I have been finishing up copy edits on my book on the Pavier Quartos and just wanted to tell you about two central moments in the research that happened in rare books libraries, which I miss.

The first was at the @BPLBoston. @Jay_Moschella pointed out that their copies of some of the PQs had their title pages repaired and a portion of the imprint in poem facsimile. He photographed them for me under a microscope and got the photos to me in ten minutes.

He suggested a key lead for when and by whom these paper and ink repairs had been made. This moment led to three years of further research and one chapter of the book.

Second moment happened in the @NewberryLibrary. I was looking at an odd book of three PQs bound together. The catalogue said this had been done in the 19th c but I was skeptical.

The key evidence, I suspected, was hiding under the current blue paper wrapper. I showed the spine to @JillEGage. She suggested the conservator, Lesa Dowd, might be able to shed some light on the question.

Lesa agreed to cut the blue paper wrapper and look at the spine underneath. And there was the evidence I was looking for.

I thought this was a pretty bold, and risky, move for them to make with a valuable item in their collection. But they went for it bc they felt the intellectual stakes were worth it. This became a key piece of evidence in one chapter. And I think enhanced the interest of the book.

It wouldn't have happened without their scholarly engagement in their collection. Without @Jay_Moschella and his knowledge of his collection, I would have lost the chance to chase this fascinating trail.

Just to say: rare books librarians are awesome. Collaborate with them! And advocate for them if you're in a position to do so.

The whole book is peppered with little moments of important collaboration with librarians, and I would list them but I'm afraid I'd leave some people out (I don't have my acknowledgements and fns in front of me).