Somehow it's December already.
- The Library of Congress has signed on as a "content hub partner" with the DPLA.
- The Bute Hours will be offered on Tuesday at Sotheby's London.
- Josephine Livingstone writes on "The Unsolvable Mysteries of the Voynich Manuscript" for the New Yorker Page-Turner blog.
- The Internet Archive is working on building a complete copy of its holdings in Canada.
- Simon Beattie's turned up a fascinating book: an 1858 selection of music for a Merseyside church. An inserted printed slip from the compiler faults the printers for their "slovenly work and bad printing."
- Nate Pedersen checks back in with Zoe Abrams for the "Bright Young Booksellers" series.
- December's Rare Book Monthly articles include a piece by Eric Caren on what's next for him, Michael Stillman on the unconventional sale of books from Newcastle Central Library, and another nice find by Bruce McKinney.
- Stephen Greenberg writes for the NLM blog about a new book in sheets acquisition.
- Caleb Kiffer writes for the Swann blog about a previously unknown first state of de Wit's map of the Netherlands; the map will be on the block at their 8 December sale.
- Egyptian media report that 43 boxes of books and manuscripts were seized at Cairo airport; some appeared to have been stolen from the Al-Azhar University library.
- Over at The New Antiquarian, John Schulman muses about bookseller retirements.
- Lauren Young covers bibliomania for Atlas Obscura, and the Princeton Graphic Arts blog takes a look at an early response to Dibdin, Beresford's Bibliosophia.
- Mark Peters writes about the new online version of Green's Dictionary of Slang for the Boston Globe.
- A poem copied out by Anne Frank shortly before her family went into hiding from the Nazis sold at auction last week for €140,000, while the gun used by Paul Verlaine to wound Arthur Rimbaud fetched €434,000.
- Also from the Princeton Graphic Arts blog, a look at a newly-acquired collection of twenty printed and manuscript dinner bills from ~1780–1830.
- The Telegraph ran an obituary of book scout Martin Stone.
- Sid Berger talked to Rebecca Rego Barry about his Dictionary of the Book (Rowman and Littlefield) for the Fine Books Blog.
- A Beethoven manuscript which came in for a bit of pre-sale dispute failed to sell at Sotheby's London on 29 November; at the same sale, the manuscript of Mahler's second symphony set a new record for a music manuscript, selling for £5.4 million.
- Letters documenting the end of author Robert Louis Stevenson's life have been secured for the National Library of Scotland.
- "A Curious Cutting" at Medieval Manuscript Questions.
- From the Michigan State University Libraries conservation lab blog, a look at a neat technique for keeping pamphlets together.
- The ABAA recently approved seven new members: congratulations to all!
Reviews
- Yale's new edition of the Voynich Manuscript; review by Scott McLemee at Inside Higher Ed.
- Sarah Gristwood's Game of Queens; review by Sarah Dunant in the NYTimes.
- David Welky's A Wretched and Precarious Situation; review by Sara Wheeler in the NYTimes.
- Laura Miller's Literary Wonderlands; review by Andrew Sean Greer in the NYTimes.
- Graeme McCrae Burnet's His Bloody Project; review by Steph Cha in the LATimes.
Upcoming Auctions of Note
- Livres rares et manuscrits du XVe au XXe siècle at Christie's Paris, 5 December
- The Bible Collection of Dr. Charles Caldwell Ryrie at Sotheby's New York, 5 December
- Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts at Sotheby's London, 6 December
- Fine Books & Manuscripts including Americana at Sotheby's New York, 6 December
- Western and Oriental Manuscripts and Miniatures at Bloomsbury London, 7 December
- Livres anciens et modernes précieux et curieux, 1490–1837 at Binoche et Giquello Paris, 7 December
- History of Science and Technology at Bonhams New York, 7 December
- Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books at Swann Galleries, 8 December
- The Library of the late David Harrison: 17th-19th Century Literature and the Arts at Forum Auctions London, 8 December
- Miniature Books: Rico Onuma Memorial Auction from Lilliput Oval Saloon, Owned by Kazushige Onuma, Tokyo. Part II at PBA Galleries, 8 December
- American Revolution Documents, Arms and Relics at Alexander Historical Auctions, 10 December
- Books, Art and Ephemera at National Book Auctions, 10 December
