Manuscript Digest –December 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

Gettysburg Redress
artnet News, November 26, 2019
A whistleblower. A payout. A policy breech. Another DC scandal? Guess again. How Glenn Beck got his hands on a rare copy of the Gettysburg Address and what happened next.

Mozart Rocks the Block
France 24, November 18, 2019
The only original score of Mozart’s Six Minuets K.164 still in private hands has changed hands again, to the tune of nearly double the top estimate. Who sold it and what it brought.
• A big day for a tiny Brontë book

‘Angels’ Rush In
ClickOrlando, November 16, 2019
Flood levels not seen since 1966 have hit Venetian archives. Could the waterlogged manuscripts be saved? “Angels of the Salt” to the rescue!

Road Map to Victory
Smithsonian Magazine, November 2019
They were an unlikely crew. Academics, refugees, clerks, engineers, soldiers. But late in WWII, they got hold of the Nazis’ own maps, with an assist from — the Library of Congress?

Some Reassembly Required
Washington Post, November 1, 2019
As the Berlin Wall fell, East Germany’s secret police went on a shredding frenzy. Thirty years later, archivists are still trying to piece the Stasi files back together.

Peabody Beautiful
Daily Beast, November 12, 2019
For the second in its series on beautiful libraries, the Daily Beast visited the Peabody in Baltimore. See why it’s called the “Cathedral of Books” (and why security has tightened).
• Fake bookcases to hidden staircase: inside the Morgan

The Telltale Type
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, November 24, 2019
Long before the First Amendment, a bold pamphlet argued for freedom of speech. Its author was John Milton. Who was brave enough to print it? Typesetting may hold the key.

The Queen’s Hand
BBC, November 29, 2019
Who translated the Lambeth Palace copy of Tacitus? The paper stock and watermarks were clues. But the tipoff? Only one person at court could get away with handwriting that bad.
• Uncovering a long(er) line of women writers

Jingle, Jingle
Reuters, November 19, 2019
Just in time for Black Friday, a London museum opened an exhibition on “Dickens and the Business of Christmas.” Take a look at the printed holiday card that started it all.

Fake Font?
Lifehacker, November 26, 2019
President Trump’s handwritten notes for a press briefer went viral last month. Want to send your holiday greetings with a presidential flourish? Font designers have you covered.

Political Cartoons: Then and Now
Everybody’s a comedian. Or a critic. And political cartoonists are a bit of both. Political cartoon collector Anthony Mourek joined a cartoonist and a cartoon historian for a lively talk on the passion that unites them all. See what they had to say.

Living Color

Medieval manuscripts: 160,000 pages, open access > Enjoy