The Great Book-Collectors

Charles Isaac Elton
The Great Book-Collectors, by

Charles Isaac Elton and Mary Augusta Elton This eBook is for the use
of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
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Title: The Great Book-Collectors
Author: Charles Isaac Elton and Mary Augusta Elton
Release Date: July 29, 2006 [EBook #18938]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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[Illustration: The Great Book-Collectors Charles & Mary Elton]
[Illustration: FABRI DE PEIRESC.]

The Great Book-Collectors
By Charles Isaac Elton
Author of 'Origins of English History' 'The Career of Columbus,' etc.
& Mary Augusta Elton
[Illustration]
London
Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., Ltd.
MDCCCXCIII

Contents
PAGE
CHAPTER I.
CLASSICAL 1
CHAPTER II.
IRELAND--NORTHUMBRIA 13
CHAPTER III.
ENGLAND 27
CHAPTER IV.
ITALY--THE AGE OF PETRARCH 41
CHAPTER V.

OXFORD--DUKE HUMPHREY'S BOOKS--THE LIBRARY OF THE
VALOIS 53
CHAPTER VI.
ITALY--THE RENAISSANCE 63
CHAPTER VII.
ITALIAN CITIES--OLYMPIA MORATA--URBINO--THE BOOKS
OF CORVINUS 76
CHAPTER VIII.
GERMANY--FLANDERS--BURGUNDY--ENGLAND 87
CHAPTER IX.
FRANCE: EARLY BOOKMEN--ROYAL COLLECTORS 99
CHAPTER X.
THE OLD ROYAL
LIBRARY--FAIRFAX--COTTON--HARLEY--THE UNIVERSITY
OF CAMBRIDGE 111
CHAPTER XI.
BODLEY--DIGBY--LAUD--SELDEN--ASHMOLE 124
CHAPTER XII.
GROLIER AND HIS SUCCESSORS 139
CHAPTER XIII.
LATER COLLECTORS: FRANCE--ITALY--SPAIN 158

CHAPTER XIV.
DE THOU--PINELLI--PEIRESC 169
CHAPTER XV.
FRENCH COLLECTORS--NAUDÉ TO RENOUARD 183
CHAPTER XVI.
LATER ENGLISH COLLECTORS 202
INDEX 221

List of Illustrations
PORTRAIT OF PEIRESC Frontispiece (From an engraving by Claude
Mellan.)
INITIAL LETTER FROM THE 'GOSPELS OF ST. CUTHBERT' 18
SEAL OF RICHARD DE BURY 38
PORTRAIT OF THE DUKE OF BEDFORD PRAYING BEFORE ST.
GEORGE 59 (From the Book of Hours commonly known as the
'Bedford Missal.')
PORTRAIT OF MAGLIABECCHI 74 (From an engraving in the
British Museum.)
BINDING EXECUTED FOR QUEEN ELIZABETH 112 (English
jeweller's-work on a cover of red velvet. From a copy of 'Meditationum
Christianarum Libellus,' Lyons, 1570, in the British Museum.)
PORTRAIT OF SIR ROBERT COTTON 117 (From an engraving by
R. White after C. Jonson.)

PORTRAIT OF SIR THOMAS BODLEY 126 (From an engraving in
the British Museum.)
BINDING EXECUTED FOR GROLIER 141 (From a copy of Silius
Italicus, Venice, 1523, in the British Museum.)
PORTRAIT OF DE THOU 168 (From an engraving by Morin, after L.
Ferdinand.)
CHAPTER I.
CLASSICAL.
In undertaking to write these few chapters on the lives of the
book-collectors, we feel that we must move between lines that seem
somewhat narrow, having regard to the possible range of the subject.
We shall therefore avoid as much as possible the description of
particular books, and shall endeavour to deal with the book-collector or
book-hunter, as distinguished from the owner of good books, from
librarians and specialists, from the merchant or broker of books and the
book-glutton who wants all that he sees.
Guillaume Postel and his friends found time to discuss the merits of the
authors before the Flood. Our own age neglects the libraries of Shem,
and casts doubts on the antiquity of the Book of Enoch. But even in
writing the briefest account of the great book-collectors, we are
compelled to go back to somewhat remote times, and to say at least a
few words about the ancient book-stories from the far East, from
Greece and Rome, from Egypt and Pontus and Asia. We have seen the
brick-libraries of Nineveh and the copies for the King at Babylon, and
we have heard of the rolls of Ecbatana. All the world knows how
Nehemiah 'founded a library,' and how the brave Maccabæus gathered
again what had been lost by reason of the wars. Every desert in the East
seems to have held a library, where the pillars of some temple lie in the
sand, and where dead men 'hang their mute thoughts on the mute walls
around.' The Egyptian traveller sees the site of the book-room of
Rameses that was called the 'Hospital for the Soul.' There was a library
at the breast of the Sphinx, and another where Cairo stands, and one at

Alexandria that was burned in Julius Cæsar's siege, besides the later
assemblage in the House of Serapis which Omar was said to have
sacrificed as a tribute of respect for the Koran.
Asia Minor was celebrated for her libraries. There were 'many curious
books' in Ephesus, and rich stores of books at Antioch on the Orontes,
and where the gray-capped students 'chattered like water-fowl' by the
river at Tarsus. In Pergamus they made the fine parchment like ivory,
beloved, as an enemy has said, by 'yellow bibliomaniacs whose skins
take the colour of their food'; and there the wealthy race of Attalus built
up the royal collection which Antony captured in
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