Antiquarian news from Ibookcollector

From the British Library

Next week the British Library will publish Andrew Forrester's The Female Detective, the first novel to feature a professional female detective in British fiction. This new publication will be the first trade edition of the novel since its original publication in 1864.

Typical of detective fiction at the time, Forrester's book features various cases narrated by the 'original lady detective', 'Miss Gladden', where she applies her considerable energy and intelligence to solve crimes. 'G', as she is often referred to, enters crime scenes incognito, tracking down killers while trying to conceal her own tracks and her identity from others. For all the intrigue and interest of the stories, little is ever revealed about Gladden herself, and her personal circumstances remain a mystery throughout.

The book is well ahead of its time in the history of detective fiction since and there were no other novels featuring female detectives until the turn of the century. Miss Gladden's character itself is pioneering – when The Female Detective was first published there were no official female detectives in Britain and no women police officers either.

London book to sell in New Zealand

The Mysterie of Rhetorique Unveil'd by John Gent Smith, published in 1665 – a rare 17th century book – will go under the hammer in an auction house in Nelson, New Zealand

The book is a 17th century manual intended to explain the Bible and to teach young people how to speak and write more elegantly and persuasively.  Auctioneer John Walker believes it to be the only privately held copy of the book in the world. The value has not yet been established.

When the book was found, during a restoration project in England, the finder thought the book was might be one of the last to be printed in the original St Paul’s Cathedral in London before it was burned in the Great Fire of London. The signature bore the date 1720.

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University of South Carolina

On sorting through several lots of medieval books and manuscripts in a London auction house a professor from the University of South Carolina pulled out a 15th-century yet pristine prayer book. The work was illuminated by Robert Boyvin, one of the premier French painters of his time, who was commissioned by wealthy and religious patrons.

Hand lettered in Latin with 20 illustrations, the book originated in Rouen, France, which housed one of the most accomplished manuscript workshops of that era. With help from the B.H. Breslauer Foundation, the university was able to purchase the volume for the university’s department of Rare Books and Special Collections. 

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