Featured
Latest Digest
Manuscript Society Digest – June-July 2022
Manuscript Digest: June – July 2022 – 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 […] […] […]
Recent Posts
Society Response to Carnegie Library Thefts
Over the last couple of years most of us have followed with concern, horror and then anger resulting from the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh thefts criminal actions. The case reminds us of how fortunate we are to be working, collecting, and maintaining the extraordinary and fragile, and often unique, works [...]
Carnegie Library Theft – Sentencing of Schulman and Priore
Judge Alexander P. Bicket sentenced John Schulman, and Greg Priore yesterday. The sentence: home detention and probation. The judge said the non-jail terms were due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic. Home confinement with electronic monitoring allows convicted felons trips outside their homes for worship and medical care. Neither man, [...]
British General Lucas’ IRA letters
It was during Ireland's battle of Independence. He was captured on June 26, 1920, while fishing on the river Blackwater in Co Cork. General Cuthbert Lucas would "escape" on July 30, 1920. Letters between the husband and wife and Lucas’s secret captivity diary are now digitized. Available online, Thursday, June [...]
Gallatin letter on Slave Trade in 1809
Gallatin 1809 Letter Not long ago, we shared with you the gift of L. Dennis and Susan Shapiro to the Huntington Library. The Shapiro collection includes letters and manuscripts penned by United States presidents from George Washington to Barack Obama. It is particularly rich in primary sources for historians of [...]
Carnegie Library Thefts: Latest Updates
It began in 2017. Became public in 2018. Over 300 books, maps and manuscripts from the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh, PA were missing. What turned out to be a 25 year venture between two men came to light. Discovered during an insurance audit. We have been sharing information as we [...]
2500 Islamic Manuscripts to be Digitized
Over the next three years, The National Library of Israel is making more than 2,500 rare Islamic manuscripts from its Islam and Middle East Collection freely available online. These manuscripts span the ninth through 20th centuries. The texts feature items from royal Mamluk, Mughal and Ottoman libraries. Also, the online [...]
2020 Maass Research Grant Awarded
For most of us, early medieval books equal illuminated manuscripts. So, we think of the Latin religious texts. Those beautiful prayer books with ornate gold initials and scroll work. Other books did not get these illustrations until the late 13th century. How and why that changed is the focus of [...]
