Alfred Pasternack
@aopmurray.bsky.social
Rare books, manuscripts, that sort of thing. Bookseller @quaritch, bookbinder. Oooh, serifs.
Reposted by Alfred Pasternack
Everyone has bad days, even Coleridge, who, in a fit of despair, planned to 'bid farewell forever' to poetry at the age of twenty-two. This unpublished autograph letter marks a key moment of transition in the poet's life. bit.ly/Q-Coleridge2...
September 8, 2025 at 8:30 AM
Everyone has bad days, even Coleridge, who, in a fit of despair, planned to 'bid farewell forever' to poetry at the age of twenty-two. This unpublished autograph letter marks a key moment of transition in the poet's life. bit.ly/Q-Coleridge2...
Reposted by Alfred Pasternack
An agéd St Peter with his keys. A woodcut initial from Nicholas de Lyra’s commentary on the Gospels and Epistles, printed at #Venice in December 1494 and since 1913 @theulspeccoll.bsky.social: Inc.5.B.3.97[1711].
September 17, 2025 at 6:20 PM
An agéd St Peter with his keys. A woodcut initial from Nicholas de Lyra’s commentary on the Gospels and Epistles, printed at #Venice in December 1494 and since 1913 @theulspeccoll.bsky.social: Inc.5.B.3.97[1711].
Reposted by Alfred Pasternack
🕰️ This beautifully printed collection of 71 shorter works by Thomas Aquinas was published 535 years ago #onthisday.
📖 THOMAS AQUINAS; Antonius PIZAMANUS, editor. Opuscula [with a life of St Thomas].Venice, Hermannus Liechtenstein, 7 September 1490.
📖 THOMAS AQUINAS; Antonius PIZAMANUS, editor. Opuscula [with a life of St Thomas].Venice, Hermannus Liechtenstein, 7 September 1490.
September 7, 2025 at 8:30 AM
🕰️ This beautifully printed collection of 71 shorter works by Thomas Aquinas was published 535 years ago #onthisday.
📖 THOMAS AQUINAS; Antonius PIZAMANUS, editor. Opuscula [with a life of St Thomas].Venice, Hermannus Liechtenstein, 7 September 1490.
📖 THOMAS AQUINAS; Antonius PIZAMANUS, editor. Opuscula [with a life of St Thomas].Venice, Hermannus Liechtenstein, 7 September 1490.
Reposted by Alfred Pasternack
The Internet informs us that today is #InternationalBaconDay … they did mean English philosopher Francis Bacon (1561–1626), right?
September 6, 2025 at 8:30 AM
The Internet informs us that today is #InternationalBaconDay … they did mean English philosopher Francis Bacon (1561–1626), right?
Reposted by Alfred Pasternack
You've heard of Faust & Werther, but did you know that Goethe was also the author of a play about a throuple? Written at the age of 27, Stella (1776) ends with Stella, Cecilia, and Fernando finding love in 'one home, one bed, and one grave'. bit.ly/Q-Goethe-G1181
August 28, 2025 at 8:15 AM
You've heard of Faust & Werther, but did you know that Goethe was also the author of a play about a throuple? Written at the age of 27, Stella (1776) ends with Stella, Cecilia, and Fernando finding love in 'one home, one bed, and one grave'. bit.ly/Q-Goethe-G1181
Reposted by Alfred Pasternack
Fun ways to spend your bank holiday:
- Cooking for friends and family (note: cooking friends and family generally frowned upon)
- Stealing a large pig and replacing it with a pig-shaped decoy
- Glaring at cyclists who don't stop at red lights
- Having a night on the town
- Cooking for friends and family (note: cooking friends and family generally frowned upon)
- Stealing a large pig and replacing it with a pig-shaped decoy
- Glaring at cyclists who don't stop at red lights
- Having a night on the town
August 25, 2025 at 8:30 AM
Fun ways to spend your bank holiday:
- Cooking for friends and family (note: cooking friends and family generally frowned upon)
- Stealing a large pig and replacing it with a pig-shaped decoy
- Glaring at cyclists who don't stop at red lights
- Having a night on the town
- Cooking for friends and family (note: cooking friends and family generally frowned upon)
- Stealing a large pig and replacing it with a pig-shaped decoy
- Glaring at cyclists who don't stop at red lights
- Having a night on the town
Reposted by Alfred Pasternack
Typographical chaos. Sondershausen, 1700.
March 17, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Typographical chaos. Sondershausen, 1700.
Reposted by Alfred Pasternack
In his diary in 1896, member of @theul.bsky.social staff Charles Sayle called this portrait ‘quite the most marvellous piece of engraving of the period that … I have seen’.
How we're feeling in this heat wave 🥵
This slumping scholar is the poet and playwright William Cartwright (1611–1643), a favourite of Charles I and a follower of Ben Jonson, who said that Cartwright 'writes like a man'.
This slumping scholar is the poet and playwright William Cartwright (1611–1643), a favourite of Charles I and a follower of Ben Jonson, who said that Cartwright 'writes like a man'.
August 12, 2025 at 1:32 PM
In his diary in 1896, member of @theul.bsky.social staff Charles Sayle called this portrait ‘quite the most marvellous piece of engraving of the period that … I have seen’.
Reposted by Alfred Pasternack
Silk, embroidery, enamel, silver filigree, and more ... which of these lovely little bindings is your favourite?
August 11, 2025 at 8:01 AM
Silk, embroidery, enamel, silver filigree, and more ... which of these lovely little bindings is your favourite?
Reposted by Alfred Pasternack
How it started / how it's going ...
August 8, 2025 at 2:30 PM
How it started / how it's going ...
Reposted by Alfred Pasternack
Reposted by Alfred Pasternack
Reposted by Alfred Pasternack
1548 woodcut initials featuring dog-walking, hair-pulling, spanking, music-making, and what seems to be a very dramatic book club ...
August 1, 2025 at 2:15 PM
1548 woodcut initials featuring dog-walking, hair-pulling, spanking, music-making, and what seems to be a very dramatic book club ...
Reposted by Alfred Pasternack
Picture the scene.
It's 1901. It's Paris. You make a bet with some friends that you could walk around the world, funding the entire trip by selling postcards featuring photos of YOURSELF. You set off.
This is the story of Charles Millot. Read it now at: orkneyarchive.blogspot.com
It's 1901. It's Paris. You make a bet with some friends that you could walk around the world, funding the entire trip by selling postcards featuring photos of YOURSELF. You set off.
This is the story of Charles Millot. Read it now at: orkneyarchive.blogspot.com
July 22, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Picture the scene.
It's 1901. It's Paris. You make a bet with some friends that you could walk around the world, funding the entire trip by selling postcards featuring photos of YOURSELF. You set off.
This is the story of Charles Millot. Read it now at: orkneyarchive.blogspot.com
It's 1901. It's Paris. You make a bet with some friends that you could walk around the world, funding the entire trip by selling postcards featuring photos of YOURSELF. You set off.
This is the story of Charles Millot. Read it now at: orkneyarchive.blogspot.com
Reposted by Alfred Pasternack
Beautiful bookplate of the queer American poet & activist Elizabeth Wade White (1906-94), in a work of philosophy by Giovanni Domenico Roccamora (Rome, 1668). Born in Connecticut, White moved to Dorset in the 1930s, to meet Sylvia Townsend Warner & her partner Valentine Ackland. (1/2)
July 20, 2025 at 8:13 AM
Beautiful bookplate of the queer American poet & activist Elizabeth Wade White (1906-94), in a work of philosophy by Giovanni Domenico Roccamora (Rome, 1668). Born in Connecticut, White moved to Dorset in the 1930s, to meet Sylvia Townsend Warner & her partner Valentine Ackland. (1/2)
Reposted by Alfred Pasternack
Happy St Swithin's Day! According to tradition, today's weather will continue for the next 40 days and 40 nights: 'St Swithin's Day, if it does rain / Full forty days, it will remain / St Swithin's Day, if it be fair / For forty days, t'will rain no more'. We're hoping for a bit more sunshine ...
July 15, 2025 at 8:01 AM
Happy St Swithin's Day! According to tradition, today's weather will continue for the next 40 days and 40 nights: 'St Swithin's Day, if it does rain / Full forty days, it will remain / St Swithin's Day, if it be fair / For forty days, t'will rain no more'. We're hoping for a bit more sunshine ...
Reposted by Alfred Pasternack
Cambridge University Library, seen from the Old Schools. A view we all love!
July 15, 2025 at 8:04 AM
Cambridge University Library, seen from the Old Schools. A view we all love!
Reposted by Alfred Pasternack
Plates and wheels on the bottom sides and edge of an enormous antiphonal, Madrid 1827. Seen at @quaritch1847.bsky.social. Outing with our London Rare Book School group.
June 26, 2025 at 2:23 PM
Plates and wheels on the bottom sides and edge of an enormous antiphonal, Madrid 1827. Seen at @quaritch1847.bsky.social. Outing with our London Rare Book School group.
Reposted by Alfred Pasternack
Did you know that Jorge Luis Borges mentions us in his 1940 story Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius? To this day we continue to encounter visitors who have come across Quaritch through Borges, eager to see our shop (and our famous catalogues) for themselves …
July 11, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Did you know that Jorge Luis Borges mentions us in his 1940 story Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius? To this day we continue to encounter visitors who have come across Quaritch through Borges, eager to see our shop (and our famous catalogues) for themselves …
Reposted by Alfred Pasternack
Sir Thomas More died 490 years ago on 6 July. Our catalogue Nowhere (Utopia literally meaning 'no place'), a selection of utopias, dystopias, and imaginary voyages, celebrates the legacy of his monumental 1516 Utopia. Browse the catalogue: bit.ly/Q-Utopia2025
July 13, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Sir Thomas More died 490 years ago on 6 July. Our catalogue Nowhere (Utopia literally meaning 'no place'), a selection of utopias, dystopias, and imaginary voyages, celebrates the legacy of his monumental 1516 Utopia. Browse the catalogue: bit.ly/Q-Utopia2025
Reposted by Alfred Pasternack
📚 This gorgeous binding is for a copy of 'Scintilla-altaris | Primitive devotion in the feasts and fasts of the Church of England' by Edward Sparke who was a chaplain to King Charles II. While the outside is wonderful, what lies just inside is even more special.
[G35.S6]
👇
[G35.S6]
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![Red and gold binding of Scintilla-altaris | Primitive devotion in the feasts and fasts of the Church of England' by Edward Sparke [G35.S6]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:gd3nnahgeqpw66r5ey2576wx/bafkreigdf4objnzegxwscaph344kvfvwvowt7wonooaut4vlncjfgjsbs4@jpeg)
June 20, 2025 at 8:18 AM
📚 This gorgeous binding is for a copy of 'Scintilla-altaris | Primitive devotion in the feasts and fasts of the Church of England' by Edward Sparke who was a chaplain to King Charles II. While the outside is wonderful, what lies just inside is even more special.
[G35.S6]
👇
[G35.S6]
👇
Reposted by Alfred Pasternack
A sneek peek of our June roundup of new acquisitions, featuring tales of chivalry & naughty novels, Marian books &missionary books, prayerbooks & anti-Protestant propaganda, and patterned papers, manuscript waste, and much more. Sign up to receive our catalogues: bit.ly/Q-stayintouch
June 19, 2025 at 4:06 PM
A sneek peek of our June roundup of new acquisitions, featuring tales of chivalry & naughty novels, Marian books &missionary books, prayerbooks & anti-Protestant propaganda, and patterned papers, manuscript waste, and much more. Sign up to receive our catalogues: bit.ly/Q-stayintouch
Reposted by Alfred Pasternack
👋 Coucou, tout le monde! We will be at the Paris Rare Book & Graphic Arts Fair this week (12–15 June) at Stand B8, with a selection of books guaranteed to boost your joie de vivre: bit.ly/Q-Paris2025
June 12, 2025 at 3:30 PM
👋 Coucou, tout le monde! We will be at the Paris Rare Book & Graphic Arts Fair this week (12–15 June) at Stand B8, with a selection of books guaranteed to boost your joie de vivre: bit.ly/Q-Paris2025
Reposted by Alfred Pasternack
A pair of happy birds sitting in the margin of Josephus’ Antiquitates Judaicæ (Lübeck, 1475-76). In the library of the Earls of Sunderland at Blenheim Palace, sold in 1882 to @quaritch1847.bsky.social, from whom likely bought by William Morris. Now @theulspeccoll.bsky.social Inc.1.A.14.1[1013.1-2].
June 7, 2025 at 10:51 AM
A pair of happy birds sitting in the margin of Josephus’ Antiquitates Judaicæ (Lübeck, 1475-76). In the library of the Earls of Sunderland at Blenheim Palace, sold in 1882 to @quaritch1847.bsky.social, from whom likely bought by William Morris. Now @theulspeccoll.bsky.social Inc.1.A.14.1[1013.1-2].
Reposted by Alfred Pasternack
E. M. Forster died #OTD in 1970. I have a book from his library, ‘Mount Eryx & other diversions’, on travel in Sicily & Italy, inscribed to him by the author Henry Festing Jones. Complete with postcard of a dashing Italian chap. Sold after Forster’s death by the Cambridge bookseller Heffer for £12.
June 7, 2025 at 11:53 AM
E. M. Forster died #OTD in 1970. I have a book from his library, ‘Mount Eryx & other diversions’, on travel in Sicily & Italy, inscribed to him by the author Henry Festing Jones. Complete with postcard of a dashing Italian chap. Sold after Forster’s death by the Cambridge bookseller Heffer for £12.