"Each person had a role to play [...] from hand painting works in Peru and smuggling them into the U.S., to affixing fake authentication stamps to the backs of canvases, to producing invoices and other documentation that suggested the works were genuine." (WSJ gift link) www.wsj.com/arts-culture...

A New Lawsuit Alleges an International Andy Warhol Forgery Scheme

A family is suing over half a dozen people and companies, accusing them of being part of an elaborate and far-reaching scheme to sell fraudulent artwork

wsj.com

Now open at Princeton University's Firestone Library, "The Art of Japanese Publishing: A Selection of Japanese Illustrated Books from the Marquand Library Collection 1660-1960".

The Art of Japanese Publishing

Marquand Library celebrates the art of Japanese publishing in this exhibition with selections from our collection of rare Japanese illustrated books.

library.princeton.edu

On view in Cincinnati through November 29. www.taftmuseum.org/more-to-disc...

How Does a Conservator Help Tell an Object’s Story? Unveiling the Beauty of European Fans

Discover the Taft Museum of Art's impressive collection and exhibitions, engage with art through events and hands-on activities, experience world-class murals, and enjoy culinary delights—all in a his...

taftmuseum.org

Apparently we've got a very rare and expensive cask of amontillado in our collection, whatever that is. We're going to try find it and will report back.

When you’re so excited about a book that you preorder it twice (actually three times but managed to cancel one) - welcome to these shores @brettrushforth.bsky.social!

Letters of remission/pardon: where to find? They're such an exciting kind of source but would need editions (and preferably translations) for teaching purposes—has anyone done this? I know of some scattered examples, such as in Cohn on revolt, but want to expand my range!

In 1800, Mme. Récamier commissioned a portrait and got a masterpiece instead. By Jacques-Louis David, born on this day 1748.

The Library is devastated to learn of the passing of Dolly Parton, a music legend and titan of children's literacy. Her Imagination Library program has earned multiple Library Literacy Awards and, in 2018, she visited us to donate its 100 millionth book to our collection and host a story time. 🦋❤️

What is worse in 2026, "centrist" or "fascist"? Asking for a friend.

Bourdaloue (Chantilly, c1745), George R Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, Toronto #c18 #c18th #18thc

“When I see something that’s honestly badly written, it’s such a breath of fresh air now,” said Angeline Rodriguez, an agent at WME, noting that some of the submissions she’s getting now “make ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ look like Tolstoy.” (Wall Street Journal gift link) www.wsj.com/arts-culture...

AI Has Plunged the Book Publishing Industry Into Utter Chaos

The spectacular implosions of big deals over suspected AI use are forcing a reckoning over creativity, trust and the future of the industry.

wsj.com

Total solar eclipse of May 12, 1706: static-prod.lib.princeton.edu/versailles/i...

New on Book Post → Roland Allen reviews Shamil Jeppie’s Writing Timbuktu—a literary history of Timbuktu and its stories of communal learning and scholarly traditions, told with “lively evocation.” books.substack.com/p/review-rol... @princetonupress.bsky.social

Review: Roland Allen on the Libraries of Timbuktu

How a polyglot destination for thirsty long-distance trade caravans became a centuries-old sanctuary for books

books.substack.com

The Walters Art Museum seeks a new James A. Murnaghan Curator of Renaissance and Baroque Art, who will oversee a collection of over 3,000 works of European art from the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The deadline for applications is 31 August: www.codart.nl/careers/job-...

James A. Murnaghan Curator of Renaissance and Baroque Art - CODART

The Walters Art Museum is among America’s most distinctive museums, forging connections between people and art from cultures around the world and spanning seven millennia. Located in Baltimore’s Mount...

codart.nl

“When everything’s great, nobody really thinks about where their food comes from,” she said. “Then when there’s a problem, they realize they’d rather buy their food from a farmer they know and trust.” (Wall Street Journal gift article) www.wsj.com/business/ret...

America’s Lettuce Crisis Has Shoppers Ditching Supermarkets for Farmers Markets

Outbreaks of cyclosporiasis are pushing more shoppers to their local farmers markets.

wsj.com

"With his last Ph.D. students graduating, this was a natural moment for Tsimerman to make a move of his own. He isn’t sure how long he’ll be at OpenAI, when he’ll teach classes again—or the next time he’ll get to wear his tux." (Wall Street Journal gift article) www.wsj.com/tech/ai/open...

The Math Superstar Who’s Terrified of AI—and Just Took a Job at OpenAI

Jacob Tsimerman won the biggest prize in math. Now he’s working on the most important problem of his career.

wsj.com

Anyone remember the "Querelle d'Homère" featuring Anne Dacier, first female translator of the Iliad and the Odyssey? (NYT gift article) www.nytimes.com/2026/07/31/a...

Emily Wilson’s Pan of ‘The Odyssey’ Ignites a Debate Among Classicists and Commenters (Gift Article)

Wilson, whose 2017 translation of Homer’s Greek classic influenced the director Christopher Nolan, panned his screenplay for the movie version in an essay for The London Review of Books.

nytimes.com

"The fee would be attached to a program called optional practical training, or OPT, which allows international university graduates to work for one to three years on their student visas. There were roughly 419,000 foreigners working on OPT in 2024" (WSJ gift article) www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Exclusive | U.S. Weighs $100,000 Fee for Foreign Students Wanting to Work After Graduation

The proposed policy would particularly affect Silicon Valley, Wall Street and universities.

wsj.com

Judith Leyster: The Leading Star of the Dutch Golden Age by Catriona Miller for @dailyartmagazine.bsky.social www.dailyartmagazine.com/judith-leyst...

Judith Leyster: The Leading Star of the Dutch Golden Age

Judith Leyster (1609-1660) was a highly regarded portrait and genre painter in 17th-century Holland. Read more about her life and works!

dailyartmagazine.com

"Unlike some of Nolan’s other films, The Odyssey is not boring, thanks to the source material, which is impossible to mess up entirely. It’s a family-friendly audiovisual spectacle, like an elaborate Fourth of July fireworks display – and with about the same level of narrative and emotional depth."

London Review of Books@lrb.co.uk · 2mo ago

‘Nolan has read at least the first line of my translation of 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘖𝘥𝘺𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘺 into iambic pentameter. In one interview, he cited my version of it: “Tell me about a complicated man.” But I would be ashamed to have written any part of this script.’ New, by Emily Wilson www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Penelope angfressen (Elfriede Gerstl) #dieodyssee #theodyssey

Culture or nature? Europeans are facing a difficult choice (for their cash) www.euronews.com/business/202...

Opera icons or birds? ECB invites Europeans to pick new euro banknotes

The ECB has unveiled ten finalist designs for future euro banknotes. The culture and nature themes feature Leonardo da Vinci, Maria Callas, Beethoven, Marie Curie and birds symbolising Europe's biodiv...

euronews.com

Free ABAA Zoom webinar on arsenic books July 29th 📜 www.abaa.org/articles/his...

"the models found a vulnerability that allowed them to escape the sandbox and connect to the internet. Then they targeted Hugging Face because they inferred that the library […] could hold clues about how to successfully pass the evaluation." New York Times gift link: www.nytimes.com/2026/07/21/t...

OpenAI Says Its A.I. Models Went Rogue and Attacked a Digital Library (Gift Article)

The incident, which targeted the computer systems of another company called Hugging Face, happened while OpenAI was testing the systems.

nytimes.com

“One probable outcome [...] is full AI communism, which is precisely what China proposes: rather than a market product, AI is a ‘public good’ which will ultimately be provided by the state as a kind of ‘digital public infrastructure” (Wall Street Journal gift article) www.wsj.com/tech/ai/top-...

Top American AI Execs Sound Alarm on Chinese Models

The White House is divided on how to respond to recent advances in Chinese AI and has weighed crackdown measures.

wsj.com

La Réserve des livres rares de la Bibliothèque nationale de France organise du 26 au 28 octobre 2026 la quatrième édition de son École d’automne du livre imprimé. Elle est pensée pour les étudiants en master ou en début de thèse, pour vous inscrire : www.bnf.fr/fr/actualite...

Quatrième édition de l’École d’automne du livre imprimé du 26 au 28 octobre 2026

BnF - Site institutionnel

bnf.fr

It remains a perpetual source of amazement to me how many of my colleagues in US history don't read foreign languages. We don't even require our US history PhDs to show proficiency in a non-English language anymore.

Robert Paulett@robertpaulett.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Brushing up for a new class and it really is remarkable how much the Anglophone historiography of North America has been transformed by something as simple as “more people learning Spanish”

"Some movie fans are just finding out that the $250 million production isn’t an original screenplay." (Wall Street Journal gift link) www.wsj.com/arts-culture...

After 3,000 Years, People Are Finally Reading The Odyssey—at Least on Wikipedia

Christopher Nolan and Matt Damon got people to do what teachers never could; ‘It’s not like we’re trying to sell you a lemon here’

wsj.com

"I asked if he had read his books. 'That’s a funny question,' he said. 'I certainly read them as they’re being written.'” New York Times gift link: www.nytimes.com/2026/07/16/t...

Someone Used A.I. to Write an Unauthorized Biography of Me. I Don’t Recommend Reading It. (Gift Article)

Someone used A.I. to write my biography. Thousands more of those books are polluting Amazon. Who is behind all this drivel?

nytimes.com

How do we calculate loss of written works? A depressing but important new study notes that "the loss was far greater than scholars once thought. Researchers estimate that up to 60% of medieval literary works and more than 95% of the manuscripts that once carried them have disappeared over time." 📜🖋️

Up to 60% of medieval texts and 95% of manuscripts have vanished, study finds | Archaeology News Online Magazine

A new study estimates 60% of medieval texts and over 95% of manuscripts were lost through centuries of copying and destruction.

archaeologymag.com