The Book-Collector A General Survey of the Pursuit and of those who have engaged in it at Home and Abroad from the Earliest Period to the Present Time

Foundations of bibliography--Commencement of advertising books through catalogues and lists at end of other publications--Classes of literature principally in demand--Origin of...

Transmission of ancient remains--The unique fragment and unique book--Importance of the former--The St. Alban's Grammar-School find--A more recent one or two--Mr. Neal's volume-...

The plan--The writer's practical career--Deficiency of a general knowledge of the subject--The Printed Book and the Manuscript independent branches of study--The rich and the po...

Materials on which books are printed--Early popular works printed on vellum--The _edition de luxe_ again--Binding of books--Earliest method and style--Printers who were also bin...

Aids to the formation of a library: (i.) Personal observation; (ii.) Works of reference--Rarity of taste and judgment--Dependence of some booksellers on want of knowledge in the...

Fluctuations in the value of books--The prices of books comparative--Low prices adverse to the sale of books in certain cases--Great difficulty in arriving at the market-price o...

The safest course--Consideration of the relative value and interest of books in libraries--The intrinsic and extrinsic aspects--Consolation for the less wealthy buyer--The best...

Voyages and travels--Their strong American interest--Maryland and Pennsylvania--New Plymouth--Sir John Mandeville--Columbus and Vespucci--Early medical literature--Harvey and th...

The extrinsic features in books--Autographs--Inscriptions--Various classes of them and of interest in their subject-matter--The Henry VIII. _Prayer-Book_ of 1544--Some account o...

The Modern Side--Words of advice--The place and functions of Free Libraries--Coleridge and Byron period--Unhealthy state of the market--The Dickens and Thackeray movement--Fashi...

Early English literature--Absorption of the rarer items by public libraries or by America--Future of collecting--Poetical writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries--Fru...

English and other national binders--Anonymous bindings--List of binders--The Scotish School--Mr. Quaritch out-bidden--The vellum copy of Boece's _Chronicles of Scotland_--Most f...

Our failure to realise the requirements of Illustrated Books--The French School--La Fontaine's _Contes et Nouvelles_, 1762--Imperfect conception of what constitutes a thoroughly...

Spoliation of public libraries in past times--Denouncers of the robbers of books--Schedule of public libraries in the United Kingdom--View of the chief features of some of these...

The Huth Library--Special familiarity of the writer with it--Seven influential collectors of our time--The great dispersions of old-established libraries--Althorp--Ashburnham--J...

Classification of collections--Origin of the taste for books--Schedule of topics or branches of inquiry--Each separately considered and the authorities cited--Ancient typography...