New Source of Ancient Books

As I mentioned in the Book of Secrets review (and in other posts) I love ancient books. I would love to be the one to find a new old book (if that makes sense) and research it and write a paper on it.

So this weekend while I was surfing the web looking for some interesting news about ancient books, I came across a mention of manuscripts coming out of Timbuktu. Now I have been fascinated by Timbuktu for a very long time, ever since I learned that 600 years ago Timbuktu had a famous university and was the foremost seat of learning in medieval West Africa.

What I did not know at that time, was that Timbuktu also had thousands and thousands of manuscripts.

So over this weekend just finished, I made a new blog - about the Lost Ancient Books of Timbuktu.

There is tons of information out there about Timbuktu, some of it as recent as January 2010, and some of it written or filmed in the last 3 years.

These ancient manuscripts were written in Arabic, and I know nothing of that language. However there are teams intent on preserving, translating and digitising these manuscripts and eventually uploading them to the internet so that the world can read them.

I hope you enjoy reading my Timbuktu blog, as much as I had fun making it. I will add any new information I find to the blog as it becomes available, but for now there is plenty up there to whet the appetite.

The Last Cato

Havent posted anything in a week. Not good. I'm supposed to be blogging about Books. Anyway I finshed The MapMakers Wife and am now reading a novel called The Last Cato.

It's about a Nun who is a Paleographer and works on the ancient Manuscripts in the Classified Vatican Libraries, and a Swiss Guard and an Anglo-Egyptian Archaeologist and their search for the True Cross. Those little slivers of wood that the Catholic church have been selling to their churches, claiming they come from the Cross that Jesus supposedly died on.

Oh yeah, about the Divine Comedy by Dante. The above journey to find the Cross, uses the Divine Comedy as a map - going through Purgatory, Hell and Heaven.

While I dont beleive that the relics are from the True Cross (wood is wood anywhere anytime), the story itself is very exciting. It reads exactly like the Da Vinci Code for those of you who have read that. And I love an exciting story. It takes me away from my boring life for a few hours.

The Blurb on the cover of my edition says this - The Last Cato is a riveting journey shrouded in mystery and literary allegory. It will do for Dante what Dan Brown did for Da Vinci - James Rollins (who is one of my favourite adventure/thriller authors).

My First Decision as a Bibliographer and Collector

And here's the Beginning of my New life as a Bibliographer. I have decided that I will collect and write about Bibliography. BOOKS ABOUT BOOKS. Books about Book collecting, Manuscripts, Libraries, Illumination, Book Binding, Rare Books, Bibliographies and so on. That will be my genre.

I already have all 5 of Nicholas Basbanes books, so thats a start. So I think I will start off with - Basbanes and Stern/Rostenberg plus John Dunning, and the Goldstones.

Rostenberg & Stern issued at least 84 catalogues (maybe more) for more than 40 years. I would like to document the catalogues that Stern & Rostenberg issued, maybe collect them if possible. And record everything else that Stern & Rostenberg ever wrote, including books, lectures and articles. Write a Bibliography for Rostenberg & Stern. (see below)

The Changing Rare Book Trade (PDF)

A Lecture on Louisa May Alcott by Madeleine Stern at Brigham Young University, March 1991 (PDF)

And I just found a lovely interview with Leona & Madeleine recorded in 1997.
City Arts Uncut Interview

I also have a number of books about the Shakespeare authorship debate. I'd like to write a bibliography on all the books that have been and are being written about the Shakespeare authorship question. It will be identifying those novels and biographies that support Shakespeare as the author, and those that support someone else.

See my Blog BiblioShakespeare

Oh yes, and eventually record everything on a Bibliography webpage - like this one.
A Bibliography for Book Collectors