Portrait of an Obsession
How England's Greatest Private Library was Built from the Ruins of Europe's Monasteries
Will be published approx. on 8. October 2026
Book
Hardback
256 pages
978-0-19-887905-3 (ISBN)
Description
How a Europe torn apart by the Napoleonic Wars became the site of a book-collecting frenzy, laying the foundation for the Anglophone world's greatest collections of rare books.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, bibliomania ('book madness') swept the English upper classes. Vast sums of money were spent on books from the dawn of printing; fortunes were lost, families shattered, estates sold. By the end of the century most of the collections assembled had been sold or donated and had come to rest in national and research libraries across the UK and America, forming the groundwork on which almost all collections of early printed books in the Anglophone world have since been built.
But where did these books come from? Who bought them and how? Portrait of an Obsession recovers this forgotten story by focusing on the obsessive and majestic collecting of George John Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer (1758-1834), the greatest of the Regency bibliomanes. Historian, librarian, and modern-day bibliophile Kelsey Jackson Williams explores how Spencer combed a Europe torn apart by the Napoleonic Wars for rare books, using agents and runners (including a British spy) to intimidate librarians, ransack monastic collections, and deal in stolen and looted goods to form his great library at Althorp. The catastrophes of war allowed for unparalleled opportunities, if one had the resources and drive to capitalise on them.
Through Spencer's life and collection, which is now part of the John Rylands Research Institute and Library in Manchester and contains some of the rarest books in the world, Portrait of an Obsession unpicks the extraordinary psychology of Georgian book collecting. In so doing, it asks how Georgian collectors came to own such eye-watering arrays of rare items--and what that means for the Anglophone museums and libraries in which they sit today.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, bibliomania ('book madness') swept the English upper classes. Vast sums of money were spent on books from the dawn of printing; fortunes were lost, families shattered, estates sold. By the end of the century most of the collections assembled had been sold or donated and had come to rest in national and research libraries across the UK and America, forming the groundwork on which almost all collections of early printed books in the Anglophone world have since been built.
But where did these books come from? Who bought them and how? Portrait of an Obsession recovers this forgotten story by focusing on the obsessive and majestic collecting of George John Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer (1758-1834), the greatest of the Regency bibliomanes. Historian, librarian, and modern-day bibliophile Kelsey Jackson Williams explores how Spencer combed a Europe torn apart by the Napoleonic Wars for rare books, using agents and runners (including a British spy) to intimidate librarians, ransack monastic collections, and deal in stolen and looted goods to form his great library at Althorp. The catastrophes of war allowed for unparalleled opportunities, if one had the resources and drive to capitalise on them.
Through Spencer's life and collection, which is now part of the John Rylands Research Institute and Library in Manchester and contains some of the rarest books in the world, Portrait of an Obsession unpicks the extraordinary psychology of Georgian book collecting. In so doing, it asks how Georgian collectors came to own such eye-watering arrays of rare items--and what that means for the Anglophone museums and libraries in which they sit today.
Reviews / Votes
The great library of the second Earl Spencer, a titan of obsessive book collecting, was built on the destruction of others across a war-torn Europe. This fascinating story, and issues it raises, are masterfully brought alive for today with lively writing rooted in meticulous scholarship. The author's own confessions as a collector enrich a narrative both understanding and questioning, book history as it should be written. * David Pearson, Editor of The Book Collector * Everyone who loves books will understand the pleasure of acquiring that long sought-after tome in one's hands, turning the pages, shelving and re-shelving it; they will equally adore Kelsey Jackson Williams's magnificent Portrait of an Obsession. Williams sketches the turbulent history of one of the greatest private collections of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, giving us an account of dogged pursuit, extraordinary wealth and unscrupulous dealers. It presents a fine and haunting portrait of the inner brilliance and madness lurking in every collector. * Arthur der Weduwen, author of The Library, a Fragile History * Where does the foreign heritage material found in our museums and libraries come from? It is an important and topical question requiring extensive, often forensic, provenance research. Such capacities for investigation are expertly deployed in this fine volume. The reader is introduced to the creation of a grand aristocratic library which, not uncommonly for the time, had benefitted abundantly, sometimes excessively, from the ravages of nineteenth-century European politics. Written to be clear and accessible for the reader, this work combines descriptive bibliography with the latest scholarly research to tell a story which scholars and book-lovers alike will find a pleasure to read. * Cristina Dondi, Universita di Roma 'La Sapienza' * Scholars of the Enlightenment seldom acknowledge that one consequence of the French Revolution and Enlightened Absolutism was a destruction of books unrivalled until the Second World War. Happily, enough survived to ignite a golden age of antiquarian book collecting, with the second Early Spencer in the foreground. This fast-paced and deeply researched study shows how a spectacular collection could be created from the rubble of monastic libraries, with the help of a network of not always scrupulous European agents. This fascinating and illuminating book will be a marvelous read for anyone interested in the history of the book. * Andrew Pettegree, St Andrews University *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-19-887905-3 (9780198879053)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Kelsey Jackson Williams is Associate Professor of Early Modern Literature at the University of Stirling. His works include The First Scottish Enlightenment: Rebels, Priest, and History (Oxford University Press, 2020) and The Antiquary: John Aubrey's Historical Scholarship (Oxford University Press, 2016), which was shortlisted for the Katharine Briggs Award in 2017. Since 2016, he has taught at Stirling and since 2024 has been Senior Research Fellow at Blackie House Library and Museum in Edinburgh. He focuses on the history of ideas and the history of books, particularly as they manifest in the incredibly rich culture of Renaissance and Enlightenment Europe.
Content
Acknowledgments List of Illustrations A Note on Prices Prologue: The Book Fool 1: Chapter One: An Unexpected Offer 2: Chapter Two: The Making of a Young Nobleman 3: Chapter Three: Unpacking a Library 4: Chapter Four: The Art of Collecting 5: Chapter Five: Gutenberg's Bible 6: Chapter Six: The Wreck of Italy 7: Chapter Seven: A Monk for All Seasons 8: Chapter Eight: The Talented Father Horn 9: Chapter Nine: "I have renewed the Attack" 10: Chapter Ten: The Limits of a Fortune 11: Chapter Eleven: "The Roxburghe Fight" 12: Chapter Twelve: Missteps 13: Chapter Thirteen: The Passing of a Generation 14: Chapter Fourteen: Dibdin on the Hunt 15: Chapter Fifteen: Thirty Thousand Neapolitan Ducats 16: Chapter Sixteen: The Judgment of History? Notes Bibliography Index