An antiquarian is someone who studies, collects, or sells old and rare objects, especially books, manuscripts, maps, and historical documents. Think of an antiquarian as a detective of the past who treasures things that most people might overlook in an attic or old library.

An antiquarian bookseller runs a shop filled with centuries-old volumes, first editions, and manuscripts written by hand before printing presses became common. They know the stories inside these books and the stories of the books themselves: who owned them, how they were made, and why they matter to history. A serious antiquarian might spend years tracking down a rare 17th-century atlas or a letter written by Benjamin Franklin.

The word can also be used as an adjective. An antiquarian map is an old, collectible map that shows how people understood geography in earlier times. Antiquarian interests focus on the old and rare: a 50-year-old paperback novel isn't usually considered antiquarian, but a 300-year-old medical textbook definitely is.

Antiquarians differ from historians in an important way. While historians study the past to understand what happened and why, antiquarians love the actual objects from the past. They care about preserving these physical pieces of history and understanding their craftsmanship, rarity, and provenance (the record of who owned them over the years).