Clark Library

Bibliography & Collecting

Andreas J. Wallin. Dissertatio academica de bibliomania. Uppsala: [1762].

Apart from one earlier (and less important) example, this is the first European study of the “disease” of book collecting which employs the now common term bibliomania. “Quot caelum stellas, tot habet Europa libellos.” Europe has as many books as the sky has stars, and the true bibliomane wants copies of them all. (*Z999.W2).

Johann Andreas Murray. Enumeratio librorum praecipuorum medici argumenti. Leipzig: 1773.

This copy of a bibliography of medical books has been interleaved throughout, and an early owner (German, to go by the hand) has made extensive additions to the text. (*ZR131.M97).

Catalogue des livres de la bibliothèque de feu M. le Duc de la Vallière. Paris: 1783.

This is the sale catalogue for the most magnificent library of the eighteenth century. The Duc de la Vallière’s librarian was the famously irascible Abbé Rive, and the collection was rich in incunabula, early manuscripts, and European literature. The catalogue was prepared by the well-known booksellers De Bure and Van Praet. (*Z1015.L39).