not on pleasant terms (to say the least). And Poe's final stay in Boston can hardly be remembered pleasantly: he tried to kill himself here in 1848 by overdosing on opiates after a relationship went sour. Not exactly the ties that bind, are they?
But wait! What is that anonymous byline on the title page of Poe's first published work? "Tamerlane and Other Poems. By A Bostonian."
Well, it's something, at least. But not enough, I think, to warrant Boston's entry into the Poe Wars. We'll let Baltimore and Philly fight this one out - we wouldn't want to rile up the Brahmins.
A.J. Daulerio, writing for the Philadelphia Magazine blog The Daily Examiner, calls the Baltimoreans "crabcake-stuffed cranks," and gets in a few low blows of his own. Ed says of the fracas "In his time, Poe took part in some rough and tumble literary wars (often of his own making), so I feel gratified that my piece has generated some heat. At least this battle will remain good-natured; Poe's fights were gravely serious, with his literary survival always at stake."
Well, I have to point out that Boston also can lay claim to Poe: he was, after all, born here. But as a Boston Globe story pointed out back in January, there's not much love in Beantown for the man whose literary corpse is being so viciously tussled over by his other sometime-homes: "His name is not routinely uttered on tours of the city, nor does it appear among the 1,000-plus attractions on the city's tourism website. Boston has neither a Poe statue nor a Poe museum - only a small plaque commemorating his birthplace on the outside wall of a luggage store. The Poe Studies Association, a group of scholars and fans, rejected Boston for its 2009 celebration of the bicentennial of his birth partly because this city offers little for Poe aficionados."
Following a particularly poorly-received reading at the Boston Lyceum in 1845, Poe wrote of Boston "We were born there - and perhaps it is just as well not to mention that we are heartily ashamed of the fact." He and the grand literary poobahs of the day - Hawthorne, Longfellow and their ilk - were not on pleasant terms (to say the least). And Poe's final stay in Boston can hardly be remembered pleasantly: he tried to kill himself here in 1848 by overdosing on opiates after a relationship went sour. Not exactly the ties that bind, are they?
But wait! What is that anonymous byline on the title page of Poe's first published work? "Tamerlane and Other Poems. By A Bostonian."
Well, it's something, at least. But not enough, I think, to warrant Boston's entry into the Poe Wars. We'll let Baltimore and Philly fight this one out - we wouldn't want to rile up the Brahmins.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Harvard's Missing Maps
The Houghton Library at Harvard recently sent out a reminder notice of the maps known to be missing from their collections. If you've seen, purchased or otherwise been in contact with these maps recently, please contact the Houghton staff (contact info on the linked webpage).
Philadelphia Poet Dies
The Philly Inquirer [title typo fixed] ran an obituary on Sunday for Herschel Baron, a poet and retired mechanical engineer who died recently at the age of 94. "The bantam retiree, a familiar character in Philadelphia poetry circles for more than 20 years, was hard to miss with his shock of white hair and beard, rakish Greek fisherman's cap, pipe (he owned 300 pipes), and tweed jacket as he walked the streets of the city. He was one of the original residents of the William Penn House, a Center City cooperative, and his home was crammed with more than 5,000 books."
Read the whole piece here.
Read the whole piece here.
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Hooke Manuscript Goes Online
The Royal Society's folio volume of Robert Hooke's notes of the organization's early proceedings (1661-1691) is now available online. The manuscript, saved from auction last year by the intervention of the Wellcome Trust, has been carefully transcribed as part of the digitization process with the assistance of Hooke biographer Lisa Jardine and others.
"[Hooke's] minutes of the Royal Society describe in detail his numerous experiments and a dazzling range of inventions, from his work with a microscope, confirming the very first sighting of bacteria and sperm, to accounts of flying machines, the first pressure cooker and his dealings with Newton," a Telegraph report notes.
The Royal Society's introduction to the digital version has some more background about the folio: "Rivalries and disputes over inventions meant that Hooke did not trust the written account of Royal Society activities left by his Secretarial predecessor, Henry Oldenburg. Therefore the Folio begins with Hooke's corrective copy of early minutes, intended as a definitive record of the events described. In fact, Oldenburg's and Hooke's writings enrich one another.
As Secretary, Hooke drafted original descriptions of Society meetings from the late 1670s and these rough minutes form the second part of the Hooke Folio. Here, the Folio contains material that was lost or distorted in official accounts of the Royal Society's story, for example fuller versions of major scientific discoveries."
A non-broadband viewer and transcription of the Folio are here (not quite as flashy, but more usable, I find).
"[Hooke's] minutes of the Royal Society describe in detail his numerous experiments and a dazzling range of inventions, from his work with a microscope, confirming the very first sighting of bacteria and sperm, to accounts of flying machines, the first pressure cooker and his dealings with Newton," a Telegraph report notes.
The Royal Society's introduction to the digital version has some more background about the folio: "Rivalries and disputes over inventions meant that Hooke did not trust the written account of Royal Society activities left by his Secretarial predecessor, Henry Oldenburg. Therefore the Folio begins with Hooke's corrective copy of early minutes, intended as a definitive record of the events described. In fact, Oldenburg's and Hooke's writings enrich one another.
As Secretary, Hooke drafted original descriptions of Society meetings from the late 1670s and these rough minutes form the second part of the Hooke Folio. Here, the Folio contains material that was lost or distorted in official accounts of the Royal Society's story, for example fuller versions of major scientific discoveries."
A non-broadband viewer and transcription of the Folio are here (not quite as flashy, but more usable, I find).
McCormick Ornithology Sale Sets Record
I dropped the ball on last Friday's Sotheby's sale of the Brooks McCormick Ornithology Collection, which I previewed back in September. Rare Books Review caught it, though, and reports that the total take was just over $2.7 million, well above the high estimate. As expected, the high spot was Mark Catesby's The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands, which was sold to an American dealer for $657,000 - setting a record for an 18th-century natural history work at auction.
A first edition of Buffon's Histoire naturelle de oiseaux nearly doubled its estimate, selling for $157,000; John Gould's Birds of Europe fetched $145,000. Five original Audubon Birds sold for more than $50,000 apiece (Whooping Crane, Wood Duck, Virginia Partridge, Wild Turkey (male) and Osprey). The first edition of Darwin's Origin of Species and a copy of John Selby Prideaux's British Ornithology sold for $58,000 each.
The proceeds from the auction will benefit the International Crane Foundation.
A first edition of Buffon's Histoire naturelle de oiseaux nearly doubled its estimate, selling for $157,000; John Gould's Birds of Europe fetched $145,000. Five original Audubon Birds sold for more than $50,000 apiece (Whooping Crane, Wood Duck, Virginia Partridge, Wild Turkey (male) and Osprey). The first edition of Darwin's Origin of Species and a copy of John Selby Prideaux's British Ornithology sold for $58,000 each.
The proceeds from the auction will benefit the International Crane Foundation.
Monday, October 08, 2007
Jefferson and the Sharks
Back in September I linked to this post at J.L. Bell's excellent Boston 1775 blog, where Bell points out a Marcus Rediker essay in the Boston Globe about a satirical broadside he'd found, "The Petition of the Sharks of Africa" (transcription here).
The abolitionist broadside, written from the perspective of the sharks, urges Parliament not to stop the slave trade, because "your petitioners are sustained, not only by the carcases of those who have fallen by distempers, but are frequently gratified with rich repasts from the bodies of living negroes who voluntarily plunge into the abodes of your petitioners, preferring instant destruction by their jaws, to the imaginary horrors of a lingering slavery." The whole document is very imaginative and incredibly disturbing.
Why bring this up again, you'll ask? Well, last night as I was adding some more of Thomas Jefferson's library to LibraryThing (project intro here, progress report here), I got to a collection of bound tracts titled "Political Pamphlets. English. 1800. 1801", and there as the first entry is a folded broadside, "The Petition of the Sharks of Africa" [Sowerby 2802]. So Jefferson not only had a copy of this broadside, but kept it and had it bound with other works; the volume still exists at the Library of Congress.
The abolitionist broadside, written from the perspective of the sharks, urges Parliament not to stop the slave trade, because "your petitioners are sustained, not only by the carcases of those who have fallen by distempers, but are frequently gratified with rich repasts from the bodies of living negroes who voluntarily plunge into the abodes of your petitioners, preferring instant destruction by their jaws, to the imaginary horrors of a lingering slavery." The whole document is very imaginative and incredibly disturbing.
Why bring this up again, you'll ask? Well, last night as I was adding some more of Thomas Jefferson's library to LibraryThing (project intro here, progress report here), I got to a collection of bound tracts titled "Political Pamphlets. English. 1800. 1801", and there as the first entry is a folded broadside, "The Petition of the Sharks of Africa" [Sowerby 2802]. So Jefferson not only had a copy of this broadside, but kept it and had it bound with other works; the volume still exists at the Library of Congress.
Lost in Translation?
Several English-language news sources from the Middle East (Qatar Peninsula, Arabian Business) are reporting that a Qatari man has been offered up to $4.3 million for a 400-year old Quran manuscript. The man, Saeed Ali Al Suwaidi, says he received the book from a Yemeni scholar during a trip to Mecca last Ramadan. "We began talking after a preliminary introduction. He told me that he had a rare copy of a Holy Quran. It was handwritten and a little less than 400 years old. He asked me if I would accept it for safekeeping."
The scholar, who is unnamed in the news reports, told Suwaidi that the Quran was created over a five-year period by Mohamed bin Ahmed bin Qassem Al Aqwa, and was completed in 1034 Hijri (the Islamic equivalent of 1624 CE).
Suwaidi: "I agreed to accept the copy for I felt I was being blessed. It was a huge responsibility. I took immense care and preserved the manuscript so sunlight and moist air did not spoil it. It was a proud possession and the most valuable asset of my life." Recently, he told the Peninsula, he's had offers to buy the Quran, including one bid of $4.3 million. "I might agree to part with it if I get a good offer," Suwaidi said.
Either I'm missing something here or Mr. Suwaidi has a very different conception of "safekeeping" than I do.
[h/t Rare Book News]
The scholar, who is unnamed in the news reports, told Suwaidi that the Quran was created over a five-year period by Mohamed bin Ahmed bin Qassem Al Aqwa, and was completed in 1034 Hijri (the Islamic equivalent of 1624 CE).
Suwaidi: "I agreed to accept the copy for I felt I was being blessed. It was a huge responsibility. I took immense care and preserved the manuscript so sunlight and moist air did not spoil it. It was a proud possession and the most valuable asset of my life." Recently, he told the Peninsula, he's had offers to buy the Quran, including one bid of $4.3 million. "I might agree to part with it if I get a good offer," Suwaidi said.
Either I'm missing something here or Mr. Suwaidi has a very different conception of "safekeeping" than I do.
[h/t Rare Book News]
Sunday, October 07, 2007
Book Review: "Books of Secrets"
CUNY history professor Allison Kavey's Books of Secrets: Natural Philosophy in England, 1550-1600 (University of Illinois Press, 2007) offers a detailed analysis of a fascinating genre of cheap printed books during the late sixteenth century - books of secrets, designed to provide their readers with ways of understanding and dealing with the natural world (through alchemy, meteorology, cookery, medicine, &c.). Building on earlier work in the field by William Eamon and others, Kavey discusses various aspects of the genre, making linkages between the printers who issued these sorts of books, examining the authorities behind the texts, and delving into a structural analysis of the books to understand how they were created, packaged and marketed to readers.
Kavey's final two chapters analyze two types of books in particular: those marketed to women, and Gervase Markham's horse care manuals (which she argues were marketed to gentlemen but would have been most useful to the grooms actually dealing with the horses). While I'm not sure I agree entirely with all of Kavey's answers to the questions she poses, she has certainly provided an intriguing look at this genre of books and laid a good foundation for future scholarship in this area. By utilizing a wonderfully interdisciplinary approach, Kavey provides a good example of how book history can both inform and be informed by other fields.
In her concluding section, Kavey writes "print scholarship benefits from considering books in their own context, by placing them next to similar books by similar printers and attempting to locate them within the print marketplace" (p. 159). She's done a good job of that in this book.
Kavey's final two chapters analyze two types of books in particular: those marketed to women, and Gervase Markham's horse care manuals (which she argues were marketed to gentlemen but would have been most useful to the grooms actually dealing with the horses). While I'm not sure I agree entirely with all of Kavey's answers to the questions she poses, she has certainly provided an intriguing look at this genre of books and laid a good foundation for future scholarship in this area. By utilizing a wonderfully interdisciplinary approach, Kavey provides a good example of how book history can both inform and be informed by other fields.
In her concluding section, Kavey writes "print scholarship benefits from considering books in their own context, by placing them next to similar books by similar printers and attempting to locate them within the print marketplace" (p. 159). She's done a good job of that in this book.
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