Manuscript Digest –January 2019– This complimentary e-digest, launched in 2012, covers significant acquisitions and sales, manuscripts lost and found, rare books and ephemera, document conservation, and more.

In the News

Penn Cedes Parchments
The Inquirer, December 10, 2018
Penn Libraries is returning two ninth-century manuscripts to Italy. Turns out they were stolen in the ’90s. How were they found? They were in a database at — wait for it —

Princeton Cites Provenance
NorthJersey.com, December 22, 2018
Sacred texts or spoils of war? Eastern Orthodox clerics claim two ancient texts at Princeton were stolen in WWI. The school stands by its provenance research. Next move?

Einstein, God, and Money
ABC News (Australia), December 4, 2018
Albert Einstein believed in science. Religion, not so much. He made that clear in a letter written a year before he died. You’d think that would be worth something. You’d be right.

Voice of Christmas Past
The Telegraph, December 23, 2018
Carols go in and out of style. But a 550-year gap between performances? That’s extreme. Where “Parit Virgo Filium” was hiding for half a millennium, and how it made a comeback.

Dickens on Display
Epoch Times, December 21, 2018
“Marley was dead… There is no doubt whatever about that.” Just as surely, the manuscript of “A Christmas Carol” is making a holiday appearance at the Morgan in NYC. What to know.
• Dickens’s roadshow prompt book

Where St. Nick Landed
CBC, December 22, 2018
How did a handwritten copy of “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” land in New Brunswick? Does it shed any light on the poem’s contested authorship? And about those reindeer names …

The BL Conference Top 10
History Extra, December 20, 2018
No, not college sports. We’re talking about takeaways from the British Library’s Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms conference. Because what’s a year-end roundup without a top 10 list?
• The trials and trails of the Codex Amiatinus

Turning Over an Old Leaf
Lima News, December 18, 2018
This could be a feel-good holiday feature — or a manuscript horror story. The heart-warming (heart-wrenching?) tale of book-breaker Otto Ege and an ingenious library fundraiser.

The Acid Test
Chemical & Engineering News, December 7, 2018
Paper conservation has advanced over time — lamination anyone? — but someone had to do the dirty work. The man behind the Barrow Book Collection at the Library of Congress.

Go With the Flow
New York Times, December 26, 2018
From Sheaffer and Montblanc to Lamy and Goulet, fountain pens are on a roll. How “fps” are fighting off ballpoints and pixels to gain fans among millennials. #handwriting

Member Spotlight

J. B. Muns Fine Arts Books
This Member Spotlight shines on J. B. Muns, proprietor of J. B. Muns Fine Arts Books in Berkeley, California. J. B. specializes in musical autographs and manuscripts. She shares the story of how she started out, how the field has changed, and what’s coming next.

Mixed Media
Cocktail Book Library New York • By appointment
> Cheers!