# The Library (Lang)

The Library , Project Gutenberg from the 1881 Macmillan and Co. (first edition), merging with page scan index 1892 (2nd ed.)
THE LIBRARY
THE LIBRARY
BY
ANDREW LANG
WITH A CHAPTER ON
MODERN ENGLISH ILLUSTRATED BOOKS BY
AUSTIN DOBSON
SECOND EDITION
London
MACMILLAN & CO.
AND NEW YORK
1892
All rights reserved
First Edition printed 1881.
Second Edition. The final chapter enlarged, and further
illustrations added 1892.
TO
DR. JOHN BROWN
AUTHOR OF
RAB AND HIS FRIENDS.
PREFATORY NOTE.
The pages in this volume on illuminated and other MSS. (with the exception of some anecdotes about Bussy Rabutin and Julie de Rambouillet) have been contributed by the Rev. W. J. Loftie, who has also written on early printed books (pp. 94-95). The pages on the Biblioklept (pp. 46-56) are reprinted, with the Editor's kind permission, from the Saturday Review; and a few remarks on the moral lessons of bookstalls are taken from an essay in the same journal.
Mr. Ingram Bywater, Fellow of Exeter College, and lately subLibrarian of the Bodleian, has very kindly read through the proofs of chapters I., II., and III., and suggested some alterations.
Thanks are also due to Mr. T. R. Buchanan, Fellow of All Souls College, for two plates from his "Book-bindings in All Souls Library" (printed for private circulation), which he has been good ​enough to lend me. The plates are beautifully drawn and coloured by Dr. J. J. Wild. Messrs. George Bell & Sons, Messrs. Bradbury, Agnew, & Co., and Messrs. Chatto & Windus, must be thanked for the use of some of the woodcuts which illustrate the concluding chapter.
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.
This little volume on "The Library" was written ten years ago, when the author's knowledge of books, never exhaustive, was younger and scantier than it is to-day. There have been many changes of taste among collectors, as is natural. Many great libraries, as the Hamilton Library and the Beckford collection, have been dispersed. They contained, among other rarities of which little is said in the following pages, examples of old romances, usually in black letter, and old works of travel, and Americana. On the whole, these things are beyond the purse of the kind of buyer in whose ear the "Library" is intended to gossip. The serious and opulent collector can study the catalogues of Mr. Hutts, Mr. Locker Lampson, Mr. Henry Hucks Gibbs, and others, in which he will find plenty of information. To lighter minds one may recommend "La ​Bibliothèque d'un Bibliophile," M. Paillet's catalogue, which is full of most humorous writing, and " Mes Livres," by M. Quentin Bauchart, and the works of Le Toqué commonly so called. But experience only, not study, can enlighten the collector. He must pay for his knowledge, like other mortals. One piece of advice may be given to him. It is far wiser to buy seldom, and at a high price, than to run round the stalls collecting twopenny treasures. This counsel was not taken by him who gives it. When I collected books ("'tis gone, 'tis gone"), I got together a wonderful heap of volumes, hopelessly imperfect. My "Lucasta," by Richard Lovelace, Esq. (1649), lacks the frontispiece. My Rochefoucauld (1665) has a couple of pages in facsimile (I know not which they are), and so forth. These things, though useful in a literary sense, are twopenny treasures. As for the short Elzevirs, the late Aldines, the incomplete angling curiosities, their name is legion. These are examples to avoid, and to be avoided is the habit of miscellaneously buying any volume which seems uncommon, except, of course, when it has a literary use. I is an error often to buy a book from a catalogue without inspecting it. Many booksellers appear to be careless or ignorant ​in collecting their wares, and sell what is discovered, too late, to be imperfect. As to buying bargains, valuable books at a low price, a question of casuistry arises. M. Paul Lacroix once bought an original "Tartufe," with the king's arms, for a couple of francs. He gave it on the same day to a famous French collector, and on the same day the bookseller found out his mistake. The collector declined to return the volume, or to pay the usual price, and this conduct we must blame. But, on one occasion, a lady bookseller having sold me three original volumes of Alfred de Musset for a shilling a piece, she declined to accept a higher ransom, alleging that it was well for customers to have a bargain now and then. Every buyer must consult his own conscience: I think he will usually find the bookseller content with his normal profit. In ignorance some booksellers ask absurdly high prices, just as others ask prices absurdly, low.
The taste for large paper copies of new books has greatly increased since the "Library" was written. It does not become an author to complain whose own modest gains are increased by this fashion. But it seems clear enough that the fashion, and that other fashion of buying the first editions of ​contemporaries, is exaggerated. It is not every book, by any means, that is the better for being printed on large paper. Often the smaller size is much more handy and appropriate. Why Mr. Stevenson's first editions should be four or five times as valuable as Sir Walter Scott's is a mystery which, I am sure, will puzzle and divert the modern author. I cannot think that the end will justify those proceedings. Moreover, an author is vexed when his first edition is "quoted" at twenty times its original value, while his second edition languishes in obscurity. Booksellers injure a man when they charge a pound for his first edition, while there are hundreds of that very issue lying forlorn on his publishers shelves! This is a grevious form of popularity, and arises from the ignorance of collectors. When they know a little more, it will be better for all persons, except for some booksellers. Book-collecting ought not to be a mere trade, or a mere fad. Its object is to secure the comforts of a home for examples really rare or beautiful, or interesting as relics. We are in too great a hurry to canonise contemporaries, and to make relics of their first editions, which are probably their least correct editions. Large paper is not a good absolute and in itself, but only when ​it is beautiful and appropriate. For example, the large paper copies of Dr. Hill Burton's "Book-hunter" (there be twenty-five of the first edition) are not nearly so appropriate and handy as the ordinary examples. On the other hand, the comparative revival of collecting does really seem to have improved, in some cases, the art of manufacturing books. In binding, with rare exceptions, we seem to make no progress. The modern French fantastic bindings are usually monuments of incompetence. It is technical excellence, not decoration, that we should aim at, for the present. Neatness and order should rather be aimed at by the book-buyer than a pursuit of valueless rarities, though no rarity which adds to knowledge is really valueless. These moralisings are the fruit of experience in misfortune, and are probably preached in vain. Only very rich people or very lucky people can make up a cabinet of literary jewels. The rest of us must follow cheap fancies, making harmless little tastes for ourselves, if we would be collectors. To collect is a natural hobby, small boys and girls are greatly given to it: we can make it less useless by making it personal, not by following any fashion.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER IV.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PLATES.
| | PAGE |
| Strena Galteri Delaeni Mo. 1553. (English binding of the 16th century; brown calf; each cover bearing the arms of King Edward VI., accompanied by his initials, and surmounted by a crowned Tudor Rose) | To face 62 |
| By permission of Her Majesty The Queen. |
| Holy Bible. Edinburgh, 1772. (Scotch binding of the 18th century; green morocco) | To face 64 |
| By permission of Dr. W. H. Corfield. |
| Title-page of "Le Rommant de la Rose," Paris, 1539. | To face 94 |
WOODCUTS.
| Frontispiece. Drawn by Walter Crane; engraved by Swain. |
| Initial. Drawn by Walter Crane; engraved by Swain | 1 |
| Group of Children. Drawn by Kate Greenaway; engraved by O. Lacour | 122 |
| Initial. From Hughes's "Scouring of the White Horse, 1858." Drawn by Richard Doyle; engraved by W. J. Linton | 123 ​ |
| "Infant Joy." From Blake's "Songs of Innocence". Engraved by J. F. Jungling | 129 |
| "Counsellor, King, Warrior, Mother and Child, in the Tomb." From Blair's "Grave," 1808. Designed by William Blake; facsimiled on wood from the engraving by Louis Schiavonetti | 131 |
| "The Woodcock." From Jackson & Chatto's "History of Wood-Engraving," 1839. Engraved, after T. Bewick, by John Jackson | 141 |
| Tailpiece. From the same. Engraved, after T. Bewick, by John Jackson | 143 |
| Headpiece. From Rogers's "Pleasures of Memory, with other Poems," 1810. Drawn by T. Stothard: engraved, after Luke Clennell, by O. Lacour | 145 |
| "Golden head by golden head." From Christina Rossetti's "Goblin Market and other Poems," 1862. Drawn by D. G. Rossetti; engraved by W. J. Linton | 149 |
| "The Deaf Post-Boy." From Clarke's "Three Courses and a Dessert," 1830. Drawn by G. Cruikshank; engraved by S. Williams [?] | 153 |
| "The Mad Tea-Party." From "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," 1865. Drawn by John Tenniel; engraved by Dalziel Brothers | 162 |
| Black Kitten. From "Through the Looking-Glass," 1871. Drawn by John Tenniel; engraved by Dalziel Brothers | 165 ​ |
| "The Music of the Past." From "Punch's Almanack," 1877. Drawn by George du Maurier; engraved by Swain | 165 |
| "Clear and Cool." From the "Water Babies," 1885. Drawn by Linley Sambourne; engraved by Swain | 167 |
| Boy and Hippocampus. From Miss E. Keary's 'Magic Valley," 1877. Drawn by "E. V. B." (Hon. Mrs. Boyle); engraved by T. Quartley | 171 |
| "Love Charms."' From Irving's " Bracebridge Hall," 1876. Drawn by Randolph Caldecott; engraved by J. D. Cooper | 173 |
| Tailpiece to Song. From the "Water Babies," 1885. Drawn by Linley Sambourne; engraved by Swain | 178 |
| "The Second Rescue of Sophia." From the "Vicar of Wakefield," 1890. Drawn by Hugh Thomson | 183 |
| "Sylvie and Bruno." From "Sylvie and Bruno." Drawn by Harry Furniss; engraved by Swain | 184 |
| "The Old Guide at Waterloo." From "The Travelling Companions," 1892. Drawn by J. Bernard Partridge | 185 |
| Tailpiece. From "Cranford," 1891. Drawn by Hugh Thomson | 186 |
Books, books again, and books once more! These are our theme, which some miscall Mere madness, setting little store By copies either short or tall. But you, O slaves of shelf and stall! We rather write for you that hold Patched folios dear, and prize "the small, Rare volume, black with tarnished gold."
A. D.