antiquarian books

Kristen Ogden offers a glimpse into the process of and the passion behind book collecting. “…book collecting is pretty easy,” she says. “It had never occurred to me to collect books other than the “classics,” but collecting books by subject is a great way to spend your book allowance–and it doesn’t have to be expensive.”

The Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris opened its secret collection of erotic manuscripts and art to the public for the first time in nearly 40 years on Tuesday. The collection, amassed over 170 years, ranges from manuscripts by the Marquis de Sade to pictures of naughty nuns and randy noblemen. The public has been unable to see the secret archive since 1969.

Eight-hundred copies of the document are being published and being sold for more than $8,000 each, except one copy that is being presented to Pope Benedict XVI. Libraries and scholars from around the world have already reserved most of the volumes being published.

In the Cimaron typhoon in 2006, all of Luu's books were flooded in mud and seawater and some of them are damaged by moths. Luu said that he maintained the ancient books by boiling these medicinal herbs and washing the books with this kind of water. After that, he embalmed the books with the medicinal herbs again and dried them under sunlight.

Over 1980 images scanned from more than 100 different old books, most with multiple high-resolution versions and many with text excerpts.

In a bid to clear shelf space, a Church of England diocese sold a collection of historical theological texts for £36,000. The books were subsequently sold individually by the buyer and netted him a sweet £500,000. The sale has rocked the antiquarian book world and is being called “one of the killings of the century”. The buyer is retiring to the country. The Church is seeking legal advice.

New Digg/Wordsy like site specifically for rare books. I'm not so much a collector of books as I am a reader of books, but occasionally it's nice to play with the old stuff.