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ILAB Library - All You Need To Know About Rare Books and the Antiquarian Book Trade
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[+] More Beach Reading - The Yongle Encyclopedia
Published since 21 Mar 2013The worst insult you can hurl at academics is to say they haven't even read the books they presume to comment on. A confession: Not only do I have to admit that there are reference books in here that I haven’t read through; in fact, there are very few works that I have read from cover to cover - or, since many are in multiple volumes, from cover to cover to cover to cover to cover.... One work I haven't read is the Yongle Encyclopedia. I think I have pretty good reasons, though, for not reading it: viz., 1. It's very long; 2. It's in a language I don't read; and 3. It doesn't actually exist.
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[+] More From the ILAB Archives - The League and the German Antiquarian Booksellers' Association
Published since 20 Mar 2013Today, the German Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association or “Verband Deutscher Antiquare” (VDA) is one of the largest national organizations which belong to the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers. The VDA was founded in 1949. Its first president was Helmuth Domizlaff, an antiquarian bookseller in Munich and a close friend of Percy H. Muir (UK), August Laube (Switzerland) and Christian Nebehay (Austria). One of the reasons of the founding of the German Association was that the antiquarian booksellers in Germany wanted to be a part of ILAB – at that time, shortly after World War II, a delicate matter.
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[+] More The History of the Antiquarian Book Trade in Belgium – A New Book by Piet J. Buijnsters
Published since 19 Mar 2013Nowhere in Europe you will find so many bibliophiles than in Belgium, and you will find no other place in Europe where all those stunning collections of rare books and manuscripts have more or less been kept in secret. Until now! Piet J. Buijnster’s recently published book “Geschiedenis van antiquariaat en bibliofilie in België“ provides an overall view of the rare book trade in Belgium from the year 1830 up to 2012. After Buijnster’s studies on the history of bibliophily and antiquarian bookselling in the Netherlands, published in the years 2007 and 2010, this important work fills a gap in the research of the history of the book and the book trade in Europe.
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[+] More The Girolamini Thefts - Marino Massimo de Caro Sentenced to 7 Years Imprisonment
Published since 18 Mar 2013Napoli Today reports that Marino Massimo De Caro was sentenced to 7 years imprisonment and lifetime exclusion from public office following an expedited trial for the embezzlement of hundreds of volumes from the Girolamini Library. The other defendants received shorter sentences.
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[+] More From the ILAB Archives: Amsterdam 1947 - A Bookseller's Wife Looks at Her Diary
Published since 14 Mar 2013In 1977, the 24th ILAB Congress and 7th ILAB International Antiquarian Book Fair took place in Düsseldorf, Germany. On this occasion, Karl H. Pressler, former editor of the German booksellers’ magazine “Aus dem Antiquariat”, published a special issue with articles about the League and its history written by representatives of the international rare book trade such as Menno Hertzberger, Helmuth Domizlaff, Percy H. Muir, Georges A. Deny, Dr. Lotte Roth-Wölfle, Stanley Crowe, and Barbara Kaye Muir.
The wife of Percy H. Muir, a celebrated author, accompanied her husband to many congresses and meetings from the beginnings in 1947 up to the 1960s. Some of her memoirs were published in her books “Second Impression” and “The Company We Kept”, published by Oak Knoll Press and Werner Shaw Ltd. In 1947 Barbara Kaye Muir joined her husband Percy on his trip to the Preliminary Conference in Amsterdam where the Presidents of the ten founding associations of the League came together on invitation of Menno Hertzberger. She witnessed the official discussions and talks behind the scenes along with the life and economic situation in Post War Amsterdam - and she received a lesson in drinking Dutch Genever. -
[+] More PRESS RELEASE - ILAB Joins The Protest Against Amazon’s Bid to Control Top-Level Domain Names
Published since 13 Mar 2013Today, the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers has joined the numerous other organizations, such as the Authors Guild or the American Association of Publishers, objecting to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN’s) plan to sell top-level domains to private companies. Online retail giant Amazon has bid to be the exclusive custodian of .book, .author and .read domains.
ILAB President Tom Congalton believes that placing such generic names in private hands is a threat to equal access to free markets and a threat to the nearly 2,000 small businesses that are affiliated to the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers.« We have to play by the same rules », Tom Congalton said. « There is no reason why Amazon should get the exclusive rights to suffixes such as book, author or read, which are generic names any bookseller throughout the world should be allowed to use. »
The International League of Antiquarian Booksellers is a federation of 22 national associations of antiquarian booksellers representing nearly 2,000 booksellers in 34 countries on all continents. It was founded in 1947 and its main object is the co-ordination of all efforts and projects relating to the development and growth of the trade of antiquarian bookselling, thereby creating friendly relations between antiquarian booksellers throughout the world. It also strives to uphold and improve professional standards in the trade, to promote honourable conduct in business, and to contribute in various ways to a broader appreciation of the history and art of the book.Download file: 1045_ICANN Amazon pr.pdf -
[+] More L’Histoire de l’Histoire de la Jamaïque
Published since 12 Mar 2013Most bibliographers and librarians attribute the book “L’Histoire de la Jamaïque”, published by Nourse 1751, to the British author Sir Hans Sloane. Wrong! This “L’Histoire’ is a translation of a work published in Edinburgh in 1739. The author is Charles Leslie, and the book is called “A New and Exact Account of Jamaica”. The French / English journalist Thibault Ehrengardt re-writes the history of a bibliographical confusion.
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[+] More Don't Wipe Your Nose With This Map
Published since 11 Mar 2013The Travelling Handkerchief has come to town, Fairburn's Map of the Country Twelve Miles Round London by E. Bourne, printed on calico, 590 x 540 mm, in 1831, a scarce, early handkerchief map. The map is circular, and reaches Teddington in the south west, clockside to Norwood, Harrow on the Hill, Chipping Barnet, Dagenham, Purley and Kingsston, wherever they are. I'm in Los Angeles, clockside to Westwood, harrowing on Barrington, Pico and Sepulveda; what do I know? This cartographical Kleenex™ is decorated by vignette views of Chelsea and Greenwich Hospitals in the bottom corners, and a banner heralding the title is held aloft in an eagle's beak.
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[+] More How to Read a Graveyard - The Guardian presents “The 10 best ... famous graves”
Published since 08 Mar 2013William Shakespeare, Isaac Newton, Bette Davis, John Keats, Sylvia Plath and, of course, Oscar Wilde whose grave in Paris is always covered with red lipstick kisses. The memorial - a naked birdman - was unveiled in 1914, but it had to be covered up because of complaints about the figure’s exposed genitals. Oscar Wilde’s grave on the Père Lachaise is a tourist attraction, as well as Jim Morrison’s grave nearby.
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[+] More Antiquarian
Published since 07 Mar 2013“A mere antiquarian is a rugged being” opined Dr Johnson, succinctly and meaningfully, to Boswell in 1778. What’s in a name? – and what of the decidedly un-mere antiquarian bookseller?
