£ s. d. Catalogus Librorum MSS. Angl. et Hibern 0 7 6 Index Librorum Bibliothecæ Barberinæ, 2 vols. 0 10 6 Reading Catal. Lib. in Collegio Sionensi 0 4 0 Le Long, Bibliothèque Hist. de la France 0 9 0 Voyage Literaire de deux Religieux Benedictins 0 5 0 Histoire de Demelez de la Cour de France 0 2 6 Memoires sur le Rang entre les Souv. de l'Europe, &c. 0 2 6 Discours Politiques sur Tacite, par Josseval 0 2 0 Dictionnaire Mathematique, par Ozanam 0 5 0 Dictionnaire Practique du Bon Menager de Campagne, par Liger, 2 vols. 0 6 0 Leland agt. Bolingbroke's Study of History 0 2 0
[23] Mutel's Causes of the Corruption of Christians 0 1 0 Bindon on Commerce 0 2 6 Essay on Money, Trade, War, Banks, &c. 0 1 0 England's Gazetteer, 3 vols. 0 7 6 Halifax's Advice to a Daughter 0 1 0 Tresor de la Pratique de Medecine, 3 vols. 0 4 0 Seneque de la Consolation de la Mort 0 1 0 Tacite (la Morale de) par Houssaie 0 1 6 Tite Live reduit en Maximes 0 1 0 Gracien l'Homme Universel 0 1 6 L'Ecole de l'Homme 0 2 6 Memoire pour diminuer le nombre de Preces 0 1 6 Receuil des Edits 0 1 6 Le Secret des Cours, par Walsingham 0 1 6 Receuil de Maximes pour Institut. du Roy 0 1 0 Callieres de la Science du Monde 0 1 0 Traités des Interests des Princes' & Souverains de l'Europe 0 1 0 Sciences des Princes, par Naudé, 3 vols. 0 5 0 Etat present du Royaume de Danemarc 0 2 0 Memoires de l'Empire Russien 0 1 6 Memoires & Negociations Secrettes de diverses Cours de l'Europe par M. la Torre, 5 vols. 0 7 6 Memoires pour Servir a l'Histoire de Corse 0 1 6 Memoires Militaires sur les Anciens, 2 vols. 0 2 0 Histoire Generale de Suisse 0 2 0 Memoire du Card. Richelieu, 5 vols. 0 5 0 La Vie du Card. Richelieu, 2 vols. 0 4 0 La Vie de Mons. Colbert 0 1 6 Voyage de Grece, Egypte, &c. 0 2 0 Voyage du Mont du Levant 0 1 6 Lettres du Card. Richelieu 0 1 0 Lettres d'un Turque a Paris 0 1 6 Lettres Persanes, par Montesquieu 0 3 0 Le Passe Tems Agreable 0 1 6 Essai Politique sur le Commerce 0 2 0 Theorie de l'Impot 0 2 0
[24] Histoire du Systeme des Finances, 1719 & 1720, 6 vols. 0 6 0 Histoire du Commerce, par Huet 0 2 0 Le Vrai Cuisinier François 0 1 6 Dictionnaire Neologique 0 2 0 Relations de quelques Religieux, 6 vols. 0 10 6 Reflexions sur l'Edit 0 1 0 Several lots of Pamphlets, 1s. each 0 4 0 Five Pamphlets, at 6d. each 0 2 6 ---- £8 4 0
Jan. 12th, 1771.
Recd. the contents
For Baker and Self,
Geo. Leigh.
The neglect of our early literature continued, as we have said, down to the second half of the eighteenth century. Prior to that time, all the information at our command tends to show that collectors almost uniformly restricted themselves to the books current in or about their own time, as we find even Pepys asking Bagford to secure for him, not Caxtons or Elizabethan books, but items which we should now regard with comparative or absolute indifference. While some insignificant trifle, which had happened to go out of print, was sought with avidity, while editions of the classics and Continental writers, long since converted to waste paper, were objects of keen rivalry, the most precious examples of ancient English and Scotish typography and poetry were obtainable for pence.
A very interesting side to the subject before us is the share claimable in it by the fair sex. In our two Rolls of Book-Collectors we have included the names of several ladies, who in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as well as in the earlier part of the present, established a title to rank among possessors of libraries in a larger or smaller measure. Two of the most prominent names are probably those of Miss Richardson Currer, of Eshton Hall, Yorkshire, and Mrs. Rylands of Manchester, the latter not only the acquirer of the Althorp treasures, but of a most valuable body of books, ancient and modern, in augmentation of them. This feature in the annals of collecting is the more to be borne in mind, in that it has in recent days declined almost to disappearance, and may be said to be limited to a few gentlewomen, who pursue special studies, like the Hon. Alicia Amherst and Mrs. Earle, and bring together for use or reference the works illustrative of them.
A study of the writer's Rolls of Book-Collectors, which embrace over two thousand names, will satisfy any one that the hereditary or transmitted collections in this country are very few, if we limit ourselves to libraries of note, and do not compensate for the long catalogue of old libraries which have been dispersed even in our own time. Are there really more than the Miller and the Huth, unless we add the Spencer or Althorp, kept intact and amplified, yet in the hands of a stranger? Book-collecting by individuals is, then, mainly a personal affair, which begins and ends with a life. The continuance even of the two libraries above mentioned in private hands cannot be regarded as otherwise than precarious and terminable; the fourth succession of Miller has just expired in an unexpected manner, and the destiny of the Britwell treasures is problematical. Rumour has long since pointed to the Advocates' Library at Edinburgh as the ultimate reversioner.
In a volume of moderate compass, professedly addressing itself in a special manner to English collectors, the consideration of foreign literature must of necessity be a secondary and incidental feature and element, although it may be quite true that our countrymen and countrywomen look so frequently aside, as it were, from the literary productions of their own soil to study those of other lands. In Great Britain we may be said to be much more cosmopolitan in our book-collecting tastes than many of our contemporaries on the Continent of Europe, Germany perhaps excepted. In France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and elsewhere, the demand is almost exclusively for native authors; but the Germans, Americans, and ourselves take a pride, and a just one, in being more catholic and broad: we see the advantage, no doubt, and no doubt we reap the fruit, of such a policy. At the same time, in a monograph of limited scope it is obviously impossible to embrace even a general view of the enormously wide range which is before any one who crosses over from his own country to add to his English possessions even a select collection of...
