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P. B. M. Allan. The Book-Hunter at Home
The Book-Hunter at Home
Table of Contents
PREFACE
ILLUSTRATIONS
CHAPTER I
ADVENTURES AMONG BOOKS
FOOTNOTES:
CHAPTER II
THE LIBRARY
FOOTNOTES:
CHAPTER III
BOOKS WHICH FORM THE LIBRARY
FOOTNOTES:
CHAPTER IV
CHIVALRY AND ROMANCE
FOOTNOTES:
CHAPTER V
THE CARE OF BOOKS
BLAIZE. DE. MONTLUC
FOOTNOTES:
CHAPTER VI
THE CARE OF BOOKS—(Continued)
M. Pasquier's 'Recherches de la France' Fo: Paris 1633
RECHERCHES. DE LA FRANCE
PASQUIER
Θ (Books presented to me)
Φ (Books published by instalments, extending over several years)
A. 1900
FOOTNOTES:
CHAPTER VII
BOOKS OF THE COLLECTOR
FOOTNOTES:
CHAPTER VIII
FOOTNOTES:
CHAPTER IX
A PLEA FOR SPECIALISM—(Continued)
The End
FOOTNOTES:
INDEX
Отрывок из книги
P. B. M. Allan
Published by Good Press, 2019
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Perhaps one day a copy of the 'Nigramansir' will emerge from its long sleep in some such house as these. Indeed, it is not so much a matter of surprise that such books should have disappeared, as that they should have remained hidden for so long. In 1909 an ancient volume was accidentally discovered in an old manor-house in the North of England, where it had lain undisturbed for generations. It proved to consist of no less than five of Caxton's publications bound up together. Moreover, it was in the original binding, and was bound, probably, by one of Caxton's workmen, whose initials it bore. On being put up for sale at Sotheby's, it changed hands at £2,600.
The account which Gairdner gives in the Introduction to his last edition of the Paston letters, of the loss and rediscovery of those historic documents, is also a striking example of the manner in which books may lie hidden for years. For nearly a century the originals of Sir John Fenn's compilation were utterly lost. 'Even Mr. Serjeant Frere who edited the fifth volume … declared that he had not been able to find the originals of that volume any more than those of the others. Strange to say, however, the originals of that volume were in his house all the time. … ' Gairdner then applied to the owner of Roydon Hall for the remainder of the manuscripts, but received answer 'that he did not see how such MSS. should have found their way to Roydon.' Yet there they were discovered (with many others) eight years later! Even then the whereabouts of the letters forming Fenn's first and second volumes, which he had presented in 1787 to King George iii., was still unknown. 'The late Prince Consort … caused a careful search to be made for them, but it proved quite ineffectual.' No wonder, for in 1889 they came to light in a Suffolk manor-house!
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