Bøger i Cambridge Library Collection - History of Printing, Publishing and Libraries serien

This 1902 book, originally intended for private circulation, is a memoir of George Smith (1824-1901), founder, proprietor and publisher of The Cornhill Magazine and later the Dictionary of National Biography. The small volume, compiled by Smith's wife, consists of a memoir of Smith by Sidney Lee, followed by four short autobiographical pieces that Smith wrote for The Cornhill. He recalls his years at the publishing house of Smith, Elder and Co.; his encounters with Charlotte Bronte, who stayed with the Smiths in London; his idea of founding a magazine; and the 'lawful pleasures' of court cases for libel. The final item is Sir Leslie Stephen's obituary of Smith, first published in The Cornhill. The book, illustrated with two portraits of Smith, and a photograph of his memorial tablet in St Paul's Cathedral, provides an engaging portrait of a significant Victorian publisher and man of letters.

The French bookseller, publisher and printer Paul Delalain (1840-1924) was the author of several studies on the history of the book and of the printing press, including L'imprimerie et la librairie a Paris de 1789 a 1813 (1899) and Les libraires et imprimeurs de l'Academie francaise de 1634 a 1793 (1907). First published in 1891, this book contains the French translation of Volumes 1 and 2 of the Latin Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis. These records of statutes and regulations, originating from the University of Paris between 1200-86 and 1286-1350 respectively, detail the conditions under which booksellers and stationers were allowed to practise their trade, and give intriguing glimpses of the people involved, including Englishmen and Scots. Delalain's introduction to these documents studies the status of Parisian booksellers in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, shedding light on such points as the difference between a libraire and a stationnaire.

Published in 1896 at the peak of his career, this work by Walter Crane (1845-1915) was developed from a series of lectures given to the Society of Arts in 1889. Although chiefly remembered as an illustrator of books for children, Crane was a versatile and knowledgeable artist and designer. His practical experience with book illustration and printing methods gives this text the weight of considerable authority. A prominent figure in the Arts and Crafts movement alongside William Morris, he demonstrates here his understanding of historical techniques of illustration since the medieval period. Drawing parallels across the ages, Crane notes in particular how Arts and Crafts aesthetics influenced book illustration in the late Victorian era. Featuring copious reproductions of illustrations ranging in date, style, technique and sophistication, this work reflects Crane's artistic ethos through the exploration of many examples of exquisite craftsmanship.

The library of the literary scholar Richard Farmer (1735-97) was first and foremost a working reference collection, the books acquired not as treasures, but to be read and appreciated. Farmer's library included all four Shakespeare folios and was remarkable for its Elizabethan literature and black letter, which provided the source material for his scholarly work. Notable acquaintances such as Samuel Johnson, George Steevens, Edmond Malone and Isaac Reed all benefitted from Farmer's knowledge, and Thomas Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry drew directly on the library itself. In 1798, Farmer's books were sold at an auction attended by many of the next generation's greatest book collectors. Reissued here is a copy of the catalogue featuring handwritten annotations by an anonymous attendee who recorded the prices paid and the names of many buyers, uniquely capturing the dispersal of one of the eighteenth century's great libraries.

The dispersal of the library amassed by George Spencer-Churchill (1766-1840), Marquess of Blandford and later fifth Duke of Marlborough, is most commonly cited today as a preservative against folly. The collection contained some of the most sought-after incunabula of a period defined by the high prices paid for early printed books. It included a fine selection of Caxtons, spectacular botanical and emblem books, and the iconic Valdarfer Boccaccio - the first edition of the Decameron, purchased by Blandford in 1812 for the unprecedented sum of GBP2,260. The Boccaccio was symptomatic of the profligate expenditure of its buyer. By 1819 his spendthrift ways had ruined him, leading to the sale of his opulent estate at Whiteknights, near Reading, and the dispersal of one of the key libraries in the era of bibliomania. Reissued here together are the two parts of the auction catalogue, both annotated by an auction attendee who recorded details of the purchasers and the prices paid. Ed Potten, Head of Rare Books at Cambridge University Library, has provided a new introduction that places the catalogue in its wider context.

The library of the chandler John Ratcliffe (1707-76) was amassed before the onset of 'bibliomania', and perfectly illustrates the last days of a period of book collecting when scholars and commoners could hope to compete with wealthy noblemen. The collection contained over a hundred incunabula, including forty-eight Caxtons, and a fine selection of sixteenth-century English books, alongside contemporary literature and Presbyterian tracts. Many of Ratcliffe's incunabula had been purchased from James West, others from Anthony Askew. In turn, his books were acquired by a circle of his contemporaries, including William Herbert, Charles Chauncy and William Hunter. However, the purchase of some of the finest books by the aristocratic Justin MacCarthy Reagh provided a hint of what was to come. Reissued here is James Christie's 1776 sale catalogue, featuring handwritten annotations by an attendee at the auction who recorded the prices paid and the names of buyers.

The library of the physician Anthony Askew (1722-72) was outstanding in both printed books and manuscripts. He may have failed in his ambition to secure a complete collection of every printed edition of the Greek classics, but he did amass a classical library which remained unsurpassed until Spencer. Although he was later accused of plagiarism, virtually every edition of Aeschylus down to the 1850s cited 'Askew's collations'. He also secured Richard Mead's fine collection of Latin and Greek manuscripts, alongside other early classical codices from the Maffei library. The dispersal of Askew's collection in two sales, ten years apart, attracted international interest. Bidders at the 1775 book sale included George III, while the manuscript sale in 1785 led to acquisitions by the British Museum, the Bodleian and Cambridge University Library. Now reissued together, the sale catalogues have been annotated here by auction attendees who recorded prices and some purchaser details.

Philippe Renouard (1862-1934) published this biographical directory of members of the Parisian book trade from the introduction of printing in 1470 until the sixteenth century in 1898. It replaced the only other existing catalogue, by Augustin-Martin Lottin, published more than a century earlier. Renouard corrected many of the errors in Lottin's catalogue and filled in gaps in information, extending his directory to include names and addresses of booksellers and printers, and the dates during which they were active, and family genealogies. The book also includes a map of the university quarter and city of Paris marked with the locations of former publishing houses. It remained the authoritative source on the topic until the 1960s, when the Bibliotheque Nationale published a newly revised and enlarged version.

A prolific author and bibliographer, Henry Benjamin Wheatley (1838-1917) wrote or edited dozens of works during a distinguished literary career. First published in 1898 as the fourth volume in Richard Garnett's 'Library Series', Prices of Books traces the market value of books in England from the seventeenth century to the late nineteenth century. Wheatley recounts the history of booksellers, and manuscript and book pricing in England, providing detailed analyses of significant auction sales over three centuries. He also devotes chapters to the pricing history of Shakespeare's works and other notable English publications. Serving as a fascinating micro-history of England's reading and book-collecting habits, this work will appeal to those interested in antiquarian culture and the history of the book. Several other works by Wheatley are also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection, including the delightful Literary Blunders (1893).

M. R. James (1862-1936), best remembered today for his ghost stories, was Provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905-1918) and of Eton College (1918-1936). In these memoirs, he tells the story of the times he spent at the two prestigious institutions, providing a vibrant account of the people and experiences that characterised them. Beginning with his first impressions of Eton as a boy, he lends a unique insight into the school, moving on to recount with affection his scholarly and teaching careers in both these 'royal and religious foundations'. Ghosts and games, choirs and Christmases, and dramas and dons are all recalled in vivid detail, creating a colourful picture of academic life during the early twentieth century and the First World War. Anecdotal, touching and often humorous, James' recollections reveal his role in both intellectual and social life at these famous institutions, and his dedication and allegiance to them.

Reissued in its first edition of 1834, this catalogue gives a valuable insight into bibliographical activity in early nineteenth-century Britain. It is the work of the former bookseller John Martin (1791-1855), an antiquary who would later become librarian to the Duke of Bedford at Woburn Abbey. Martin's aim was to assemble a catalogue of books which were never intended for the open market, circulating only among the 'friends and connexions' of those who produced them. Spanning more than two centuries of small-scale British publishing, the resulting work is an extraordinarily eclectic resource, enlivened throughout by an eye for curious detail. The latter portion of the work documents the books, bills and pamphlets which emerged from the regional presses of Martin's own day, and records the early membership and output of the Roxburghe, Maitland and Bannatyne clubs, which would in time become the foremost bibliophilic societies of Victorian Britain.

Distinguished above all for his zeal for learning, Richard de Bury (1287-1345) was an influential figure during the reign of Edward III, becoming bishop of Durham and serving on several diplomatic missions abroad, during which time he accumulated many rare works. The Philobiblon is his passionate treatise on learning and book collecting. Lodging a complaint in the voice of books themselves, Richard expresses his frank views on the current state of learning and scholarly practice. This translation, the first such into English, was prepared anonymously in 1832 by the scholar and linguist John Bellingham Inglis (1780-1870). Unlike other book collectors, Inglis was noted for actually having read the books he acquired. The present work contains a brief preface discussing previous scholarship and editions of the text, and ends with extensive notes by Inglis on the original text and his editorial decisions.

The Baskerville Bible of 1763 is perhaps the most famous work published by Cambridge University Press, and Baskerville's own type punches are among its most treasured possessions. This short biography of John Baskerville (1706-75) was published in 1914 by Josiah Henry Benton (1843-1917), an American lawyer and author. Baskerville, born in Worcestershire, set up as a writing-master and letter-cutter in Birmingham, but later built up a business in 'japanning', the imitation of Japanese lacquer work, from which he made his fortune. He began working as a type-founder and printer around 1750, and made innovations not only in typefaces but also in paper, ink and printing machines. The quality of his books - not only the Bible, but also the Book of Common Prayer, an edition of Virgil, and Milton's Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, among others - made them collectors' items: Benton provides an appendix listing his own Baskerville books.

First published in 1880, this is a complete catalogue of the traders and products that featured in an exhibition at London's Agricultural Hall, 5-17 July 1880. The focus of the exhibition was printing, stationery, papermaking and related trades, and around 200 organisations participated, displaying items such as printing appliances, papermaking machinery, stationery materials, packaging, and precision instruments. The catalogue's editor, journalist Lucien Wolf (1857-1930), prefaces it with an informative overview of trade exhibitions, examining their history and future, and their role in bringing together producers, retailers, buyers, wholesalers and importers to assess competition, compare products and evaluate the state and progress of their trades. The main body of the catalogue contains information on exhibitors and their products, and a range of authentic advertisements. Providing a revealing snapshot of industrial England, this work remains of interest to historians and scholars interested in Victorian trade.

York Minster has the largest cathedral library in England. The original library was established in the eighth century, but nothing survives from this period. A new collection was begun in 1414 when John Newton left books to the Minster, and a new library was erected. Further bequests followed - including in 1628 the important collection of Tobie Matthew, archbishop of York - which reflect the religious controversies of the sixteenth century. Today the library contains some 120,000 items, of which more than 25,000 were printed before 1801. This catalogue, published in 1896, was compiled by James Raine (1830-96), chancellor of York Minster, a leading figure in the nineteenth-century restoration of the library. It contains an alphabetical list of most of the printed books that were then in the library, but does not include recent theological acquisitions or the bequest by Edward Hailstone (d.1890) of 10,000 items on Yorkshire.

Philip Luckombe (1730-1803), printer, author and shell-collector, published this work in 1771. (He had published a shorter version, A Concise History of the Origin and Progress of Printing, anonymously in the previous year.) Born in Exeter, he learned the printing trade there, and became a freeman of the city in 1776, but moved to London, where he wrote travelogues and several books on printing, edited dictionaries and encyclopaedias, and became an authority on shells. The first part of the book is concerned with the history of printing, including the various charters issued to the Stationers' Company, and the second with the practicalities of 'the art and mystery of printing' and 'the necessary materials used in a Printing House', including typefaces, presses and paper, and the duties of a warehouseman. This technical information continued to be used and quoted until the middle of the twentieth century.

Little is known about William Clarke, the author of this 1819 survey of libraries in Britain, though hints in the opening pages suggest that he was acquainted with the activities of the Roxburghe Club. His object is 'to assist ... the collector in his pursuit of valuable editions of rare books'. A short survey of the major libraries of Europe is followed by descriptions of the collections which make up the British Museum's library, the great 'public' libraries, including those of Oxford and Cambridge, and the libraries of learned societies. Private libraries covered include those of Sir Joseph Banks, William Beckford, and the duke of Marlborough. The final portion of the work describes the content of some great library sales (a fuller list of sales having been given earlier in the book), from the seventeenth century to Clarke's own time. This remains a useful source for bibliographers and those interested in the provenance of books.

This work, first published in 1774, consists of a reissue of the Dissertation on the Origin of Printing in England by Conyers Middleton (1683-1750), first published in 1735, together with an abridgement of an account of the origin of printing by the Dutch lawyer Gerard Meerman (1722-71). It was compiled by the scholar and publisher William Bowyer (1699-1777) and his apprentice and later business partner John Nichols (1745-1826), several of whose works are also published in this series. Both essays debate the origins of printing, disputing the traditional account that Gutenberg introduced it to Europe and Caxton to England. Appendices describe the progress of printing in Greek and Hebrew, and the first printed polyglot Bibles. The names and achievements of Gutenberg's contemporaries in Germany and the Low Countries are given their due in this interesting overview of the earliest period of printing in the West.

This two-volume account of the life and friendships of the publisher John Murray (1778-1843), told largely through his voluminous correspondence, was published in 1891 by Samuel Smiles (1812-1904), whose Lives of the Engineers, Self-Help, and other works are also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection. Murray was only fifteen when his father, the founder of the famous firm, died, but after a period of apprenticeship he took sole control of the business, becoming the friend as well as the publisher of a range of the most important writers of the first half of the nineteenth century, in both literature and science. Perhaps his most famous author was Lord Byron, whose memoir of his own life, considered unpublishable, was burned in the fireplace at Murray's office in Albemarle Street, London. Volume 1 commences with the beginnings of the firm in Scotland, and takes the story up to 1818.

Moritz Steinschneider (1816-1907) is regarded as one of the founding fathers of the study of modern Judaism, and his work is still relevant today. Steinschneider's studies encompassed traditional Jewish subjects as well as classical and Semitic languages and cultures. He belonged to a small group of scholars who changed the scope of Jewish learning from that of rabbinics to a broader view of Jewish civilisation. Steinschneider also sought to provide a complete and accurate record of printed publications of Hebraica and Judaica. In this 1878 publication, Steinschneider lists all the Hebrew manuscripts held in the Hamburg State Library. He divides the manuscripts into thirteen categories, including homiletics, prayers, the Kabbalah, and theology and philosophy. Also represented are poetry, rhetoric, mathematics and medicine. Steinschneider also comments on each manuscript and evaluates the significance of the Hamburg collection compared to other German library collections.

Edward Gordon Duff (1863-1924) was a bibliographer and librarian with a particular interest in early printed books. He was librarian of the John Rylands Library, Manchester, from 1893 to 1900, and Sandars Reader in Bibliography at Cambridge in 1899, 1904 and 1911. Alongside research and writing he also did freelance cataloguing. Duff's work set new standards of accuracy in bibliography, which he considered a science. This study of the early London book trade contains the text of Duff's 1899 Sandars Lectures. William Caxton began printing in England in 1476 at Westminster, but most printers and booksellers working in England at that time were foreigners. Duff covers Westminster and London printing separately, and devotes individual chapters to the related trades of bookselling and bookbinding, which were often carried out by the same person. This reissue also contains Duff's lecture English Printing on Vellum, delivered in 1900.

Edward Gordon Duff (1863-1924) was a bibliographer and librarian with a particular interest in early printed books. He was librarian of the John Rylands Library, Manchester, from 1893 to 1900, and Sandars Reader in Bibliography at Cambridge in 1899, 1904 and 1911. Alongside research and writing he also did freelance cataloguing. Duff's work set new standards of accuracy in bibliography, which he considered a science. Early Printed Books was published in 1893 as part of A. W. Pollard's series Books about Books, and became a standard work on the subject. Duff provides a concise and clear account of the development of printing and its spread from Germany across Europe, country by country, deliberately highlighting some of the less well known aspects of the subject. The book ends with chapters on bookbinding and on the collection and description of early printed books.

Henry Benjamin Wheatley (1838-1917) was a bibliographer and editor with a prodigious output of books and articles to his name. Brought up after the death of both his parents by his brother Benjamin Robert, himself a skilled bibliographer and cataloguer, Henry worked for many years for the Royal Society and the Royal Society of Arts; he was a founder member of the Library Association, and produced an edition of Pepys' diary which was not superseded until the 1970s. This work is one of two which he produced on the subject of indexing: the Wheatley Medal awarded by the Society of Indexers is named after him. This book sets out the rules and practicalities of indexing, and also contains examples of how not to make an index; it was for many years the text to which all professional indexers referred, and still makes fascinating reading today.

Born in London, Abraham Raimbach (1776-1843) was one of the most celebrated engravers of his time. Published in 1843, these memoirs recount his career and give expanded first-hand observations on contemporary artists and public figures. Included is an extensive account of his two months in Paris in 1802, including impressions of its people and food (on frog's legs: 'I did not much like the flavour'), together with details of the numerous works of art he viewed. He muses on the possible reasons for the higher social standing afforded to artists in France than in Britain, and seems concerned, as travellers are today, about how far his money will stretch whilst in France. Also included is a short biography of Raimbach's principal collaborator, the painter Sir David Wilkie, written by Raimbach's son. This memoir will be of interest to social and art historians of the early nineteenth century.

Henry Benjamin Wheatley (1838-1917) was a prolific writer on bibliography, literature and the arts. As founder of the Index Society, and editor of The Bibliographer, he was also involved in the foundation of the Library Association. In that context he wrote several works on library topics. How to Form a Library was published in 1886, when libraries were spreading rapidly throughout England. The book provides advice on the selection of material for different kinds of libraries and audiences, and suggests a list of core works. Although the choices reflect the period in which it was written - a point Wheatley makes about earlier lists - it nonetheless has a value in giving insight into the intellectual interests of the day. He was firmly against librarians acting as moral censors, and although his list of required reading is unlikely to be followed today, the book contains much valuable information on library history.

Henry Benjamin Wheatley (1838-1917) was a bibliographer and editor with a prodigious output of books and articles to his name. Brought up after the death of both his parents by his brother Benjamin Robert, himself a skilled bibliographer and cataloguer, Henry worked for many years for the Royal Society and the Royal Society of Arts; he was a founder member of the Library Association, and produced an edition of Pepys' diary which was not superseded until the 1970s. This 1879 work is one of two which he produced on the subject of indexing, and which led him to become known as 'the father of British indexing': the Wheatley Medal awarded by the Society of Indexers is named after him. This book shows the development of indexes, gives rules for their compilation and provides a bibliographical list of important indexes and concordances. It remains a fascinating introduction to the subject.

Margaret Oliphant (1828-1897) is best known as the author of nearly one hundred novels, but also wrote short stories and biographies. Closely connected with Blackwoods of Edinburgh from 1851, shortly before her death she was commissioned to write a history of the publishing firm by director William Blackwood, grandson of the founder. From small beginnings, the firm had rapidly become the leading Scottish publishing house, dominating the literary world, particularly through Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine and an impressive list of famous authors. These included Thomas de Quincey, Walter Scott, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The Magazine introduced the convention of having novels issued in serial form before publication as a book, which became standard practice for authors such as Dickens, Thackeray and Eliot. Volume 2 continues to 1861 and the death of the second William Blackwood, and includes landmarks such as the opening of a London branch, and George Eliot's first novels.

In 1809, Thomas Frognall Dibdin (1776-1847) published the first edition of Bibliomania, focussing on the contemporary craze for book collecting. Introduced in English at the end of the eighteenth century, the term 'bibliomania' - or 'book-madness' - gained popularity with the publication of Dibdin's book, in which bibliophiles conduct dialogues on the nature and history of book collecting, and the symptoms of and possible remedies for this 'fatal disease'. Published in 1832 under the pseudonym Mercurius Rusticus, Bibliophobia is a short pamphlet, which presents itself as a letter to the author of Bibliomania. The narrator, a book-lover himself, goes on a 'bibliopolistic pilgrimage', only to find out that 'bibliomania is no more', and that 'books are only the shadow of what they were'. From book-lovers to collectors, and from booksellers to libraries, the narrator carries out his entertaining yet melancholic investigation all the way to the Bodleian Library.

John Andrews Annett was the pseudonym of John Hannett, a printer and a pioneer in the study of modern and historical bookbinding methods. Bibliopegia, or the Art of Bookbinding, first published in 1835 and enlarged the following year, was frequently republished and revised, and remains an important work on the subject. The author claims that it is the first practical manual on bookbinding to be published in England, derived from his own professional expertise and from recent French works on the topic. He explains every aspect of the process, from the folding of the sheets of paper and sewing, to the final finishing. He also discusses the various tools and machines in use, and provides a glossary of technical terms. This book is still a very valuable one for bookbinders and conservators, providing information on dyes and chemicals used in the 1830s as well as sewing and binding techniques.

Philip Gaskell (1926-2001) acknowledges in his Preface that 'one period in the history of one college library may not seem much of a subject for a book', but, as his 1980 study shows, Trinity College Library has a history well worth investigating. Gaskell, a former Librarian and Fellow of Trinity College, details how this library grew from small beginnings in the mid-sixteenth century into arguably the greatest of all Oxford and Cambridge college libraries. He links the growth of the library to the intellectual life of the college at that time, outlining the achievements of a number of eminent Trinity men in advancing England's spiritual, intellectual and scientific development: Cartwright, Whitgift, Coke, Bacon, Essex, George Herbert, Ray, Barrow and Newton. This is a fascinating insight into the early history and accumulation of a college library now outstandingly rich both in contents and in setting.