MS Digest Archives - The Manuscript Society

Manuscript Digest: November – December 2023

Manuscript Society — Tue, 05 Dec 2023 21:05:52 +0000

Manuscript Digest: November – December 2023 – This complimentary e-digest, now published bi-monthly, covers significant acquisitions and sales, manuscripts lost and found, rare books and ephemera, document conservation, and more news in this digest

In the News

Columbus Letter Delivers
Smithsonian Magazine, October 24, 2023
A fabled Columbus letter has sold for $3.9 million. Other copies have been stolen from archives and dogged by forgeries. Let’s say the scrutiny on this one was intense.

Dealer Finds a Treasure Map
Los Angeles Times, October 25, 2023
Tucked into a Getty estate sale was a treasure map. What else would you call a map purchased for $239,000 and now offered for sale at $7.5 million?

‘Internet Dog’ Fetches $175,000
Kovels Antique Trader, October 10, 2023
The most reproduced New Yorker cartoon of all time has fetched the highest price ever paid for a single-panel cartoon. (The caption is a howler.)
• Holding for laughter: UCLA’s new political cartoon collection

Curtis Weighs in at Auction
Fine Books & Collections, November 21, 2023
A complete copy of Edward S. Curtis’s The North American Indian has auctioned at a hefty price. But with 40 volumes and 20 supplemental folio volumes, it was bound to go big.

Who Was Hannah Crafts?
DNYUZ, October 14, 2023
Ten years ago a scholar announced he had identified the real-life Hannah Crafts, America’s first Black woman novelist. Learning her name was just the start of an archival odyssey.

Love Letters Signed, Sealed …
NPR | All Things Considered, November 6, 2023
… but not delivered. Written during the Seven Years’ War, they were lost and unread for 265 years. What they say about life and love in wartime.

Love’s Labour’s Found?
BBC, November 7, 2023
There it was, slipped into an old manuscript. A book inventory. On the list, after Loves labor lost — Loves labor won [sic]. A forgotten Shakespearean play? Scholars are still debating.
• Voilà! Medieval music manuscripts in 18th-century bookbindings

Fake Manuscripts Find a Real Market
BBC, November 14, 2023
In the 1880s a forger produced hundreds of fake Robert Burns manuscripts. Duped collectors bought them. More than 500 of the fakes may still be out there. And people collect them.

Mount Vesuvius, Meet Artificial Intelligence
The Guardian, October 12, 2023
A Nebraska student has won the challenge to decipher the first word in the Herculaneum scrolls, charred when Mount Vesuvius erupted. He did it using AI. And the word is —
• How AI could decipher medieval manuscripts, hieroglyphics, grocery lists …

The Lilly Gets Down with Dictionaries
Atlas Obscura, November 14, 2023
A trove of dictionaries — 20,000 or so — is being processed at Indiana University’s Lilly Library. It could be a dog’s life before we’ve heard the last word on this book bonanza.
• A tribute to the “word nerds” behind the OED

From Our Blog

Digital Florentine Codex Opens a New View of Aztec Culture

In the 16th century, Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún, began keeping records of the indigenous communities in central Mexico. The result is the Florentine Codex. Because many Nahua contributed to the codex, it takes an indigenous perspective missing from most historical accounts of the period. After centuries out of public reach, this cultural treasure is now online.

Other Items of Interest

For Scholars – Maass Grant applications open through February 14 > Apply now

For Keeps – Cornell University’s Conservation Lab > Step inside

The post Manuscript Digest: November – December 2023 appeared first on The Manuscript Society.

Digest: September-October 2023

Manuscript Society — Tue, 03 Oct 2023 17:04:20 +0000

Manuscript Digest: September – October 2023 – This complimentary e-digest, now published bi-monthly, covers significant acquisitions and sales, manuscripts lost and found, rare books and ephemera, document conservation, and more news in this digest

In the News

Sold: Two Tickets to Ford’s Theatre
NPR, September 26, 2023
Two tickets for the night of Lincoln’s assassination took center stage at a recent auction. They last sold as part of the Malcolm Forbes collection in 2002. The price has gone up since then.

Watts Sale Shines
Forbes, September 30, 2023
The rare-books sale of Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts clicked with buyers. The auction’s star: an inscribed first edition of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.

Hemingway’s Pain Exacts a Price
Robb Report, September 7, 2023
On safari in Africa, Ernest Hemingway and his wife survived two plane crashes in two days. His letter recounting their injuries just sold at auction. The price might have eased their pain.

Smithsonian Adds Wheatley Works
Smithsonian Magazine, September 29, 2023
The only copy of Phillis Wheatley’s poem “Ocean” in her own hand has a new home at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. Why and how.
• A Wheatley celebration in Boston

Autograph Quilt Name-Checks History
kottke·org, September 1, 2023
In 1856 a teenager started making a quilt of the autographs she collected. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Ralph Waldo Emerson, eight US presidents … each square, a stitch in time.

Dorothy Tapper Goldman Remembered
Observer, August 1, 2023
The Manuscript Society’s own Dorothy Tapper Goldman made news in 2021 when she sold a rare copy of the US Constitution. She leaves a legacy as a collector and philanthropist.

History’s Guardian Shares His Story
Coin World, August 3, 2023
He debunked the Hitler and Jack the Ripper diaries, and helped crack the White Salamander Letter murders. Past Manuscript Society president Ken Rendell tells the tales in his new book.

Famous Forgery Revealed as …
Boston·com | Washington Post, August 6, 2023
Harvard’s copy of The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia is a famous forgery. Or is it? A book detective took a closer look. What she found is proof you can’t judge a rare book by its cover.

Booked! Nine Crimes Stained with Ink
Mental Floss, August 28, 2023
The Hitler Diaries scam. The Carnegie Library thefts. The Transylvania University book heist. Lee Israel’s literary forgeries. And murders. Investigate infamous crimes with literary links.
• More thefts for the books

Ege Leaves Show Their Colors
The Kenyon Collegian, September 14, 2023
Book-breaker Otto Ege ripped out leaves of medieval manuscripts and sold many to museums and libraries. Now 15 of Ege’s leaves are on display at Kenyon College. As for the rest …

From Our Blog

How to Make an Illuminated Manuscript

A medieval manuscript inspires awe. Did one person create it, or was it a group effort? How were they paid? A curator at the Morgan Library & Museum recently guided a reporter through the process of making an illuminated manuscript. As they talked, they leafed through an unfinished book of hours in the Morgan’s collection — a wonderful window on medieval artisans at work.

Also Of Interest

Medieval Manuscripts: Virtual library grows to 2,500 items on view > Be awed

America’s Authors: C-SPAN airs Books That Shaped America > Binge history

The post Digest: September-October 2023 appeared first on The Manuscript Society.

Digest: July-August, 2023

Manuscript Society — Tue, 01 Aug 2023 16:48:17 +0000

Manuscript Digest: July – August 2023 – This complimentary e-digest, now published bi-monthly, covers significant acquisitions and sales, manuscripts lost and found, rare books and ephemera, document conservation, and more news in this digest

In the News

Lincoln Letter Surfaces
The Guardian, July 5, 2023
An unknown Lincoln letter with Civil War content, held for a century in a private collection, finally came to light. Click the link inside the story to find out what happened next.

Declaration Broadside Goes Big
Fine Books & Collections, July 11, 2023
A rare first broadside edition of the Declaration of Independence just went under the hammer. How rare? Six recorded copies, two in private hands. The sale price was … rarefied.

Scientists Exceed Expectations
Fine Books & Collections, July 13, 2023
A letter from Albert Einstein to an amateur scientist working as a dishwasher. Charles Darwin’s second thoughts on book proofs. Both sailed past their estimates at a recent auction.

Cortés Goes Back to Mexico
El País, July 17, 2023
Three decades ago a 1527 Hernán Cortés manuscript went missing from the Archivo General de México. Last year the FBI got a tip — and the race was on to retrieve it.

Columbus Returns to Italy
NPR, July 21, 2023
In 1493 Columbus wrote to his patrons about what he found in the Americas. Copies of his letter went to libraries across Europe. At least four have been stolen. One is going home.

Rare Books Are on a Roll
New York Post, June 24, 2023
The auction market for rare books hit $1.15 billion in 2021. That’s nearly double its numbers before the pandemic. Why the spike, who’s buying, and what they’re paying.
• Inside the world of rare books

Potter Purchase Pays Off
GB News, July 12, 2023
When the first Harry Potter book came out, 300 copies went to libraries. Someone picked up a deaccessioned copy for 30 pence. This year it went up for auction, and like magic …
• Same story with The Hobbit

Shakespeare Takes Dramatic Turn
Daily Mail, June 28, 2023
A 1655 copy of King Lear went on Antiques Roadshow. It’s one of 17 known to exist. The last time one sold at auction was 1946. It’s worth a lot, right? Spoilers ahead.

Has Anybody Seen These Signatures?
Washington Post, July 28, 2023
He spent decades collecting the signatures of eight presidents and first ladies. Had them all on a rare engraving. Then, somewhere in downtown DC, he lost it. Be on the lookout!

Handwriting Gets a Closer Read
Yahoo! News | Deseret News, June 26, 2023
Gen Z can’t write (or read) cursive. Historical documents might as well be hieroglyphics. A letter from grandma? Call in the paleographers. Think it’s all academic? Keep reading.

From Our Blog

Roger Brooke Taney — A Search for Correspondence

Do you have any letters to or from Roger Brooke Taney? Andrew Jackson and Supreme Court collectors know the name. Taney was attorney general and treasury secretary under Jackson and served as Chief Justice for almost 30 years. Now the first comprehensive edition of his papers is underway at the University of West Florida in Pensacola. Its editor is seeking images of documents for transcription and annotation. Learn more

Additional Items of Interest

Manuscript Mondays : John Law, the Mississippi Bubble, and the Founding of New Orleans, August 7, 8 p.m. ET > Sign up

Culinary Collection: Sample a collection of 25,000 menus, 1850 to 1924, at the New York Public Library > Dig in

The post Digest: July-August, 2023 appeared first on The Manuscript Society.

Digest – May-June 2023

Manuscript Society — Tue, 06 Jun 2023 15:16:52 +0000

Manuscript Digest: May – June 2023 – This complimentary e-digest, now published bi-monthly, covers significant acquisitions and sales, manuscripts lost and found, rare books and ephemera, document conservation, and more news in this digest

In the News

Sassoon Sale Sets Record, But …
Reuters, May 17, 2023
The Codex Sassoon, the world’s oldest (almost) complete Bible, has sold for more than the Codex Leicester but less than a first-edition Constitution and below its own estimate.
• The man who paid the price

Washington Book Rips Past Estimate
Fine Books & Collections, May 5, 2023
A bidding war over a book from George Washington’s library ended at $441,000. Why so high? Because Washington’s books come up so rarely? Or is Americana having a moment?

This Scarlet Letter ‘A’ Is for Auction
Smithsonian Magazine, May 9, 2023
Nathaniel Hawthorne famously destroyed his manuscript of The Scarlet Letter. But a passage from the book in his “infernal hand” survives, and it’s on the block.
• The collector’s story

Madison Manuscript Surfaces in the Files
Cardinal News, April 11, 2023
Sometimes it pays to take a closer look. An unsigned document at Washington & Lee University turned out to be a rare James Madison manuscript on a hot topic.

Papers Show Musings on Court Rulings
DNYUZ | New York Times, May 2, 2023
Newly released papers of Justice John Paul Stevens are filled with handwritten notes, marked-up briefs, draft opinions … and views on the US Supreme Court. What they reveal.

King Biographer Corrects the Record
NPR, May 16, 2023
In a 1965 Playboy interview, Martin Luther King Jr. tore into Malcolm X. Or did he? A dive into the archives unearthed a gap between how the article read and what King actually said.

Renovation Uncovers Looted Manuscripts
Philadelphia Tribune | New York Times, May 7, 2023
Oh, what turns up during a renovation — in this case, manuscripts looted in World War I, stashed for years on an auction house shelf. How they got there and where they go next.

A Manuscript Tale Comes to an End
Herald-Banner, April 3, 2023
In 1984 a student of Greek paleography found a manuscript leaf in a Pennsylvania supermarket. The find turned into a 39-year quest to reunite leaves of an ancient codex.
• The lives lost to medieval manuscripts

Was Gutenberg First? Not Really
Smithsonian Magazine, June 2023
Nearly 400 years before Gutenberg, monks in China printed a Buddhist anthology. Pages were up at the Huntington during the Manuscript Society’s tour. More on this amazing text.

Scholar Gets the Last Laugh on Naysayers
Vice, May 31, 2023
There are no manuscripts of medieval minstrelsy. Wrong! A scholar has stumbled across notes from a 15th-century act — and maybe the birth of Monty Python’s killer rabbit.

From Our Blog

Issues and Opportunities in Rare Book & Manuscript Collecting

Brick and mortar locations. Online sites for auctions and dealers. Virtual and live shows. So many places to purchase manuscripts and books, and the landscape keeps changing. Where’s a collector to go? Spencer Stuart and Brian Kathenes shared their insights on the state of the market in a recent Manuscript Mondays webinar.

Other Items of Interest

Rich Hours – Celebrate summer with “the world’s most beautiful calendar.” > Feast your eyes

High Wattage – FB&C’s Bright Young Librarians of 2023 are all from our member institutions. > Say hi

The post Digest – May-June 2023 appeared first on The Manuscript Society.

Digest March-April 2023

Manuscript Society — Tue, 04 Apr 2023 19:51:53 +0000

Manuscript Digest: March – April 2023 – This complimentary e-digest, now published bi-monthly, covers significant acquisitions and sales, manuscripts lost and found, rare books and ephemera, document conservation, and more news in this digest

In the News

Unrolling History
Benzie County Record Patriot | Washington Post, March 19, 2023
A brief mention in the archives led to a big find: an oversized, overlooked mural of Washington crossing the Delaware, rolled up in a New Jersey basement.

Freedom Fighters
Philly Voices, February 13, 2023
A Philadelphia museum is opening a new tranche of documents from the American Revolution. All have one thing in common. They are the records of patriots of color.

Stellar Book Sale
Live Science, March 14, 2023
A rare first edition of Copernicus’s De revolutionibus orbium coelestium is up for sale. How high could the price go? In 2008 a similar copy fetched an astronomical $2.2 million.

Priceless? No …
Smithsonian Magazine, February 17, 2023
Created around 1,100 years ago. Vanished for centuries. Resurfaced in 1929. The Codex Sassoon has history. Its sale could shatter records.

Mania for Manuscripts
Forbes India, March 13, 2023
Newton, Mozart, Darwin, Picasso, Einstein — and Proust. Lots of Proust. Inside what may be the world’s largest private collection of manuscripts.

Definitive Collection
Chronicle of Higher Education, February 6, 2023
A New York woman spent decades collecting dictionaries, from books of slang to the Merriam brothers’ letters on snagging Noah Webster’s rights. How the Lilly Library got the last word.

Shakespeare’s First Fan Book
The Guardian, February 4, 2023
Imagine reading Shakespeare’s First Folio when it was hot off the press. One of the Bard’s fans did more than read, taking notes and jotting quotes. And not the ones we learn in school.

Genesis of Genius
Art Newspaper, March 16, 2023
Leonardo da Vinci’s father was a notable notary. His mother? A newly discovered document suggests she was an enslaved woman from the Caucuses. The evidence and what it means.

Cn U Rd Ths Manuscript?
The Guardian, March 15, 2023
The Herculaneum scrolls were charred in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Now scientists are offering $250,000 for deciphering four passages from the spirals’ inner layers.

Dust-up over Gloves
ArtDaily, March 9, 2023
The myth about white gloves in the archives just won’t die. Why it’s wrong, why it sticks, and how librarians are handling the bare-knuckle fight for “clean hands and caution.”

From Our Blog

Autographs and Manuscripts: A Collector’s Manual

This classic guide, now out of print, is again available, in limited numbers. The 1978 book, sponsored by the Manuscript Society, remains a valuable resource on the history and fundamentals of the field. Topics range from writing materials to the legal side of manuscript collecting to autographs of the American Civil War. It’s an essential reference for serious collectors and those just getting started.

Other Items of Interest

Last Lines Favorite posts from Fine Books & Collections’ outgoing blog editor > Read up

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The post Digest March-April 2023 appeared first on The Manuscript Society.