Skip to content
Register Sign in Wishlist

The Invention of Rare Books
Private Interest and Public Memory, 1600–1840

  • Date Published: June 2020
  • availability: Available
  • format: Paperback
  • isbn: 9781108449335

Paperback

Add to wishlist

Other available formats:
Hardback, eBook


Looking for an inspection copy?

This title is not currently available on inspection

Description
Product filter button
Description
Contents
Resources
Courses
About the Authors
  • When does a book that is merely old become a rarity and an object of desire? David McKitterick examines, for the first time, the development of the idea of rare books, and why they matter. Studying examples from across Europe, he explores how this idea took shape in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and how collectors, the book trade and libraries gradually came together to identify canons that often remain the same today. In a world that many people found to be over-supplied with books, the invention of rare books was a process of selection. As books are one of the principal means of memory, this process also created particular kinds of remembering. Taking a European perspective, McKitterick looks at these interests as they developed from being matters of largely private concern and curiosity, to the larger public and national responsibilities of the first half of the nineteenth century.

    • The first study of the development of the idea of rare books from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries
    • Explores how rare books evolved over time from being objects of largely private interest to become public and even national concerns (in the first half of the nineteenth century)
    • An important new work by one of the world's leading scholars of books and their history
    Read more

    Reviews & endorsements

    'McKitterick's impeccable scholarship and the insights and experiences of the contributors to Collecting the Past are major contributions to our understanding both of book history and of the history of the institutions which are themselves a part of that history.' John Feather, Library and Information History

    'The Invention of Rare Books, is essential and fascinating reading … Deeply researched and engagingly written, this study is cultural, social, economic and intellectual history thoughtfully stitched and gathered together.' Journal of the Edinburgh Bibliographical Society

    See more reviews

    Customer reviews

    Not yet reviewed

    Be the first to review

    Review was not posted due to profanity

    ×

    , create a review

    (If you're not , sign out)

    Please enter the right captcha value
    Please enter a star rating.
    Your review must be a minimum of 12 words.

    How do you rate this item?

    ×

    Product details

    • Date Published: June 2020
    • format: Paperback
    • isbn: 9781108449335
    • length: 462 pages
    • dimensions: 170 x 245 x 25 mm
    • weight: 0.79kg
    • contains: 22 b/w illus.
    • availability: Available
  • Table of Contents

    1. Inventio
    2. Books as objects
    3. Survival and selection
    4. Choosing books in Baroque Europe
    5. External appearances (1)
    6. External appearances (2)
    7. Printers and readers
    8. A seventeenth-century revolution
    9. Concepts of rarity
    10. Developing measures of rarity
    11. Judging appearances by modern standards
    12. The Harleian sales
    13. Authority and rarity
    14. Rarity established
    15. The French bibliographical revolution
    16. Books in turmoil
    17. Bibliophile traditions
    18. Fresh foundations
    19. Public faces, public responsibilities
    20. Conclusion.

  • Author

    David McKitterick, University of Cambridge
    David McKitterick, FBA, was for many years Librarian of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Honorary Professor of Historical Bibliography at Cambridge. His previous publications include the three volume A History of Cambridge University Press (Cambridge, 1992–2004), Cambridge University Library: A History, Volume 2: The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries (Cambridge, 1986), Print, Manuscript and the Search for Order, 1450–1830 (Cambridge, 2003), and most recently Old books, New Technologies (Cambridge, 2013). Professor McKitterick is one of the general editors of the Cambridge History of the Book in Britain.

Related Books

also by this author

Sorry, this resource is locked

Please register or sign in to request access. If you are having problems accessing these resources please email lecturers@cambridge.org

Register Sign in
Please note that this file is password protected. You will be asked to input your password on the next screen.

» Proceed

You are now leaving the Cambridge University Press website. Your eBook purchase and download will be completed by our partner www.ebooks.com. Please see the permission section of the www.ebooks.com catalogue page for details of the print & copy limits on our eBooks.

Continue ×

Continue ×

Continue ×
warning icon

Turn stock notifications on?

You must be signed in to your Cambridge account to turn product stock notifications on or off.

Sign in Create a Cambridge account arrow icon
×

Find content that relates to you

Join us online

This site uses cookies to improve your experience. Read more Close

Are you sure you want to delete your account?

This cannot be undone.

Cancel

Thank you for your feedback which will help us improve our service.

If you requested a response, we will make sure to get back to you shortly.

×
Please fill in the required fields in your feedback submission.
×