18 - Second-hand and old books

Summary

The world of old books ranged from the waste paper of the dung heap to the wariness and snobberies of private collectors; and many more old books reached the former than reached the shelves of the latter. Here was one self-confessed bibliomaniac’s view:

When the Hatton Library was sold, Mr. Sheaf, of Ipswich in Suffolk, paid for as many books as loaded two waggons and a cart only 30l., and many of the MSS. were literally thrown to the dunghill ….

Nothing is much more to be regretted than such a gothic disregard to the interests of literature, unless it be the selfish and narrowminded principle of exclusion, which renders many valuable and interesting collections either inaccessible, or what is tantamount to it, only to be obtained through such cringing servility and teasing importunity as few men of real genius or talents can descend to practise.

Ideally, the history of books is concerned as much with what has been thrown away as what has been kept, though since the former is difficult to evaluate emphasis naturally falls on the latter. Just how far one was from the other – and not only in 1831, when these words were written – is reflected in the choice here of the word ‘gothic’ to denote unregenerate ignorance. The appreciation of old books was a self-consciously modern occupation. It depended on knowledge of editions, of literary history and of rarity.