The ABA and ILAB look back at a long history. The ABA is relaunching its flagship fair in London this year, the oldest antiquarian book fair in the world, under the auspices of ILAB.
This text by the late Anthony Rota, ABA bookseller and ILAB President of Honour, was published in 2008 in the ABA Directory.
The International League of Antiquarian Booksellers is celebrating its 70th anniversary in 2018. Oak Knoll Press has just published the League's "Historical Index", compiled by ILAB bookseller Nevine Marchiset.
Today the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers unites 22 national associations under one roof. Some of them had already been established when the League was founded in 1947/1948. Five of them were the driving forces: the antiquarian booksellers of Great Britain, France, Denmark, Sweden and The Netherlands.
In 1947 representatives from Great Britain, France, Denmark, Sweden and The Netherlands met in Amsterdam for a Preliminary Conference. They discussed Hertzberger’s idea of forming an organization that counteracted the animosity and suspicion engendered by the Second World War. The new International League of Antiquarian Booksellers should foster friendship and understanding between the nations as the mutual basis for a fair and professional trade in the future.
The ILAB was formally incorporated in Copenhagen in September 1948, with ten participating countries. Representatives from Belgium, Finland, Switzerland, and Italy joined their colleagues from Great Britain, France, Sweden, Denmark and The Netherlands at the conference table. Denmark was holding a proxy for Norway
“Considering the dubiety with which our activities were treated it is pleasant to record that the Congresses in London in 1949 and in Paris in 1950 were very successful both socially and professionally, while the standard of hospitality in both cities was impeccable." (Muir)
The admission of Japan, the ILAB Bibliography Prize (now ILAB Breslauer Prize for Bibliography) and the first ILAB International Antiquarian Book Fair were the milestones of the 60s.
"When Bank of America Merrill Lynch launched its $1m conservation grant programme in May 2010, the Arab Image Foundation (AIF), a Beirut-based non-profit organisation, applied and hoped for the best. When the recipients were announced, the young foundation was among distinguished institutions such as the Courtauld in London, the Hermitage in St Petersburg and Madrid's Reína Sofia to have conservation projects selected. Now that the project is under way, the foundation's director Zeina Arida admits she was surprised to be selected." Snippets from an article by Emily Sharpe in The Art Newspaper.
Nigel Beale met Terry Cook to discuss the challenges facing libraries and archives worldwide, conflicting mandates, the differences between born and made digital material, and the importance of source documents.
Only 24 hours after the official opening of his new office, Norbert Donhofer invites customers, colleagues and booklovers to an ILAB Pop Up Book Fair on his roof terrace, to enjoy beautiful books, a beautiful view and a glass of wine. And please, bring flowers for the terrace! Plant them on the terrace and make the antiquarian book business even more colourful! Help fill the – symbolic – empty bookcases with – symbolic – book spines by making a donation for the UNESCO literacy projects in South Sudan! A year ago, it was ILAB President Norbert Donhofer's idea that ILAB should take part in the worldwide celebrations on UNESCO World Book and Copyright Day. Now, on 23 April 2015 from noon to 3 pm the ILAB Pop Up Book Fair at Norbert Donhofer Rare Books on top of Vienna will be one of 30 worldwide ILAB events on that day!
Raymond Scott was sentenced to eight years in prison, because he had stolen a first folio edition of William Shakespeare's works from Durham University in 1998. On Wednesday he was found dead in his cell in Northumberland prison.
The "Gutenberg Bible" was the first book printed, and is one of the rarest treasures today. 48 copies survived that are kept in the Gutenberg Museum (Mainz), in Berlin, Copenhagen, Paris, Cambridge, London, Eaton, Oxford, Tokyo, Vienna, the Vatican and other places. Among the many website on Gutenberg these are recommended:
