Tag: Rare Books
Qur’an Manuscript Held by University of Birmingham Dated Among the Oldest in the World
From the University of Birmingham: A Qur’an manuscript held by the University of Birmingham has been placed among the oldest in the world thanks to modern scientific methods. Radiocarbon analysis has dated the parchment on which the text is written to the period between AD 568 and 645 with 95.4% accuracy. The test was carried […]
New Video: The British Library Takes a CT Scan of Europe’s Oldest Intact Book
A new video from The British Library online today. The St Cuthbert Gospel, the oldest intact European book, underwent a CT scan to reveal more information about its structure. This video, produced by Christina Duffy, Imaging Scientist at the British Library, shows the manuscript, its wooden boards, the cords which lie under the raised frames […]
Brown University: John Carter Brown Library Puts Historic Documents Online
From The Brown Daily Herald: The John Carter Brown Library is home to more than 50,000 rare books and 16,000 reference books and secondary sources. But due to the changing nature of students’ study habits and library restrictions to protect its books, most of these resources remain vastly underused. In an effort to make its […]
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Rare Books: A Look at Several Recently Digitized Books From Harvard's Houghton Library
From the Houghton Library Blog: An exciting array of materials have recently been digitized at Houghton. They include manuscript material from Joanna Baillie, George Eliot, John Keats, Charles Lamb, Percy Shelley, Robert Southey, Alfred Tennyson, Hester Thrale and George Washington. A 15th century breviary and Belgian incunable, multiple musical scores, cartoons, broadsides and more may […]
Ireland: Library Recovers Tome Missing For 100 Years
From CNN: The book, missing for a century, has turned up in “remarkably good condition” and has been returned to grateful staff at Archbishop Marsh’s Library in Dublin. The hero of the story is an Irish barrister who plucked the tome from a junk shop. The attorney paid the princely sum of €90 (about $119), […]
Rare Books: AbeBooks’ Most Expensive Sales in 2011
From the AbeBooks Blog: It was a bumper year for rare bookselling. The combined total of AbeBooks’ top 10 most expensive sales during 2011 is $220,330. The November sale of Karl Marx’s Das Kapital for $51,739 was the year’s most significant transaction on AbeBooks and one that sparked many wry smiles. The sale of a […]
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National Library of India: A Very Brief Look at the Digitisation of Rare Books
From the Press Information Bureau, Government of India: The Minister for Culture and Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja has said that digitisation of rare books and other print material is done selectively taking into account copyright and other issues. It is a part of the Annual Action Plan of the National Library, Kolkata. […]
Charleston, SC: Third-Oldest US Library Restoring Thousands of Rare Titles
From the AP: The oldest library in the South – and the third-oldest in the nation – announced Friday a multi-year effort to catalog and restore thousands of rare books, many of which have survived for centuries through earthquake, war and the relentless heat and humidity of Southern summers. The Charleston Library Society put on […]
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Brown University Library Acquires Exceptionally Rare Book On Chinese Medicine
From the Brown University Library News: “The Brown University Library has acquired an exceptionally rare book, the first Western book on Chinese medicine, Les Secrets de la Medecine des Chinois (Grenoble, 1671). The volume is composed of anonymous translations of early Chinese texts attributed to Jesuit authors, including the first accounts in the West of […]
Yale Partners with the National Library of Korea to Digitize Rare Books and Manuscripts
From the Yale U. Public Affairs Office: Yale University’s East Asia and Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript libraries have undertaken a collaborative project with The National Library of Korea to digitize Yale’s holdings of rare Korean works, totaling 140 volumes. This unique group of books and manuscripts includes religious, secular, and official publications from the […]
