The Book in the Cathedral by Christopher de Hamel

From The Guardian:

On Christmas Day 1170, Thomas Becket delivered a sermon to a packed chapter house at Canterbury. His theme was the death of one his predecessors as archbishop, St Alphege, hacked to death by the Danes in the early 11th century – the only martyr in the role so far. “There will soon be another,” Becket declared. Four days later, a quartet of knights arrived drunk, on a perceived mission from the king, and dashed the archbishop’s brains across the cathedral floor. It is easy to see how, knowing his time was up, Becket might identify with Alphege. In The Book in the Cathedral, however, Christopher de Hamel argues that the two had something more tangible in common: an elaborately jewelled psalter – a book of psalms – once owned by Alphege and later treasured by Becket.

On the final page, a 16th-century inscription – deemed spurious by previous scholars – links the book to two archbishops: Becket and “N”. The Book in the Cathedral is an exercise in bibliographic detective work, identifying “N” and overturning the judgment of earlier cataloguers. De Hamel – author of the wonderful Meetings With Remarkable Manuscripts – shows us all the tools of the bibliographer’s trade: dating handwriting, identifying pigments, noting the rust marks left by nails from a now-lost ornate binding. This is done with a lightness that belies De Hamel’s pre-eminence as a manuscript scholar – the telling is brisk, with a light foxing of anecdote, even as the evidence is rigorously lined up.

read more here @ The Guardian

Review: The Bookseller of Florence by Ross King

Synopsis: The Renaissance in Florence conjures images of beautiful frescoes and elegant buildings--the dazzling handiwork of the city's skilled artists and architects. But equally important for the centuries to follow were geniuses of a different sort: Florence's manuscript hunters, scribes, scholars, and booksellers, who blew the dust off a thousand years of history and, through the discovery and diffusion of ancient knowledge, imagined a new and enlightened world. 

At the heart of this activity, which bestselling author Ross King relates in his exhilarating new book, was a remarkable man: Vespasiano da Bisticci. Born in 1422, he became what a friend called "the king of the world's booksellers." At a time when all books were made by hand, over four decades Vespasiano produced and sold many hundreds of volumes from his bookshop, which also became a gathering spot for debate and discussion. Besides repositories of ancient wisdom by the likes of Plato, Aristotle, and Quintilian, his books were works of art in their own right, copied by talented scribes and illuminated by the finest miniaturists. His clients included a roll-call of popes, kings, and princes across Europe who wished to burnish their reputations by founding magnificent libraries.

Vespasiano reached the summit of his powers as Europe's most prolific merchant of knowledge when a new invention appeared: the printed book. By 1480, the king of the world's booksellers was swept away by this epic technological disruption, whereby cheaply produced books reached readers who never could have afforded one of Vespasiano's elegant manuscripts.

A thrilling chronicle of intellectual ferment set against the dramatic political and religious turmoil of the era, Ross King's brilliant The Bookseller of Florence is also an ode to books and bookmaking that charts the world-changing shift from script to print through the life of an extraordinary man long lost to history--one of the true titans of the Renaissance.

A love of renaissance Florence, books, and a curiosity about Vespasiano, drew me to King's book. How did - for all intents and purposes - a barely educated young man, become one of the most prolific of collectors and sellers of illuminated manuscripts in Florence. King takes us on a personal journey of one man, who strove to educate himself, and through this discover the value and importance of both the gathering and the disseminating of knowledge. He was also a keen observer of the history of both his city and of the times, his notes, lost for some time, were  rediscovered and printed, no doubt on that infernal machine that was the bane of his existence - the printing press.

But this is also a look at art, literature and learning, writing and its presentation; his customers, patrons, and the characters of the age.

King, a renowned expert in art and the Italian Renaissance, provides a fascinating glimpse of a man - born in the right place, at the right time, open to experience an "extraordinary efflorescence of culture". For me, a newly found kinship with a fellow collector.

Thousands Of Rare, First Edition Books And Manuscripts Destroyed In Freak Accident

From Gizmodo Australia:

A large portion of a private collection of King works, which included original typed manuscripts of Maximum Overdrive and The Eyes of the Dragon, has been lost to an accident.

Gerald Winters spent 20 years of his life travelling the world and collecting rare, invaluable pieces of King's literary work in hopes of one day opening up a small museum dedicated to the author's legacy. Last year, Winters packed up his life and collection and moved from Thailand to Bangor, Maine (where King calls home) to share his treasures with other fans. But this week, a freak flooding accident suddenly robbed the collector of thousands of first edition books, manuscripts, and a variety of other incredibly rare items that have come out of King's creative process.

Winters estimates that nearly 90 per cent of the collection - which also included signed works from J.R.R. Tolkien and George R.R. Martin - was destroyed. Understandably, he's going through a period of mourning.

Imaging Reveals Medieval Manuscript Hidden in Book Binding

From Live Science:

In the mid-16th century, a bookbinder picked up a piece of parchment — one that was already centuries old — and used it to bind a book of poetry. This parchment's text remained unreadable for nearly 500 years, but now, thanks to state-of-the-art imaging techniques, people can read its words once more, according to a new study.

An analysis of the sixth-century text revealed that it was part of the Roman law code. Whoever made the poetry book likely considered the text to be outdated, as at that point, society was using the church's code, rather than Roman laws, the researchers said.

read more here @ Live Science

The Treasures of Timbuktu

From an article in The New York Times, comes a tale straight from the pages of an Indianna Jones script - a fascinating tale of a group of librarians who saved the ancient manuscripts of Timbuktu from jihadists. Or did they????

On Jan. 28, 2013, news broke of an epic cultural catastrophe. That morning, the mayor of Timbuktu, Halle Ousmane Cissé, told journalists that the jihadist occupiers of the town had destroyed its famous literary heritage. Experts declared it to be a disaster of incalculable proportions, the greatest loss of the written word in Africa since the destruction of the library of Alexandria.

Journalist and author, Charlie English was determined to find out more, and uncovered a story as fantastical as it was incredulous. He concludes that:

At its core, the story of the rescue of Timbuktu’s manuscripts is significantly true. But if it is more complex than it first appears, and vastly embellished, we should expect no less. The most fascinating part of the Timbuktu tale is that the doubts and distortions surrounding the 21st-century “Indiana Jones moment” mirror the myths that have arisen about the city throughout its history. Timbuktu has always traded on legend. The misreadings of this city have been the making of this place; they are what draws the world to it.

This event was further reported by various news organisation who beguiled readers with the epic adventures of the "bad-ass librarians" who with near military precision manged to remove over 370,000 manuscripts from a city in the grips of being overrun by military insurgents to safety - all without being caught.

read entire article here @ The New York Times
read more here @ NPR and  @ The Weekend Australian

A number of books have been written on the subject:

• The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu And Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts by Joshua Hammer
• The Storied City: The Quest for Timbuktu and the Fantastic Mission to Save Its Past by Charlie English
• The Book Smugglers Of Timbuktu: The Race To Reach The Fabled City And The Fantastic Effort To Save Its Past by Charlie English

read reviews here 

• William Dalrymple reviews The Book Smugglers of Timbuktu by Charlie English for The Guardian
• Tom Zoellner review The Storied City by Charlie English for the New York Times
• The Storied City @ Kirkus Review
• Bad-Ass Librarians @ Kirkus Review

     

Huntington Exhibition to Mark the 500th Anniversary of the Protestant Reformation - In The News

The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens will mark the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation with an exhibition that explores the power of the written word as a mechanism for radical change. The exhibition will include about 50 rare manuscripts, books, and prints made between the 1400s and 1648 (the end of the Thirty Years' War). “The Reformation: From the Word to the World” will be on view in the West Hall of the Library from Oct. 28, 2017-Feb. 26, 2018.

read more here @ Fine Books & Collections

Boston library to return historical artifacts to Italy

The Boston Public Library is returning to Italy medieval manuscripts and a volume of works, ending in one case a mystery dating back seven decades.  The items include a manuscript from 1392, an illuminated leaf from a manuscript dating between 1418 and 1422, and a collection of works by Bernardino Telesio, published in 1590.

"Boston Public Library purchased these rare and important materials in good faith for the public to see and study and we took our stewardship of them seriously during the many years that they were in our care," said Beth Prindle, the library's head of Special Collections. "We are fully committed to their safe return."

read more here @ Daily Sabah

The History of Medicine in Armenia

In Armenia, folk remedies aren’t just offhand suggestions from your grandmother. When it comes to minor illnesses, trained doctors are not shy about recommending them either. And you can find all kinds of packaged herbs and natural oils in Armenian pharmacies, sitting inconspicuously on shelves next to conventional pharmaceuticals.

Historian Stella Vardanyan notes this interaction in her book The History of Medicine in Armenia. According to her research, folk medicine in Armenia dates back nearly three millennia. The herbs of the Armenian highland were especially well-reputed among ancient writers, like the Greek physician Galen or the famed Islamic philosopher Ibn Sina, who wrote on the healing properties of Armenia’s clay in his treatise The Canon of Medicine: “Armenian or Ani clay has a remarkable influence on wounds. It is especially beneficial against tuberculosis and the plague. Many people were saved during great epidemics, since they were in the habit of drinking it in wine diluted with water.”

Read more here @ Smithsonian Magazine 

Rare Caxton Print Found

Pages printed more than 500 years ago by William Caxton, who brought printing to England, have been discovered by the University of Reading.

There are no other known surviving examples of these two pages anywhere in the world, from a book believed to have been printed in London in the 1470s.

The pages had been "under their noses" unrecognised in the library's archives.

Erika Delbecque, special collections librarian at the university, described the find as "incredibly rare".

The two pages, with religious texts in medieval Latin, were produced by Caxton at his pioneering printing works in Westminster - and are now going on public display for the first time since they were sold from his print shop in the 15th Century.

According to The Independent, librarians at the University of Reading recently found two pages from a priest’s handbook called Sarum Ordinal or Sarum Pye, which had been pasted inside of another book to reinforce its spine. A librarian working to restore that book noticed and pulled out the pages from the priest’s handbook; they date to between 1476 and 1477.

Read more here @ BBC News and @ Atlas Obscura

Protect Your Library With Horrifying Book Curses

Given the extreme effort that went into creating books, scribes and book owners had a real incentive to protect their work. They used the only power they had: words. At the beginning or the end of books, scribes and book owners would write dramatic curses threatening thieves with pain and suffering if they were to steal or damage these treasures.

Drogin’s book, published in 1983, is the most thorough compendium of book curses ever compiled. 

To those historians, the curses were curiosities, but to Drogin they were evidence of just how valuable books were to medieval scribes and scholars, at a time when even the most elite institutions might have libraries of only a few dozen books.

Read More Here @ Atlas Obscura

The Aberdeen Bestiary

The Aberdeen Bestiary | The University of Aberdeen

The Aberdeen Bestiary (Aberdeen University Library MS 24) is considered to be one of the best examples of its type due to its lavish and costly illuminations. The manuscript, written and illuminated in England around 1200, is of added interest since it contains notes, sketches and other evidence of the way it was designed and executed. Its text and appearance are closely related to the Ashmole Bestiary, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Ashmole 1511 which provides further insights into workshop practice.

The recorded history of the manuscript begins in 1542 when it was listed as No.518 Liber de bestiarum natura in the inventory of the Old Royal Library, at Westminster Palace. The press mark is on f.1r. This library was assembled by Henry VIII, with professional assistance from the antiquary John Leland, to house manuscripts and documents rescued from the dissolution of the monasteries.

View the manuscript here @ University of Aberdeen

Voynich Manuscript

Spanish publisher to release copies of Voynich Manuscript, a book no living person can understand - The Washington Post

If manuscripts that come with cheeky insanity warnings are your cup of tea, a select few of you are in luck. A small Spanish publisher has obtained the rights to, in essence, clone the document, down to the holes in the parchment and tears on the pages. (If you prefer your unreadable tomes digitized, Yale has made pages from the book available online.) Holding the manuscript, the publisher argues, provokes a feeling that images on the Internet cannot capture.

Read more on publication via Washington Post


Lost In Translation: Sydney Morning Herald

The Voynich – currently under lock and key at Yale University – is a 240-page, lavishly illustrated book that dates from the early part of the 15th century. It has been studied intensively for decades by historians, linguists and cryptologists – including some very smart boffins who successfully cracked codes during two world wars – and still no one has figured out its language, much less its meaning.

Read more about ancient incomprehensible texts here

5 Strangest Books Ever Written

5 Strangest Books Ever Written | Big Think

Codex Seraphinus

Books teach us, inform us, amuse us and provoke us. But some books plainly befuddle us. They invoke mysteries that hint of something ancient, extraterrestrial or possibly divine. Here are 5 such books - the Voynich Manuscript, Codex Seraphinus, Rononc Codex, the Smithfield Decretals and the Book of Soyga.

Read and view images of the books here: 5 Strangest Books Ever Written

Schoolboy's 16th-century scribbles

Schoolboy's 16th-century scribbles offer rare insight into National Library's medieval manuscript - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

The scribbles of a 16th-century Welsh schoolboy have given researchers an intriguing insight into the history of a medieval book in the collection of the National Library of Australia (NLA).

The English Psalter — a book of psalms — was made between 1330 and 1350, most likely by monks for a wealthy lay person. It features Latin text in iron gall ink and illuminated letters and decorations.

NLA conservator Freya Merrell said pencil annotations by a boy called Thomas indicated the book might have been smuggled into Wales after Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries in 1536.

"He's written his name and the date in there and he's done some little squiggles during his class time probably," Ms Merrell said.

X-Rays Reveal "Hidden Library" on the Spines of Early Books

X-Rays Reveal "Hidden Library" on the Spines of Early Books | Smart News | Smithsonian

When the printing press made its debut in Europe in the 15th century, hand-written manuscripts went the way of eight track tapes and CD players—becoming unfashionable in the face of new technology. So early book binders cut up some of these older texts and used the paper to reinforce the spines and covers of the newfangled printed books.

That practice has put researchers in another type of bind: To get to the valuable fragments built into these early modern books, they have to tear them apart. But according to Dalya Alberge at The Guardian a new technology is giving researchers a peek at the manuscript fragments without damaging the printed books.

Using macro X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (MA-XRF), Dutch researchers are able to scan the bindings to image the manuscripts hiding underneath. Erik Kwakkel, a book historian at Leiden University in the Netherlands tells Alberge that one in five early modern books contain the fragments. “It’s really like a treasure trove,” he tells Alberge. “It’s extremely exciting.”

Are Your Books Secretly Worth Millions?

Are Your Books Secretly Worth Millions? - The Daily Beast

A new X-ray process allows owners of books from four centuries of printing history (and mummy masks) to know if they have priceless manuscripts hidden inside.

Even more exciting? There are thousands and thousands of books sitting in libraries, personal collections, and book stores ripe for this treatment.

What’s new here is the technology. Scholars have known for a long time that early modern book production used cartonnage (layers of linen or papyrus) composed of fragments of older discarded manuscripts to strengthen the bindings of books. Kwakkel told The Guardian that as many as one in five books produced between the 15th and 18th centuries was made this way. The same technique was used seventeen hundred years earlier by Egyptians, who used manuscripts as papier mache to construct mummy masks for use in the burial of the dead. We knew the documents were hidden in the bindings of the books, but getting them out meant dismantling or destroying ancient historical artifacts.

Investing In Rare Books

As a lover of books, and an avid collector of tomes both old and new, I came across this interesting article which appeared in The National on investing in those gems from the past and, sometimes, our not so distant present.

It is the stories behind the stories that really appeal. The tantalising inscriptions, long-forgotten messages and illegible scribbles.

”Books are a physical touchstone to the past,” says Margaret Ford, the international head of the books department at Christie’s. “And something that makes it personal, like a signed copy - that association is extremely special. Just knowing that book was actually in that author’s hands at some point in time, or knowing that I’m holding something that Churchill once held. Or owning an early edition of Virgil from 1470 - something that is more than 500 years old - and being able to hold that in your hands.”

There is nothing better than rummaging through a book sale or book store to find that old dusty gem that you want for your own personal library.  There are many such tomes on my over-stacked shelves - many well read, many unread, but all treated with love and care.  To say that the age of the book has long been overtaken but its digital cousin is a fallacy - books will always remain with us - especially when the world is still full of us bookworms who are also insatiable collectors.