Insights on the manuscript and rare book market

Provenance, attributions, auction dynamics, and analysis you won’t find in catalogs.

I started collecting rare books more than 10 years ago, and was curious about manuscript “fragments” - particularly those preserved in bindings. This then drew me to single leaves on platforms like eBay and how accessible they were. It wasn’t before long I was exposed to a long-standing and still-active trade in manuscript dismemberment. My interest then turned to tracking leaves from parent codices and digital reconstruction/provenance (both digital and crowdsourced). And more broadly, in how these pieces circulate. I created this blog after repeatedly encountering the same leaves across auctions, dealers, and online listings as a way to track interesting pieces and notes that hopefully are useful to other people.

Focus is primarily in medieval manuscripts and single leaves, but my research has expanded broadly to incunables, rare books, forgeries, and certain types of art.

What you’ll get

• Fragmentology and dismemberment tracking
• Attribution reality checks (workshop vs. named hand)
• Opinion and auction recaps (hammer vs. estimate, bidder behavior)
• Price comps and deal signals
• “Should you buy this?” breakdowns

Opinions are my own and stem from being an active market participant for 10+ years. Insights useful for other collectors, dealers, and anyone trying to understand dynamics in this niche market.

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