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pubOne.info thank you for your continued support and wish to present you this new edition. The pages in this volume on illuminated and other MSS. (with the exception of some anecdotes about Bussy Rabutin and Julie de Rambouillet) have been contributed by the Rev. W. J. Loftie, who has also written on early printed books (pp. 94-95). The pages on the Biblioklept (pp. 46-56) are reprinted, with the Editor's kind permission, from the Saturday Review; and a few remarks on the moral lessons of bookstalls are taken from an essay in the same journal.

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Publié par	Pub One Info
Date de parution	23 octobre 2010
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9782819912422
Langue	English

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PREFATORY NOTE
The pages in this volume on illuminated and otherMSS. (with the exception of some anecdotes about Bussy Rabutin andJulie de Rambouillet) have been contributed by the Rev. W. J.Loftie, who has also written on early printed books (pp. 94-95).The pages on the Biblioklept (pp. 46-56) are reprinted, with theEditor's kind permission, from the Saturday Review; and a fewremarks on the moral lessons of bookstalls are taken from an essayin the same journal.
Mr. Ingram Bywater, Fellow of Exeter College, andlately sub- Librarian of the Bodleian, has very kindly read throughthe proofs of chapters I., II., and III., and suggested somealterations.
Thanks are also due to Mr. T. R. Buchanan, Fellow ofAll Souls College, for two plates from his "Book-bindings in AllSouls Library" (printed for private circulation), which he has beengood enough to lend me. The plates are beautifully drawn andcoloured by Dr. J. J. Wild. Messrs. George Bell & Sons, Messrs.Bradbury, Agnew, & Co., and Messrs. Chatto & Windus, mustbe thanked for the use of some of the woodcuts which illustrate theconcluding chapter. A. L.
AN APOLOGY FOR THE BOOK-HUNTER
"All men," says Dr. Dibdin, "like to be their ownlibrarians." A writer on the library has no business to lay downthe law as to the books that even the most inexperienced amateursshould try to collect. There are books which no lover of literaturecan afford to be without; classics, ancient and modern, on whichthe world has pronounced its verdict. These works, in whatevershape we may be able to possess them, are the necessary foundationsof even the smallest collections. Homer, Dante and MiltonShakespeare and Sophocles, Aristophanes and Moliere, Thucydides,Tacitus, and Gibbon, Swift and Scott, - these every lover ofletters will desire to possess in the original languages or intranslations. The list of such classics is short indeed, and whenwe go beyond it, the tastes of men begin to differ very widely. Anassortment of broadsheet ballads and scrap-books, bought inboyhood, was the nucleus of Scott's library, rich in the works ofpoets and magicians, of alchemists, and anecdotists. A childishliking for coloured prints of stage characters, may be the germ ofa theatrical collection like those of Douce, and Malone, andCousin. People who are studying any past period of human history,or any old phase or expression of human genius, will eagerlycollect little contemporary volumes which seem trash to otheramateurs. For example, to a student of Moliere, it is a happychance to come across "La Carte du Royaume des Pretieuses" - (Themap of the kingdom of the "Precieuses") - written the year beforethe comedian brought out his famous play "Les PrecieusesRidicules." This geographical tract appeared in the very "Recueildes Pieces Choisies," whose authors Magdelon, in the play, wasexpecting to entertain, when Mascarille made his appearance. Thereis a faculty which Horace Walpole named "serendipity," - the luckof falling on just the literary document which one wants at themoment. All collectors of out of the way books know the pleasure ofthe exercise of serendipity, but they enjoy it in different ways.One man will go home hugging a volume of sermons, another with abulky collection of catalogues, which would have distended thepockets even of the wide great-coat made for the purpose, thatCharles Nodier used to wear when he went a book-hunting. Others arecaptivated by black letter, others by the plays of such obscuritiesas Nabbes and Glapthorne. But however various the tastes ofcollectors of books, they are all agreed on one point, - the loveof printed paper. Even an Elzevir man can sympathise with CharlesLamb's attachment to "that folio Beaumont and Fletcher which hedragged home late at night from Barker's in Covent Garden." But itis another thing when Lamb says, "I do not care for a first folioof Shakespeare." A bibliophile who could say this could sayanything.
No, there are, in every period of taste, bookswhich, apart from their literary value, all collectors admit topossess, if not for themselves, then for others of the brotherhood,a peculiar preciousness. These books are esteemed for curiosity,for beauty of type, paper, binding, and illustrations, for someconnection they may have with famous people of the past, or fortheir rarity. It is about these books, the method of preservingthem, their enemies, the places in which to hunt for them, that thefollowing pages are to treat. It is a subject more closelyconnected with the taste for curiosities than with art, strictly socalled. We are to be occupied, not so much with literature as withbooks, not so much with criticism as with bibliography, the quaintduenna of literature, a study apparently dry, but not without itshumours. And here an apology must be made for the frequentallusions and anecdotes derived from French writers. These are asunavoidable, almost, as the use of French terms of the sport intennis and in fencing. In bibliography, in the care for books ASbooks, the French are still the teachers of Europe, as they were intennis and are in fencing. Thus, Richard de Bury, Chancellor ofEdward III., writes in his "Philobiblon:" "Oh God of Gods in Zion!what a rushing river of joy gladdens my heart as often as I have achance of going to Paris! There the days seem always short; thereare the goodly collections on the delicate fragrant book-shelves."Since Dante wrote of -
"L'onor di quell' arte Ch' allumare e chiamata inParisi,"
"the art that is called illuminating in Paris," andall the other arts of writing, printing, binding books, have beenmost skilfully practised by France. She improved on the lessonsgiven by Germany and Italy in these crafts. Twenty books aboutbooks are written in Paris for one that is published in England. Inour country Dibdin is out of date (the second edition of his"Bibliomania" was published in 1811), and Mr. Hill Burton'shumorous "Book-hunter" is out of print. Meanwhile, in France,writers grave and gay, from the gigantic industry of Brunet toNodier's quaint fancy, and Janin's wit, and the always entertainingbibliophile Jacob (Paul Lacroix), have written, or are writing, onbooks, manuscripts, engravings, editions, and bindings. In England,therefore, rare French books are eagerly sought, and may be foundin all the booksellers' catalogues. On the continent there is nosuch care for our curious or beautiful editions, old or new. Here ahint may be given to the collector. If he "picks up" a rare Frenchbook, at a low price, he would act prudently in having it bound inFrance by a good craftsman. Its value, when "the wicked day ofdestiny" comes, and the collection is broken up, will thus be madesecure. For the French do not suffer our English bindings gladly;while we have no narrow prejudice against the works of Lortic andCape, but the reverse. For these reasons then, and also becauseevery writer is obliged to make the closest acquaintance with booksin the direction where his own studies lie, the writings of Frenchauthorities are frequently cited in the following pages.
This apology must be followed by a brief defence ofthe taste and passion of book-collecting, and of the class of menknown invidiously as book-worms and book-hunters. They and theirsimple pleasures are the butts of a cheap and shrewish set ofcritics, who cannot endure in others a taste which is absent inthemselves. Important new books have actually been condemned oflate years because they were printed on good paper, and a valuablehistorical treatise was attacked by reviewers quite angrily becauseits outward array was not mean and forbidding. Of course, criticswho take this view of new books have no patience with persons whocare for "margins," and "condition," and early copies of old books.We cannot hope to convert the adversary, but it is not necessary tobe disturbed by his clamour. People are happier for the possessionof a taste as long as they possess it, and it does not, like thedemons of Scripture, possess them. The wise collector getsinstruction and pleasure from his pursuit, and it may well be that,in the long run, he and his family do not lose money. The amusementmay chance to prove a very fair investment.
As to this question of making money by collecting,Mr. Hill Burton speaks very distinctly in "The Book-hunter:" "Wheremoney is the object let a man speculate or become a miser. . . Letnot the collector ever, unless in some urgent and necessarycircumstances, part with any of his treasures. Let him not evenhave recourse to that practice called barter, which politicalphilosophers tell us is the universal resource of mankindpreparatory to the invention of money. Let him confine all histransactions in the market to purchasing only. No good comes ofgentlemen-amateurs buying and selling." There is room fordifference of opinion here, but there seems to be most reason onthe side of Mr. Hill Burton. It is one thing for the collector tobe able to reflect that the money he expends on books is not lost,and that his family may find themselves richer, not poorer, becausehe indulged his taste. It is quite another thing to buy books as aspeculator buys shares, meaning to sell again at a profit as soonas occasion offers. It is necessary also to warn the beginneragainst indulging extravagant hopes. He must buy experience withhis books, and many of his first purchases are likely to disappointhim. He will pay dearly for the wrong "Caesar" of 1635, the oneWITHOUT errors in pagination; and this is only a common example ofthe beginner's blunders. Collecting is like other forms of sport;the aim is not certain at first, the amateur is nervous, and, as inangling, is apt to "strike" (a bargain) too hurriedly.
I often think that the pleasure of collecting islike that of sport. People talk of "book-hunting," and the oldLatin motto says that "one never wearies of the chase in thisforest." But the analogy to angling seems even stronger. Acollector walks in the London or Paris streets, as he do