The E-Sylum:  Volume 9, Number 27, July 2, 2006, Article 2

DEKESEL WINS ANTIQUARIAN BOOKSELLERS ASSOCIATION AWARD

Thanks to Larry Mitchell to alerting us to the following announcement
from the Antiquarian Booksellers Association.  Larry writes:

"The 2006 winner of the ILAB [International League of Antiquarian
Booksellers] Prize for Bibliography [was] announced at the ABA
[Antiquarian Booksellers Association] Centenary Ball on 10 June
[2006] at the Royal Geographical Society in London."

In a first for this prestigious international prize, TWO co-winners
were announced:

Christian Dekesel's 3-volume BIBLIOTHECA NUMMARIA II:
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 17TH CENTURY NUMISMATIC BOOKS, published in 2003
by George Frederick Kolbe

and

Arthur & Janet Ing Freeman's 2-volume JOHN PAYNE
COLLIER: SCHOLARSHIP AND FORGERY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY,
published in 2003 by Yale University Press as Vol. 9 in its
Elizabethan Club Series

The ILAB Prize for Bibliography "is the world’s richest prize
for bibliography, worth $10,000, and is awarded every four years
for the most original and significant book about other books
published anywhere in the world.

...The ILAB Prize was established over half a century ago. Its
aim is to draw attention to the best academic work being done in
the field, to honour it in appropriate terms, and to endorse the
trade’s support for the original scholarship on which it so much
depends. Over the years it has been awarded for great works of
original scholarship that have become recognised as indispensable
reference books found in any research library and indeed on
antiquarian booksellers’ own reference shelves."

[The following is from the Official ILAB press release. -Editor]

"’A Bibliography of 17th century Numismatic Books’ by Christian
Dekesel, published by Spink (as you might expect) in London, though
Dr Dekesel is of course a Belgian scholar. It is monumental and
meticulous. The judges were impressed by its erudition - and also
I suspect by its weight. This is just Vol I of 3 - and I won’t need
to explain why the others are not here. But this heavyweight is an
intellectual heavyweight. The author, assisted by Mme Dekesel, has
not just examined every book but every copy of every book he has
located in over 300 libraries and collections. Each entry has all
the data and detail you could possibly want, with a facsimile of
the title thrown in. And remember, numismatic writing occurs in
history, travel, economics and portrait books, and much else too.
This book follows the Dekesel volume on 16th century numismatics
and will itself be followed by 18th century volumes, already well
advanced. The whole will comprise the Dekesel Bibliotheca Nummaria,
covering three centuries, a magnificent achievement."

To read the complete press release, see: Full Story

George Kolbe writes: "Christian Dekesel is extremely pleased,
as well he should be. It is a signal honor. Co-publisher Douglas
Saville of Spink and I are pleased as well that the outstanding
merit of Dekesel's monumental work has been acknowledged in the
wider world of books by the premier organization of international
antiquarian booksellers."

  Wayne Homren, Editor

	coinbooks.org Web

The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization 
promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org.

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