de Hamel, Christopher. Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts: Twelve Journeys into the Medieval World (New York: Penguin Press, 2017) vii + 640pp. ISBN: 978-1594206115. Christopher de Hamel, the world’s leading consultant on medieval manuscripts, currently resides in Great Britain. Throughout his varied career, de Hamel has worked as a cataloger at Sotheby’s and holds the record for cataloguing... Continue Reading →
William Buell Sprague and the Trouble with Antiquarianism in the Early U.S.
“I have not heard from you for a long time. I fear you are buried under an avalanche of autographs.” -Jared Sparks to William Buell Sprague (1845)[1] In 1834, the American Antiquarian Society's tireless librarian, Christopher Columbus Baldwin (1800-1835), exhaled that he was "heartily glad [William Buell Sprague] has left New England." A Presbyterian minister in Albany,... Continue Reading →