The Great Book-Collectors   By: Charles Isaac Elton (1839-1900)

By Charles Isaac Elton

Author of 'Origins of English History' 'The Career of Columbus,' etc.

& Mary Augusta Elton

[Illustration]

London

Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., Ltd.

MDCCCXCIII

Contents

PAGE

CHAPTER I. CLASSICAL 1

CHAPTER II. IRELAND NORTHUMBRIA 13

CHAPTER III. ENGLAND 27

CHAPTER IV. ITALY THE AGE OF PETRARCH 41

CHAPTER V. OXFORD DUKE HUMPHREY'S BOOKS THE LIBRARY OF THE VALOIS 53

CHAPTER VI. ITALY THE RENAISSANCE 63

CHAPTER VII. ITALIAN CITIES OLYMPIA MORATA URBINO THE BOOKS OF CORVINUS 76

CHAPTER VIII. GERMANY FLANDERS BURGUNDY ENGLAND 87

CHAPTER IX. FRANCE: EARLY BOOKMEN ROYAL COLLECTORS 99

CHAPTER X. THE OLD ROYAL LIBRARY FAIRFAX COTTON HARLEY THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE 111

CHAPTER XI. BODLEY DIGBY LAUD SELDEN ASHMOLE 124

CHAPTER XII. GROLIER AND HIS SUCCESSORS 139

CHAPTER XIII. LATER COLLECTORS: FRANCE ITALY SPAIN 158

CHAPTER XIV. DE THOU PINELLI PEIRESC 169

CHAPTER XV. FRENCH COLLECTORS NAUDÉ TO RENOUARD 183

CHAPTER XVI. LATER ENGLISH COLLECTORS 202

INDEX 221

List of Illustrations

PORTRAIT OF PEIRESC Frontispiece (From an engraving by Claude Mellan.)

INITIAL LETTER FROM THE 'GOSPELS OF ST. CUTHBERT' 18

SEAL OF RICHARD DE BURY 38

PORTRAIT OF THE DUKE OF BEDFORD PRAYING BEFORE ST. GEORGE 59 (From the Book of Hours commonly known as the 'Bedford Missal.')

PORTRAIT OF MAGLIABECCHI 74 (From an engraving in the British Museum.)

BINDING EXECUTED FOR QUEEN ELIZABETH 112 (English jeweller's work on a cover of red velvet. From a copy of 'Meditationum Christianarum Libellus,' Lyons, 1570, in the British Museum.)

PORTRAIT OF SIR ROBERT COTTON 117 (From an engraving by R. White after C. Jonson.)

PORTRAIT OF SIR THOMAS BODLEY 126 (From an engraving in the British Museum.)

BINDING EXECUTED FOR GROLIER 141 (From a copy of Silius Italicus, Venice, 1523, in the British Museum.)

PORTRAIT OF DE THOU 168 (From an engraving by Morin, after L. Ferdinand.)

CHAPTER I.

CLASSICAL.

In undertaking to write these few chapters on the lives of the book collectors, we feel that we must move between lines that seem somewhat narrow, having regard to the possible range of the subject. We shall therefore avoid as much as possible the description of particular books, and shall endeavour to deal with the book collector or book hunter, as distinguished from the owner of good books, from librarians and specialists, from the merchant or broker of books and the book glutton who wants all that he sees.