[en] Using objective-prism plates taken with the 44-arcmin objective prism mounted on the UK Schmidt telescope, 53 emission-line quasar candidates and 29 ultraviolet-excess objects (possible low-redshift quasars) have been found in a 5 x 5 degree² field in the Virgo cluster of galaxies. Eighteen of these 82 candidates were observed using the double spectrograph on the Palomar 5-metre telescope; 13 of the observed objects proved to be quasars. The broad-absorption-line QSO Q1232 + 134 is the first example of the class to show broad low-ionization absorption lines in addition to the usual high-excitation lines. Although no conclusive evidence is found for quasar-galaxy associations in this field, there do exist non-uniformities in the distribution of the quasar candidates, which may merit further investigation. (author)