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Author Archives: Simon Beattie
A blind lexicographer
I have long been interested in dictionaries, even before I completed my MA in Lexicography twenty years ago. One book we shall be exhibiting at the London Rare Book Fair next week is this: It’s a copy of the first … Continue reading
Posted in France
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The Death Song of the Cherokee Indian
We are currently preparing for the London book fair, and here’s one item we shall be exhibiting. It’s a volume of manuscript music compiled in the 1820s containing approximately seventy pieces, one of which is ‘The Death Song of the … Continue reading
Posted in America, Cross-cultural material, Music
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An unrecorded song, from an unrecorded publisher
As I wrote last week, we have been working on a new catalogue, British Music: 200 years of performance, public and private. It’s been enjoyable putting it together, doing the necessary research, and making some discoveries. Here’s one: This little … Continue reading
Posted in Music
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Birthday tunes for a new King
We are currently cataloguing recently-acquired material for a new list, “English Music”. One book which will feature is this, some birthday minuets for George III. In fact, it is the first such annual collection published during his reign, apparently known … Continue reading
Posted in Music
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An 18th-century dust-wrapper
A fascinating survival: the plates for the first volume of Georgi’s Beschreibung aller Nationen des Russischen Reichs (4 vols, 1776–80), ‘the first demographic study of the peoples of Russia’ (Howgego I-G36), still loose and yet to be coloured, in the … Continue reading
Posted in Cross-cultural material, Russia
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An early publisher’s printed endpaper?
As many of you many know, I have an interest in endpapers (unusual or attractive ones, anyway), as my recent piece for the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America, and my creation of the Facebook group We Love Endpapers will show. … Continue reading
Posted in Cross-cultural material
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‘An artist full of charm and verve’
Apologies for the recent lack of blog posts. Things have been so busy: exhibiting at the Boston book fair, processing some recently acquired collections, trying to find someone to come and work for me, and preparing for California. In cataloguing … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
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Fun and games in the British Museum Reading Room
I’m just putting together my list for the forthcoming Boston Book Fair, as my books will be leaving early next week. It’s always nice to be able to show new stock, freshly catalogued, and I shall have quite a bit … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
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British support for the French Revolution
Printed in 1792, this is one of the first publications from the newly inaugurated Convention Nationale, the third government of the French Revolution, and in which English, Scottish and Irish citizens, resident in France, voice their support for the revolutionary … Continue reading
Posted in Cross-cultural material, France
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All Greek
I’m currently cataloguing towards the Boston book fair, and am enjoying working through things acquired over the summer. Here’s one: It’s a lithographed facsimile of a letter in Greek, signed by the President and four members of the Philomuse Society … Continue reading
Posted in Cross-cultural material
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