"The idea of going back after all this ultra contemporary stuff and all of these issues in the real world I really have, you know, I have a big first-edition book collection of western exploration and, ah, ah, I have Captain Cook's diaries and the logs. It's just - to me the idea that these people who went out into the unknown and what happened when they met other cultures is just really fascinating..."
"The two small pieces of brown animal skin, inscribed in Hebrew with verses from the Book of Leviticus, are from "refugee" caves in Nachal Arugot, a canyon near the Dead Sea where Jews hid from the Romans in the second century, Eshel said in an interview."
"Two years ago, there were only three titles by Native American writers in the Multnomah County Central Library's John Wilson Room, where the special collections and rare books are kept safe and cool.
Today, there are hundreds of novels, plays and collections of short stories and poems by Native Americans, and the goal is to collect all such books published in the U.S. and Canada. It's an ambitious project but one that fits well with the other core collections in the Wilson Room, according to librarian Jim Carmin."
"It's funny how the Earl of Macclesfield failed to notice that the gaily coloured old book in his library was one of the greatest works of art in British history. Perhaps he was just secretive. Whatever the reason, the animal-hide pages that can now be seen in glass display cases in a Cambridge museum lay unknown in his library until his books started to be sold off.
What happened after the manuscript - which, in perhaps unjustified deference to its former owner, has been named the Macclesfield Psalter - came up for auction at Sotheby's on June 22 2004 is now the stuff of heritage legend. An attempt to buy it by Cambridge University's Fitzwilliam Museum was foiled by the dastardly J Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. But Californian dollars were deflected by a temporary government export ban and, with assiduous use of the media and support from a worthy list of caring trusts and funds, this great British art treasure has stayed in Britain."
"One document with pertinent historic significance to today that was recently unearthed is the correspondence from the commandant of the French side to the Dutch side authorities about the escape of the slaves from Diamond Estate to the French side in 1848 when emancipation was proclaimed there.
The document was discovered when Blijden was requested by the Culture Department to look for information on slavery. The information was passed on to the department and may have played a part in the planning of the upcoming re-enactment of Diamond Estate 26 Escape set for the Cole Bay border point on June 30 at midnight."
Read this article.
"New Delhi: For moth-eaten, attacked by fungus and brittle manuscripts lying undiscovered in the national capital, help is at hand, finally.Trained in locating and preserving manuscripts, a band of 125 students from Delhi have fanned out in the historical city and its suburbs in an adventurous hunt for the priceless written documents of India’s cultural heritage with the objective of preparing a ‘manuscripts map of Delhi’."
"JAMES BOND has not had such a battle with communism since From Russia With Love, but on the walls of Richard Platt’s bookshop in Blackheath, southeast London, 007 is about to lose out to Mao Zedong, or rather half a dozen prints of Mao from Shanghai (£149 each).
The front room of the Bookshop on the Heath is dominated as much by pictures as words. Ancient maps and rare photos of the Beatles fight for space with engagingly odd books that tempt you to open them — such as a history of Bovril advertising or a 19th-century gilt Bible in Welsh. But it is Bond that sells best, Platt sells a Bond film poster every fortnight."
Philadelphia: "Resnikoff/Weightman, a brand marketing communications firm, has added Bauman Rare Books to its expanding roster of clients.
With galleries in Manhattan and Philadelphia, Bauman Rare Books is one of the nation's largest, preeminent specialists in rare books. Its catalog includes scarce and important editions ranging from Shakespeare to Seuss. Bauman has engaged Resnikoff/Weightman -- its first agency affiliation -- to expand marketing and communications efforts through a comprehensive branding and business development campaign."
"It's one of the rarest pieces of medieval English art ever discovered and now it's about to go on show.
The Macclesfield Psalter is a tiny book of psalms, written in Latin and lavishly illustrated.
Next week the 650-year-old book will be displayed in public for the first time - as part of an exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge."
"Public libraries are facing an array of threats that could radically change their role in society, the new president of the American Library Association warns.
Michael Gorman, who began his term as ALA president last month, said in an interview Tuesday that the concerns include Web giant Google's plans to digitize the nation's libraries, government intrusion into personal library records, and funding shortfalls."
"Three ancient scrolls — one parchment and two silver — recently have been identified as containing some of the world's earliest known verses from the Hebrew Bible, also known as the Old Testament.
The discovery of two fragments of a 2,000-year-old parchment scroll in the Judean Desert was announced last week by Israeli archaeologist Chanan Eshel of Tel Aviv's Bar Ilan University."
"Letters written by DH Lawrence and 800-year-old records from the Duke of Newcastle's estate are among documents now accessible online thanks to funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).
Amateur historians and professional researchers alike now have online access to details of nearly 150,000 documents, with the completion of a major cataloguing and preservation programme at the University of Nottingham."
"STARTING Sunday, Walled City residents can expect a visit from some people on a mission. A team of 125-odd suryevors from the National Mission for Manuscripts are starting a door-to-door hunt for rare manuscripts in the city.
During the 10-day-long survey, the mission will also be providing conservation kits to manuscript repositories and private collectors."
"WEST BANK: Haifa Khalidi of the prominent Palestinian Khalidi family has a tough job. She is the sole caretaker of the family house in the Old City of Jerusalem and the custodian of the exquisite Khalidi Library that forms part of it. The library has been in Jerusalem for years and has belonged to the Khalidis for as long as anyone can remember."
"Some of the greatest exponents of the manuscript art lived in East Anglia - and a spectacular exhibition of their work is going on show from next week at two venues in Cambridge, the Fitzwilliam Museum and Cambridge University Library.
The 200 manuscripts on display date from the sixth to the 16th Century and are drawn from the collections of the university museum and the library, as well as Cambridge's colleges, which between them have some of the finest examples of the art form on the planet."
"The Tamil manuscript section of the Sarasvati Mahal Library, Thanjavur, comprises more than 3,000 manuscripts. Several of these deal with medical practices based on observations of the hospital Raja Serfoji established. Many others are those with rare commentaries of ancient Tamil works on religion and philosophy.
A rare treasure that shows the privileged status women enjoyed is the commentary on Saint Nammazhwar's Thiruvaimozhi written by Koneri Dasi, a Devadasi presumably from Kumbakonam."
"Generally, books with noticeable defects, like the one in Gaulin’s copy, don’t interest collectors, says Stypeck. On Abebooks.com, an eBay-like site that deals exclusively with new and used books, titles with minor printing errors are often priced higher than those with more glaring ones. A copy of Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, for example, with upside-down lettering merely on its spine, is priced at $4,000. A copy of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, which is bound and printed entirely upside-down, is listed at $1,500.
Of course, as Stypeck points out, the “rules” of the antiquarian book world do not necessarily apply to Harry Potter. “When it comes to Harry Potter, there’s this high energy and extreme interest, indicating a very voracious market.”
"The Hong Kong Arts Center and the Wanchai District Council of Hong Kong have joined forces with the council to stage a series of special exhibitions. These include "Literature and Film Crossover" and "Wanchai Cultural Map" which features Wanchai's historical architecture.
Besides, 12 countries have taken part in the "International Cultural Village" pavilion, featuring the latest titles from France, Denmark, Spain, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam."
"This year marks the 100th anniversary of Einstein's so- called miracle year, when he published his most important work, including the Special Theory of Relativity. With governments, schools and museums celebrating the scientist, officials in charge of licensing Einstein's name say image rights could bring in as much as $4 million in fees."
"It isn't all that unusual to hear folks around Tahlequah talk about their Cherokee ancestry. After all, it's the capital of the Cherokee Nation.
What is kind of different, though, is to hear them talk about their Cherokee ancestry with a French accent.
Jehame Lefranc, a University of Avignon student, is spending a month in Tahlequah doing research for his doctoral dissertation at the Special Collections department of the NSU John Vaughan Library."
"Barbara Moore is an art historian, writer, and former rare-book dealer specializing in avant-garde art of the 1960s, ‘70s, and ‘80s. She was first editor (1965–66) at Dick Higgins’s seminal Something Else Press. Since then she has written essays on and curated exhibitions of artist’s books, multiples, and alternative media, covering the work of Dieter Roth, Lawrence Weiner, Charlotte Moorman, Peter Moore, Boekie Woekie, and many others."
"Their meeting, "Emblems in the 21st Century: The Materials and the Media," is set for July 24-30 at the Illini Union, 1401 W. Green St., Urbana. The event is the Seventh International Conference of the Society for Emblem Studies."
"Emblems are symbolic pictures with accompanying texts. Emblem books developed in the 16th century and remained popular for more than 200 years. Several thousand such books issued from printing presses throughout Europe."
"The Arizona State University Hayden Library archives and special collections people have dusted off Darth Vader, Jabba the Hutt and a Millennium Falcon for the viewing pleasure of visitors."
"E-books are a throwback to the days of the papyrus. The text is placed on one side of a series of connected "leaves". Parchment, by comparison, was multi-paged, easily browseable, and printed on both sides of the leaf. It led to a revolution in publishing and, ultimately, to the print book. All these advances are now being reversed by the e-book, bemoan the antagonists."
"The ‘first family’ of Calcutta — which owned the land that the East India Company took on lease in 1698 to set up its trading outpost, and instituted what is widely believed to be the first Durga puja in the city in 1610 — now wants to share its legacy with those who have a passion for things past.
“We set up The Saborno Sangrahalaya in 1999 to highlight our family’s contribution to the history of the city and dispel misconceptions about its foundation day. But after winning a legal suit in 2003 and setting the record straight, our aims have changed,” says Probal Ray Chaudhury, the 25-year-old scion of the eldest wing of the Saborno Ray Chaudhury family."
"WINTERTHUR, DE.-A symposium co-sponsored by Winterthur Museum & Country Estate and The Library Company of Philadelphia will consider numerous genres of printed ephemera, tracing their origins in Europe, their transit to American shores, and further development in this country."
"The two small pieces of brown animal skin, inscribed in Hebrew with verses from the Book of Leviticus, are from "refugee" caves in Nachal Arugot, a canyon near the Dead Sea where Jews hid from the Romans in the second century, Eshel said in an interview with The Associated Press."
"Dealing in second hand books is all about passion. And who knows that better than Paul Ridder. Books are his life; they blur the edges between work, recreation and hobby."
"Elizabeth Kostova's debut novel "The Historian" is an epic vampire tale peopled by anthropologists and historians, capitalists and communists, Muslims and Christians, those who are fully alive and those who are "undead." They all have one thing in common: They love books. So much the better if the books are old with soft leather covers and crumbling pages; so much the better if these very old books contain puzzling maps and pictures of dragons."
"...examples of its most important artwork has been gathered in an exhibit that opens Saturday at the Peabody Essex Museum."
"The Kingdom of Siam: The Art of Central Thailand, 1350-1800," includes 80 items gathered from collections in Europe, the United States and Thailand. Among the pieces: a 6-foot high bronze Buddha head, manuscripts illustrated with rare art and an inscription on a stone relief that helped scholars discover the lost letters of the kingdom's alphabet."
"Williamstown - The summer exhibition in the Chapin Library of Rare Books, Williams College, features designs for theatre by Dutch-American artist Herman Rosse."
"Born in the Netherlands in 1887, Rosse first gained fame for his decorative interior designs in the Peace Palace at The Hague. Later he moved to California, and from there to Chicago and finally to New City in Rockland County, New York. He worked as a teacher of design, and as an architect, decorator, and book illustrator, and lent his talents to productions for stage and screen, most notably the 1930 film King of Jazz for which he won the Academy Award for Art Direction. Since 1988 members of the artist’s family have supported the Herman Rosse archive in the Chapin Library to document his work in its many aspects."
"The Arizona State University Hayden Library archives and special collections people have dusted off Darth Vader, Jabba the Hutt and a Millennium Falcon for the viewing pleasure of visitors."
"I don't want to claim all the credit for the display," said special collections director Marilyn Wurzburger. "But we thought this might be fun for some of the younger people who visit us. And we have so much Star Wars material, we thought we ought to put it out where people can see it."
"A bibliophile for whom poetry was as essential as air, Matisse made 12 artists' books, in which the print illustrations are as important as the writing."
"By the time the Swiss art publisher Albert Skira asked Matisse to illustrate a group of Mallarmé poems in 1930, the writer (1842-98) was long dead. Not that having him around would have mattered: Mallarmé — perhaps best-known for "The Afternoon of a Faun," which inspired Claude Debussy's sensuous "Prelude" — was a leader of the Symbolist movement, a conjurer of highly personal images and metaphors that mystified even his wife and friends like Edgar Degas."
"Among the other items obtained was a hardbound, first-edition copy of Kennedy's first book, "Why England Slept," an elaboration of his senior thesis at Harvard on Great Britain's failure to prepare for war against Hitler in the 1930s."
"Also recovered was the left-hand suede glove that Kennedy wore on the frigid day of his inauguration in January 1961. The right-hand glove has long been a part of the John F. Kennedy library's collection of artifacts, which also includes 48 million pages of documents, 200,000 photos, 7.5 million feet of film, 7,000 hours of audio cartoons and 500 original editorial cartoons."
"KALAMAZOO--A grant to Western Michigan University Libraries will not only keep the diaries of eight Civil War soldiers alive, but will help share these treasures with the world through the technological innovation of digitization."
"The $95,619 grant from the Library of Michigan will be used to digitize the Civil War diaries of eight men who served in several Midwestern Union regiments. The diary entries represent a wide variety of experiences and perspectives, ranging from that of musician to a prisoner of war."
"A $1.4 million grant awarded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in June will fund a collaborative project in which Stanford University Libraries, the University of Cambridge and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, will make hundreds of medieval manuscripts accessible on the Internet. The Parker on the Web project will create electronic research tools and digitize library materials, including more than 500 manuscripts at the Parker Library dating from the 6th through the 16th centuries, as well as editions, translations and secondary works."
Fairfield, Connecticut — Pequot Library's plan to sell 38 rare books is being opposed by relatives of the woman who donated them 107 years ago.
"The basic objection is they feel this application is a breach of trust by Pequot Library," said Amy E. Todisco, attorney for Jim Biggs of Westport, during Monday's Probate Court hearing in Sullivan-Independence Hall. "We're objecting under any circumstances to the sale."
"A unique sketch book dating back to the 1520s and linked to Renaissance artist Raphael has sold for £230,000.
The manuscript was found at a stately home in Northumberland. It had only been expected to fetch about £50,000."
"In addition to its lush garden and preserved historic home, the Bellamy-Ferriday House and Garden in Bethlehem now has another attraction for the avid gardener or horticulture scholar: one of the largest collections of rose books in the country."
"The collection was bequeathed to the house by the late Mitchell Van Winkle, a longtime Litchfield resident and an avid supporter of the Bethlehem house museum."
"Historical Braille books from the National Library for the Blind will be preserved for future generations to enjoy, thanks to a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF)."
"The £46,700 grant will help safeguard the Heritage Collection at the National Library for the Blind (NLB), the second largest Braille lending library in the world."
"The book sale -- the largest of its kind in the United States -- started yesterday morning at McKinley High School cafeteria, and lines were at the door through much of the day as volunteers slowly let shoppers in as others left."
"LONDON Perhaps someone should write a history of European culture through its best sellers. A remarkable sale of "Western manuscripts and miniatures" held this week at Sotheby's yielded fascinating insights into what gripped the attention of the literate elites in Britain from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, and beyond."
"A unique museum to showcase Nushu, probably the only female specific language in the world, is expected to be erected in 2007 in Jiangyong County, central China's Hunan Province, said an official with the provincial government Friday."
"With 209,000 US dollars sponsored by the Ford Foundation, the museum, with the aim to build into a culture base for Nushu, will solicit over 80 pieces of Nushu manuscripts, 1,000 pieces of songs, and other articles which can vividly present the charm of a language on the verge of extinction."
"A lifelong love of books led a Carrollton woman to share her passion for literacy with her community by opening a new and used book store in downtown Carrollton."
"Mary Lou Wiese opened Barnes Brothers Books at 219 Main St. last month in the old DeMint House across from the Carrollton Inn."
"Anyone who enters the Bibiliophile bookshop on the corner of Allenby and Geula Streets in Tel Aviv for the first time is liable to emerge somewhat shocked: Anyone of average height will bump into the iron rods that stick out from the walls. The owner, Pinhas Mishani, is aware of his customers' distress, but he doesn't intend to renovate, because of a lack of interest. "I buy old books like merchandise, according to subject," he says. "If you ask for a specific book, I'll send you to the pile, because I don't remember what I bought. That way, even if you didn't find the book you were looking for, you'll buy something else from the pile."
"Finding information about ancient Greek inscriptions used to take years of research and countless hours tracking down answers in the library. Through contributions by Case classicist Paul Iversen's work with the Packard Humanities Institute (PHI) Greek Epigraphy Project, classics scholars now can access and search more than 150,000 inscriptions through a comprehensive digitized database in a matter of minutes."
"The Miniature Book Traveling Exhibit will be on display until the end of June. Sponsored by the international Miniature Book Society, Inc., the exhibit features about 100 miniature books that were entries or winners in annual competitions held since 1987."
"LOS ANGELES, CA.- The close relationship between textiles and manuscripts, two of the most venerated items in the medieval world, is examined in Shrine and Shroud: Textiles in Illuminated Manuscripts, at the Getty Center, through October 2, 2005."
"In the 16th century, India was ruled by the Mughal emperor Akbar (reigned 1556-1605), who commissioned his court painters and scribes to produce a beautiful illuminated manuscript of the Khamsa. That volume is now the centerpiece of a striking exhibition at the Walters Art Museum."
"The Islamic Manuscript: Conservation, Cataloguing, Accessibility, Copyright and Digitization conference is sponsored by the Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation (TIF) in association with the Center for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge."
"I think there'll be more change and opportunity in the next 10 years than over the last 10 years. Look at all the raw materials we use: computers, disk space and bandwidth. Every year, they get cheaper and more powerful. I love it that our raw materials keep getting cheaper and more plentiful. We have to say, "What kind of innovation can we layer on top of that, that will be meaningful for our customers?"
"A Nigerian-born writer and bookseller has won the 2005 Caine Prize for African Writing, an honour some have called the "African Booker."
"S. A. Afolabi was named winner of the $15,000 US prize on Monday. At a ceremony in Oxford, England, the London-based writer, freelance editor and bookseller was honoured for his short story Monday Morning, which is set in a refugee hotel in London and tells the story of a family that has fled an unnamed country."
"Most of Donald S. Connery's prized books - more than six decades worth of collecting, from New York to Moscow and from Japan to Connecticut - were languishing in boxes, incarcerated in solitary cardboard confinement. Alas, it is the predicament of book lovers all over."
"Ben Primer, the associate university librarian for rare books and special collections at Princeton University serves as the city's consultant for archiving. He said the city has many historical records that could shed new light on several subjects."
"Paul Burks was cleaning out his workshop when he found what may be one of the earliest copies of the Declaration of Independence."
""The Changing Book: Transitions in Design, Production & Preservation" is sponsored by the University of Iowa Libraries. The conference will provide perspective on the continuing role of the paper book, trends in production, preservation and visions for the future."
"Many people have written obituaries for the paper book as technology has become more prevalent, but it has managed to endure so far," said Gary Frost, UI Libraries Conservator, one of the event's organizers. "At this conference, we'll see if those death announcements are valid or premature."
"My father descended from bibliophiles. His father (my paternal grandfather), Jacob Sarna, hailed from the community of Konin in Poland, which is remembered for its splendid Jewish public library, and was himself a significant booklover. After moving to London, where my father was born, my grandfather headed the Jewish section of Foyles bookstore in London and later became an independent Jewish bookseller."
"Also hot are rare books, maps, and historical documents. Last year a copy of Texas' Declaration of Independence from Mexico sold for $764,000. And on June 21 several Old West items owned by Philadelphia businessman Jay Snider, 47, went for top dollar at Christie's. Included was a three-volume first edition of an 1840s book of portraits of Native Americans, mainly by the artist Charles Bird King, that sold for $156,000, above the top estimates."
"BELGAUM: Here is good news for Kannada writers. About one lakh Kannada books are going global -thanks to the Department of Library, Karnatak state."
"P Y Rajendra Kumar Director of State Library Department told media persons here on Thursday that Carnige Mellon University of Pitsburg (USA) is launching a web site called ‘Digitisation of Indian Books' in which Kannada literature is also included."
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