Credit British Library BL Harley 6149.f30 (Various Heraldic Treatises)

Our Mission

Centering the histories of women, people with disabilities, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+ peoples.

Marginalia Rare Books is a women-owned business that specializes in collaborating with institutional collections to preserve antiquarian books and manuscripts that celebrate the cultural heritage of marginalized communities. Recognizing our own privilege in handling these rare materials, we are further committed to serving as a public resource by making these histories and their connections to today visible and accessible through educational events, print and digital content, and by investing in those current communities via our Community Alliance project.

Our Founders

Miranda Garno Rossa, PhD

Across more than twenty years working with rare books, Rossa has been a professor, a private collection development manager, and a specialist bookseller. Though her career began with a narrower academic focus in seventeenth-century women’s books and manuscripts, her time in the book trade has expanded her expertise up to the early twentieth century; and it has deepened her appreciation for the historical intersections among femme, queer, BIPOC, and disabled communities across these periods. Rossa’s background in education has made the support of scholars and librarians central to her mission and to Marginalia’s: Researching, teaching, and exhibiting traditionally marginalized stories is only possible when those primary materials are accessible.  

Kelsey Clarke Grode

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Marginalia in the World

We frequently attend and shop at ABAA and ILAB book fairs, in addition to participating in educational and cultural events. Our upcoming travels are listed below, and we invite you to reach out if you’d like to connect in person.

Book Fairs and Showcases

Conferences and Events

Our Guarantees to You

  • Authenticity

    In line with the rigorous expectations of the world’s most respected rare book trade organizations, Marginalia Rare Books guarantees the authenticity of every piece it sells and the accuracy of its research and descriptions. Every book or manuscript placed with clients has undergone full collation, handwriting authentication, fair market pricing, and scholarly research on its cultural value. In the event that damage happens in transit or a mistake has occurred, we encourage our clients to reach out immediately so we can work with them to make it right.

  • Shipping and Insurance

    All pieces purchased from Marginalia Rare Books will be carefully and professionally packed for safe transit. Standard domestic shipping is USPS Priority with signature and is complimentary. Items will typically be sent within a week of purchase. For shipments that are international, expedited, oversized or require alternative carriers, charges may apply. In the event that damage occurs in transit, we request that clients photograph the package and the piece so we can assess the next steps. All materials are covered by our insurance, and we extend our promise that in the unlikely event of loss or accident, we will be there to make things right.

  • Fiscal Years and Purchase Orders

    We understand that offers and lists may not always arrive at the ideal time in a fiscal year, or that purchase order delays may happen in certain seasons. For us, these are not necessarily deterrents in placing the right piece with the right collection. In the event you need us to delay or divide invoices, work with multiple departments’ or endowment budgets, or otherwise customize the acquisitions experience for you, please don’t hesitate to let us know.

Credit Library of Congress LOC MS 210 (Book of Hours)

Our Merfolk   

Mythologies surrounding mermaids connect in meaningful ways with the identity and mission of Marginalia Rare Books.  Particularly during the 18th century, mermaids were considered harbingers of storms – reminders to men at sea of their inability to dominate nature. With an ability to read natural forces rather than a desire to control them, mermaids would emerge from the water during storms’ approach to sit along rocky coastlines, combing their hair and watching the precarity of the vessels navigating between water and rock.  Mermaids carried an undeniable sense of ‘otherness’ for sailors. Sitting in a liminal space between earth and sea, they were femme and queer and unashamed of displaying their unique beauty.  Hybrid in their humanness, not of any one racial group, and with gender identities not related to specific physical genitalia, mermaids represent a range of groups that such men have attempted to marginalize or dominate.  Yet no one past or present has managed to diminish the mermaid’s symbolic power. Nor have they silenced the groups that see themselves reflected back in the mermaid’s mirror.

Mermaid figures combing their hair and admiring themselves in mirrors are of special interest to us at Marginalia. We invite the public to send us images to us of those pre-1900 examples of mermaids-with-mirrors along with the stories of where they encountered them. And we invite submissions at Books to Sell of early books and manuscripts depicting these figures.

FAQs

  • Marginalia denotes hand-made marks left in the margins or blank edges, of a page in a printed book or written manuscript. These signs of use are evidence of how past people interacted with a text — whether they left thoughtful annotations, sketches and doodles, or even unrelated notes and to-do lists as they went about their daily lives. At Marginalia Rare Books we value these physical reminders of the past, and we seek them out in the books we buy and sell. We also value and focus on communities who have been traditionally treated as “marginal” or “marginalized” — communities pushed to the side by mainstream groups in power. Our name is a constant reminder of where we tend to find the most exciting and vivid aspects of history.

  • The hunt for good books is constant and daily! While we’re always keeping an eye out wherever we are, the most significant places where we source books are during scouting trips to colleagues in different cities and during book fairs. Leaving our home base and being out in the world with other book people opens up new possibilities for finding new material or thinking about new ways of seeing, researching, and describing that material. We also rely on the goodwill of our fellow booksellers and the public to offer us relevant material when they find it. For more on selling books, click here.

  • While we would never disclose the names of the people and organizations who purchase from us (we always respect your privacy!), the majority of our inventory is placed with library and museum special collections. Supporting the work of librarians is one of the most rewarding aspects of our job. In addition, we often collaborate with donors to these collections, or with collectors who have identified these communities and their works are their area of focus.

  • Absolutely! As we work on building our website and while we wait to list our inventory online, we invite you to reach out with want-lists of books you’re seeking or areas of interest. If we have something currently in inventory, we can share information with you; similarly we can reach out if and when such an item comes across our desks. In the event the piece is outside of our scope or you have more immediate need, we can also source material on your behalf (for more on sourcing, click through here).

  • If you have a book that meets some of the criteria listed on our Books to Sell page, we welcome you to reach out with basic information. Our purchasing is fairly narrow given that we are subject specialists; but in the event your books aren’t a fit for us, we will do our best to refer you on to one of our brilliant colleagues at another shop.

  • Marginalia Rare Books does not maintain a location that is open to the public. The majority of our work is conducted through private offers and quotes via email, Zoom, and phone. On occasion, we do travel out to our clients to show or hand-deliver materials.

  • We are indeed! You can find us on Instagram at @marginaliararebooks or on LinkedIn.

  • To better navigate rare book condition descriptions or understand a rare book in your hand, we recommend the fantastic glossary put together by the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America (ABAA) which you can locate here.

  • Once you start connecting with the community, you’ll be amazed at how many opportunities there really are for connecting. Book fairs, often hosted by organizations such as the ABAA (Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America) or Rare Books LA, bring together a range of dealers from around the world in addition to librarians and collectors. There are often talks and workshops associated with the book fairs, as well as the main purpose of browsing booths. There are also a range of bibliophilic clubs including the Zamorano Club in California, the Caxton Club in Illinois, and the Grolier Club in New York. These groups often maintain a club house or hold monthly meetings to bring book lovers together.

  • As a small and very subject-focused shop, we have no plans to hire a staff. That said, we do occasionally have need for talented contractors to assist us with short term projects. In the event we are searching for assistance, we will list that on our website as well as putting out a call via rare book listservs.

  • These books and manuscripts have lived long lives — often longer than our own! The keys to maintaining them are to avoid extremes:

    • If the temperature is comfortable for you, it likely is for the books.

    • Avoid exposure to harsh, direct sunlight.

    • Avoid exposure to water or extreme moisture.

    • Handle with clean, dry hands and not gloves (for more on that, consult the Smithsonian’s article No Love for White Gloves, or: The White Cotton Menace).

    • Open to a roughly 90 degree angle to protect tender and vulnerable joints and hinges.

    • Pull books from the center of the spine and not from the delicate top (crown) of the spine.

    • Keep books straight and upright or lying flat, and work to prevent leaning that can damage them.

  • The answer is both “yes” and “no.”

    • In the event that you are seriously seeking a book for your library or collection, are considering something in our inventory, or are collaborating with us on growing the collection and its area, our specialist is available to work with you.

    • In the event that you have curiosity about rare books as an idea or rare books that you have simply found in the wild, we regret that we cannot assist. As a small company, we do not have the resources and are unable to provide research services to gratify general curiosity.

    • Other members of the rare book community are the deepest resource available to you. Booksellers come from such a range of backgrounds and hold knowledge in such diverse topics that talking with them at book fairs and other events can help you identify subject areas that fascinate you, people whom you can trust to locate and describe books for you, and the budgetary limits in which you need to operate.

    • Training programs are available for those who are seeking more formal jumpstarting. To that end we fully recommend CABS-Minnesota, which often has a range of scholarships available for their summer program. The ABAA (Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America) also has mentorship and training programs.

    • On a more general level, really think about what excites you about books and why. Whether you are collecting or selling, you will spend a vast amount of your mental energy and time thinking about the area you choose; it should be something that fulfills you and is personal, rather than guided by someone else’s notion of what counts as valuable or important.