The mid-nineteenth century brought a revolution in popular and scholarly understandings of old and second-hand books. Manuals introduced new ideas and practices to increasing numbers of collectors, exhibitions offered opportunities previously unheard of, and scholars worked together to transform how the history of printing was understood. These dramatic changes would have profound consequences for bibliographical study and collecting, accompanied as they were by a proliferation in means of access. Many ideas arising during this time would even continue to exert their influence in the digitised arena of today. This book traces this revolution to its roots in commercial and personal ties between key players in England, France and beyond, illuminating how exhibitions, libraries, booksellers, scholars and popular writers all contributed to the modern world of book studies. For students and researchers, it offers an invaluable means of orientation in a field now once again undergoing deep and wide-ranging transformations.
The mid-nineteenth century brought a revolution in popular and scholarly understandings of old and second-hand books. Manuals introduced new ideas and practices to increasing numbers of collectors, exhibitions offered opportunities previously unheard of, and scholars worked together to transform how the history of printing was understood. These dramatic changes would have profound consequences for bibliographical study and collecting, accompanied as they were by a proliferation in means of access. Many ideas arising during this time would even continue to exert their influence in the digitised arena of today. This book traces this revolution to its roots in commercial and personal ties between key players in England, France and beyond, illuminating how exhibitions, libraries, booksellers, scholars and popular writers all contributed to the modern world of book studies. For students and researchers, it offers an invaluable means of orientation in a field now once again undergoing deep and wide-ranging transformations.
1. Introduction; 2. Re-shaping the world; 3. Books in abundance; 4. Celebrating print: Libraries; 5. Access: National Collections; 6. The British Museum Commission, 1847-50; 7. Libraries in confusion; 8. Collaboration: Trading and Collecting; 9. The trade in second-hand books; 10. Private collectors and the public: Books in Detail; 11. Writing in books; 12. Bookbinding: Books on Show; 13. Reproduction; 14. Exhibitions: Another Generation; 15. Changes in direction; 16. Advice and guidance; 17. Standing back; 18. The next generation; Conclusion; 19. Then and now.
This book traces a revolution in values that transformed nineteenth-century attitudes to second-hand books, bibliography and collecting.
David McKitterick is Emeritus Honorary Professor of Historical Bibliography at the University of Cambridge. He is the general editor of The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain Volume VI: 1830-1914 (Cambridge University Press, 2009). His most recent monograph, based on the Panizzi lectures delivered at the British Library, is The Invention of Rare Books (Cambridge University Press, 2018).
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