blogis librorum. A blog about books. Rare books.

Relief is an image created by a printmaking process, such as woodcut, where the areas of the matrix (plate or block) that are to show printed black (typically) are on the original surface; the parts of the matrix that are to be blank (white) having been cut away, or otherwise removed. Printing the image is therefore a relatively simple matter of inking the face of the matrix and bringing it in firm contact with the paper; a printing-press may not be needed as the back of the paper can be rubbed or pressed by hand with a simple tool.

Intaglio is a family of printmaking techniques in which the image is incised into a surface, known as the matrix or plate.

Lithography (from the Greek - lithos, 'stone' + - graph 'to write') is a printmaking method using a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface. Invented in 1796 by Bavarian author Alois Senefelder as a low-cost method of publishing theatrical works, lithography can be used to print text or artwork onto paper or another suitable material.

"The Kindle is convenient, but I don't want to read a book from a little screen," said Dennis Melhouse, owner of First Folio Rare Books in Paris, Tenn. "You're not going to get a signed copy of Leaves of Grass on the Kindle." Sure enough, Melhouse sells a copy signed by Walt Whitman. He'll sell it to you for $8,000. While his business is down 30 percent, he doesn't blame technology. It's the economy, he said.

Whatever collecting is, it isn'’t a hobby. It'’s an obsession, an addiction. You get tired and a little annoyed of people humouring you, smiling indulgently when you speak of your obsession, as if it were some stamp and coin collecting phase from high school that you hadn'’t outgrown as an adult.

Visit us this weekend in St. Petersburg at the 29th Florida Antiquarian Book Fair March 12, 5:30-9pm, March 13, 10am -5pm, and March 14, 11am -4pm.

A comic showing the debut of superhero Batman has been sold for more than $1m (£655,000) at an auction in Dallas. The rare 1939 copy of Detective Comic No 27 was bought by an anonymous bidder from a seller who also wished to keep their identity secret.

While some college students are perfecting their beer pong, the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America (ABAA), the Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies, the Center for the Book and the Rare Books and Special Collections Division at the Library of Congress are teaming up to tempt them into the field of rare book collecting.

Some people might say that his collection of books is excessive. More people would say that they don’t understand why he would want a collection of over 600 copies of the same book.

Mount Vernon, George Washington's Virginia estate, has received a record gift of $38 million to construct a research library on its grounds.