This edited collection offers in seventeen chapters the latest scholarship on book catalogues in early modern Europe. Contributors discuss the role that these catalogues played in bookselling and book auctions, as well as in guiding the tastes of book collectors and inspiring some of the greatest libraries of the era. Catalogues in the Low Countries, Britain, Germany, France and the Baltic region are studied as important products of the early modern book trade, and as reconstructive tools for the history of the book. These catalogues offer a goldmine of information on the business of books, and they allow scholars to examine questions on the distribution and ownership of books that would otherwise be extremely difficult to pursue.
Contributors: Helwi Blom, Pierre Delsaerdt, Arthur der Weduwen, Anna E. de Wilde, Shanti Graheli, Ann-Marie Hansen, Rindert Jagersma, Graeme Kemp, Ian Maclean, Alicia C. Montoya, Andrew Pettegree, Philippe Schmid, Forrest C. Strickland, Jasna Tingle, Marieke van Egeraat, and Elise Watson.
Arthur der Weduwen is a British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of St Andrews and Deputy Director of the Universal Short Title Catalogue. He researches and writes on the history of the Dutch Republic, books, news, libraries and early modern politics.
Andrew Pettegree is Professor of Modern History at the University of St Andrews and Director of the Universal Short Title Catalogue. He is the author of over a dozen books in the fields of Reformation history and the history of communication.
Graeme Kemp is Deputy Director and Project Manager of the Universal Short Title Catalogue. He was awarded his PhD in 2013 for a study of Religious Controversy in the Sixteenth Century. His research looks at the application of distant reading methodologies and visualisation techniques to historical datasets.
Preface
List of Figures and Tables
Notes on Contributors
Part 1: Early Models and Development
1 Book Trade Catalogues: From Bookselling Tool to Book Historical Source Arthur der Weduwen, Andrew Pettegree and Graeme Kemp
2 Booklists and the Republic of Letters: The Case of Peiresc Shanti Graheli
3 The Auction Catalogue of Charles III of Croÿ’s Library (Brussels, 1614): An Object-Oriented Approach Pierre Delsaerdt
5 The Art of the Steal: The Economics of Auctioning Books in Late Seventeenth-Century London Graeme Kemp
6 How to Sell Left-Over Stock? Lessons from Mattheus van Nispen’s Book Sale Catalogue of 1681 Marieke van Egeraat
Part 2: Personal Libraries
7 Building a Library in the Dutch Golden Age: André Rivet and His Books Forrest C. Strickland
8 Networks of Devotion: Auction Catalogues and the Catholic Book Trade in Amsterdam, 1650–1700 Elise Watson
9 Sales Catalogues of Jewish-Owned Private Libraries in the Dutch Republic during the Long Eighteenth Century: A Preliminary Overview Anna E. de Wilde
Part 3: Disruption and Change
10 The Decline of the Frankfurt Book Fair after the Thirty Years War Ian Maclean
11 The Dutch Baltic. The Dutch Book Trade and the Building of Libraries in the Baltic and Central Europe during the Dutch Golden Age Andrew Pettegree
Part 4: Early Enlightenment
12 Sold in a Closed Room. Auctioning Libri Prohibiti in the Dutch Republic, 1670–1720 Arthur der Weduwen
13 ‘Il sest vendu depuis peu une assez bonne bibliotheque’: The Republic of Letters and the Sale Catalogue of the Library of Pierre Briot (1679) Helwi Blom
Part 5: Models of Collecting
14 Catalogues in Catalogues: Imitation and Competition in Early Modern Book Collecting Philippe Schmid
15 Building the bibliothèque choisie, from Jean Le Clerc to Samuel Formey: Library Manuals, Review Journals and Auction Catalogues in the Long Eighteenth Century Alicia C. Montoya
16 From Private Inventory to Public Catalogue. Prosper Marchand’s Catalogus librorum bibliothecae domini Joachimi Faultrier and “Epitome systematis bibliographici” (1709) Ann-Marie Hansen
Part 6: Later Developments
17 Booksellers’ Catalogues in Zagreb, 1796–1823 Jasna Tingle
Bibliography
Index
All interested in the early modern book world, the cataloguing, distribution and sale of books, and the history of collecting.