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.

This impeccably researched and “adventure-packed” (The Washington Post) account of the obsessive quest by Christopher Columbus’s son to create the greatest library in the world is “the stuff of Hollywood blockbusters” (NPR) and offers a vivid picture of Europe on the verge of becoming modern. At the peak of the Age of Exploration, Hernando Colón sailed with his father Christopher Columbus on his final voyage to the New World, a journey that ended in disaster, bloody mutiny, and shipwreck. After Columbus’s death in 1506, eighteen-year-old Hernando sought to continue—and surpass—his father’s campaign to explore the boundaries of the known world by building a library that would collect everything ever printed: a vast holding organized by summaries and catalogues; really, the first ever database for the exploding diversity of written matter as the printing press proliferated across Europe. Hernando traveled extensively and obsessively amassed his collection based on the groundbreaking conviction that a library of universal knowledge should include “all books, in all languages and on all subjects,” even material often dismissed: ballads, erotica, news pamphlets, almanacs, popular images, romances, fables. The loss of part of his collection to another maritime disaster in 1522, set off the final scramble to complete this sublime project, a race against time to realize a vision of near-impossible perfection. “Magnificent…a thrill on almost every page” (The New York Times Book Review), The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books is a window into sixteenth-century Europe’s information revolution, and a reflection of the passion and intrigues that lie beneath our own insatiable desires to bring order to the world today.

First published in England, this kitchen reference became available to colonial American housewives when it was printed in Williamsburg, Virginia is 1742. Originally published in London in 1727, The Compleat Housewife was the first cookbook printed in the United States. William Parks, a Virginia printer, printed and sold the cookbook believing there would be a strong market for it among Virginia housewives who wanted to keep up with the latest London fashions—the book was a best-seller there. Parks did make some attempt to Americanize it, deleting certain recipes “the ingredients or material for which are not to be had in this country,” but for the most part, the book was not adjusted to American kitchens. Even so, it became the first cookery best seller in the New World, and Parks’s major book publication. Author Eliza Smith described her book on the title page as “Being a collection of several hundred approved receipts, in cookery, pastry, confectionery, preserving, pickles, cakes, creams, jellies, made wines, cordials. And also bills of fare for every month of the year. To which is added, a collection of nearly two hundred family receipts of medicines; viz. drinks, syrups, salves, ointments, and many other things of sovereign and approved efficacy in most distempers, pains, aches, wounds, sores, etc. never before made publick in these parts; fit either for private families, or such public-spirited gentlewomen as would be beneficent to their poor neighbours.” The recipes are easy to understand and cover everything from 50 recipes for pickling everything from nasturtium buds to pigeons to “lifting a swan, breaking a deer, and splating a pike,” indicating the importance of understanding how to prepare English game. The book also includes diagrams for positioning serving dishes to create an attractive table display.

From the archives of the Library of Congress: “An irresistible treasury for book and library lovers.” —Booklist (starred review) The Library of Congress brings book lovers an enriching tribute to the power of the written word and to the history of our most beloved books. Featuring more than two hundred full-color images of original catalog cards, first edition book covers, and photographs from the library’s magnificent archives, this collection is a visual celebration of the rarely seen treasures in one of the world’s most famous libraries and the brilliant catalog system that has kept it organized for hundreds of years. Packed with engaging facts on literary classics—from Ulysses to The Cat in the Hat to Shakespeare’s First Folio to The Catcher in the Rye—this is an ode to the enduring magic and importance of books. “The Card Catalog is many things: a lucid overview of the history of bibliographic practices, a paean to the Library of Congress, a memento of the cherished card catalogs of yore, and an illustrated collection of bookish trivia . . . . The illustrations are amazing: luscious reproductions of dozens of cards, lists, covers, title pages, and other images guaranteed to bring a wistful gleam to the book nerd’s eye.” —The Washington Post

Reprint of the original, first published in 1871.

This catalog provides a descriptive bibliography of books in the Ahmanson-Murphy Aldine collection at the University of California, Los Angeles, together with abbreviated notices of works not at UCLA. Handsomely produced, slipcased, and carefully annotated, this volume should become a major resource for Aldine studies and the history of the book. The Aldine Press revolutionized the production, accessibility, and use of the book. Founded by Aldus Manutius (ca 1452-1515), the press introduced a number of innovations that helped shape the development of the modern book, including italic type and the smaller, pocket-sized volume. By putting the Greek and Latin classics in a form that everyone could afford, it revolutionized scholarship: the uniform Aldine texts made comparison and collation universally available, and they were used in schools. Collectors were interested in the Aldine Press from the beginning; Jean Grolier acquired over two hundred of its publications, often having the books elegantly bound and handsomely illuminated. Since that time, the output of the Aldine Press has been sought after by scholars, book collectors, and librarians. Copies of its books are found in libraries all over the world, where they remain a prized possession and the object of much scholarly research. For thirty-two years, Franklin D. Murphy, who came to UCLA as its sixth chancellor, fostered the expansion of the Aldine collection and encouraged its growth. During the greater part of this long period he was joined in these endeavors by the Ahmanson Foundation, whose constant support permitted the collection to increase in both size and significance. Following Dr. Murphy's death, the Ahmanson Foundation continued its generous support for the expansion of the collection and, in addition, by means of a grant late in 1996, enabled the present catalog to come into existence. This catalog provides a descriptive bibliography of books in the Ahmanson-Murphy Aldine collection at the University of California, Los Angeles, together with abbreviated notices of works not at UCLA. Handsomely produced, slipcased, and carefully annotated, this volume should become a major resource for Aldine studies and the history of the book. The Aldine Press revolutionized the production, accessibility, and use of the book. Founded by Aldus Manutius (ca 1452-1515), the press introduced a number of innovations that helped shape the development of the modern book, including italic type and the smaller, pocket-sized volume. By putting the Greek and Latin classics in a form that everyone could afford, it revolutionized scholarship: the uniform Aldine texts made comparison and collation universally available, and they were used in schools. Collectors were interested in the Aldine Press from the beginning; Jean Grolier acquired over two hundred of its publications, often having the books elegantly bound and handsomely illuminated. Since that time, the output of the Aldine Press has been sought after by scholars, book collectors, and librarians. Copies of its books are found in libraries all over the world, where they remain a prized possession and the object of much scholarly research. For thirty-two years, Franklin D. Murphy, who came to UCLA as its sixth chancellor, fostered the expansion of the Aldine collection and encouraged its growth. During the greater part of this long period he was joined in these endeavors by the Ahmanson Foundation, whose constant support permitted the collection to increase in both size and significance. Following Dr. Murphy's death, the Ahmanson Foundation continued its generous support for the expansion of the collection and, in addition, by means of a grant late in 1996, enabled the present catalog to come into existence.