A Catalogue of the Library of the Late John, Duke of Roxburghe: Arranged By G. And W. Nicol, Booksellers To His Majesty, Pall-Mall - Couverture souple

Evans, Robert Harding

 
9781108065832: A Catalogue of the Library of the Late John, Duke of Roxburghe: Arranged By G. And W. Nicol, Booksellers To His Majesty, Pall-Mall

Synopsis

Reissued here together, the 1812 sale catalogue and supplement for a significant bibliographical auction, with handwritten price and purchaser annotations.

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Présentation de l'éditeur

The dispersal in 1812 of the library of John Ker, Duke of Roxburghe (1740–1804) was the bibliographical event of the decade and a key moment in 'bibliomania'. The huge collection contained illuminated medieval manuscripts, incunabula, fifteen books printed by Caxton, and all four Shakespeare folios. The sale, orchestrated by the bookseller and auctioneer Robert Harding Evans (1777–1857), attracted the greatest book collectors and dealers of the day, setting new records. For the first time in British auction history a single book fetched more than £1,000, while the Valdarfer Boccaccio, the first edition of the Decameron, sold for £2,260. Reported in The Times, the sale immediately gained mythological status. Reissued together here are the printed catalogue and its supplement, both annotated by an attendee at the auction who recorded the name of every buyer and the price paid for each book. Ed Potten, Head of Rare Books at Cambridge University Library, has provided a new introduction that places the catalogue in its wider context.

Les informations fournies dans la section « A propos du livre » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.