10,000 $ for the Best Book about Books

19 March 2012

More than twenty bibliographies, biographies, library catalogues, catalogues of special collections, studies on bookbinding, fore-edge-paintings, map-engravers and on the history of the antiquarian book trade have already been submitted to the 16th ILAB Breslauer Prize for Bibliography. It is still possible to submit more bibliographies or books about books simply by sending a copy to the Prize Secretary Arnoud Gerits (Diemen, Netherlands). They may be written in any language of the world and must be published between 2009 and 2012. Have a look a the books which have already been submitted.

Update: 16th ILAB Breslauer Prize for Bibliography 2014

"I must say it sometimes seems there are rather a lot of Prizes. We have no sooner got over the Booker, the Whitbread and the Orange, when it’s time for the Baftas and the Oscars - and hundreds of others. But the League’s Bibliography Prize is different."

Raymond Kilgariff

The ILAB Breslauer Prize for Bibliography of $10,000 US is awarded every fourth year to the authors of the most outstanding works on the history of the book. In 2010 Lotte Hellinga and Jan Storm van Leeuwen were honoured with the 15th Prize during an official ceremony on the occasion of the 39th ILAB Congress in Bologna. Both, Hellinga's monumental "Catalogue of Books printed in the XVth Century now in the British Library, BMC. Part XI – England" and Jan Storm van Leeuwen's opus magnum on "Dutch Decorated Bookbinding in the Eighteenth Century" are shining examples of the enormous amount of knowledge - and work - which stands behind such brilliant studies. Now the rare book world is curious to see who will follow Hellinga and van Leeuwen as winners of the 16th ILAB Breslauer Prize for Bibliography in 2014.

More than twenty bibliographies, biographies, library catalogues, catalogues of special collections, studies on bookbinding, fore-edge-paintings, map-engravers and on the history of the antiquarian book trade have already been submitted to the 16th Prize. The list below shows the variety of subjects. And it is still possible to submit more bibliographies or books about books simply by sending a copy to the Prize Secretary Arnoud Gerits (Diemen, Netherlands). They may be written in any language of the world and must be published between 2009 and 2012.

Have a look a the books which have been submitted to the 16th ILAB Breslauer for Bibliography:

ARON, Paul and Jacques ESPAGNON

Répertoire des Pastiches et Parodies Littéraires des XIXe et Xxe siècles. Paris, PU Paris Sorbonne, 2009. (Collection “Histoire de l’Imprimé”).

BROMER, DAVID J.

Aun Aprendo. A Comprehensive Bibliography of the Writingsof Aldous Leonard Huxley. Compiled by David J. Bromer in collaboration withShannon Struble. Boston, Bromer Booksellers, 2011.

CANTELE, G. and R. SBIROLI

Roberto Ridolfi. Bibliografia. Firenze, Leo S. Olschki, 2010. (Biblioteca di Bibliografia Italiana CLXXXIX. Diretta da Luigi Balsamo).

FISCHER, Ernst

Verleger, Buchhändler & Antiquare aus Deutschland und Österreich in der Emigration nach 1933. Ein biographisches Handbuch. Elbingen, Verband Deutscher Antiquare, 2011.

GAUZ, Valeria

Portuguese and Brazilian Books in the John Carter Brown Library 1537 to 1839. With a Selection of Braziliana Printed in Countries Other than Portugal and Brazil Complied and edited by Valeria Gauz. Published by the John Carter Brown Library, Providence, Rhode Island, 2009.

KRISTENSEN, M.

Bogbindernes bla Bog. Kunstfaerdige danske bogbind ca 1880-2000. Dansk Forening for Bogbind, 2010.

KUIPERS, T.

Abraham Kuyper. An Annotated Bibliography 1857-2010. With a Foreword by George Harinck. Leiden, Boston, Brill, 2011. (Brill’s Series in Church History, volume 55).

LUGINBÜHL, M. & H. BOTHIEN

Meisterwerke des frühen Buchdrucks. Die Inkunabel-Schätze der Kantonsbibliothek Thurgau aus den Klöstern von Ittingen, Fischingen und Kreuzlingen. Frauenfeld, Stuttgart, Wien, Verlag Huber, 2011.

ORR, G. and B. TORREY

Jim Harrison, A Comprehensive Bibliography, 1964-2008. Lincoln & London, Univeristy of Nebraska Press, 2009.

The OXFORD COMPANION to the Book

Edited by Michael F. Suarez, S.J. and H.R. Woudhuysen. Oxford University Press, 2010. Two volumes

PERRET, J.

Regards sur les Alpes. 100 livres d’exception, 1515-1908. Paris, Editions du Mont Blanc, 2011

PETTEGREE, A. & M. WALSBY (Eds).

French Books III & IV. Books published in France before 1601 in Latin and Languages other than French. Two volumes. Leiden, Boston, Brill, 2012.

PETTEGREE, A. & M. WALSBY (Eds).

Netherlandish Books. Books published in the Low Countries and Dutch Books printed abroad before 1601. Two volumes. Leiden, Boston, Brill, 2011.

PITTIE, A.

Birds in Books. Three hundred years of South Asian Ornithology. A Bibliography. With a foreword by Edward C. Dickinson. Ranikhet, Permanent Black, 2010.

POLAK, M. and A. DUGRAND

Trésor des Livres de Mer. De Christophe Colomb à Marin-Marie. Paris, Editions Hoëbeke, 2011

SHEFRIN, J.

The Dartons. Publishers of Educational Aids, Pastimes & Juvenile Ephemera 1787-1876. Los Angeles, Cotsen Occasional Press, 2009.

VIGNES, H.

Bibliographie des éditions de Minuit. Du “Silence de la mer” à “L’Anti-Oedipe” (20 février 1942-18 février 1972). Paris, Librairie Henri Vignes / Éditions des Cendres, 2010.

VIGNES, H. and P. BOUDROT

Bibliographie des éditions de la Nouvelle Revue Française (26 mai 1911-15 juillet 1919). Paris, Librairie Henri Vignes / Éditions des Cendres, 2011.

WAGNER, B. and M. REED (Eds.)

Early Printed Books as Material Objects. Proceedings of the Conference Organized by the IFLA Rare Books and Manuscript Section, Munich, 19-21 August 2009. De Gruyter, Saur, 2010. (IFLA Publications 149).

WALSBY, M.

The Printed Book in Brittany, 1484-1600. Leiden, Boston, Brill, 2011 (Library of the Written Word, volume 14).

WEBER, J.

Annotated dictionary of fore-edge painting artists & binders. The fore-edge paintings of Miss C.B. Currie with a catalogue raisonné. Los Angeles, Jeff Weber Rare Books, 2010.

WILKINSON, A.S.

Iberian Books. Books Published in Spanish or Portugese or on the Iberian Peninsula before 1601. (Libros ibéricos. Libros publicados en espanol o portugués o en la Peninsula Ibérica antes de 1601). Leiden, Boston, Brill, 2011.

WORMS, L. and A. BAYNTON-WILLIAMS

British Map Engravers. A Dictionary of Engravers, Lithographers and their principal employers to 1850. London, Rare Book Society, 2011.

How to submit more books?

More books may be entered until April 2013, by sending a single copy to the Prize Secretary:

Arnoud Gerits
Distelvlinderweg 37 d
1113 LA Diemen

Netherlands

Any aspect of bibliography (e.g. enumerative, textual, history of the book, design, binding, book trade, etc.) is admitted. Manuscripts, catalogues of books intended for sale and translations of works appearing in another language are not eligible. Any book submitted to the Prize must be a published book and available for sale. For more information see the official website www.ILABPRIZE.org or contact the Prize Secretary.