First Impressions. Bibliography: Analyzing the Book as Object.
Bibliotheca Hispana sive Hispanorum…
Nicolás Antonio, 1617-1684. 2 vols. Rome: Angelus Tinassius, 1672.
These two volumes represent the first part of a four-volume bibliography of Spanish literature, described by Breslauer and Folter as “not only the biggest but also the best national bibliography published prior to the eighteenth century.” Covering over 6500 Spanish writers after 1500, it includes numerous indexes as well as special sections on women writers and writers from the Spanish colonies.
The engraved frontispiece by Italian artist Teresa del Pò (1649–1716) shows an allegorical figure of Spain receiving Antonio’s book from Minerva, the goddess of wisdom.
Purchased in 2009 with Grolier Club Library Harper Funds.
Honchō shojaku mokuroku=Great catalogue compendium of our country's books.
[Kyoto]: Nagao Heibē, Kanbun 11 [1671].
This modest volume is the first edition of the first printed bibliography of early Japanese books, which remained a principal guide to the subject for five centuries. This catalogue concentrates on Japanese books only (as distinct from the Chinese classics commonly found as part of the Japanese literary canon) and is divided into two parts.
The first part consists of the text—printed here for the first time- of Honcho shojaku mokuroku (or Ninnaji shojaku mokuroku) which describes 493 Japanese books, most of which are no longer extant, divided into 20 categories (religious events, chronicles of the emperors, official events, family trees of royalty and nobility, geography, literature (poetry and prose), medicine, biographies, etc.), which represents the first attempt to categorize Japanese books by subject matter. The second part is an addendum updating the first part with newer publications. In both parts, for each book, the anonymous author (probably Heibe Nagao, the publisher) provides title, author, number of volumes, and, in many cases, a short description of contents.
Purchased in 2018 with Grolier Club Library Harper Funds.
Bibliotheca Hebraea ...
Johann Christoph Wolf, 1683-1739. 4 vols. Hamburg & Leipzig: Christian Liebezeit, 1715-1733.
This early bibliography of Hebrew books has remained an indispensable work of reference since it was first published. It lists approximately 10,000 titles in four volumes, organized by author and subject. Wolf was professor of oriental languages at the Hamburg gymnasium, where he had access to the great Oppenheim collection of Jewish literature (now at the Bodleian). He bequeathed his own large library, rich in Hebrew manuscripts, to the city of Hamburg. The frontispiece engraving of an imaginary library is overlooked by a bust of Moses holding the Ten Commandments.
Purchased in 2005 at the Breslauer sale with Grolier Club Library Harper Funds, generously supported by Grolier Club member donations.
Musæum typographicum …
Guillaume-François De Bure, 1731-1782. [Paris, 1755].
This slim volume, printed in an edition of just twelve copies, is one of the most elusive rarities in bibliographical literature. Compiled by French scholar-bookseller Guillaume-François De Bure, the Musæum typographicum lists 510 rare books printed between 1457 and 1737, including the Mainz Psalter and the 1462 Bible. It may have been a highly exclusive bookseller’s catalogue or a forerunner to the author’s influential bibliography of rare books, the Bibliographie instructive (1763-1768). It appeared at a time when the definition of bibliographic ‘rarity’ was being hotly debated among academics, booksellers, and librarians.
The manuscript copy of this work, shown above, was used by De Bure as an exemplar for the printed version.
Purchased in 2005 at the Breslauer sale with Grolier Club Library Harper Funds, generously supported by Grolier Club member donations.
Bibliotheca rarissima, seu, Collectio amplissima in qua omnium fere librorum in quavis facultate ac linguâ rariorum rarissimorumque ab artis inventae origine ad annum presentem ...
Guillaume-François De Bure, 1731-1782. Paris, 1750.
Autograph manuscript of Guillaume-François De Bure’s bibliographic rarity, the Musaeum typographicum (1755). The manuscript was written five years before the printed work, and a comparison between the two reveals many differences, both in the contents and length of entries.
A second manuscript copy was also made, which De Bure gave to his friend and fellow bibliophile, Louis Jean Gaignat (1697-1768). The Grolier Club copy remained in the author’s possession to serve as an exemplar for the printed edition.
Purchased in 2011 with the generous support of the Bernard H.Breslauer Foundation.
Jacques-Charles Brunet Manuel du libraire collection.
1810-1895.
One of the Grolier Club’s most important recent acquisitions was an extensive archive documenting the development of Jacques-Charles Brunet’s Manuel du libraire et de l'amateur des livres, perhaps the most influential bibliographical reference tool of the 19th century. It remains an essential guide for scholars, librarians and collectors to this day, and is constantly cited. The Manuel du libraire is a landmark, not only in the history of bibliography broadly speaking, but also in the history of book collecting, charting as it does, over five editions and more than fifty years, the evolution of the rare book market, and the parallel development of bibliophile taste, into something like their modern forms. The archive records that evolution through heavily annotated sets of the fourth and fifth editions, an autograph draft of the “Table” or index for the sixth edition; along with six boxes of manuscript contracts, woodcut illustration proofs, and correspondence concerning the final editions of the Manuel.
Purchased in 2019 through the Grolier Club’s Mary Young Fund.