Libraries Within the Library: The Origins of the British Library's Printed Collections

Citation

Law, D. (2011), "Libraries Within the Library: The Origins of the British Library's Printed Collections", Library Review, Vol. 60 No. 1, pp. 85-86. https://doi.org/10.1108/00242531111100621

This is a demanding and unremittingly academic book, with rigorous annotation and footnotes as well as untranslated Latin and Greek quotations – and all the more welcome for it. Its underlying theme is scholarship and the role of libraries in supporting that and it is an unstinting attention to detail which marks this book out. It is formed from a series of essays which do not give a full history of the collection but which explore aspects of it and especially the collectors whose libraries enrich the larger whole. There are four sections. These cover the foundation collections, the early decades, the King's Library and the so‐called later collections running up to the nineteenth century. The book is edited by two of the library's curators and the 22 chapters and appendices are written by past and present members of staff or academics who have worked on the collections. A perceptive introduction by David Pearson notes that “as the digital age gradually diminishes the importance of books for the purpose of accessing texts, there is increasing interest in the study of their non‐textual aspects.” He also points out how unprepared libraries are for this approach. And so this collection demonstrates just how much can be learned about the library, the texts and the society in which the collections were created.

Many of the private collections were scattered amongst the larger whole (a perennial library issue) when they were received and at least some of the work is about the reconstruction of these collections. Famous if half remembered names appear from Hans Sloane and Sir Robert Cotton to Sir Joseph Banks and Isaac Casaubon. There are also interesting chapters on policy. If the purchase of books at auction in the later nineteenth century comes as no great surprise, the same cannot be said of the pre‐victorian practice of selling duplicates to raise funds. And there is a little gem of an essay on the plans to move the King's Library which seem to have been an ongoing issue from the death of George III right up until the move to St Pancras. One mild criticism relates to the large number of images of poor quality. No doubt the originals were poor, but their quality might have been enhanced to make them more legible. The small number of colour illustrations simply highlights the impoverished nature of the black and white images.

It would be idle to pretend that this is an easy read. The chapters are hugely varied, ranging from what are effectively annotated bibliographies to pen‐portraits of bibliophiles and detective like hunts for provenance as well as dense lists and descriptions of bindings. But it is a treasure trove and a delight to browse in. One telling phrase perhaps captures the essence of the book. Clayton Mordaunt Cracherode is described as “not a recluse, but moving in the narrow circles of connoisseurship.” The sheer joy of books blossoms on every page and it would be a great sadness if its dry appearance and dense text confined it to a narrow circle.