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Laura Cleaver @laurajcleaver.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

We had fun on day 3 of #LRBS @ies-sas.bsky.social, working on bookselling (and staying cool), with a wonderful visit to @quaritch1847.bsky.social 📚

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Bernard Quaritch Ltd @quaritch1847.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

We are excited to be heading north again today and tomorrow for the 2026 Edinburgh Book Fair, in its second year at the Intercontinental George Hotel in the New Town. Come see us at stand 14 and browse our selection of books, manuscripts, ephemera and more!

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Bernard Quaritch Ltd @quaritch1847.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

We are so proud to have been featured by Fill Refill for this World Book Day. Check our their interview with Eulalie here: www.fillrefill.co/books-rule-o...

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Bernard Quaritch Ltd @quaritch1847.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

We are excited to return to San Francisco for the 57th edition of the California International Antiquarian Book Fair, taking place at Pier 27, The Embarcadero from February 27 to March 1 2026. Come by and see us at booth 218! For a preview of our booth, explore our fair list here: buff.ly/VpJW4gn

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Bernard Quaritch Ltd @quaritch1847.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

We are thrilled to introduce Mark Andrew’s newest publication: The Photographer at Work: Documenting Civil Engineering 1853 to 1913. This beautifully designed book highlights the convergence of civil engineering and photography from 1853 to 1915, featuring over 400 photographic illustrations. 🧵1/3

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Bernard Quaritch Ltd @quaritch1847.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

Happy World Whale Day! This pamphlet is an account of the white beluga whale by Henry Lee of the Royal Aquarium in Brighton, the first beluga successfully transported to England.

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Bernard Quaritch Ltd @quaritch1847.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

Happy International Day of Women and Girls in Science! This work on the inferior olivary nucleus, a structure in the medulla, is the work of Polish-Jewish neurologist and advocate for women's rights Nathalie Zylberlast-Zand (1883–1942), founding member of the Association of Polish Female Physicians.

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Bernard Quaritch Ltd @quaritch1847.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

⚓🐬 Legendary Venetian printer Aldus Manutius died #onthisday in 1515. Pictured here is the iconic Aldine dolphin -and anchor-printer's device, associated with the adage 'festina lente' (make haste slowly).

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Jason W. Dean @jasonwdean.com · 15/01/2026

How many tiaras? Three! It must be... POPE GREGORY IX and his decretals (Printed in Lyon, by Fradin in 1515) (new acquisition here at Spencer / @kulibraries.bsky.social from @quaritch1847.bsky.social) 📜 #bookhistory #booksky #libsky #rarebooks :

A woodcut depicting Pope Gregory the ninth with the Papal tiara giving his decretals to a group of men.

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Dr Liam Sims @liamsims.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

A hand-coloured woodcut of Salomon & Marcolf, from the popular Latin jest book recording their dialogues. Printed at Leipzig after 1488 & bought from @quaritch1847.bsky.social by @theulspeccoll.bsky.social in 1891. Now Inc.5.A.27.2[1067].

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Bernard Quaritch Ltd @quaritch1847.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

Happy birthday to Virginia Woolf, born #onthisday in 1882! 📚 WOOLF, Virginia. Reviewing … with a Note by Leonard Woolf. London, Hogarth Press, 1939.

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Bernard Quaritch Ltd @quaritch1847.bsky.social · 27/12/2025

Happy birthday to chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur, born #onthisday in 1822! This is his visiting card from 45 rue d’Ulm, the address of the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris, where Pasteur began his education and where he was later appointed director of scientific studies.

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Bernard Quaritch Ltd @quaritch1847.bsky.social · 24/12/2025

🎁 And that's a wrap! For the 24th & final day of our Advent Calendar of early European books, we have this magnificently illustrated (and very rare) incunable, printed in Delft in 1486, a collection of the liturgical Epistles and Gospels translated into Dutch. Happy holidays from all of us at Q! 🎄

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Bernard Quaritch Ltd @quaritch1847.bsky.social · 23/12/2025

This richly illustrated chivalry book, for the penultimate day (!) of our Advent Calendar of early European books, is an account of the life and deeds of the Chevalier de Bayard (1473–1524), one of France's most celebrated warriors, written in the year of his death.

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Bernard Quaritch Ltd @quaritch1847.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

Is marriage better than celibacy? Erasmus's controversial work in praise of marriage, for Day 22 of our Advent Calendar of early European books, argues that marriage is primarily an expression of intimate friendship & a path to spiritual growth, sparking arguments with other scholars & clerics.

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Bernard Quaritch Ltd @quaritch1847.bsky.social · 21/12/2025

This beautiful Roman binding, for day 21 of our Advent Calendar, was made for OG nepo baby Cardinal Scipione Borghese (1577–1633), the papal nephew appointed cardinal as soon as his uncle was elected Pope Paul V in 1605 (the Italian 'nipote', or nephew, being the source of 'nepotism'!).

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Bernard Quaritch Ltd @quaritch1847.bsky.social · 21/12/2025

👑 Boccaccio, with Dante and Petrarch, is considered one of the 'tre corone' ('three crowns') of Italian literature. He died 650 years ago #onthisday, in 1375. This is a rare 1520 edition of Filocolo, his earliest prose narrative (his most famous, of course, being the Decameron).

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Bernard Quaritch Ltd @quaritch1847.bsky.social · 20/12/2025

This beautifully illustrated 1573 edition of Virgil's works, for Day 20 of our Advent Calendar of early European books, was printed in Switzerland and was edited by Philipp Melanchthon and other Protestant scholars.

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Bernard Quaritch Ltd @quaritch1847.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

This 1552 translation of Justinian by Sansovino, for Day 19 of our Advent Calendar of Continental Books, has been sumptuously bound in contemporary red velvet with traces of an elaborate embroidered design in gold thread, almost certainly for presentation to the dedicatee, Cosimo I de’ Medici.

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Bernard Quaritch Ltd @quaritch1847.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

Today is World Arabic Language Day. This grammar and vocabulary, structured in the form of a series of dialogues and printed in Malta in 1840, was designed to help speakers of Arabic learn English.

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Bernard Quaritch Ltd @quaritch1847.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

These engravings by Jost Amman, for Day 18 of our Advent Calendar, come from Chasseneuz's pro-monarchical encyclopaedia, A Catalogue of the Glory of the World. The engravings show Adam & Eve in the Garden of Eden, the papal & imperial courts, personifications of the liberal arts & sciences, & more.

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Bernard Quaritch Ltd @quaritch1847.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

Advent Calendar Day 17 / First Plantin edition of Jerome's works, with Spanish provenance, censored not once, but twice. The book’s dedicatee was governor of the Spanish Netherlands against the will of Philip II, causing Plantin to remove the dedication from copies shipped to Spain, as here (1/2)

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Bernard Quaritch Ltd @quaritch1847.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

This handsomely painted & illuminated armorial, for Day 16 of our Advent Calendar of early European books, is dated 1603 & identifies the owner of this 15th-century commentary on the Evangelists as Jacob Mayer, Abbot of the Praemonstratensian monastery of Weissenau (Württemberg) from 1599 to 1616.

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Bernard Quaritch Ltd @quaritch1847.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

Within this sixteenth-century pigskin binding, for Day 15 of our Advent Calendar of early European books, is a collection of fables and moralistic texts intended as manuals for preachers.

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Bernard Quaritch Ltd @quaritch1847.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

An unrecorded 16th-century German Psalter and a Lutheran catechism, for Day 14 of our Advent Calendar of early European books, featuring several leaves of 17th-century notes made by a priest, with prayers and comments on readings and preaching on Trinity Sunday and the feast of St Bartholomew.

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Bernard Quaritch Ltd @quaritch1847.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

✂️ This DIY sticker book, for Day 13 of our Advent Calendar of early European books, records the events of the 1658–60 Siege of Copenhagen and features numerous engraved vignettes for the owner to cut and paste in according to an alphabetical key.

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Bernard Quaritch Ltd @quaritch1847.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

This striking griffin, for Day 12 of our Advent Calendar of early printed books, is the printer's device of Jacob Bellaert, the first printer to operate in Haarlem. He ceased production after only a few years, likely because Haarlem did not provide sufficient buyers for his more expensive books.

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Bernard Quaritch Ltd @quaritch1847.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

🌛 This sammelband of incunables, for Day 11 of our Advent Calendar, covers subjects from astronomy to usury, holy water to marriage, ending with St Antoninus’s manual for confessors, with annotations showing the early ownership of a scholar/practitioner of canon law or a confessor.

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Bernard Quaritch Ltd @quaritch1847.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

🐍 This 1526 catalogue of hereticssss ancient & modern, for Advent Calendar Day 10, is the first edition to include a diatribe against Martin Luther, drawing parallels between Lutheranism & wolves, pigs, & vipers, arguing that Luther's influence had turned Wittenberg into 'Viperberg'.

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Bernard Quaritch Ltd @quaritch1847.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

These undulating rows of letters represent different types of battle formations ⚔️ Day 9 of our Advent Calendar is a compendium of ancient works on warfare, including Vegetius on revamping Roman legions, Frontinus' guide for officers, and Aelianus on the tactics of the Hellenistic hoplite phalanx.

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Bernard Quaritch Ltd @quaritch1847.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

I spy with my little eye ... Archimedes standing on a map and looking up at the heavens! This striking woodcut, for Day 8 of our Advent Calendar, comes from the first apperance in print of any complete work by Archimedes (28 August 1503), including one of the earliest approximations of pi.

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Bernard Quaritch Ltd @quaritch1847.bsky.social · 07/12/2025

🏰 ⚔️ Day 7 of our Advent Calendar is a handsomely illustrated treatise on the chivalric Order of the Golden Fleece (est. 1430), composed by a prominent member of the order for Charles the Bold, son of the order's founder, featuring woodcut illustrations of battling knights and of the author at work.

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Bernard Quaritch Ltd @quaritch1847.bsky.social · 06/12/2025

Curated by specialist Barbara Scalvini, our latest catalogue, PPE, features 80 items from our Human Sciences dept, showcasing a variety of angles of reflection on society, knowledge, order, & progress, from the visionary to the pragmatic, the metaphysical to the mathematical ... bit.ly/Q-PPE-2025

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Bernard Quaritch Ltd @quaritch1847.bsky.social · 06/12/2025

🥱✒️ Students have been doodling in the margins of their books for centuries ... these juvenile illustrations, for Day 6 of our Advent Calendar, come from this rare 1486 devotional account of the life of St Jerome. Printed at the first printshop in Delft, our copy features early English provenance (!)

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Bernard Quaritch Ltd @quaritch1847.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

🐲 Here be dragons ... Day 5 of our Advent Calendar is a rare #incunable compilation of sermons, printed in Gouda in 1482, our copy in a contemporary Netherlandish blind-stamped binding featuring a cockfight, dragons, and fleur-de-lys tools.

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Bernard Quaritch Ltd @quaritch1847.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

Q specialists Alex Day & Andrea Mazzocchi in conversation with Massimiliano Lacertosa @asiasociety.org in Hong Kong on our 1530 Marco Polo manuscript, one of the last copies in private hands, produced at Westminster by a Continental scribe & likely first owned by one of Henry VIII’s chaplains.

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Bernard Quaritch Ltd @quaritch1847.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

⚔️ This magnificent miniature of a daring knight charging on horseback, for Day 4 of our Advent Calendar, has been bound into a 1503 Vergier d'honneur, a celebration of Charles VIII's expedition to Italy (bonus points if you can spot the frog!)

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Bernard Quaritch Ltd @quaritch1847.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

🐬⚜️ These charming title-page decorations, for Day 3 of our Advent Calendar, feature a fleur-de-lys and an armorial between two dolphins, from a Lyons counterfeit of Caesar's commentaries, imitating the style of Aldus's portable octavos but predating the first Aldine Caesar by five years.

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Dr Bryony Coombs @bryonycoombs.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

I have 100% found my advent calendar 👀:

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Bernard Quaritch Ltd @quaritch1847.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

Beneath this beautiful Parisian fanfare binding for Day 2 of our Advent Calendar of early European books is the 1570 Plantin Book of Hours, one of only six known copies printed on vellum 😍

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Bernard Quaritch Ltd @quaritch1847.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

This portrait of pioneering printer and bookbinder T.J. Cobden-Sanderson of the Doves Press – born #otd in 1840 – lives in our Human Sciences department. The beautiful typeface pictured here is the Doves Type, the punches and matrices for which Cobden-Sanderson infamously threw into the Thames.

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Bernard Quaritch Ltd @quaritch1847.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

🎶🎄 It's the mooost wonderful tiiime of the year (the start of this year's Quaritch book-themed Advent Calendar, of course). Stay tuned for a surprise each day from our forthcoming Continental catalogue, kicking off with Stagnino's lovely heart-shaped printer's device from this 1503 Virgil.

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Laura Cleaver @laurajcleaver.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

‘Twas the night before Book Trade History Conference… @ies-sas.bsky.social @quaritch1847.bsky.social

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Jay Moschella @jaymoschella.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

Scriptores rei rusticae. Venice: Nicolaus Jenson, 1472 The first printed edition of this compendium of classical texts on agriculture and rural life. This volume actually comprises two separate copies attached together to make one complete whole. 2/7

The opening of book 2 of Varro's work on managing large farming estates, with a gilt, white-vine initial "V"

Gilt red goatskin binding, which can be attributed, based on tooling, to the English binder John Elliott (active 1712-1763)

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Jay Moschella @jaymoschella.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

Despite being a frankenbook, it preserves a trove of very early evidence (illuminated initials, marginalia, identifiable early binding). It also comes with about 300 years of unbroken provenance, which is important for us -- a public library -- as we look to model ethical acquisition practices. 3/7

Illuminated white-vine "C" for the front portion of the book. Note the slight difference in style from the other initials. These are two illuminated copies grafted together

Closeup of a quite large tower watermark in one of the blank leaves

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Bernard Quaritch Ltd @quaritch1847.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

Franz Schubert died #OTD in 1828, aged only 31. Rückert's Die Weisheit des Brahmanen, pictured here, inspired Schubert, Schumann, Mahler, and many others. Schubert's famous Lied 'Du bist die Ruh' sets to music Rückert's poem of the same name (although Rückert later renamed it 'Kehr' ein bei mir).

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Laura Cleaver @laurajcleaver.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

It’s Book Collecting Seminar day @ies-sas.bsky.social and @quaritch1847.bsky.social #BookHistory and we’re hearing from Jonathan Nathan about the Cymbalum Mundi

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Michael Durrant @michaelwdurrant.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

Many thanks to @ies-sas.bsky.social graduate, Zachary Larsen, Charlotte Miller, and all the team @quaritch1847.bsky.social for welcoming our MA cohort so warmly today!

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Bernard Quaritch Ltd @quaritch1847.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

✈️ Today three of our booksellers are heading to Boston for the Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair! We hope to see many of you at Booth 508. For those of you who can't make it to the fair (or want a sneak peek!), our catalogue of highlights for the fair can be found here: bit.ly/Q-Boston2025

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