"A rare manuscript charting the birth of modern science has been saved from a possible overseas sale just minutes before it was due to go under the hammer."

"Robert Hooke's minutes of the Royal Society from 1661 to 1682 had sparked huge worldwide interest and were expected to fetch between £1 million and £1.5 million at auction."

"But the Royal Society - an independent scientific academy dedicated to promoting excellence in UK science - agreed to buy the manuscript from the anonymous seller at the last minute for an undisclosed sum."

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"In a partnership with the Newberry Library in Chicago, the University purchased partial ownership of a 15th century legal manuscript."

"The manuscript, written primarily in Latin, details the laws of Brno, now a Czech Republic city. Susan Noakes, director of the Center for Medieval Studies, said the manuscript will provide insight into everyday life during the 1400s."

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"It is seriously cool stuff most people will never get a chance to see in real life, but for the next several months, it is all on display at the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum."

"Bancroft Library officials have selected more than 350 of the library's rarest and most historic holdings for an exhibit celebrating the library's 100th year."

"Running through Dec. 3, the exhibit combines pieces of California history with first editions of Copernicus and Galileo, ancientEgyptian papyri with images of the Beat poets, mementos of the Black Panther movement with an extremely rare and fragile 16th century scroll illustrating the life, loves, wars and rituals of Cuicatec rulers who lived in what is now Oaxaca, Mexico. The scroll, called the Codex Fernandez Leal, is probably the most valuable item in the library's collection."

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"A RARE first edition of James Joyce’s classic novel Ulysses is set to make thousands of pounds after being discovered in a cardboard box full of bric-a-brac at a house in Wiltshire."

"The Dublin-born writer’s classic masterpiece turned up at a home in the cathedral city of Salisbury while the owners were having a clear-out."

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"Through the years, some interesting and extraordinary people have made their way to Sam Weller's Zion Bookstore, which moved to its current location on Main Street in 1961, one year before Tony was born. There was the autograph party for Ansel Adams, and the time Butch Cassidy's sister came in. Wallace Stegner and Dylan Thomas also stopped by. As a member of the American Board of Book Sellers, Sam traveled to Washington, D.C., and met Presidents Nixon and Carter. Rosalynn Carter even gave Sam a peek at the White House library. Sam said his own library was better. "

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"A rare book of Shakespeare's plays, considered to be one of the most important in British literature, is to be auctioned at Sotheby's in London."

"The complete first folio of the playwright's work had a print run of approximately 750 in 1623."

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"Paul Needham, librarian at the Scheide Library at Princeton University, will lead a lecture titled "Printed Bibles from Gutenberg to King James,” April 27, 7 p.m., at the General Theological Seminary (GTS) in New York City."

"This is an inaugural event for the recently formed Friends of St. Mark's Library of GTS, who promotes the library as a distinguished collection of rare books and a scholarly resource. "

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"No, says Neal Turtell , the National Gallery of Art's executive librarian, there is no shocking message hidden inside the 497-year-old book that he has unsheathed from its protective case and laid before me."

"Yes, it's the only book known to be illustrated by Leonardo da Vinci . Yes, Washington has a special connection with Leonardo. ("We have the only da Vinci in the Western Hemisphere," says Neal, referring to the gallery's circa 1474 painting "Ginevra de' Benci.") And, yes, da Vinci is red hot right now, what with that Dan Brown book."

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"Rare-book dealer Cotton Malone, a former covert agent with the U.S. Justice Department and who now lives in Denmark, spots his former sixtysomething boss Stephanie Nelle outside a Copenhagen restaurant. Before he can approach, she is attacked by a knife-wielding man, who grabs her bag."

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"Used books have been through a lot, and people like Ted Dorset, Paul Shelley and Eva Wood are keepers of those lost treasures."

"Each of these bookstore owners sees books come and go."

"But it is their love of books that keeps them in the business."

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"One of the most important science manuscripts to be put up for sale is expected to be bought by one of the new generation of science-literate American billionaires who have made their fortunes in new technology and medical advances."

"The 600-page journal of 17th-century British scientist Richard Hooke, which goes under the hammer at Bonham's auction house in London today, has been dubbed 'science's missing link.'"

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"The full gamut of human knowledge is here and registered missing, from A Discourse Concerning the Causes and Effects of Corpulency, by Thomas Short MD, of Sheffield, in 1728, to the Book of Snuff and Snuff Boxes (1956). There are 22 diet books, four Shakespeare plays, Jimmy Greaves's autobiography and a Jamie Oliver cookbook. Someone has absentmindedly failed to return to the shelves A Forgotten Conference, a 1962 history of the negotiations at Beijing."

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"This summer, Gary Frost is expecting a shipment of documents from the Biloxi Public Library. The inventory - damaged by standing water then mold blooms that flourished in the region's humid climate - includes family histories, documents tracing the rise of the region's seafood industry, Civil War-era manuscripts and a collection of maps."

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"My intention was never to insult Gerald Beasley, director of the Avery Architecture and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University in New York and one of the most charming and knowledgeable librarians to cross my path in many months. What I told him over the phone to was that he seems to look at the world differently than most."

"'I'm not sure if that's a compliment or an insult," he says, laughing.'"

"Beasley is the man behind the Canadian Centre for Architecture's 125 Kilos of Books, the exhibition set to open today as part of Montreal's remaining celebrations of their UNESCO title as World Book Capital 2005-2006. The show is also part of the CCA's broader mission under director Mirko Zardini to raise new questions concerning architecture, its ephemera, and the built environment."

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"FARMINGTON -- The Lewis Walpole Library, an affiliate of Yale University housing one of the world's foremost collections of 18th-century literature and art, needs a serious makeover."

"It's not easy designing a 13,000-square-foot addition, resembling a barn, that would offer more room to researchers and security and climate controls worthy of the library's rare and priceless collection of manuscripts, prints, books, drawings, paintings, furniture and other objects from the period."

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"As the competition for the George W. Bush Presidential Library heats up, interest in White House history could be cooling off."

"Attendance at most presidential libraries and museums is down – way down, in some cases. The number of visitors is declining at eight of the 11 libraries, including both sites in Texas."

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"The trend toward books as décor-only is jarring to book collectors such as Utt."

'You should collect what you love,' Utt says."

"Or, at the least, invest in something you want to read."

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"Addis Ababa - An international project to digitalize rare Ethiopian manuscripts, illustrated religious works, and historical photographs dating back 150 years in a collection at Addis Ababa University was inaugurated Friday."

"The project was jointly financed by UNESCO and the Cultural Preservation Programme of the German Federal Foreign Office to help the university's Institute of Ethiopian Studies restore and preserve its collection of cultural and historical relics."

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"City council has opened the book on demolishing and rebuilding the central library within four years, after agreeing to an ambitious construction plan worth $150 million."

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"The alarming state of affairs was revealed in a survey by the Beijing Municipal Cultural Heritage Administration in December which was conducted after many rare books were damaged when a heating pipe burst at BECP."

"Museum officials fear that this might not be an isolated disaster. The 81 museums hold about 620,000 cultural relics in their collections; and about 80 per cent are vulnerable to changes in weather conditions. "

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"A spellbound Harry Potter fan snapped up a rare book signed by the cast of the hit movies - for more than £2000.
The special edition of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire sparked a bidding frenzy when it went under the hammer on an internet auction site. "

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"Based on Redfield’s worldwide best-selling novel, The Celestine Prophecy is a spiritual adventure film chronicling the discovery of ancient scrolls in the rainforests of Peru. The prophecy and its nine key insights predict a worldwide awakening, arising within all religious traditions, that move humanity toward a deeper experience of spirituality. The film features an international ensemble cast including Matthew Settle, Thomas Kretschmann, Sarah Wayne Callies, Annabeth Gish, Hector Elizondo, Joaquim de Almeida and Jurgen Prochnow. "

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"The bound book, for example, began to replace the roll or scroll only toward the end of Antiquity. It evolved during the Middle Ages into the major means for the transmission of knowledge that remained until the advent of the Internet Age; medieval scribes and artists exercised remarkable inventiveness to turn the illuminated manuscript into an object of the most exquisite beauty."

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"merging technologies are key to meeting the challenge of integrating knowledge, and the Penn Library is harnessing--in some cases even developing—the best of them. A tool of our own devising, featured prominently on Library web pages, allows you to search across multiple resources, such as catalogs, databases, research guides, and various web services, in a single query."

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"In honor of the Librarian of Congress, James H. Billington, Peter Cummings, president emeritus of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra Board, hosted a preconcert reception on March 15. An intimate gathering of 50 people, at Cumming's invitation, enjoyed a premium open bar and an elaborate buffet spread that included whole-grain mustard crusted lamb chops, wild mushroom stuffed ravioli, seafood salad ceviche and strawberry Asian lime fruit soup shots."

"The purpose of the tour is to introduce new audiences to the vast holdings of the Library and its broad cultural mission. Among the items on display were the original score to Gershwin's 'Porgy and Bess' and an original sketch for Copland's 'Appalachian Spring.'

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"Donning a necktie adorned with books like the ones he's been collecting most of his life, UD benefactor and bibliophile Robert Wilson told those attending the opening of the Morris Library's Ezra Pound exhibit that his talk will be the 'culmination of a half-century engagement with the most important poet of the 20th Century.;"

"'Ezra Pound in His Time and Beyond: The Influence of Ezra Pound on 20th-Century Poetry,' now on view in the Special Collections Exhibition Gallery, also pays tribute to Wilson as a bookseller, bibliographer and collector."

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"This Passover, reproductions of a well-known illuminated manuscript are going on sale -- for $1,350 apiece."

"The Sarajevo Haggadah should be ready just before Passover, Bosnian Jewish leader Jakob Finci told JTA. 'We are printing a limited edition of just 613 copies -- the number of the mitzvot.'"

"The Sarajevo Haggadah has long been a symbol of Jewish presence -- and survival -- in the Balkans."

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"Pagina in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, is another used bookstore that requires reservations and is in the good books of book fans. Specializing in Japanese and international books about design and posters, its stock is neatly displayed in a store measuring about 50 square meters. Entry to the store is free."

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"These are among thousands of items sequestered in the lower level of Ekstrom Library in Rare Books and in Photographic Archives. Together, they are known as Special Collections — special because their holdings are rare, unique and exceptional."

"Rare Books’ collections emphasize literature, popular culture and the history of books and printing. Among its holdings are literary manuscripts, vintage World War posters, antique maps, materials that document the cultural life of Louisville and historic mathematics and astronomy texts that draw researchers from throughout the world."

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"Lucille Emch, 96, a longtime University of Toledo librarian and rare books scholar whose planning led to the Ward M. Canaday Center for Special Collections at UT's Carlson Library, died Monday in Sunset Village, Sylvania."

Her interest in rare books led her to the libraries of Europe, including the Vatican Library and the Bodleian Library at Oxford University in England.

"lPlaces that women weren't allowed in, Lucille somehow managed to get in,'Ms. Floyd said. 'She was a remarkable woman.'"

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" Every year in early April, bibliophiles, book artists and food lovers around the world gather to celebrate the book arts and the literal ingestion of culture. Participants create edible books that are exhibited, documented then consumed on the spot."

"April 1 also is the birthday of the celebrated French gastronome Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826), and, being April Fool’s Day, it also is “the perfect day to eat your words and play with them, too,” said the event’s creator, California artist Judith A. Hoffberg."

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"INDIANAPOLIS -- The book that 10-year-old Sean Fry held in his hands March 3 at Park Tudor School in Indianapolis was printed about four centuries before his birth."

"Fry and his fourth-grade class spent the morning browsing through antique books provided by the Remnant Trust, a Southern Indiana nonprofit organization that seeks to put old books -- including rare ones -- in the ungloved hands of the general public."

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"A Wisconsin book collection started nearly 60 years ago at the governor's mansion is looking for a new home."

"Beloit College has housed the 4,500-book "Wisconsin's Own Library" since 1986 but will soon need the space. The Wisconsin Federation of Women's Clubs, which is in charge of the library, is now trying to find a new place for the collection."

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"During these times of renewed saber-rattling in the name of God, every Christian, Jewish and Muslim extremist should be required to spend a day at the exhibition "Livres de parole. Torah, Bible et Coran", which is showing at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF) in Paris until the end of April."

"Considering that religious fundamentalism again is playing a geopolitical role - in the West as well as in the East - the BNF curators took a brave initiative when they put together a show which traces the history of the three monotheistic religions from their common cradle in Mesopotamia (i.e. modern Iraq) to the present. They have managed to steer away from any potential invitation to polemics, however, by taking a strictly historical and bibliographic approach to the texts and objects on display."

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"Today, everyone who is interested can learn more about plants at a library or on the Internet. But at one time, plants were considered objects of magic and mystery and only scholars and monks had access to books about botany."

"'Plants in Print: The Age of Botanical Discovery' is a collection of rare books that traces how the modern perception of plants developed. The 34 volumes will be on display through May 20 at the Kenan Research Center, which is part of the Atlanta History Center."

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"Rare-book dealer Ken Sanders laments the fading of a once-thriving community of freaks and artists at 900 East and 900 South."

“'Phillips Gallery got their start there. The original Cosmic Aeroplane was there.'"

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" Johns Hopkins has been awarded a $500,000 challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities that will provide the Sheridan Libraries an endowment for collections and a librarian to support the university's Leonard and Helen R. Stulman Jewish Studies Program."

"The Stulman Jewish Studies Program was established in 2002 to coordinate the many academic activities at Johns Hopkins dedicated to the study of Jewish history, literature, language, politics and religion. Drawing on faculty from nearly every department in the humanities and social sciences, the program gives students the opportunity to explore more than three millennia of Jewish culture, ranging from biblical to contemporary. The creation of this interdisciplinary program has brought with it a rapid expansion of research and teaching in Jewish studies, an expansion that has in turn placed new demands on the libraries' collections."

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"Ms. Henry said she always knew that she wanted to own a used bookstore, so in 1989 she started a store on Signal Mountain. Eleven years ago, the store was moved to Broad Street, where it is currently located. Now her store is packed with book shelves that she built."

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""In fact, the Montreal book scene is as vibrant as ever," he continued as he announced the 14th annual Westmount "Antiquarian Book Fair, to be held at Selwyn House School this Sunday, March 19. "'No matter how small your laptop is, it's no substitute for the sensual act of holding a first edition of your favourite book, turning the pages, and seeing the words exactly as the world first saw them say, 50 or 100 years ago.'"

"Montreal boasts two antiquarian book fairs, the larger one in the fall, sponsored by the Confrérie de la Librairie Ancienne du Québec (CLAQ) and the Westmount fair, a smaller spring version, with around 20 exhibitors from Quebec and Ontario. Both fairs are popular because, in addition to people like Adrian King-Edwards of The Word bookstore in the McGill Ghetto and Robert Campbell of Ex Libris Bookshop on Mackay Street, it allows collectors and readers alike to meet those booksellers who do not have open shops. For example, Alfred Van Peteghem, deals in rare and early Canadiana, while Charles Vyvial specializes in art and illustrated books. On the French side, François Coté handles 20th-century art and literature and Guy de Grosbois offers one-of-a-kind livres d'artiste."

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"Books are so popular in home décor that even people who don't read acquire them. They buy volumes by the yard at Half Price Books. They send orders off to a California book-décor specialist, who ships Danish-language books by the foot."

"Danish? Well, they aren't meant to be read."

"Perhaps the ultimate signal that books are décor came when a recent Pottery Barn catalog showed an entire bookcase with the books turned backward, annoying mismatched spines facing inward, all in an attempt to achieve a neutral, uniform look. Can't find a particular book on that shelf? That isn't the point. "

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"KOLKATA, INDIA " The Bandhab public library in Joynagar has a rich collection of rare books of ancient history and archaeology but it does not have chairs that could allow readers to sit and study."

"The library also does not have tables in the reading room for keeping books and studying. In addition to this, the library is ill-equipped to take proper care of rare books. The managing committee of the library had requested the government to provide tables, chairs and an almirah. But its appeal has not been heard as yet. "

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"Some images from exhibition depicting medical illustration through the ages are macabre, but on the whole beautiful."

"A torso is slit open, intestines spill into a bucket and a knife punctures the eye socket. For good measure, a dog munches on a heart nearby. Reward for Cruelty is not something you’ll see in modern medical textbooks but it’s one of the gruesomely fabulous images on display at Ars Medica: Medical Illustration Through the Ages at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library."

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" Carbon dating tests of rare manuscripts dubbed the 'Dead Sea Scrolls of Buddhism' have confirmed the priceless texts are from the first and fifth centuries AD, and could be the missing link in Buddhist history, a group of Australian scientists have reported."

"The tests were carried out on two out of three international collections, the Senior and Schøyen collections which are owned by private individuals. The third is owned by the British Library."

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"Tim Barrett, a research scientist with the University of Iowa Center for the Book, is beginning the first of a three-part project with the help of a $15,000 grant from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and the UI Office of the Vice President for Research. The second and third parts of the project will depend on additional funding."

"Barrett anticipates that his non-destructive techniques will yield a wealth of information relevant to the care and conservation of rare books and works of art on paper, and add new insights into papermaking history and the production of durable archival papers. "

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" Academia Historica has been charged with digitalizing national government archives and presidential documents while Academia Sinica is focusing on plants, shellfishes, maps, Formosan aborigines, the Taiwan Provincial Consultative Council, diplomatic and economic records, historical and cultural relics archaeological data, rubbings, archaic texts, rare books, ethnological data, the Grand Secretariat Archives, and Mandarin and Formosan language archives."

"The library project, naturally, is dedicated to preserving local historical archives, newspapers, journals, and periodicals held there, as the National Museum of History is working to preserve its collections including artifacts, calligraphy and painting, specimens, archives and research information."

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"The fair, which will take place in the Coliseum, begins Friday evening and continues Saturday and Sunday. Rare and out-of-print books will be for sale, along with first editions, fine bindings, maps, prints, autographs, documents and paper collectibles."

"Those who attend don't have to be big-spending collectors, Slicker said."

"'There are books for $1 and $5,' he said. 'You can spend very little, or you can spend an awful lot.""

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" Created in 2003 to mark the 400th anniversary of her death by Chicago's Newberry Library, the national touring exhibit "Elizabeth I: Ruler and Legend" is making a stop at John Carroll University's Grasselli Library and Breen Learning Center for a six-week stay."

"The exhibition, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Vance Family Fund and the University of Illinois at Chicago, showcases more than 100 photo reproductions of books, paintings, manuscripts, letters, maps and other artifacts associated with the Virgin Queen."

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"DANVILLE, KY—"Isaac Newton and the Scientific Revolution," an exhibition of books from the collection of Dr. and Mrs. Ted Steinbock, is on display at the Grace Doherty Library on the Centre College campus. The exhibit, the first for the Thomas A. Spragens Rare Book Room, is in commemoration of the coming retirement of professor John Ward, vice president and academic dean. After an opening reception last Thursday, March 2, it runs through the end of the semester."

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"'It's not a normal town,' said the grizzled man who picked me up hitchhiking. As the rain lashed his battered car, I desperately hoped there wasn't a bloodied axe in the boot. 'It's the books. People come here for the books. All year round, and more during the festival. It's odd, I think.'"

"The town is Hay-on-Wye, on the Welsh side of the border between England and Wales, and there are a lot of books - in fact, it has more bookshops per capita than anywhere in the world. The bars may close at 10.30pm, but in this town you can buy books 24 hours a day. If that isn't enough for bibliophiles, there's also a literary festival every year that draws authors, publishers and book fans as well as various artists - last year's event, held from May 27 to June 5, featured Elvis Costello and the stand-up comic Bill Bailey as well as the author Ian McEwan. However, the festival is only one of the town's attractions, which explains why tourists visit it all year round, as my thankfully not-so-homicidal driver pointed out. He was also right about the town being odd."

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"Australian Scientists have uncovered what they believe are the earliest examples of Buddhist literature."

"Our reporter, Sarah Clarke, says carbon dating of rare manuscripts from a private collection dubbed the "dead sea scrolls of Buddhism" may reveal the religion's ancient orgins."

"Fragments of the manuscripts were delicately washed, then carbon dated at Sydney's Lucas Heights nuclear reactor. "

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"The "Ars Medica" exhibition at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto until April 28 offers many things of interest, from the obsession of book collecting itself to the interrelation of art and medical history."

"But mostly it's a mesmerizing exhibition of superb woodcuts, gorgeous hand-painted prints and some of the best bodies seen by members of the Renaissance from the inside out."

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"You could spend an entire day hanging out at just Khan Market’s bookshops: I often did, ending with The Bookshop, dropping in as much for the music, the recommendations and the certainty of good conversation as for the books. Friends from out of town were dispatched to various city bookshops according to taste. The rare book collectors were sent off to South Extension, the SF buffs were directed to either Fact & Fiction in Vasant Vihar or the crowded but well-stocked Midlands in Aurobindo Place. The serious book-lover had to drop by Bookworm in CP; the technical books fanatic couldn’t miss Galgotia’s. And newer bookshops keep coming up, like Eureka, the specialist children’s bookstore in GK II."

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"The Commission announced in September that it wanted to put Europe’s cultural heritage on the internet by turning books, photos, records and films into a massive digital library."

"If successful, the initiative will rival Google’s controversial library project, which takes the book collections of several research libraries – about 15 million books – and makes this content searchable online."

"This will then be expanded to archives and museums, resulting in two million books, films, photographs, manuscripts, and other cultural works being accessible through the European Digital Library by 2008. This figure will grow to at least six million by 2010, but is expected to be much higher as, by then, potentially every library, archive and museum in Europe will be able to link its digital content to the European Digital Library, says the Commission."

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" George Taft was so committed to opening his restaurant, Big Daddy's BBQ, that he sold off his comic book collection to raise the cash."

"He doesn't regret the decision. He hadn't looked at the collection for years. It was time."

"'What was I keeping them for? The rainy day? The rainy day came,' he said."

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"When the Gospel of Judas first surfaced in Geneva in 1983, scholars wondered if the mysterious text could trigger a reappraisal of history's most infamous traitor."

"They never found out, however, because they couldn't afford the $3 million price tag on this second-century gnostic tale. Instead, the fragile pages vanished into private hands and set off on a 23-year, intercontinental journey through fist-pounding negotiations and even periods, reportedly, stuffed inside a Greek beauty's purse."

"Now, at long last, the world is about to see the contents. The National Geographic Society last week reported it will publish a translation this spring, when "The Da Vinci Code" film is sure to rekindle interest in gnostic artifacts."

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"There were printed books of the works of Aristotle, Karl Marx, Jeremy Bentham, John Locke, David Hume, Plato, St. Augustine, Machiavelli, St. Thomas More, John Stuart Mill, John Peter Zenger, Alexis de Tocqueville, Thomas Paine, Homer (the Greek, not the Simpson) and Adam Smith."

"Upper school librarian Jane Kokotiewicz passed around a page of a Gutenberg Bible and an original printing of the Declaration of Independence."

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"Harness Tracks of America has launched a new service to the sport."

"The association of 42 harness tracks has added a Rare Books division to its Web site, offering “the rarest of the rare” in literature of the trotting and pacing horse."

"The listing of rare, old and out-of-print books includes treasures of harness racing literature of the past 150 years, and all of the works are being sold for the benefit of the Harness Tracks of America College Scholarship Fund for children of participants in the sport, or participants themselves."

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"CHICAGO -- In a secluded corner of the Newberry Library, archivists slowly take apart the yellowing book considered the Mayan Bible for its epic narrative of the Sovereign Plumed Serpent and other gods creating the world."

"Like other Newberry treasures over the years -- a Shakespeare first folio, letters from Columbus -- the Popol Vuh attracts scholars."

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"The exhibit -- which features items ranging from personal diaries to political posters -- offers the public a sampling of 300 items chosen from 65 million stored within the archives, documenting some of the most riveting events that have transformed the world over the past century."

"The university hopes the exhibit will introduce more people to the archives, long a source of inspiration to scholars. Unlike most universities, Stanford welcomes to public to explore its archives -- under supervision."

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"Decades before Gustave Eiffel built his tower, Henri Labrouste was the supreme fashioner of cast iron, leaving his mark from the 1840's to the 1860's with a pair of magnificent libraries, the Bibliothèques Ste.-Genevieve and Nationale. Dominique Perrault's futuristic design for the Bibliothèque François Mitterrand, widely ridiculed since it was completed in 1994, has nonetheless served as a quai-side anchor for the revitalization of the 13th Arrondissement, across from the rejuvenated neighborhood of Bercy."

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"The Salon du Livre: the realm of all possibilities"

"Ever flourishing and festive, the Paris Book Fair has frolicked through the alphabet for this its twenty-sixth year and forged ahead with letter F by hosting “francofffonies”, the francophone festival in France."

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"One of the finest examples of a complete Hebrew manuscript Bible in existence, the three-volume manuscript includes 84 leaves with illuminated panels, gold calligraphy against foliate decorations and commentary by Rashi, the renowned medieval sage in a version of interest to scholars due to textual variants. The Bible was recently on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City as part of its “Prague, The Crown of Bohemia, 1347-1437” exhibition."

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"Our city is home to some of the world's finest collections of books."
"Scholars from all over the world visit the libraries of Cambridge University, which contain treasures ranging from rare and beautifully-illuminated manuscripts to some of the earliest printed books."

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Continue reading ""Cambridge (England) Tops Bestseller List""

The list begins with "The Birds of America; from Original Drawings" by John James Audubon, with a hammer price of $5,616,000 ...and "The Bodmer Virgil" for $2,970,880.

The lowest priced book on this list is "Hortus Eystettensis" by Basilius Besler at $293,088.

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"And rush there fast, for lack of state funding could well mean these rare manuscripts will be history even at the well-stocked library, officials here said."

"The library stocks true copies of over 8,000 such original manuscripts, dating as far back as the 13th century, in Hindi, Bangla, Telugu, Tamil, Gurmukhi and Granth (an ancient script)."

"But ironically, the state government has no scheme to conserve, or even reprint, these manuscripts. And the little grant from the Union government is not enough to preserve the manuscripts, Dr Chandraprakash Dwivedi, Assistant Director of the Sansthan, said. 'Some of these manuscripts are invaluable, and we want to get them published (as books), but for the lack of funds...'”

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"So you think your JRR Tolkien classic placed carefully in your bookcase is worth money? Think again."

"You could get more for a copy of Madonna's controversial Sex book or an old telephone directory, according to a new book guide."

"It lists ten modern 'classics' for which collectors would fork out thousands of pounds - if they were first editions in pristine condition."

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"A UNIQUE collection of antique books and manuscripts found gathering mould in Durham Cathedral will be saved from ruin."

"The irreplaceable books and manuscripts, some dating back to medieval times, were becoming damp because of holes in the rectory roof where rain was coming in."

"Now, English Heritage has donated £65,000 for much-needed repairs to the roof and guttering of the cathedral's rectory and Librarian's Loft, where thousands of extremely rare and valuable books are kept."

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"A COLLECTOR who has spent the past decade anonymously acquiring some of the world’s most revered musical manuscripts stepped out of the shadows yesterday to make an astonishing gift to the Juilliard School in New York, the leading US conservatoire."

"Bruce Kovner, one of the world’s highest-earning investment managers, gave more than 140 manuscripts — together worth tens of millions of pounds — to the school."

"They include the score for Beethoven’s piano version of his Grosse Fuge, bought for £1.12 million in London in December; the working manuscript of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, found in a vault after 150 years and bought for a record £2.1 million in 2003; the original manuscript of Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony, discovered in a cellar after almost a century; and the earliest manuscript of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. "

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" A big chunk of the late writer's past -- fact or fiction -- will soon be available at the New York Public Library, thanks to a couple from the Cleveland area who collect rare books."

"The New York library will announce today that it has purchased, from Bob and Donna Jackson of Shaker Heights, one of the largest collections of Burroughsiana. "

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