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The Italian Antiquarian Booksellers' Association (ALAI) is pleased to announce that the second edition of the ALAI book fair, Libri Antichi e di Pregio a Milano, will take place from 7th to 9th March 2014, in Palazzo Mezzanotte, the historical seat of the Milan Stock Exchange.

How often do words like "God," "love," "work," "science" or "industrial" appear in British book titles from the French Revolution in 1789 to the beginning of World War I in 1914? Thousands? Millions? What do you guess? Dan Cohen and Fred Gibbs, historians at George Manson University, try to find the exact answer by means of statistic analysis.

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.

Hello, it's me again! Another two weeks have past, and my today's post is about Barcelona. The city hasn't lost a bit of its charm since I've been there three years ago, and I was really happy to come back here and to spend these days with Albert Casals and his friends.

105 years ago, from 6th to 8th August, 1908, a famous 19th century autograph collection was auctioned by J. A. Stargardt in Berlin. The owner of the collection was Fritz Donebauer, born in 1849 as a son of a Bohemian innkeeper who became a banker and insurance agent in Prague, and most of all: a collector. In his lifetime he owned hundreds of autographs and manuscripts of mostly Bohemian theatre artists and musicians as well as rare documents from the history of Bohemia and the Thirty Years War. Little is known about Fritz Donebauer, whose collection came to auction in Berlin in April 1908, and even less is known about the private collectors, dealers and institutions who bought the documents, manuscripts and handwritten letters. Eberhard Köstler tries to reconstruct Fritz Donebauer's life and the fate of his famous collection.

Proensa, Paul Blackburn's translations of the Provencal poets, was the first publication realized by Robert and Ann Creeley's The Divers Press. Earlier in 1953, Creeley abandoned Roebuck Press, a publishing venture with fellow Mallorca expat, Martin Seymour Smith, due to a disagreement in just what writers that Press should give voice to. Smith wanted to publish his mother, which Roebuck in fact did. Creeley wanted to publish his friends. Creeley: "I was just determined to publish Americans of my own interests. I was far more idealistic than Martin." Poets such as Blackburn spoke in a language that Creeley could understand and enjoy. Creeley felt Blackburn's work was the ideal choice for Divers Press's first statement to the world.