Un demi-siècle après l’invention de l’imprimerie, avant que la Renaissance ne laisse place aux Guerres de Religion, le livre est à la fois l’acteur principal et un témoin privilégié de ces bouleversements.
In September 2018, Deborah Coltham writes: As one of a series of informal talks organised at the Battersea Book Fair in May, I was asked to talk about the growing number of Women in the Book Trade.
“Amor Librorum Nos Unit” is the motto of the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers, ILAB, the international trade body for the rare book trade uniting booksellers across 36 countries. The motto has been quoted many times over the last few days and particularly the last few hours following an agreement with AbeBooks to reverse its decision to withdraw from a number of international markets.
By 6th November 2018, over 550 booksellers had sent their books "on vacation", pausing their listing on AbeBooks. The protest by rare booksellers worldwide resulted in an unprecedented echo in the media.
“I have decided to put my books on (permanent) vacation on ABE in solidarity with fellow booksellers in the Czech Republic, Hungary, South Korea and Russia. I hope you might like to follow suit.”
One year after her glorious Catalogue 10 Michèle Noret has published a new catalogue, again a wonderful collection of remarkable picture books and illustrated children's books of the 20th century. Collectors and antiquarians who know the market, also know, that it is absolutely no matter to bring together such a richness and variety of book-art. Michèle Noret obviously has a good nose for this sort of books, but it is not only her resourcefulness, that helps her, it is her great knowledge and competence and her aesthetic intelligence which lead her to find these wonderful books and graphic art - and(!) to describe them in an adequate and always informative way. Looking through her catalogues always means to get in touch with important names, styles, developments of book-art, specialties of illustrative art. The series of her catalogues (happy the collectors who kept them!) is like an international compendium of modern artist's books for children, indispensable for an intensive knowledge in this field, a real source book thanks to the many coloured illustrations. (A desideratum would be an index of titles and artists which comprehends all of the catalogues.)
At the end of September booksellers from all over the world met in Switzerland to hold their bi-annual conference and international antiquarian book fair. More than 70 affiliates attended the 40th Congress in the history of the League in Lucerne which was excellently organized by the Swiss Antiquarian Booksellers' Association (VEBUKU) and its current president Alain Moirandat. From 22nd to 26th September 2012 the ILAB affiliates became acquainted with Swiss culture, history and folklore. They visited magnificent libraries, museums and collections like the Rosengart Museum and the Werner Oechslin Library. They held a conference on a ship on Lake Lucerne, climbed mountains (by cogwheel train), improved their crossbow shooting skills in a cave behind waterfalls and showed their dancing talents at the farewell dinner in the Hotel Montana. Afterwards, 64 ILAB dealers from Europe and abroad presented beautiful books, manuscripts, prints, maps, autographs and first editions at the 24th ILAB International Antiquarian Book Fair in Zurich. Dieter Tausch, President of the Austrian Antiquarian Booksellers' Association (VAO) was among the participants. His report makes definitely clear: All who did not attend the Congress and the Fair missed a great opportunity!
Shortly after the reopening of the Girolamini Library in Naples in April of 2012 the Director, Marino Massimo de Caro, announced that 1500 books were missing (April 17). On April 20 the Library was closed by the Naples Public Prosecutor. Marino Massimo de Caro has been suspended and was investigated for embezzlement. On May 18, 1000 books, 240 of which have ownership stamps from the Girolamini Library were found in storage in Massimo Marino de Caro's home city of Verona, and on May 24 Mr. de Caro was arrested on the charge of embezzlement along with four others; a search warrant is out for a fifth. In the meantime Massimo Marino de Caro has confessed to the theft of thousands of books from the library and is cooperating with police in tracing them. A number of stolen items from the library have been confiscated by the authorities in Munich (16 items), London (28 items), New York and Tokyo (uncertain numbers). According to what is currently known and what Massimo Marino de Caro has confessed so far, it is very likely that the number of stolen books from the Girolamini Library is higher than 1500 but no definitive list of missing items has been published by Italian authorities so far. It appears also to be clear that the stolen books were spread out via the trade in several countries, in both Europe and elsewhere.
In a series of catalogues the German antiquarian bookseller Sabine Keune offers the most beautiful copies from the Martin Kaiser Collection of Pictorial Literature. Martin Kaiser collected children's books, fairy tales which are more than books for children: They are, in Roger Duvoisin's words, "pictorial literature", pieces of art, designed and illustrated by famous 20th century artists like V. Preissig, V. Lebedev, Walter Trier and Walt Disney. The illustrations in these pictorial books are influenced by the predominant artistic trends of the 20th century: from Art Nouveau to Expressionism to Avantgarde. Friedrich C. Heller's review of Sabine Keune's catalogue is as worth reading as the catalogue itself.
