Listen carefully and you can hear the next generation of shoes dropping. Material everyday is being organized and digitized by subject and collection for the web and scholars, collectors, librarians and dealers are beginning to access this next generation of complex, related and threaded information via single searches. It's happening on library sites and its happening on AE. The difference is that libraries are cataloging their collections. On AE we are creating borderless bibliographies that both provide the positive presentation that libraries are building but also match AE's Wikis to material posted at auction and in Books for Sale. Rather than endlessly search the research simply looks at the changes posted everyday. In a few years this new structure of information will replace traditional book listing sites.
Libraries and institutions are digitizing their collections and associations, collectors and dealers are beginning as well to organize their material as collections, fields, focuses and inventories - in effect, bibliographies by whatever name you call them, that will become magnets to attract related and relating material from across the globe into single search results. The future comes into view.
Wiki Bibliographies, AE's concept for how this can work, were introduced on the Americana Exchange in October, 2008. This month we introduce a substantial simplification of the Wiki Control Panel to speed the process of creating entries.
On the Wiki Control Panel an L now identifies those Wikis that are live. Increasingly Wiki Bibliographers will manage more than one Wiki. Some will be public and others under development. Those with the L are live.
Under Operations -
Add Items. Selecting this link brings up a list of each Wiki Bibliographer's Wikis. One or more Wikis can be simultaneously selected if an entry is intended to be added to multiple Wikis.
The Add an Item Screen now includes a 'footnote' field. Up to 75 records from the AED can be organized to document bibliographic details, rarity and history. With this link such records are attached to the Wiki entry.
Up to four images can now be attached to each Wiki entry as the initial entry is being created. For each image uploaded a thumbnail appears in the entry module. Images can of course be added later. The goal of this change is to permit a complete record with footnotes and images to be created in a single entry.
Altogether, a listing and its description, author, date and place printed can be organized with footnotes, a link to the full readable text if it is available in Google Books or Open Library, and up to four images.
Edit/Postpone/Delete Approved Items. It turns out Wiki Bibliographers aren't perfect. If an item in an existing Wiki needs to be suspended or deleted both options are provided here.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: Darwin and Wallace. On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties..., [in:] Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, Vol. III, No. 9., 1858, Darwin announces the theory of natural selection. £100,000 to £150,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue, inscribed by the author pre-publication. £100,000 to £150,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Autograph sketchleaf including a probable draft for the E flat Piano Quartet, K.493, 1786. £150,000 to £200,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Hooke, Robert. Micrographia: or some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies made by Magnifying Glasses. London: James Allestry for the Royal Society, 1667. $12,000 to $15,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Chappuzeau, Samuel. The history of jewels, first edition in English. London: T.N. for Hobart Kemp, 1671. $12,000 to $18,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Sowerby, James. Exotic Mineralogy, containing his most realistic mineral depictions, London: Benjamin Meredith, 1811, Arding and Merrett, 1817. $5,000 to $7,000.
Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly!
Swann Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books December 9, 2025
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 156: Cornelis de Jode, Americae pars Borealis, double-page engraved map of North America, Antwerp, 1593.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 206: John and Alexander Walker, Map of the United States, London and Liverpool, 1827.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 223: Abraham Ortelius, Typus Orbis Terrarum, hand-colored double-page engraved world map, Antwerp, 1575.
Swann Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books December 9, 2025
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 233: Aaron Arrowsmith, Chart of the World, oversize engraved map on 8 sheets, London, 1790 (circa 1800).
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 239: Fielding Lucas, A General Atlas, 81 engraved maps and diagrams, Baltimore, 1823.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 240: Anthony Finley, A New American Atlas, 15 maps engraved by james hamilton young on 14 double-page sheets, Philadelphia, 1826.
Swann Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books December 9, 2025
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 263: John Bachmann, Panorama of the Seat of War, portfolio of 4 double-page chromolithographed panoramic maps, New York, 1861.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 265: Sebastian Münster, Cosmographei, Basel: Sebastian Henricpetri, 1558.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 271: Abraham Ortelius, Epitome Theatri Orteliani, Antwerp: Johann Baptist Vrients, 1601.
Swann Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books December 9, 2025
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 283: Joris van Spilbergen, Speculum Orientalis Occidentalisque Indiae, Leiden: Nicolaus van Geelkercken for Jodocus Hondius, 1619.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 285: Levinus Hulsius, Achtzehender Theil der Newen Welt, 14 engraved folding maps, Frankfurt: Johann Frederick Weiss, 1623.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 341: John James Audubon, Carolina Parrot, Plate 26, London, 1827.
![<b>Sotheby’s, Dec. 11:</b> Darwin and Wallace. On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties..., [in:] <i>Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society,</i> Vol. III, No. 9., 1858, Darwin announces the theory of natural selection. £100,000 to £150,000.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/00d5fd41-2542-4a80-b119-4886d4b9925f.png "<b>Sotheby’s, Dec. 11:</b> Darwin and Wallace. On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties..., [in:] <i>Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society,</i> Vol. III, No. 9., 1858, Darwin announces the theory of natural selection. £100,000 to £150,000.")
