Brooke-Hitching’s Rare Books of British Exploration

April 11, 2014
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Having identified the Prime Meridian, where longitude is defined as 0°, as being Greenwich, we have also acknowledged the starting point of exploration. An imaginary great circle on the earth’s surface passing through the North and South geographic poles places tremendous appreciation to the explorers who first sailed ship from that point going into strange […]

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Rare Book Sale Monitor update – 1st Quarter 2014 – Factor of Provenance

April 4, 2014
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The study of the circumstances in which individual copies of books have changed ownership throughout their lifetime, also referred to as provenance, is quite important to the workings of the Rare Book Sale Monitor (RBSM). Since any tool used in measuring a commodity’s price changes over periods of time is quite vulnerable to sampling errors, […]

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Happy 450th Birthday to William Shakespeare

March 28, 2014
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The most valuable collection of Shakespeare’s works was accumulated by Henry Clay Folger, a millionaire Standard Oil executive, who died two weeks after he laid the cornerstone to the Folger Shakespeare Library in 1930. He appointed the Trustees of Amherst College to administer the library located in Washington, DC and the collection that includes 79 […]

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The Lombard Gradual

March 21, 2014
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Rare Books Digest is pleased to host Laurent Ferri, Curator of Pre-1800 Collections at Cornell University Library’s Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, presenting the Lombard Gradual. Graduals are large books from which choirs of monks, friars, or nuns chanted prayers and portions of the mass during medieval times. This Latin manuscript on vellum originated […]

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RENAISSANCE “THEATRES OF MACHINES” – A 1578 BOOK OF (PLEASANT AND USEFUL) INVENTIONS

March 14, 2014
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Books of inventions are a little-known category of Renaissance books: an excellent example is the 1578 the Théâtre des Instruments Mathématiques et Mécaniques de Jacques Besson, Dauphinois, Docte Mathématicien, published for the first time in 1571 or 1572 (Cornell University, Kroch Library, Division of Rare Books and Manuscripts, History of Science TJ144 B55 1578++). Born […]

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Livre d’artiste

March 7, 2014
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The art and craft of the book is as broad in content as the human mind over the course of centuries itself. Throughout history, the production of the book has spanned from manuscripts to avant-garde, from traditional forms of design, art techniques and hand-manufacture to the latest technologies, imaging sciences, and automated printing machines. Whether […]

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Elementa Geometriae – the oldest mathematical textbook

February 28, 2014
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The field of mathematics has a long and fascinating origin. Its foundation is based in logic, which has greatly enhanced its significant development.  This invaluable foundation in logic is seen in a work that took place in ancient Greece in the centuries preceding Euclid. I am currently reading a very interesting commentary on the history […]

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The 1501 Aldine Edition of Petrarch (vellum) or The Rhetorical Delivery of a New Practice: Printing Modern Poetry

February 21, 2014
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It is never easy to deliver a new idea, a new invention, or a new product. In his famed article, “Is Google Making us Stupid?”[1] Nicholas Carr notes that Guttenberg’s invention was met with anxiety by many, who worried that “cheaply printed books would undermine religious authority, demean the work of scholars and scribes, and spread […]

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Love is a Pink Cake

February 10, 2014
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Almost all Christian wedding ceremonies include the favorite Bible verse which includes the phrase “Love is patient, love is kind” (1 Corinthians 13:4–8a), to convey the essence of love.  During the month of February, many of us try to find the perfect opportunity to rekindle a romance or strengthen a bond amid the commercialized chocolate […]

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A Piece On Paper

February 7, 2014
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  The history of paper is well known to anyone dealing with manuscripts, books and other similar material. Paper was the preferred option in Europe due to its cost, which was lower than that of vellum, adopted earlier as the primary writing material. It quickly became known in Western Europe, having travelled from China through the […]

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