Book Trade Catalogues in Early Modern Europe (Library of the Written Word, 93 / The Handpress World, 74) 9004422234, 9789004422230

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Book Trade Catalogues in Early Modern Europe

Library of the Written Word volume 93

The Handpress World Editor-in-Chief Andrew Pettegree (University of St Andrews) Editorial Board Ann Blair (Harvard University) Falk Eisermann (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preuβischer Kulturbesitz) Shanti Graheli (University of Glasgow) Earle Havens (Johns Hopkins University) Ian Maclean (All Souls College, Oxford) Alicia Montoya (Radboud University) Angela Nuovo (University of Milan) Helen Smith (University of York) Mark Towsey (University of Liverpool) Malcolm Walsby (ENSSIB, Lyon) Arthur der Weduwen (University of St Andrews)

volume 74

The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/lww

Book Trade Catalogues in Early Modern Europe Edited by

Arthur der Weduwen Andrew Pettegree Graeme Kemp

LEIDEN | BOSTON

Cover illustration: Follower of Rembrandt, Portrait of a Man (“The Auctioneer”), c. 1658–62. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Title-page of Catalogus variorum atq; insignium librorum excellentissimi viri Christiani Ostenfeld (Hafniae: Matthiae Godicchenii, 1672). Det Kongelige Biblioteket, Copenhagen (see also illustration 1.4). Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Weduwen, Arthur der, editor. | Pettegree, Andrew, editor. | Kemp, Graeme, editor. Title: Book trade catalogues in early modern Europe / edited by Arthur der Weduwen, Andrew Pettegree, Graeme Kemp. Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, [2021] | Series: Library of the written word, 1874–4834 ; volume 93 | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2021007403 (print) | LCCN 2021007404 (ebook) | ISBN 9789004422230 (hardback ; acid-free paper) | ISBN 9789004422247 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Booksellers’ catalogs—Europe—History—17th century. | Booksellers’ catalogs—Europe—History—18th century. | Booksellers and bookselling—Europe—History—17th century. | Booksellers and bookselling—Europe—History—18th century. | Book collecting—Europe—History—17th century. | Book collecting—Europe—History—18th century. | Book auctions—Europe—History—17th century. | Book auctions—Europe—History—18th century. | Private libraries—Europe—History—17th century. | Private libraries—Europe—History—18th century. Classification: LCC Z999 .B72 2021 (print) | LCC Z999 (ebook) | DDC 381/.4500209409032—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021007403 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021007404 Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface. ISSN 1874-4834 ISBN 978-90-04-42223-0 (hardback) ISBN 978-90-04-42224-7 (e-book) Copyright 2021 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands, except where stated otherwise. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Hotei, Brill Schöningh, Brill Fink, Brill mentis, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Böhlau Verlag and V&R Unipress. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Requests for re-use and/or translations must be addressed to Koninklijke Brill NV via brill.com or copyright.com. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.

Contents Preface ix List of Figures and Tables xi Notes on Contributors xix

part 1 Early Models and Development 1

Book Trade Catalogues: From Bookselling Tool to Book Historical Source 3 Arthur der Weduwen, Andrew Pettegree and Graeme Kemp

2

Booklists and the Republic of Letters: The Case of Peiresc 33 Shanti Graheli

3

The Auction Catalogue of Charles III of Croÿ’s Library (Brussels, 1614): An Object-Oriented Approach 61 Pierre Delsaerdt

4

Dutch Printed Private Library Sales Catalogues, 1599–1800: A Bibliometric Overview 87 Rindert Jagersma

5

The Art of the Steal: The Economics of Auctioning Books in Late Seventeenth-Century London 118 Graeme Kemp

6

How to Sell Left-Over Stock? Lessons from Mattheus van Nispen’s Book Sale Catalogue of 1681 140 Marieke van Egeraat

vi

Contents

part 2 Personal Libraries 7

Building a Library in the Dutch Golden Age: André Rivet and His Books 161 Forrest C. Strickland

8

Networks of Devotion: Auction Catalogues and the Catholic Book Trade in Amsterdam, 1650–1700 193 Elise Watson

9

Sales Catalogues of Jewish-Owned Private Libraries in the Dutch Republic during the Long Eighteenth Century: A Preliminary Overview 212 Anna E. de Wilde

part 3 Disruption and Change 10

The Decline of the Frankfurt Book Fair after the Thirty Years’ War 251 Ian Maclean

11

The Dutch Baltic. The Dutch Book Trade and the Building of Libraries in the Baltic and Central Europe during the Dutch Golden Age 286 Andrew Pettegree

part 4 Early Enlightenment 12

Sold in a Closed Room. Auctioning Libri Prohibiti in the Dutch Republic, 1670–1720 319 Arthur der Weduwen

13

‘Il sest vendu depuis peu une assez bonne bibliotheque’: The Republic of Letters and the Sale Catalogue of the Library of Pierre Briot (1679) 361 Helwi Blom

Contents

vii

part 5 Models of Collecting 14 Catalogues in Catalogues: Imitation and Competition in Early Modern Book Collecting 399 Philippe Schmid

15

Building the Bibliothèque Choisie, from Jean Le Clerc to Samuel Formey: Library Manuals, Review Journals and Auction Catalogues in the Long Eighteenth Century 426 Alicia C. Montoya

16

From Private Inventory to Public Catalogue. Prosper Marchand’s Catalogus librorum bibliothecae domini Joachimi Faultrier and “Epitome systematis bibliographici” (1709) 463 Ann-Marie Hansen

part 6 Later Developments 17

Booksellers’ Catalogues in Zagreb, 1796–1823 495 Jasna Tingle Bibliography 519 Index 529

Preface Since 2016, the project group behind the Universal Short Title Catalogue (USTC) in St Andrews has been engaged on a systematic study of early modern book trade catalogues. Our interest in these catalogues is threefold. Firstly, they are an ephemeral genre, one that is often neglected or underrepresented in national bibliographies. Documenting surviving editions in libraries across the world has been essential to develop an understanding of their variety and influence. This work has also included the identification of book catalogues that, although documented in contemporary references, are now lost. Combing through newspaper advertisements and archival records, we have identified several thousand such catalogues, not previously known to scholarship. The surviving catalogues have played a second crucial role in our investigation, since we have been able to use them as bibliographical sources to augment our knowledge of the contemporary book world as revealed by modern library catalogues and national bibliographies. After having extracted, by hand, hundreds of thousands of pieces of data from seventeenth and eighteenth-century catalogues, we are in a position to match this considerable tranche of data to the existing records of the USTC. This process, which is currently ongoing, has already revealed thousands of references to books that can no longer be identified in surviving copies. The same matching process also allows us to attach references of contemporary ownership to editions that do survive. Some works in the USTC now have twenty, thirty or even sixty contemporary catalogue references attached to them. We have also studied these catalogues intensively as part of broader research on the history of the book trade in the Low Countries, the British Isles and Scandinavia. That this is a useful avenue of research was confirmed to us when we held a workshop at St Andrews in June 2018, where we heard and discussed a variety of insightful contributions on the history of the book trade and book collecting, as told through the study of book catalogues. The volume before you is the result of that workshop, augmented by two substantial articles from contributors who did not present at the event itself. We wish to express our gratitude to all our contributors, whose efforts and patience have made this volume a pleasure to edit. Many thanks are also due to Arjan van Dijk and his colleagues at Brill, whose digital resource Book Sales Catalogues Online underpins the research in many of the essays presented here. This invaluable resource deserves to be known more widely, and it will undoubtedly continue to play an important role in any future research on

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2021 This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.

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Preface

the history of early modern book distribution and book collecting. Finally, we would like to thank those scholars who have pioneered the study of book catalogues, as well as those students and volunteers who have worked with our project group in the gathering and analysis of book catalogue data. St Andrews, November 2020

Figures and Tables Figures 1.1

Title-page of Index librorum, quos Christophorus Froschouerus Tiguri hactenus suis typis excudit ([Zürich: Christoph II Froschauer], 1581), USTC 666557. Zentralbibliothek Zürich, Res 1413, https:// doi.org/10.3931/e-rara-4861 12 1.2 Page from Index librorum, quos Christophorus Froschouerus Tiguri hactenus suis typis excudit ([Zürich: Christoph II Froschauer], 1581), USTC 666557. Zentralbibliothek Zürich, Res 1413, https://doi.org/10.3931/e-rara-4861 13 1.3 Stock catalogue in William Temple, Memoires de ce qui s’est passé dans la Chretienté, depuis le commencement de la guerre en 1672, jusqu’à la paix coucluë en 1679 (La Haye: Adrian Moetjens, 1692), ff. V2–3. Private Collection, Arthur der Weduwen 18 1.4 Title-page of Catalogus variorum atq; insignium librorum excellentissimi viri Christiani Ostenfeld (Hafniae: Matthiae Godicchenii, 1672). Det Kongelige Biblioteket, Copenhagen 21 1.5 Final page of Catalogus variorum atq; insignium librorum excellentissimi viri Christiani Ostenfeld (Hafniae: Matthiae Godicchenii, 1672). Det Kongelige Biblioteket, Copenhagen 29 2.1 Genealogies of Provence, reproduction of a coat of arms. Carpentras, Bibliothèque-Musée Inguimbertine, Ms 1769, fol. 379v, cop. IRHT 38 2.2 List of manuscripts in the Marciana library, first page. Carpentras, Bibliothèque-Musée Inguimbertine, Ms 1769, fol. 60r, cop. IRHT 39 2.3 Booklists copied from the Pinelli collection. Carpentras, Bibliothèque-Musée Inguimbertine, Ms 1769, fols. 340v–341r, cop. IRHT 40 2.4 Books from the shop of Francesco Zannetti in Rome, first page. Carpentras, Bibliothèque-Musée Inguimbertine, Ms 1769, fol. 591r, cop. IRHT 47 2.5 List of recent books (1628–1630) produced by the Stamperia Camerale in Rome, sent to Peiresc by Andrea Brogiotti. Carpentras, Bibliothèque-Musée Inguimbertine, Ms 1769, fol. 682v, cop. IRHT 49 2.6a–b List of sources for Scipione Tetti’s booklist in two different copies: Peiresc’s copy, held in Carpentras, and an anonymous manuscript in Troyes. (a) Carpentras, Bibliothèque-Musée Inguimbertine, Ms 1769, fol. 295v, cop. IRHT; (b) Troyes, Médiathèque de Troyes Champagne metropole, NN.8.2931 (4) 58–59 3.1 Duke Charles iii of Croÿ at the age of 39. Engraving by Antoine Wierix in Jean Bosquet, Reduction de la ville de Bone par messire Charles, duc de Croy et

xii

3.2 3.3

3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8

3.9 3.10 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8

Figures and Tables d’Arschot, prince de Chimay, &c. en l’an 1588, et autres siens faits memorables, meslangés du succinct recit de plusieurs choses notables, advenuës depuis ledit an jusques à ce jour (Anvers: de l’imprimerie de Martin Nutius, 1599). Antwerp, Plantin-Moretus Museum – UNESCO World Heritage; USTC 13651 62 Title-page of the auction catalogue of Charles iii of Croÿ, Brussels 1614. Enghien, Arenberg Foundation 66 Poster announcing the sale of Charles of Croÿ’s collections (1614). Washington DC, Folger Shakespeare Library, z 999 c7 Cage-fo. Used by permission of the Folger Shakespeare Library under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License 69 First page of the table of contents of Charles iii of Croÿ’s auction catalogue. Enghien, Arenberg Foundation 71 Page 41 of Charles iii of Croÿ’s auction catalogue. Enghien, Arenberg Foundation 72 Start of the title list on p. 1 of Charles iii of Croÿ’s auction catalogue. Enghien, Arenberg Foundation 74 Page 122 of Charles iii of Croÿ’s auction catalogue, announcing volumes without title labels. Enghien, Arenberg Foundation 76 Armorial bookplate of Duke Prosper-Louis of Arenberg affixed to the upper paste-down of the nineteenth-century binding. Enghien, Arenberg Foundation 80 Page 127 of Charles iii of Croÿ’s auction catalogue. Enghien, Arenberg Foundation 82 Pencil drawing on tracing paper after p. 127 of Charles iii of Croÿ’s auction catalogue. Enghien, Arenberg Foundation 82 The number of editions of auction catalogues, sorted by decade (1590s–1790s) (absolute) 93 Private library catalogues and the retail or wholesale stock catalogues, sorted by decade (1590s–1790s), including trend line (absolute) 93 Private library catalogues and the retail and/or wholesale stock catalogues, sorted by century (absolute) 94 Private library catalogues sorted by city (1600s–1790s) (absolute) 96 Private library catalogues for auctions in Amsterdam, Leiden, and The Hague relative to the total known number of auctions 97 Retail or wholesale stock catalogues sorted by decade (1600s–1790s) (absolute) 98 Percentage of preserved catalogues per decade 102 Percentage of preserved editions of catalogues, in Leiden in the period 1650–1799 104

Figures and Tables 4.9

xiii

Number of preserved copies, compared with the number of surviving editions, sorted by decade 105 4.10 Ratio between the number of preserved copies and the editions, sorted by decade 105 4.11 Mean and the median size of the catalogues throughout the decades, including trend line 108 4.12 Median size of the catalogues, sorted by decade 109 4.13 Medians of catalogues of larger collections (more than 52 pages), and the smaller collections (52 pages or fewer) throughout the decades, including trend line 111 4.14 Smaller (52 pages or fewer) and larger collections (more than 52 pages) sorted by age (absolute) 114 4.15 Smaller (52 pages or fewer) and larger collections (more than 52 pages) sorted by age (relative) 114 4.16 Number of catalogues sorted by the month when the auction was held 116 4.17 Number of catalogues sorted by the month when the auction was held, compared with the percentage of the catalogues that had more than 52 pages (the larger collections) 116 5.1 Price Frequency Distribution in Four English Auction Sales 129 5.2 Price frequency (top) and gross revenue (bottom) as overall percentage of sale 131 5.3 Prices as they occurred in lot order for each sale 134 6.1 The title-pages of the 1670 and 1681 catalogues of Mattheus van Nispen 145 6.2 Manuscript notes by Mattheus van Nispen in his book sales catalogue of 1681. Bijzondere Collecties van de Universiteit van Amsterdam, OTM: O 06–7099 146 6.3a–b Languages and formats of the books in the book sales catalogue of Mattheus van Nispen, 1681 150 6.4a–b Year of publication of the books in the book sales catalogue of Mattheus van Nispen, 1681 152 6.5 Subjects of the books added by Van Nispen, divided by format 153 6.6 Frontispieces of The True Convert (London: George Miller for Edward Brewster, 1632, USTC 3015993) and De ware bekeerde sondaar by Nehemia Rogers (Utrecht: Hermannus Ribbius and Johannes van Waasberge, 1659) 154 7.1 Portret van André Rivet (Leiden: Cornelis Banheyning and Jonas Suyderhoef, 1647), Rijksmuseum: RP-P-1943-356 164 7.2 Page from Catalogus Librorum Bibliothecae D. Andreae Riveti (Leiden: Pieter Leffen, 1657). Image from Book Sales Catalogues Online. Scanned from The Hague, Haags Gemeentearchief: Weeskamerarchief 2351 165

xiv

Figures and Tables

7.3

Letter from Isaac Lydius to André Rivet (1628). UB Leiden, ms. BPL 285 Bf199r. Bijzondere Collecties-Universiteit Leiden 172 Page from Catalogus Librorum Bibliothecae D. Andreae Riveti (Leiden: Pieter Leffen, 1657). Image from Book Sales Catalogues Online. Scanned from The Hague, Haags Gemeentearchief: Weeskamerarchief 2351 180 Text Age in Priest Auction Catalogues by Percentage 205 Text Age of Van Metelen’s Stock Catalogues by Percentage 209 Number of auctions of Jewish-owned book collections in the Dutch Republic, 1690–1830 221 Number of catalogues of Jewish-owned private libraries printed in European countries before 1900 223 Number of lots in sales catalogues of named Jewish-owned private libraries printed in the Dutch Republic before 1830 226 Number of Hebrew (private library) sales catalogues published by Jewish printers in the Dutch Republic, 1750–1830 235 Auction venues as listed in Jewish-owned (private library) sales catalogues printed in the Dutch Republic before 1830 237 Two pages from Bibliotheca magna & elgenatissima Zuylichemiana (Leiden: Boudewijn and Pieter van der Aa, 1701). Leiden University Library 321 Catalogues of private libraries published in France (1631–1750) 365 Main organising principles in French private library catalogues (1631–1750) 366 Private library catalogues published in France (1631–1750): bibliographical formats 367 Autograph address by Pierre Briot in a copy of the Histoire de l’état présent de l’empire ottoman (Paris: Sébastien Cramoisy, 1670). Universitätsund Landesbibliothek Sachsen Anhalt in Halle (Saale), ZwB IZEA/ Europ. Aufklaerung, AB 70981. Online: http://nbn-resolving.de/ urn:nbn:de:gbv:3:3-34766. Courtesy of the Library 371 Catalogue des livres de feu Mr. Briot. Augsburg, Universitätsbibliothek, 02/l.1.4.137, title-page. Courtesy of the University Library Augsburg 374 Vente de la bibliothèque de M. Briot par M. de Boncoeur et M. Battiste de Rozemont. Poitiers, Médiathèque François-Mitterrand, Ms. 836, p. 37. Courtesy of the Médiathèque in Poitiers 385 Vente de la bibliothèque de M. Briot par M. de Boncoeur et M. Battiste de Rozemont. Poitiers, Médiathèque François-Mitterrand, Ms. 836, p. 1. Courtesy of the Médiathèque in Poitiers 387 Title-page of the Catalogus librorum bibliothecae Faultrier. Bibliothèque municipale de Rennes, SS859 466

7.4

8.1 8.2 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 12.1 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4

13.5 13.6

13.7

16.1

Figures and Tables

xv

16.2

The signature systematically inscribed on p. li of the Faultrier catalogue. Bibliothèque municipale de Rennes, SS859 470 16.3a–b First page of the Faultrier catalogue’s preface and title-page of the Epitome. Bibliothèque municipale de Rennes, SS859; Universiteitsbibliotheek Amsterdam, O 59 71 474 16.4 Excerpt from the Faultrier catalogue with entries allowing identification of USTC 6746 and 6000185. Bibliothèque municipale de Rennes, SS859, p. 100 477 16.5a–d Four entries from the Faultrier catalogue referring to titles bound in a single volume (from pp. 330, 332, 333 and 336). Bibliothèque municipale de Rennes, SS859 481 16.6 Price annotations in the Catalogus librorum bibliothecae Faultrier. Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Z 8o 4032 inv 6982 482 16.7 Price annotations in the Catalogus librorum bibliothecae Faultrier. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Rés Q731 483 16.8 Recopied price annotations in multiple hands in the Catalogus librorum bibliothecae Faultrier. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Delta 1503 484 16.9 Price annotations in the Catalogus librorum bibliothecae Faultrier. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Delta 1503 487 17.1 Booksellers’ catalogues and other catalogues bound together, NUL call-number R II F-8-1477 502 17.2 The catalogue of Franjo Rudolf, 1812, NUL call number R II F-8-1155 503 17.3 The catalogue of Franjo Rudolf, 1822, NUL call number R II F-8-876 503 17.4 The catalogue of Franjo Župan, 1823, NUL call number R II F-8-1218 504 17.5 Number of book titles in different languages – summative 508 17.6 Number of book titles by subject groups (classification according to Novosel 1796) 510 17.7 Books by price in the catalogues of Antun Novosel (percentiles) 513 17.8 Books by price in the catalogues of Franjo Rudolf (percentiles) 513

Tables 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5

Main categories of book sales catalogues in the BSC database 91 Number of editions of auction catalogues, sorted by decade (1590s–1790s) 92 Private library catalogues sorted by city (1600s–1790s) 95 Private library catalogues sorted by number by city (1600s–1790s) 97 The number of the auctions held, the number of preserved catalogues and percentage of preserved catalogues per decade 102

xvi

Figures and Tables

4.6

Number of auctions held, the number of survived editions of catalogues and the percentage of preserved editions of catalogues, in Leiden in the period 1650–1799 103 Number of editions and in how many copies they have been preserved 104 Most common size of catalogues 108 Number of editions and the medians of catalogues of larger collections (more than 52 pages), and the smaller collections (52 pages or fewer) throughout the decades 110 Number of preserved copies sorted by smaller (52 pages or fewer) and larger collections (more than 52 pages) 112 Smaller (52 pages or fewer) and larger collections (more than 52 pages) sorted by location 112 Smaller (52 pages fewer than) and larger collections (more than 52 pages) sorted by age 113 Smaller (52 pages or fewer) and larger collections (more than 52 pages) sorted by age (under 60 or 60 and over) 115 Overview of sample auction catalogues 125 Average, median and mode price calculations in four English auction sales, in pence 128 Price frequency and revenue distribution. Lazarus Seaman Sale, 1676 136 Price frequency and revenue distribution. Benjamin Worsley Sale, 1678 137 Price frequency and revenue distribution. Edward Bysshe Sale, 1679 137 Price frequency and revenue distribution. Kenelm and George Digby Sale, 1680 138 Books saved for the children in the book sales catalogue of Mattheus van Nispen, 1681 156 The ten largest ministers’ collections which sold at auction in the seventeenth century 188 The format of Rivet’s books compared to the average of 234 surviving ministerial catalogues from the seventeenth century 189 A statistical overview of the books listed in André Rivet’s book auction catalogue 190 Rivet’s collection divided by language compared to the average of 234 surviving ministerial catalogues from the seventeenth century 191 Survey of priest auction catalogues 200 Genres represented in priest catalogues 201 Text age in priest auction catalogues by number 204 Popular imprints in priest auction catalogues 206 Genres represented in Van Metelen’s stock catalogues 208 Text age in Van Metelen’s stock catalogues by number 208

4.7 4.8 4.9

4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 6.1 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6

Figures and Tables 11.1 11.2 11.3

11.4

12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 12.5 12.6 14.1 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 15.7 15.8 15.9 15.10 16.1 16.2 16.3

xvii

Number of titles declared by Dutch publishers at the Frankfurt and Leipzig Fairs, according to titles entered in the fair catalogues 291 Distribution of books by format in thirteen Danish collections sold at auction in Copenhagen, 1661–1700 298 Distribution by format of Latin books published in the Low Countries sold in Copenhagen catalogues and in a sample of dozens of catalogues published in the Netherlands in the seventeenth century 299 Date of publication of Latin books published in the Low Countries sold in Copenhagen catalogues and in catalogues published in the Netherlands 300 A genre analysis of the 2,704 Libri Prohibiti present in 130 Dutch auction catalogues, 1670–1720 330 The occupation and residence of the owners of Libri Prohibiti, 1670–1720 342 The auctioneers of Libri Prohibiti, 1670–1720 344 The corpus of 2,704 Libri Prohibiti divided by language, format and country of publication 348 Authors of Libri Prohibiti appearing at least ten times in the corpus of 2,704 works, and their associated category 349 Chronological table of owners and auctioneers of libri prohibiti, 1670–1720 350 Table of early modern German and Dutch book catalogues consulted (selection) 420 Categorisation of books reviewed in Le Clerc’s periodicals 433 Categorisation of book lots in Le Clerc’s library auction catalogue 435 Categorisation of book lots in the library catalogues of Jean Le Clerc and Maria Leti 437 Subject categorisation of books in three library manuals, 1654–1772 446 Subject categorisation in editions of Formey’s Conseils, and number of titles per category 447 Subject categorisation in five editions of Formey’s Conseils 450 Subject categorisation of book lots in 28 Dutch auction catalogues 455 Subject categorisation of books in first and second half of eighteenth century 456 Collectors’ professions and subject category rankings 458 Subject categorisation of books in review journals, auction catalogues and Formey 460 Constituent parts of the Catalogus librorum bibliothecae Faultrier 468 Comparison of price annotations 486 Surviving copies of the Catalogus librorum in public collections 488

xviii 16.4 17.1 17.2 17.3 17.4 17.5 17.6

Figures and Tables Surviving copies of the Epitome systematis bibliographici in public collections 491 List of Croatian catalogues included in the corpus and their size 500 Zagreb demographics (according to Krivošić) and books available through catalogues 505 Number of book titles printed in different languages – by catalogue 507 The book price information extracted from the catalogues 512 Number of different places of publication mentioned in the catalogues 514 Places of publication ranked by frequency of appearance in Novosel’s and Rudolf’s catalogues 516

Notes on Contributors Helwi Blom is a literary historian whose research focuses on early modern France. Her scholarly interests include popular print (the ‘Bibliothèque bleue’), the Huguenot diaspora and reception studies. In 2012, she earned her PhD in French studies from Utrecht University with a dissertation on the reception of medieval romances of chivalry in seventeenth-century France. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Université Lumière Lyon 2 and lecturer at Radboud University (Nijmegen, The Netherlands). From 2017 to 2021 she held a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the MEDIATE (Measuring Enlightenment: Disseminating Ideas, Authors and Texts in Europe, 1665–1830) project at Radboud University. In this project, she focused on French private library catalogues and provincial book culture in seventeenth and eighteenth-century France. Recent publications comprise articles on the library of Huguenot minister Isaac Claude and on categorisation systems in French catalogues. She is now working on a bibliography of private library catalogues published in France between 1600 and 1830. Pierre Delsaerdt is a professor at the History Department of the University of Antwerp and a part-time professor at KU Leuven. Among other things, he lectures on book and library history, the history of the Low Countries, and the management of heritage collections in libraries. He has been chairman of Flanders Heritage Library from 2008 to 2016. He is currently the director of the Ruusbroec Institute at the University of Antwerp. His research focuses on the design of early printed books and on the history of libraries and bibliophily, especially in the Southern Low Countries in the early modern period and the nineteenth century. Together with Elly Cockx-Indestege, he is preparing a monograph on the rare books collection of the Dukes of Arenberg (1850–1950). In addition, he is doing research on the confiscation of books by the French revolutionary government in the Southern Low Countries in 1794–95. Marieke van Egeraat is a PhD candidate in the research project ‘Dealing with Disasters: The Shaping of Local and National Identities, 1421–1890’ led by prof.  dr.  Lotte  Jensen at Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Her project focuses on providence and religious conflict in the Low Countries in the period 1517–1609. It deals with all kinds of disasters, including blood rains, hail storms, floods,

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earthquakes, comets, epidemics and famine. In her dissertation, she will ask the question how these disasters were interpreted and how these different explanations clashed with or went along with each other. Handwritten chronicles and news pamphlets will be analysed to answer this question. Shanti Graheli is a Lecturer in Comparative Literature at the University of Glasgow. Previous to that, she held a LKAS research fellowship at Glasgow in Comparative Literature and Translation Studies, and she collaborated for many years with the Universal Short Title Catalogue project at St  Andrews. Her first monograph, Italian Books and the French Renaissance (forthcoming) explores the circulation and collection of Italian printed books in France in the sixteenth century. She is the author of various published studies of Italian and French Renaissance print culture, exploring their mutual interactions and the circulation of books between the two domains, with a special interest for the Aldine press, provenance studies, the investigation of early modern libraries and the history of reading. Ann-Marie Hansen is a Radboud Excellence Fellow at Radboud University (The Netherlands) and lecturer at Utrecht University. She obtained her PhD in French literature from McGill University (2016) with a dissertation on editorial conflict in the Huguenot publishing networks of the early eighteenth century. She has since held a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Rennes (France). Her research interests focus on the material evidence of reader interactions with early modern print. Currently, she is co-editing two volumes of studies pertaining to the history of private library collections and developments in the book trade over the long eighteenth century. Rindert Jagersma is a book historian based at Radboud University (The Netherlands), specialised in the (quantitative approach of the) book trade of Dutch Republic around 1700. In the ERC-funded MEDIATE project (Measuring Enlightenment: Disseminating Ideas, Authors, and Texts in Europe, 1665–1830), he focuses on Dutch auction catalogues and their owners. His earlier publications concern private book collections in the long eighteenth century; the life and works of the Dutch pamphleteer Ericus Walten (1662–1697) and the importance of pamphleteers and booksellers in the dissemination of the radical Enlightenment; the Dutch book trade at the end of the seventeenth century in the Netherlands;

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and the identification of the hitherto unknown printers of the works of Benedictus de Spinoza (1632–1677). Graeme Kemp is co-director of the Universal Short Title Catalogue. He was awarded his PhD in 2013 for a study of Religious Controversy in the Sixteenth Century. Most recently he has explored the buying and selling of early modern editions at auction. His research looks at the application of distant reading methodologies and visualisation techniques to historical datasets. He is currently leading a project entitled Visualising History: Exploring Historical Data Through Visualisation, sponsored by Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland. Ian Maclean is Emeritus Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, Emeritus Professor of Renaissance Studies at the University of Oxford, and Honorary Professor at the University of St Andrews. He is the author of many publications on the history of the book and the history of philosophy, medicine and law in the Renaissance. His recent and forthcoming books include Episodes in the Life of the Early Modern Book (Brill, 2020) and (edited, with Dimitri Levitin) Classical reception in Early Modern Europe: comparative Perspectives (also Brill). Alicia Montoya is Professor of French Literature and Culture at Radboud University, The Netherlands, and Principal Investigator of the ERC-funded MEDIATE project (Measuring Enlightenment: Disseminating Ideas, Authors, and Texts in Europe, 1665–1840), http://www.mediate18.nl. She is the author of Medievalist Enlightenment: From Charles Perrault to Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Cambridge 2013), Marie-Anne Barbier et la tragédie post-classique (Paris 2007) and the co-editor of several volumes, including La Pensée sérielle, du Moyen Age aux Lumières (Leiden 2019), Women Writing Back  / Writing Back Women: Transnational Perspectives from the Late Middle Ages to the Dawn of the Modern Era (Leiden 2010) and Lumières et histoire / Enlightenment and History (Paris 2010). Andrew Pettegree is Professor of Modern History at the University of St Andrews and Director of the Universal Short Title Catalogue. He is the author of over a dozen books in the fields of Reformation history and the history of communication including Reformation and the Culture of Persuasion (Cambridge University Press, 2005), The Book in the Renaissance (Yale University Press, 2010), The Invention

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of News (Yale University Press, 2014), Brand Luther: 1517, Print and the Making of the Reformation (Penguin, 2015) and The Bookshop of the World. Making and Trading Books in the Dutch Golden Age (Yale University Press, 2019). The Library: A Fragile History, co-authored with Arthur der Weduwen, will be published by Profile in 2021. Philippe Schmid was educated at Basel and Munich, before moving to the University of St Andrews as a PhD candidate in Modern History. His thesis is supervised by Andrew Pettegree and Graeme Kemp and studies learned book collecting as a memorial practice in early modern Germany. His dissertation is funded by an AHRC scholarship from the Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities (SGSAH). From 2017 to 2018 he was a research fellow at the Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel. He is currently a visiting fellow at Harvard University. Forrest Strickland (PhD, University of St Andrews) serves as Adjunct Professor of Church History at Boyce College, Louisville, Kentucky. His research examines Dutch ministers and the culture of print in the seventeenth century. His publications include articles on Dutch ministers as readers of the Church Fathers and how Dutch ministers viewed their pastoral calling. He is also author of the first edited volume of Dutch ministerial catalogues from the seventeenth century, Protestant Ministers and their Books in the Dutch Republic, 1607–1700 (forthcoming, Brill). Jasna Tingle has been working in the Croatian Academic and Research Network (CARNET) for over twenty years. In her position of the Head of E-learning Research and Development Division Jasna is mostly involved in projects related to the implementation of information and communication technology in education. Jasna’s interest in old books stems from her studying history, ethnology and librarianship in her student’s days and from her recent PhD studies in Information Science. While taking a course on written heritage her attention was drawn to book sellers’ catalogues from the hand-press era, a type of resources that has not been adequately evaluated in Croatia until present. Jasna completed statistical analysis of books indexed in selected catalogues and has published two papers on this topic in an attempt to shed more light on the history of the book trade in her country.

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Elise Watson is a PhD candidate at the University of St  Andrews and an affiliate of the Universal Short Title Catalogue project. Her doctoral research examines printing for the Catholic community in the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic, investigating the dual functions of Catholic print in this period as an essential ministry to a religious minority and an illicit but profitable subsection of the Dutch book trade. In 2020, she received the Ecclesiastical History Society’s Michael Kennedy Prize for her article on the participation of Catholic lay sisters in the Amsterdam book trade. She is also the Assistant Editor of Book History Online, Brill’s international bibliography in the field of book and library history. Arthur der Weduwen is a British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of St  Andrews and Deputy Director of the Universal Short Title Catalogue. He researches and writes on the history of the Dutch Republic, books, news, libraries and early modern politics. He is the author of Dutch and Flemish Newspapers of the Seventeenth Century (2 vols., Brill, 2017), The Bookshop of the World. Making and Trading Books in the Dutch Golden Age (co-authored with Andrew Pettegree, Yale UP, 2019) and two books on early newspaper advertising in the Netherlands (both Brill, 2020). His latest project is The Library: A Fragile History, co-written with Andrew Pettegree and published by Profile in 2021. Anna E. de Wilde is a PhD candidate within the ERC-funded MEDIATE project at the Radboud University (The Netherlands). Her research focuses on the circulation of books in the Dutch Jewish communities before 1830. She studied History and Jewish Studies at the University of Amsterdam and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and specialized in book culture of the Portuguese-Jewish community in early modern Amsterdam. She previously worked as a researcher at Ets Haim – Livraria Montezinos, the world’s oldest functioning Jewish library. Her latest publication, together with Asjer Waterman, is Reviving the soul of the community. Developments in the post-war history of Ets Haim  – Livraria Montezinos, Menasseh ben Israel Instituut Studies xiv (Amsterdam 2019).

part 1 Early Models and Development

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chapter 1

Book Trade Catalogues: From Bookselling Tool to Book Historical Source Arthur der Weduwen, Andrew Pettegree and Graeme Kemp In 1625, the University of Leiden appointed a young mathematician, Jacobus Golius, as their new professor of Arabic and Oriental Languages. Golius was filling a distinguished post, succeeding the late Thomas Erpenius, an international philological star. Leiden was a young university, and its prestige as a centre for the study of Oriental Languages was crucial to its appeal to students across Europe. Recruiting distinguished professors was the first strategy that Leiden employed to maintain its lustre: the other was to acquire an unrivalled collection of rare books. For this reason, Golius set off, only a year after his appointment, on a four year long tour of the Eastern Mediterranean, in search of Arabic and Oriental manuscripts. The trip was an overwhelming success, and Golius was received home in 1629 in the fashion of a triumphant conqueror returning with spoils of war. Some 230 Arabic, Turkish and Persian works were presented by Golius to the university library, cementing Leiden’s reputation, after the Bodleian Library in Oxford, as the greatest centre of Oriental studies in the western world. Over the years, however, it emerged that Golius had not delivered to Leiden the entire haul of his funded tour of the Levant. Some of the most prized pieces he had kept for himself, including several books by the Greek mathematician Apollonius, previously presumed lost. Golius claimed to fellow scholars that he was working to prepare these manuscripts for publication, and thus required them for himself, but apart from a single Arabic-Latin lexicon, no further volumes were disgorged.1 When Golius died in 1667, his valuable library passed to his heirs, who prepared to sell its entirety at auction. Leiden University offered to purchase the collection en masse, but could not raise adequate funds. To highlight the distinction of the collection, the library was split between the 353 rare Oriental manuscripts, including 36 Chinese books, and the main part of the collection, composed of some 4,300 items. The sale of the main library

1 Gerald J. Toomer, Apollonius: Conics Books V to VII: The Arabic Translation of the Lost Greek Original in the Version of the Banū Mūsā (New York: Springer, 2012), pp. xxii–xxv.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2021 | doi:10.1163/9789004422247_002

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went ahead, but at the last moment the heirs decided to withdraw the Oriental manuscripts and wait for an individual buyer with substantial means. This did not materialise, and the heirs finally sold the manuscripts at auction almost thirty years later, in 1696. Many of the pieces were bought by Narcissus Marsh, Archbishop of Armagh, who donated them to Leiden’s great rival, the Bodleian. The saga of Jacobus Golius and his Oriental manuscripts is a tale dominated by scholarly ego, rivalry and secrecy, themes common enough in many other stories of passionate book collectors in the early modern period. Yet for all the subterfuge, this is also a tale of publicity. Every twist in the narrative was accompanied by printed catalogues which celebrated, immortalised and publicised Golius’s books. The year after his return from the Levant, the French scholar Pierre Gassendi published a list of the works that Golius had presented to Leiden, ostensibly for the benefit of the Republic of Letters.2 Ten years later, when the University of Leiden re-issued a new catalogue of its collections, it separated out at the end a section for Golius’s books, typeset in graceful Latin and Arabic scripts.3 When the heirs came to sell the library, they had the Leiden booksellers Cornelius Hackius and Felix Lopez de Haro, experts in the auction market, produce a catalogue for the main part of the collection, while the university printers, the widow and heirs of Johannes Elzevier, were responsible for the catalogue of the Oriental manuscripts.4 In 1696, two further catalogues were produced for the sale of the Oriental books, the first a re-issue of the Elzevier quarto catalogue, the second a simpler and cheaper octavo version, without the Arabic titles.5 Although booksellers had used printed catalogues to advertise their stock since the fifteenth century, it was during the seventeenth century that the catalogue came into its own as an indispensable tool of the book market. 2 Catalogus rarorum librorum, quos ex Oriente nuper advexit, & in publica Bibliotheca inclutae Leydensis Academiae deposuit Jacobis Golius (Paris: Antonius Vitré [for Pierre Gassendi], 1630), USTC 6021783. 3 Catalogus bibliothecae publicae Lugduno-Batavae (Leiden: Elzeviriana, 1640), USTC 1028172, ff. a–c4. 4 Catalogus Instructissimae in omni facultate materia ac lingua Bibliothecae, Doctissimi Clarissimique Viri, D. Jacobi Golii (Leiden: Cornelius Hackius and Felix Lopez de Haro, 1668). Catalogus Insignium in omni facultate, linguisque, Arabica, Persica, Turcica, Chinensi, &c. Librorvm M.Ss. Quos Doctissimus Clarissimusque Vir, D. Jacobus Golius (Leiden: widow and heirs of Johannes Elzevier, 1668). 5 Catalogus Insignium in omni facultate, linguisque, Arabica, Persica, Turcica, Chinensi &c. Librorum M.Ss. Quos Doctissimus Clarissimusque Vir D. Jacobus Golius (Leiden: Johannes du Vivié, 1696), in quarto, and Catalogus Insignium in omni facultate, linguisque, Arabica, Persica, Turcica, Chinensi &c. Librorum M.Ss. Quos Doctissimus Clarissimusque Vir D. Jacobus Golius (Leiden: Johannes du Vivié, 1696), in octavo.

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The printed book catalogue became a staple of important publishing firms establishing themselves in the international marketplace. Catalogues were published for thousands of book auctions, of personal libraries sold after the owner’s death, of liquidated bookshop stock and of miscellaneous assortments of books, gathered together by opportunistic booksellers. Printed catalogues also proliferated as guides to institutional collections; as publications to memorialise a great collector, much like a funeral oration or an anthology of celebratory poems; as instructive handbooks, guiding the collector to a fashionable library; and even as crude political satire. Most of all, those who parti­cipated in the early modern book trade, from bookseller to book buyer, engaged with printed catalogues as necessary tools in the business. Lists of books were first and foremost practical instruments. They provided an overview of a collection and ordered it by size, classification and language. While every catalogue reflected the particular make-up of a single collection, all catalogues could essentially be read in the same way. Most cataloguers followed traditional models of organising books by size and faculty that had changed little since the mediaeval era; only towards the eighteenth century did cataloguers begin to question inherited systems of classification.6 The rise of printed book catalogues marks a period in which information on books, in private and institutional hands, became more easily accessible. This was a development that was closely tied to the rise of specialist book auctions, which, by their very nature, required suitable publicity for their success. The same principles of publicity were increasingly adopted by publishers and booksellers, who produced printed catalogues for the use of the book-buying public, as well as for circulation amongst their colleagues in the trade. This should remind us that, although printed catalogues ensured that more information on the availability and ownership of books was made public, these catalogues did not necessarily democratise previously exclusive information. Printed catalogues were especially valued by a lively community of scholars, librarians and booksellers who had to this point regularly copied out and exchanged manuscript lists of books.7 The circulation of catalogues in print was a gradual transformation, one that took place in tandem with the use of print for a wide variety of administrative purposes in early modern Europe. Catalogues augmented the communication circuits of the European book trade: appended to correspondence between booksellers or between a bookseller and client, they were helpful tools that eliminated the need for extensive

6 See chapters fifteen and sixteen, below. 7 See chapter two, below.

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handwritten transcription of book titles. Nevertheless, the increasing use of printed catalogues over the course of the seventeenth century did establish new standards in the book trade. By 1700, printed book catalogues could be found in all regions of Europe. By the middle of the eighteenth century, it was unthinkable that a published catalogue would not accompany a major book collection offered at auction. To the historian of the book, the proliferation of printed catalogues in early modern Europe is without a doubt a blessing. Catalogues offer a goldmine of information on the early modern book trade. They allow scholars to examine questions on the distribution and ownership of books that otherwise would have been extremely difficult to pursue. Catalogues, as historical sources, have their pitfalls, but regardless of their shortcomings, they provide us with a wealth of information that enriches the study of book history and offers whole new pathways to students of material bibliography. To know what books were printed, where, by whom and in what shape and size, is of vital importance to any scholar of the book. Yet to understand a past society, we cannot limit ourselves to questions of production alone: we must consider what happened to books after they left the printer’s workshop. Early modern books were natural travellers. To trace their journeys across time and space, to distant warehouses, to bookshop counters and onto private bookshelves, we can let ourselves be guided by book catalogues. The study of catalogues also provides a useful corrective to scholarly reliance on books that can be found in major research libraries. Early modern books that survive today are not necessarily representative of the whole population of printed matter and, in consequence, overstate their contemporary importance in early modern Europe. Studying book trade catalogues, we can glimpse what books were deemed popular enough to be advertised for sale or auction, and which were used so frequently, that they never made it to a library collection today. Comparing auction catalogues, we can also discover which books, otherwise unstudied today, were owned by virtually all major collectors, while some other texts, which attract much attention from modern historians, were rarely collected. Catalogues therefore provide us with invaluable detail on the international European book trade, but also raise questions on the treacherous tides of reputation and contemporary popularity.

Surveys of Early Modern Book Catalogues

That book catalogues are sources worthy of the attention of the historian was first pointed out comprehensively in 1957 by Archer Taylor in his Book

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Catalogues: Their Varieties and Uses.8 Taylor’s work included a lengthy list of early book catalogues ‘that have been recommended for reference use’; highlighting especially those catalogues deemed of interest to the librarian or cataloguer. This focus encapsulates how catalogues were traditionally studied, as part of a canon of bibliographical information. They were primarily perceived as reference tools which allowed one to locate and accurately describe an edition. This approach generated little interest in catalogues as books themselves, or in the broader context in which they operated. Instead attention concentrated on catalogues famous for their size, breadth or quality of description, like those of La Croix du Maine (1584), the Bodleian Library at Oxford (1605 onwards) and Nicolaas Heinsius (1682). The first systematic overview of early printed catalogues appeared only in 1965. The pioneering survey by Graham Pollard and Albert Ehrman, published for the Roxburghe Club in a print run of 150 copies, offered a chronological and thematic overview of the development of printed catalogues throughout Europe.9 Despite its scholarly rigour, the limited number of copies in circulation ensured that its impact for further work on catalogues was rather dampened. When a copy came onto the market in the early 1990s, it was advertised for sale at £2,750, a price higher than many early modern catalogues may fetch at auction today.10 Pollard and Ehrman’s work remains an invaluable starting point for any work on early modern catalogues, yet its census of sixteenth and seventeenth-century catalogues was, as the authors conceded at publication, of limited scope. Based primarily on the outstanding collection of catalogues in the possession of Albert Ehrman, complemented by information gathered largely from the Bodleian and the British Library, the breadth of the survey was naturally circumscribed. Munby and Coral’s list of British sales catalogues up to 1800 and Alston’s inventory of named sales have since plugged some of the gaps in Pollard and Ehrman for the years when book sales catalogues became a prominent feature of the British book market.11 8

Archer Taylor, Book Catalogues: Their Varieties and Uses (Chicago: The Newberry Library, 1957). A second, revised edition appeared in 1986. 9 Graham Pollard and Albert Ehrman, The Distribution of Books by Catalogue from the Invention of Printing to A.D. 1800 (Cambridge: The Roxburghe Club, 1965). 10 Giles Mandelbrote, ‘A New Edition of The Distribution of Books by Catalogue: Problems and Prospects’, Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, 89 (1995), pp. 399–408, here p. 400. 11 A.N.L. Munby and Lenore Coral, British Book Sale Catalogues, 1676–1800 (London: Mansell, 1977); R.C. Alston, Inventory of Sale Catalogues of Named and Attributed Owners of Books Sold by Retail or Auction, 1676–1800: An Inventory of Sales in the British Isles, America, the United States, Canada and India (2 vols., St Philip, Barbados: Privately Printed for the Author, 2010).

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Further pioneering work took place in the Netherlands, chiefly under the leadership of Bert van Selm. In 1976, Van Selm came across a collection of over six hundred seventeenth-century Dutch book catalogues in the Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel, many of them unique surviving copies. This discovery led Van Selm to an investigation of book catalogues as twin tools for the study of the book trade and the history of collecting. A series of articles in Quaerendo in the early 1980s set out Van Selm’s developing analysis of the first printed auction catalogues and a series of significant sales catalogues of the seventeenth century.12 As Van Selm’s work attracted broader interest, he began work on a systematic survey of Dutch catalogues before 1800. The project was completed by several colleagues after Van Selm’s tragically early death, culminating ultimately in a superb digital resource, Book Sales Catalogues Online, hosted by Brill.13 This unparalleled survey offers access to almost 4,000 surviving Dutch stock and auction catalogues, reproduced from the holdings of over fifty libraries across Europe. Book Sales Catalogues Online remains unsurpassed in comprehensiveness and detail of description. Since the 1990s, surveys for other domains have also been in preparation. A listing of French catalogues, 1630–1715, held in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, saw the light in 1991; a comprehensive list of Danish auction catalogues appeared in 2007.14 Other ventures have concentrated on providing European-wide surveys. Chris Coppens has been preparing a census of sales catalogues before 1600, while Giles Mandelbrote is engaged 12 The articles are to some extent replicated in Van Selm’s excellent Dutch monograph, Een menighte treffelijcke boeken. Nederlandse boekhandelscatalogi in het begin van de zeventiende eeuw (Utrecht: HES, 1987). A helpful summary of Van Selm’s life and achievements is found in Hannie van Goinga, ‘In memorian Bert van Selm, 1945–91’, Quaerendo, 22 (1992), pp. 82–88. Various pieces by Van Selm, as well as a bibliography of his works, are found in his Inzichten en Vergezichten. Zes beschouwingen over het onderzoek naar de geschiedenis van de Nederlandse boekhandel, edited by Hannie van Goinga and Paul Hoftijzer (Amsterdam: De Buitenkant, 1992). 13 See https://primarysources.brillonline.com/browse/book-sales-catalogues-online. The development of BSCO is described extensively by Otto Lankhorst, who made significant discoveries for the project, in his ‘Dutch Book Auctions in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries’, in Robin Myers, Michael Harris and Giles Mandelbrote (eds.), Under the Hammer: Book Auctions since the Seventeenth Century (Newcastle: Oak Knoll Press, London: The British Library, 2001), pp. 77–83. 14 Françoise Bléchet, Les ventes publiques de livres en France, 1630–1715: répertoire des catalogues conservés à la Bibliothèque nationale (Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 1991). See also Annie Charon and Élisabeth Parinet (eds.), Les ventes de livres et leurs catalogues: XVIIe– XXe siècle (Paris: École nationale des chartes, 2000). Harald Ilsøe, Biblioteker til salg, om danske bogauktioner og kataloger 1661–1811 (København: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2007).

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on a revised edition of Pollard and Ehrman’s work.15 Since 1997, Gerhard Loh has worked on a systematic listing of all European printed library and auction catalogues, a venture that now spans eight volumes, and reaches to 1737.16 The MEDIATE team at Nijmegen, whose members have also contributed extensively to this volume, are also working on a survey of auction catalogues, covering the period 1665–1830 for the Dutch Republic, France and the British Isles.17 The present authors, as part of their work on the book culture of the Dutch Republic and for the Universal Short Title Catalogue, have also unearthed references in manuscript records and newspaper advertisements to more than a thousand previously unknown book auctions.18 The foundational work required for these surveys has sparked considerable interest in printed book catalogues as sources for the history of the book trade and book collecting. This is evident not least in the growing number of edited volumes that treat early modern catalogues as objects of historical interest.19 The opportunities afforded by the digital turn has also contributed to the popularity of book catalogues as a subject of study, as they allow for the construction of large datasets and collation with other digital databases. The process of gathering tens and even hundreds of thousands of pieces of data from catalogues allow scholars to answer overarching questions on the economic and social context of the book trade. Without doubt, the coming years will see book trade catalogues used as key sources to provide new insights on

15

C. Coppens, ‘A Census of Printers’ and Booksellers’ Catalogues up to 1600’, Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, 89 (1995), pp. 447–455. Chris Coppens, ‘Fondscatalogi als marketingstrategie. Een onderzoek naar lijsten van drukkers en boekhandelaren tot 1600’, Jaarboek voor Nederlandse boekgeschiedenis, 8 (2001), pp. 27–41. Mandelbrote, ‘A New Edition’. 16 Gerhard Loh, Die europäischen Privatbibliotheken und Buchauktionen (8 vols., Leipzig: Gerhard Loh, 1997–2018). 17 The database is entitled BIBLIO (Bibliography of Individual Book and Library Inventories Online, 1665–1830). See the MEDIATE website: http://mediate18.nl. 18 Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen, The Bookshop of the World. Making and Trading Books in the Dutch Golden Age (London: Yale University Press, 2019). USTC: https://www.ustc.ac.uk/. 19 The most notable volumes are: Reinhard Wittmann (ed.), Bücherkataloge als buchgeschichtliche quellen in der frühen neuzeit (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1984), Malcolm Walsby and Natasha Constantinidou (eds.), Documenting the Early Modern Book World: Inventories and Catalogues in Manuscript and Print (Leiden: Brill, 2013), P. Rueda Ramírez and Ll. Agustí (eds.), La publicidad del libro en el mundo hispánico (siglos XVII– XX): los catálogos de venta de libreros y editores (Madrid: Calambur, 2016) and Giovanna Granata and Angela Nuovo (eds.), Selling & Collecting: Printed Book Sale Catalogues and Private Libraries in Early Modern Europe (Macerata: eum, 2018).

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the history of book prices, international distribution, collecting habits and the identification of lost books.20

Development and Typology

Manuscript lists preceded all printed catalogues. In the process of gathering material for a published catalogue, a bookseller, auctioneer, secretary or clerk will have worked with multiple overlapping manuscript catalogues to order the material appropriately. What emerged as a printed catalogue was naturally a consequence of this process of collation. The rich profusion of catalogue styles was also a result of local bookselling practices and custom: catalogues from the Netherlands invariably have a different look to those from Copenhagen, London or Paris. For these reasons, printed book catalogues appear in various shapes and sizes. They can range from broadsheets and short pamphlets to chunky duodecimos or substantial folios. They tend to follow either an alphabetical structure, most common in retail catalogues, bookseller auction catalogues and institutional catalogues, or a structure based on subject classifications and sizes, more characteristic of auction catalogues. These structures can also be blended: a catalogue can be organised first by size, subdivided by classification, or vice versa. Some catalogues, mimicking inventories, resemble the order in which books were found on the shelves of a library or bookshop. Others are seemingly random, but one can still trace the influence of a cataloguer or auctioneer within them, placing certain high value items at the start of a section, or grouping similar items – packets of pamphlets, forbidden books or works on topography – within the catalogue. Essentially, we can distinguish two major types of book trade catalogues: retail and auction catalogues. Retail or sales catalogues are the older form of the two. The earliest extant examples are broadsheet announcements for forthcoming books from the late 1460s. The very first printers were keenly aware that their invention required sustained publicity to establish a secure place in the market.21 The typographical development of the title-page, a crucial invention 20 Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen, ‘What was published in the seventeenthcentury Dutch Republic?’, Livre. Revue Historique (2018), pp. 1–22. Id, ‘Publicity and its Uses. Lost Books as Revealed in Newspaper Advertisements in the Seventeenth-Century Dutch Republic’, in Flavia Bruni and Andrew Pettegree (eds.), Lost Books. Reconstructing the Print World of Pre-Industrial Europe (Leiden: Brill, 2016), pp. 202–222. 21 There is a helpful table in Pollard and Ehrman, Distribution of Books by Catalogue, pp. 32–39. See also Falk Eisermann and Volker Honemann, ‘Die ersten typografischen Einblattdrucke’, Gutenberg Jahrbuch, 75 (2000), pp. 88–131. For early publicity more

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of the print trade in its infant years, ultimately rendered announcements for single books obsolete. It was easier to run-off additional copies of a title-page and circulate these amongst colleagues in the trade, or exhibit them outside shops and stalls. Broadsheets did remain in use when printers wished to advertise a whole range of items printed at their shop, or stock available for sale.22 In his Bibliotheca Universalis (1545), the scholar and bibliographer Conrad Gesner wrote that Most printers and booksellers, especially those furnished with the more learned sort of books, have broadsides and lists of books which they have printed or have for sale, and some of these have actually been printed as booklets.23 Gesner’s hint of surprise that stock catalogues could also appear as pamphlets was because this was a pioneering development of his day. The earliest extant octavo retail catalogues appeared in the later 1530s, in Basel, right at the time when Gesner was a student at the university there. By the 1540s, they were also used in Gesner’s hometown of Zürich as well as in Paris and Lyon.24 As Gesner indicated, these catalogues were issued exclusively by publishers who were significant players in the international scholarly market. The firms of Froben, Gryphius, Estienne, Wechel, Froschauer and Colines were some of the most important typographer-booksellers of the era, residing in the busiest print centres of Europe. To Gesner, these retail catalogues were helpful sources for his universal bibliography; to the publishers who issued them, they were tools with which to announce themselves in foreign markets, as well as distinguish themselves in their own competitive centres. Given that many of these early catalogues advertised works produced by the publisher, rather than general broadly, Elizabeth L. Eisenstein, Divine Art, Infernal Machine. The Reception of Printing in the West from First Impressions to the Sense of an Ending (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011). 22 G. Richter, Verlegerplakate des xvi. und xvrii. Jahrhunderts bis zum Begin des Dreissig­ jährigen Krieges (Wiesbaden: Guido Pressler, 1965). R. Engelsing, Deutsche Bücherplakate des 17. Jahrhunderts (Wiesbaden: Guido Pressler, 1971). 23 Cited in Pollard and Ehrman, Distribution of Books by Catalogue, pp. 47–48. 24 See for a preliminary listing, Coppens, ‘Fondscatalogi als marketingstrategie’, pp. 36–41. See also Christian Coppens, ‘A Census of Publishers’ and Booksellers’ Catalogues up to 1600: Some Provisional Conclusions’, The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, 102 (2008), pp. 557–567 and Idem, ‘Marketing the Early Printed Book: Publishers’ and Booksellers’ Advertisements and Catalogues’, De Gulden Passer, 92 (2014), pp. 155–180.

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figure 1.1 A typical sixteenth-century retail catalogue, issued by Christopher Froschauer in Zürich in 1581. Index librorum, quos Christophorus Froschouerus Tiguri hactenus suis typis excudit ([Zürich: Christoph II Froschauer], 1581), USTC 666557 Zentralbibliothek Zürich, Res 1413, https://doi.org/10.3931/e-rara-4861

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figure 1.2 Most early retail and stock catalogues were structured by subject classifications, but otherwise did not have sophisticated sub-divisions. A page from Index librorum, quos Christophorus Froschouerus Tiguri hactenus suis typis excudit ([Zürich: Christoph II Froschauer], 1581), USTC 666557 Zentralbibliothek Zürich, Res 1413, https://doi.org/10.3931/e-rara-4861

13

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stock, it is likely that the principal use of the catalogues was to facilitate the exchange of stock amongst booksellers in the international trade.25 By the 1560s and 1570s, publishers in other major centres of the European print trade, including Antwerp, Venice and Geneva, had also issued octavo or quarto retail catalogues. The contents of these catalogues were generally divided by language and subject classifications. Given the small size of the catalogues, publishers rarely organised the titles within these classifications in any particular order. Information remained restricted to author, title, format, and, in some cases, price. The presence of printed prices is remarkable, as this was a feature which was largely abandoned during the course of the seventeenth century, only to reappear in force in the eighteenth century.26 The presence of these printed prices reinforces the notion that the catalogues were predominantly for use within the trade, rather than used as tools to entice individual retail customers, who, depending on their status and the size of their order, might be charged different prices. Before the end of the sixteenth century, at least 280 retail and stock catalogues had been produced throughout Europe.27 To this we can add another innovation of the era, the term catalogues of the Frankfurt Fair. The city of Frankfurt was home to the greatest book fair in Europe, the place where publishers from around the continent sold their wares, exchanged publications with colleagues and took note of the latest typographical developments. In 1564, the Augsburg publisher Georg Willer issued the first term catalogue, a quarto pamphlet of twenty pages, listing some 250 books for sale at the Fair.28 The subsequent catalogues, published twice a year (for the spring and autumn fairs) in Frankfurt and from 1594 onwards also in Leipzig, grew in size as other booksellers attending the fairs took note. By the early seventeenth century, most instalments included over 600 books. Material for the catalogues was compiled from title-pages or slips of paper sent in by attending booksellers; the books were then organised, like most early retail catalogues, by language 25

For an insight into such practices, see Barbara C. Halporn, The correspondence of Johann Amerbach: early printing in its social context (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2000). 26 Bert van Selm, ‘Some Amsterdam stock catalogues with printed prices from the first half of the seventeenth century’, Quaerendo, 10 (1980), pp. 3–46. 27 Chris Coppens and Angela Nuovo, ‘Printed catalogues of booksellers as a source for the history of the book trade’, in Granata and Nuovo (eds.), Selling & Collecting, pp. 145–160, here p. 150. 28 Georg Willer, Novorum librorum, quos nundinae autumnales, Francoforti anno 1564. Celebratae, venales exhibuerunt, catalogus ([Lauingen: Emanuel Saltzer], 1564), USTC 678653. The fair catalogues, from 1594 onwards, can be found at http://olmsonline.sub .uni-goettingen.de/en/kollektionen/messkataloge.

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and classification. The fair catalogues opened with Lutheran Theology, followed by Catholic and then Calvinist books. Works on Law, Medicine and the Arts followed, before the classifications were repeated for the German books. There were shorter sections on books in other vernaculars, and in the seventeenth century the catalogues concluded with books presented by publishers ‘not attending the fair’ and those books ‘to be presented at future fairs’.29 The fair catalogues were undoubtedly a success. At the end of the sixteenth century fair authorities took over their supervision, and the exclusive privilege for printing the catalogues became the pride of the two main firms which maintained these for over a century, Latomus in Frankfurt and Grosse in Leipzig. It seems that the catalogues functioned most effectively for those traders, scholars and book collectors who were unable to be present at the fairs, but could thus avail themselves of the latest information on forthcoming books. During the 1620s, the catalogues were frequently reprinted in London for English buyers; Thomas Bodley used them to expand the holdings of the Bodleian Library in Oxford. Some publishers went one step further: in Amsterdam, Cornelis Claesz produced a series of catalogues in which he advertised which books he had been able to acquire at the fair, and could now sell to his local clientele in the Netherlands.30 The fair catalogues enjoyed their greatest popularity in the period spanning 1580–1620, when the geographical spread of the booksellers supplying information on new books was at its greatest. As the fairs became more concentrated on the trade within the Holy Roman Empire, new ventures for term catalogues sprang up elsewhere. In the Netherlands, the Amsterdam printer Broer Jansz produced a series of bi-annual term catalogues of all books printed in the Dutch Republic, organised on very similar grounds as the fair catalogues, but with a different series of subject classifications.31 Jansz’s Catalogus Universalis even mimicked the fair catalogues in the title; sadly, the venture lasted only for the period 1639–1653. In Paris, the bibliographer Louis Jacob produced a series of term catalogues for the publication of French books, under the titles Bibliographia Parisina and Bibliographia Gallica universalis; these too appeared during the 1640s and early 1650s. By the end of the seventeenth century, major series of term catalogues were published in Amsterdam, Geneva and London, 29 30 31

For these developments see chapter ten, below. Van Selm, ‘Some Amsterdam stock catalogues’, pp. 9–10. On Claesz and his catalogues, see also Pettegree and Der Weduwen, Bookshop of the World, pp. 40–44. H.W. de Kooker (ed.), The Catalogus Universalis of Broer Jansz (1640–1652) (Utrecht: HES, 1986). The first sixteen issues survive; the seventeenth, published in 1653 by Jansz’s successor Jan Jacobsz Bouman, does not.

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which effectively complemented the increasingly German focus of the fair catalogues.32 By the late seventeenth century, book traders and collectors could also avail themselves of a great range of stock catalogues published by individual firms. These still included a traditional range of catalogues listing books produced by a specific printing house, but these were now dwarfed by general stock catalogues, advertising the entire range of titles available in a bookshop. The total number published throughout Europe for the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is not yet known, but up to 1700, there were a minimum of 200 published in the Dutch Republic, and another 1,000 by 1800. These stock catalogues were issued primarily by booksellers who competed in the international book trade, most notably the Elzeviers, Janssonius and Blaeu firms in the Dutch Republic, and the De Tournes family in Geneva. Throughout the seventeenth century, these catalogues ranged from a couple of thousand titles to the famous 1674 stock catalogue of Daniel Elzevier, a duodecimo of 770 pages, listing 18,247 titles.33 The larger stock catalogues, generally published in octavo or duodecimo formats, tended to organise books alphabetically by subject and language. They are without doubt a demonstration of the influence of firms like that of Elzevier in the European trade; at his death, Daniel Elzevier was owed money for orders from his shop from booksellers in thirty-nine towns in the Southern Netherlands, France, England, Germany, Scandinavia and Portugal.34 He similarly acquired stock from all over Europe, as did his peers in the international trade. To Joan Blaeu or Johannes Janssonius, issuing an enormous stock catalogue was a calling card that bolstered their reputation at home and abroad. To highlight their permanent presence in the international trade, some prominent publishers, like Reinier Leers in Rotterdam, took to issuing new stock catalogues at regular intervals.35

32

The Amsterdam term catalogues, twenty-two issues from the 1670s and 1680s, appeared with the Janssonius-Waesberge firm; the Geneva catalogues with the De Tournes; and the London catalogues, over 160 between 1668 and 1711, appeared under the title Mercurius Librarius, published by John Starkey and Robert Clavell. 33 Catalogus librorum (Amsterdam: Daniel Elzevier, 1674). 34 See the list in B.P.M. Dongelmans, ‘Elzevier addenda et corrigenda’, in B.P.M. Dongelmans, etc. (eds.), Boekverkopers van Europa. Het 17de-eeuwse Nederlandse uitgevershuis Elzevier (Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 2000), pp. 53–58. 35 Leers issued ten numbered stock catalogues between 1691 and 1706. See also Otto S. Lankhorst, Reinier Leers (1654–1714): uitgever & boekverkoper te Rotterdam (Amsterdam: APA-Holland Universiteits Pers, 1983).

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Stock catalogues could also be used to target a specific audience. Several Dutch booksellers issued catalogues of their stock in branch offices abroad: the Janssonius-Waesberge firm issued such catalogues in Denmark, Sweden, Leipzig and Danzig.36 Robert Scott and Samuel Buckley in London printed specialist catalogues of books that they had imported from the European continent.37 Catalogues covered specific genres like music books or cartography.38 Some booksellers used a mix of approaches, like Adriaen Moetjens in The Hague, who published a range of different catalogues. These included a substantial stock catalogue of over 4,000 titles available at his shop, as well as several shorter catalogues, offering a bespoke selection of books ‘printed by him, or of which he has a large number [of copies] available’, and finally, inserting concise lists of books, ‘to be found with him’, at the end of his own publications, filling in the unused pages of the final sheet.39 These short stock lists, generally less detailed than the larger international stock catalogues, became increasingly popular from the end of the seventeenth century onwards. The second major type of book trade catalogue was the auction catalogue. If retail and stock catalogues developed rapidly as a phenomenon across Europe, printed auction catalogues developed, geographically speaking, in a more restricted manner. Books are known to have been sold at auction as part of bankruptcy and estate sales in the manuscript age and during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, but specialist book auctions, accompanied by catalogues, were an invention of the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic.40 The first extant catalogue is that of the auction of the library of Philips van Marnix van Sint Aldegonde, a writer, statesman and hero of the Dutch Revolt, which 36 See chapter eleven, below. 37 Catalogus librorum ex variis Europæ partibus advectorum (London: Robert Scott, 1674). Catalogus librorum præstantiorumb (Ex Hollandia nuperrimè Advectorum) quibus bibliopoulium suum extruxit Samuel Buckley (London: s.n., 1695). 38 For music books, see the Catalogus librorum musicorum, qui venales reperiuntur in officina Ioannis à Doorn bibliopole Trajectensis (Utrecht: Jan van Doorn, 1644), USTC 1515412. For cartography see for example several reproduced in Peter van der Krogt (ed.), Stock catalogues of maps and atlases by Covens & Mortier (Utrecht: HES, 1992). 39 For some examples, see Catalogue des livres de Adrien Moetjens ([The Hague: Adriaen Moetjens, 1682]) and Catalogue des livres de Hollande, de France et des autres pays (La Haye: Adriaen Moetjens, 1700). An example of one of his stock lists is found in William Temple, Memoires de ce qui s’est passé dans la Chretienté, depuis le commencement de la guerre en 1672, jusqu’à la paix coucluë en 1679 (La Haye: Adrian Moetjens, 1692), ff. V2–3. 40 On the development of the first Dutch auction catalogues, see Bert van Selm, ‘The introduction of the printed book auction catalogue’, Quaerendo, 15 (1985), pp. 16–53 and 115– 149. See also Lotte Hellinga, ‘Book Auctions in the Fifteenth Century’, in her Incunabula in Transit: People and Trade (Leiden: Brill, 2018), pp. 6–19.

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figure 1.3 A four-page stock list, printed at the end of William Temple’s Memoires by the publisher, Adriaen Moetjens (1692) Private Collection, Arthur der Weduwen

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took place in Leiden in 1599.41 Another thirty catalogues survive from Dutch book auctions from the first decade of the seventeenth century, after which the auction market developed at a swift pace. We know that some 4,000 book auctions took place in the Dutch Republic before 1700; estimates for the eighteenth century suggest that another 10,000 book auctions occurred then.42 We can assume that a printed catalogue was produced to accompany each of these auctions. Already by the 1630s, this was a municipal requirement in Leiden, the principal centre of Dutch book auctions. Other cities, including Amsterdam, issued similar by-laws. The fact that virtually all book auctions in the Dutch Republic were held by booksellers, many of whom were also printers, rather than municipal auction-masters, helps explain why catalogues were printed at such an early stage. It is also noteworthy that Dutch book auctions were managed separately from the sale of other personal possessions or goods, except for other items that might be found in a library, like globes, bookcases or prints. The majority of Dutch book auctions took place in the province of Holland, in the cities of Leiden, Amsterdam and The Hague. Leiden, as the leading university town and an important centre of the international book trade, attracted the libraries of collectors from across the country. Yet from extant catalogues and newspaper advertisements, we also know that book auctions were held throughout the entire Dutch Republic, even in small towns of a couple of thousand inhabitants, like Tiel or Zierikzee, and that catalogues would be produced locally for these occasions too. That the Dutch were unsentimental about realising the value of their book collections was certainly the case, a tendency fostered largely by the efficiency of the book trade, and the demand for second-hand books in a highly urban and literate society.43 It is nevertheless striking how slowly specialist book auctions and printed book catalogues emerged in other parts of Europe. The first printed catalogue appeared in the Southern Netherlands as early as 1614, but a busy auction market had to wait for the final decades of the seventeenth century.44 Before 1650, auctions with 41 Catalogus librorum bibliothecae Philippi Marnixii Sancto-Aldegondii. Catalogue van de boecken (Leiden: Christoffel Guyot, 1599), USTC 429893. 42 See chapter four, below. See also Arthur der Weduwen and Andrew Pettegree, The Dutch Republic and the Birth of Modern Advertising (Leiden: Brill, 2020), pp. 98–99. J.A. Gruys, ‘Rijklof Michael van Goens. Het mysterie van de 24.200 verdwenen catalogi’, in Ton Croiset van Uchelen and Hannie van Goinga (eds.), Van pen tot laser: 31 opstellen over boek en schrift (Amsterdam: De Buitenkant, 1996), pp. 150–156. Hannie van Goinga, ‘Books on the move: public book auctions in the Dutch Republic, 1711–1805, mainly in Amsterdam, Groningen, The Hague and Leiden’, Quaerendo, 35 (2005), pp. 65–95. 43 Pettegree and Der Weduwen, Bookshop of the World, especially pp. 294–318. 44 See chapter three, below.

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printed catalogues are known to have taken place in no more than twenty cities outside the Dutch Republic, mainly in the Holy Roman Empire and Spain, as well as Louvain and Paris. Yet in these places, auction catalogues appeared incidentally, rather than regularly. It is only from 1661 onwards that we can clearly identify a second great auction market, in Copenhagen, followed in 1676 by London.45 It is striking that the early development of the auction catalogue was predominantly a northern European phenomenon. It coincides with the general gravitation of the European book trade from the Mediterranean to northern Germany, the Dutch Republic and London, yet this is not enough to explain the appearance of hundreds of auction catalogues in Denmark, a peripheral part of the European book trade, compared to a handful for seventeenth-century Italy, or the great cities of southern Germany. It seems that in large parts of Europe, it remained common to sell entire libraries to a single buyer, or to sell them to booksellers, rather than try to realise their value on the open market. Outside the Dutch Republic, the book auction market developed only in great cities, where one could find the necessary market to offload large quantities of books at decent prices. Even in Leiden and London there was considerable concern amongst the bookselling communities about the damaging flood of cheap books that auctions might unleash, and in consequence auctions were initially strictly regulated. Once the Dutch bookselling community woke up to the possibilities afforded by auctions, not least the welcome five to ten per cent commission fee that the auctioneer took home, book auctions became regular events. Auction catalogues can be divided into three principal types: those auctioning personal libraries, booksellers’ stock, and ‘anonymous collections’, often a mixture of a bookseller’s stock and smaller personal libraries. There were invariably variations on these, including auctions of multiple libraries sold together, of a library auction which was accompanied by a selection of bookshop stock, as well as stock auctions, restricted to members of the book trade and closed to the general public. There are also some instances, although not very numerous, of auctions of surplus stock from institutional collections.46 Auction catalogues could vary greatly in size, depending on the size of the collection at auction. Some auctions took months, if not years, to conclude, 45 46

See chapters five and eleven, below. For Copenhagen, see Auctio Librorum Rarissimorum Variorum Linguarum & Facultatum ex Bib. Acad Hafniensis selectorum. In aedibus Thomae Bartholini Acad Bibliothecarii (Hafniae: Gödianus, [1675]). For Gouda, see Catalogus Librorum variorum, quorum Auctio habebitur in Templo Divi Joannis (Gouda: Willem van der Hoeve, 1669).

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figure 1.4 A typical auction catalogue. This Danish example (1672) lists the library of Christian Ostenfeld, late professor of medicine at the university of Copenhagen. Catalogus variorum atq; insignium librorum excellentissimi viri Christiani Ostenfeld (Hafniae: Matthiae Godicchenii, 1672). Det Kongelige Biblioteket, Copenhagen

and required multiple catalogues. Many auctions took only a single day, and required a catalogue of eight or sixteen pages. Some of the smallest book auctions that required a catalogue in the Dutch Republic were no larger than one or two hundred books; the largest libraries, on the other hand, could run into the tens of thousands of items. Most auction catalogues were published in quarto format, but over time, they were also issued as octavos and duodecimos. Despite these differences, printed catalogues exhibited multiple common features. They announced the location, times and dates of the sale, sometimes

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leaving a blank space to be filled in by hand. The title-page was often given over to a lengthy description of the contents of the collection at auction, listing the characteristics and qualities of the books. Certain phrases, like ‘rare’, ‘beautiful’, ‘excellent’, ‘well-conditioned’, ‘curious’ and ‘wonderful’ appeared as regular tropes, but the descriptions also highlighted whether a collection was rich in books in unusual languages, or was comprised predominantly of books in particular disciplines, like medicine or theology.47 Auction catalogues of personal libraries would typically also devote space to a description of the late owner and their profession. Conditions of sale were often stipulated on the reverse side of the title-page; in the Dutch Republic this included a warning that the excise duty raised on the proceeds of auctions would be passed on to the buyer. The internal structure of auction catalogues was generally very different from that of retail catalogues. One key identifying feature was the presence of lot numbers, which were introduced by Dutch auctioneers within a couple of decades of the first Marnix catalogue. Auction catalogues of personal libraries or ‘anonymous’ collections were most often divided by format and language, and sometimes, for the larger collections, further divided by subject classification. Auction catalogues consisting of booksellers’ stock, however, were sometimes structured identically to their retail catalogues, and used an alphabetical structure. How a collection was sold could differ. In Amsterdam, auctions often started at the end of the catalogue, with the smallest formats, and worked their way to the quartos and folios, whereas this was the reverse in The Hague, as well as in England.48 Sometimes catalogues specified the order of sale, but in general it can be presumed that the Amsterdam model was less common. Sadly, further specific information on the actual process of early modern auctions is frustratingly limited, and rarely divulged on the printed catalogues. Manuscript annotations on surviving copies of catalogues can offer some snippets of information.49 A word should be spared here too for those printed catalogues which were not produced as auction catalogues, but which were ultimately used as such. 47

On the often exaggerated rhetoric of book auction catalogues, see Christiane BerkvensStevelinck, ‘“Rarus, rarior, rarissimus” ou de la qualification exagérée des livres dans les catalogues de vente’, in J. van Borm and L. Simons (eds.), Het oude en het nieuwe boek. De oude en de nieuwe bibliotheek (Kapellen: DNB/Pelckmans, 1988), pp. 235–240 and David McKitterick, The Invention of Rare Books: Private Interest and Public Memory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018), pp. 135–145. 48 Lankhorst, ‘Dutch Book Auctions’, pp. 76–77. Giles Mandelbrote, ‘The Organization of Book Auctions in Late Seventeenth-Century London’, in Robin Myers, Michael Harris and Giles Mandelbrote (eds.), Under the Hammer: Book Auctions since the Seventeenth Century (Newcastle: Oak Knoll Press, London: The British Library, 2001), pp. 15–50. 49 See chapters six, seven and thirteen, below.

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Some owners of distinguished libraries had catalogues published of their collections, as gifts for their friends or benefactors; others were published after the owner’s death by the family or heirs as a memorial. These practices were common in France, but also known elsewhere, including Italy.50 Some of these catalogues, like that drawn up for the library of George Guillaume of Hohendorf, even included lot numbers, so that they could be used at auction; in this instance, however the entire collection was bought for the Emperor’s Hofbibliothek at Vienna.51 Issuing a printed catalogue in this fashion clearly also served to entice potential buyers to acquire the library in one fell swoop.

Collecting Catalogues

By the middle of the eighteenth century, book trade catalogues were ubiquitous throughout Europe. They were so well entrenched in scholarly and literary circles that they spawned a new genre of satirical book catalogues, used as literary devices, jokes amongst friends or political polemic.52 Some of these satirical catalogues, like that produced to insult Professor Pieter Burman of Utrecht, mimicked the style of an actual auction catalogue with such meticulousness that, barring the comical titles, they may be taken for an authentic catalogue.53 The four different fictional book catalogues produced on the murder of the Dutch Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt in 1672 testify to the cruelty of the genre.54 Like many types of print, most auction catalogues were rendered obsolete as soon as the auction for which they have been produced was finished. Retail catalogues were also in danger of becoming redundant soon after issue, especially if a bookseller followed on with a new catalogue, or if they had sold or 50

A fine example is the catalogue drawn up for the library of Cardinal Joannes Gualterius Slusius: see François Jacques Deseine, Bibliotheca Slusiana sive librorum quos ex omnigena rei literariae materia Joannes Gualterus sanctae romanae ecclesia Cardinalis Slusius Leodiensis sibi Romae congeserat (Rome: Ex Typographia Joannis Jacobi Komarek Bohemi, 1690). On France, see chapter thirteen, below. 51 Bibliotheca Hohendorfiana, ou Catalogue de la bibliotheque de feu monsieur George Guillaume baron de Hohendorf (La Haye: Abraham de Hondt, 1720). 52 Anne-Pascale Pouey-Mounou and Paul J. Smith (eds.), Early Modern Catalogues of Imaginary Books: A Scholarly Anthology (Leiden: Brill, 2020). 53 Catalogus Van eenige raare, door veel moeyten by een gezogte schoone Boeken En Manuscripten; Nevens verscheyde fraaye Rariteyten, Van den alomvermaarden en Hoog-geleerden Heer Professor Petrus Burmannus ([Utrecht, s.n., 1709]). 54 Pettegree and Der Weduwen, Bookshop of the World, pp. 316–318.

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liquidated their stock. For this reason, most copies of the printed catalogues were soon discarded; in consequence, book trade catalogues are among the rarest surviving genres in the print trade. Many of the 280 stock catalogues known for the sixteenth century survive in only a single copy, some as fragments used as paste-downs in book bindings. Over 2,000 Dutch catalogues documented in Brill’s Book Sales Catalogues Online are also unique survivors, while another 482 survive in only two copies; in contrast, only 120 catalogues in the same resource survive in more than ten copies.55 Many other catalogues have disappeared entirely: thousands of auction catalogues are known to us only thanks to the newspapers in which they were advertised, or municipal archives in which they are registered, usually to document whether a registration fee had been paid.56 Stock catalogues are rarely referenced in similar fashion, and are probably subject to an even heavier rate of loss than we can currently document. We do know that book trade catalogues were distributed widely upon publication. Information on print runs is scarce, but they are likely to have increased over time. One of the earliest Dutch auction catalogues from Leiden, concerning the library of the merchant Daniel van der Meulen (1601), was printed in only 189 copies.57 Fifty years later, the catalogue for the auction of André Rivet’s library in 1657 was printed in 600 copies.58 Another half-century later, the auction catalogue of the library of professor Paulus Hermann (1705) was printed in Leiden in 1,000 copies: for this instance we know that the auctioneer and the widow of the professor agreed that an unspecified number would be sent abroad, that the widow would receive fifty copies herself and that the remainder was for sale in the Netherlands.59 Around 1651, the Frankfurt and Leipzig fair catalogues were produced in runs of 1,200 copies; they too clearly made their way around the European continent.60 British auction catalogues may have circulated in smaller quantities, given that their market was largely internal. The catalogues issued for the sales of Thomas Rawlinson’s books, held over a series of auctions between 1722 and 1734, were printed in around 300 copies

55 See chapter four, below. 56 Arthur der Weduwen and Andrew Pettegree, News, Business and Public Information. Advertisements and Announcements in Dutch and Flemish Newspapers, 1620–1675 (Leiden: Brill, 2020). 57 Van Selm, ‘The introduction of the printed book auction catalogue’, pp. 40–41. 58 See chapter seven, below. 59 See the entry on Book Sales Catalogues Online, following a reference by Paul Hoftijzer to the Leiden archive, NA 1318, nr. 121. 60 See chapter ten, below.

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each.61 Sometimes, the title-page of an auction catalogue was also printed in a larger, separate print run, so that it could be used as a small poster or handbill.62 It seems that most British catalogues were distributed for free, a fact frequently mentioned on the title-pages. In the Netherlands, this was not the case. The interested purchaser would pay much the same for a copy of a stock or auction catalogue as for any quarto book of similar size. One can imagine though that booksellers might circulate their stock catalogues for free to other members of the book trade, in the hope that they might place orders. From newspaper advertisements, we know that auction catalogues could be found in many bookshops, usually with a network of distributors who co-operated regularly. The first advertisements for book auctions appear in Amsterdam newspapers from the 1630s; these became a staple of the Dutch press by the 1660s.63 Already by 1675, some 250 booksellers from thirty-five towns had been named in Dutch newspapers as distributors of auction catalogues. Even if most auctions took place in Holland, book collectors from every part of the country could find a local bookshop that stocked these catalogues; Dutch catalogues were also regularly available in the Southern Netherlands, northern Germany and London.64 By the middle of the eighteenth century, some Dutch book auction catalogues, like that of the library of Count Wassenaar Obdam, were advertised for sale in over thirty cities outside the Dutch Republic.65 In London, auctions were also frequently advertised in newspapers, and it is clear that no major auction took place without a fanfare of publicity in multiple papers.66 Those book trade catalogues that do survive today also offer us hints about their widespread distribution. It is remarkable that over three quarters of all extant Dutch catalogues cannot be located in the Netherlands. They are to be found predominantly in libraries abroad: in Germany, Denmark, Great Britain, France, Italy and Russia. The catalogues made their way to these destinations 61 Mandelbrote, ‘The Organization of Book Auctions’, p. 28. 62 Van Selm, ‘The introduction of the printed book auction catalogue’, pp. 117–118. 63 Der Weduwen and Pettegree, The Dutch Republic and the Birth of Modern Advertising, chapters three, six and seven. Id, News, Business and Public Information, p. 44 for the first advertisement, and the indices for a full overview. 64 For a nice example, see Catalogus Rarissimorum & vere Insignium in omni materia, Instructissimae Bibliothecae Clarissimi & Consultissimi Viri D.W. Snellonii (Leiden: Petrus van der Aa, 1691), ff. *2. 65 Lankhorst, ‘Dutch book auctions’, p. 67. 66 Michael Harris, ‘Newspaper Advertising for Book Auctions before 1700’, in Robin Myers, Michael Harris and Giles Mandelbrote (eds.), Under the Hammer: Book Auctions since the Seventeenth Century (Newcastle: Oak Knoll Press, London: The British Library, 2001), pp. 1–14.

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early in their life, as tools for book dealers and as reference works for book collectors. Surviving copies are invariably bound together with other catalogues, making up substantial volumes of five, ten or thirty catalogues. That the catalogues were bound in such Sammelbände indicates that some copies were deemed worth keeping. Clearly, the further away from their place of publication, the rarer and therefore more valuable such catalogues became. Dutch catalogues easily available in Leiden and Amsterdam were not so in Stockholm or Rome. In early modern Europe, there was undoubtedly a commercial market for a certain class of book catalogue, which included the catalogues of institutional libraries. The catalogues of the Bodleian Library in Oxford, the university library of Leiden, and the city library of Amsterdam, all of which went through several editions in the course of the seventeenth century, were frequently found in the collections of scholars, as well as available for sale at bookshops. To those like Duke Augustus the Younger of Braunschweig-Lüneburg, who gathered together an extraordinary library in Wolfenbüttel, collecting and preserving book trade catalogues was an important means of following the market. He used the catalogues to identify desired editions, so that he could pass on relevant instructions to his book agents, spread around the major cities of Europe.67 Humbler collectors could keep a catalogue for similar reasons. In 1651, the Groningen University student Anton von Dorth, from Wesel, bought a copy of the auction catalogue of the Amsterdam bookseller Hendrick Laurensz, whose stock had been sold in the summer of 1649. This substantial catalogue, listing 8,418 titles, was interleaved by Van Dorth, and used as his own private library catalogue, to note books that he wished to acquire, and as a comparative price list, so that he could purchase a title at the most competitive rate possible.68 Collectors used auction catalogues in particular to study the market. It is for this reason that so many auction catalogues survive today with handwritten prices in the margins. Some of these seem to have been drawn up during the auction, and display a rushed writing style; others are extremely neat, and clearly transcribed after the auction took place. Some auction catalogues became so valued for their use as reference tools, that they were reprinted after the auction had taken place. This was most 67 Helwig Schmidt-Glintzer (ed.), A Treasure House of Books. The Library of Duke August of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1998), especially the article by Helmar Härtel, ‘Duke August and his Book Agents’, pp. 105–118. See also Marika Keblusek, Boeken in de Hofstad. Haagse boekcultuur in de Gouden Eeuw (Hilversum: Verloren, 1997), pp. 246–267. 68 Gerda C. Huisman, ‘Inservio studiis Antonii a Dorth Vesaliensis: The many uses of a seventeenth-century book sales catalogue’, Quærendo, 41 (2011), pp. 276–285.

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notably the case with the catalogue of the library of the Dutch scholar Nicolaas Heinsius, which went through several editions in 1682 and 1683, many copies of which survive today interleaved, as well as annotated with prices.69 The auction catalogue of the library of Jacques Oisel, professor at Groningen, was first printed in 1687, and then reprinted in 1690, 1692 and 1698.70 Incidentally, thanks to Oisel’s catalogue, we know that he was an avid collector of book catalogues himself. He owned dozens of auction and stock catalogues, divided amongst twenty Sammelbände.71

Reading a Catalogue

This volume contains a rich array of articles which reflect on, and use book trade catalogues as historical sources. They shed new light on book trade practices, on patterns of book collecting and on the classification and organisation of knowledge. The myriad uses of catalogues make them an essential source for the historian who seeks to understand European society in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. For that reason we should also reflect on limitations of book trade catalogues: what do they not tell us? The primary aim of catalogues is to describe books, but the standard or quality of description varies considerably throughout the early modern period and between classes of catalogues. In general, it can be expected that book trade catalogues, as tools of marketing, describe books in more specific terms than manuscript probate inventories, which include books only for their general material value.72 Household inventories often note only ‘a number of books’, distributed amongst various rooms, with no further details; when they are more fully described, this usually has to do with the value of their bindings. More extensive probate inventories list books by author, title and size, 69 John A. Sibbald, ‘The Heinsiana – Almost a Seventeenth-Century Universal Short Title Catalogue’, in Walsby and Constantinidou, Documenting the Early Modern Book World, pp. 141–159. 70 See Pettegree and Der Weduwen, Bookshop of the World, pp. 292–293. 71 Bibliotheca Oizeliana (Leiden: Jacobus Hackius, 1687), pp. 165–167. For a further wellknown early example, see Angela Nuovo, ‘Gian Vincenzo Pinelli’s collection of catalogues of private libraries in sixteenth-century Europe’, Gutenberg Jahrbuch, 82 (2007), pp. 129–144. 72 Giorgio Riello, ‘“Things seen and unseen”: The material culture of early modern inventories and their representation of domestic interiors’, in Paula Findlen (ed.), Early Modern Things: Objects and their histories, 1500–1800 (Abingdon: Routledge, 2013), pp. 125–150. Malcolm Walsby, ‘Book Lists and Their Meaning’, in Walsby and Constantinidou (eds.), Documenting the Early Modern Book World, pp. 1–24.

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the minimal qualities of description that one can expect to find in book trade catalogues. Many printed catalogues, however, also provide information on dates and places of publication, crucial information when one is attempting to identify a specific edition of a text. A common practice in Dutch auction catalogues was to provide high-quality descriptions of this sort for the first half of the catalogue, listing the expensive books, the folios and quartos, with some care, but not troubling with similar detail when describing octavos, duodecimos and smaller books, since they would have sold for much lower prices. In Danish auction catalogues, high-quality descriptions are often provided throughout, an indication that these books were judged to have accrued additional value in a smaller book market.73 In all auction catalogues, least space is devoted to the description of bound volumes of pamphlets and other ‘packets’ or ‘bundles’ of books. These are often listed in vague terms, sometimes as numbered lots, often with no more indication of their content beyond the description of ‘another bundle with fifty various satirical pamphlets, as well as some ordinances’.74 These descriptions are especially tantalising, as volumes of news pamphlets, political tracts, theological controversies, orations, wedding pamphlets, book catalogues, academic disputations and government ordinances are likely to have contained items that do not survive today. Stock catalogues maintain different standards again: the famous catalogues issued by booksellers like Daniel Elzevier have a high quality of description throughout, for all books, but tend to shorten the titles of the works considerably, in order to save paper for a catalogue that needs to list thousands of titles. Stock catalogues also avoid the complications of auction catalogues in that they do not generally feature different titles that have been bound together. The standards of description for a collective volume that contains three or four different texts, potentially published in very different years and places, can vary significantly. In general, the highest quality of description is found in those catalogues marketing distinguished collections. Catalogues listing the libraries of famous professors often indicate whether the books have been annotated by the owner, or indeed by other celebrated scholars. The presence of numerous illustrations or rich bindings may also be emphasised, although this is a feature that only develops towards the end of the seventeenth century. As antiquarian interest expanded in the eighteenth century, some book catalogues devoted lengthy descriptions to individual titles, taking up several lines to extol the qualities and rarity of items on offer.75 73 See chapter eleven, below. 74 Catalogus variorum & insignium librorum, praesertim medicorum (Leiden: Elzeviriana, 1628), USTC 1509578, p. 27. This volume is in a series of 67 other miscellaneous volumes. 75 McKitterick, Invention of Rare Books, especially chapters nine to eleven.

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figure 1.5 Many auction catalogues contain at their end a selection of bound volumes of pamphlets. Their contents are sadly not enumerated in full. Final page of the Catalogus variorum atq; insignium librorum excellentissimi viri Christiani Ostenfeld (Hafniae: Matthiae Godicchenii, 1672). Det Kongelige Biblioteket, Copenhagen

Even the most detailed book trade catalogues leave some blind spots for the historian. For stock catalogues, it is rare to find information on the number of copies available with the bookseller. This is one crucial disadvantage of catalogues when compared to inventories. Listing the number of books in a shop is a standard of shop inventories: thus we know that in 1662, upon his death, the Amsterdam printer Paulus Aertsz van Ravesteyn held over 10,000 Bibles,

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17,000 New Testaments and 25,000 psalm books in his shop.76 In a printed catalogue, these items would be described at the edition level, and no information on copies would be supplied. The number of copies is only found on catalogues when these were added by hand. The unique surviving copies of the stock catalogues issued by the Janssonius-Waesberge firm in Danzig from the 1680s onwards note the number of copies in stock, as they were used as evidence in a court case that came before the Court of Holland.77 In this case, as all others, stock catalogues offer only a reflection of a moment, and cannot tell us how many copies were sold in the years following their publication. The fact that many of the titles listed in Daniel Elzevier’s stock auction catalogue of 1681 also appeared in his 1674 stock catalogue, does not elucidate whether this concerns the same copy of a book, or whether Elzevier may have had two, five or ten copies in 1674, but only one in 1681. It is also worth considering whether books listed in retail catalogues are actually present in the physical book shop, whether they are kept in distant warehouses, or if they are not in possession of the bookseller at all, but they are only advertising that they can acquire the book for their customers. Annotated prices, one of the most interesting aspects of many book trade catalogues, should also be treated with caution. It is not uncommon to find copies of the same edition sold for very different prices at auction. According to annotated catalogues, four copies of the Dutch translation of Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan (1667) were sold at auctions in the Netherlands in 1696, 1701 and 1714, for 63, 34, 33 and 19 stuivers respectively.78 The difference in price here may have much to do with the conditions of the copies, the bindings, but possibly also with the competitive nature of the auctions. The data provides us with a range of prices, but not with definitive answers; especially when multiple lots are sold together for a single price. Was this at the prompting of the auctioneer, or the buyer? And if we know that a buyer paid ten shillings for three separate books, how does that payment break down between the items? We should also exercise care in drawing conclusions about an individual owner’s book reading preferences on the basis of the catalogue of their library. Ownership of a book does not imply readership, nor that the owner bought the

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M.M. Kleerkooper and W.P. Van Stockum, De boekhandel te Amsterdam voornamelijk in de 17e eeuw: biographische en geschiedkundige aanteekeningen (2 vols., Den Haag: Martinus Nijhoff, 1914–1916), pp. 587–610. 77 The catalogues are kept in The National Archives in The Hague, Civiele processtukken van den Hove van Holland, H. 39, 1725, Van Hemert-Coelemey. 78 Examples taken from the auction catalogues of Rippert van Groenendijck (1696), Josias van de Capelle (1696), Karel Willem van Valkenburgh (1701) and Gerardus de Jong (1714).

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book: they may have inherited it or received it as a gift.79 The auction catalogue may also not represent the entire owner’s library. The survival of the inventory of Daniel van der Meulen’s book collection, as well as the auction catalogue of his library, reveals that eighty-two books were kept out of the auction, because his children wished to retain them.80 The auction catalogue of Sibrandus Lubbertus’s library (1625) specified that not all books from his collection were being sold, for the same reason.81 Conversely, books listed in an auction catalogue of a personal library may never have been owned by that person. The ‘salting’ of auctions with additional slow-selling stock was an established part of the auction trade, which, from the early eighteenth century, was even legalised in Leiden. Sometimes auctioneers made very clear that they had added supplemental stock, including unbound books, which they listed in an appendix. In other instances, the books were simply mixed in. Thanks to surviving account books, Pierre Delsaerdt found that the Louvain bookseller and auctioneer J.F. van Overbeke salted his auctions liberally with books that had no connection to the owner named on the title-page.82 The association with a famous individual was stretched beyond credulity by the London bookseller Moses Pitt, who held an auction in 1678 declaring that he was selling books from the library of the Utrecht professor Gisbertus Voetius. Pitt’s catalogue comprised 8,000 lots, while the first part of Voetius’s library, which had recently been sold in the Netherlands, had been no larger than 1,400 lots.83 Pitt’s expansive claim seems to have been based on a handful of titles he had received from this sale. Other auctioneers, like Pieter van der Aa, went as far as to invent a book collector, ‘W. Snellonius’, whose library he auctioned in 1691.84 Deliberate misinformation of this sort was arguably rare, confined to such scandalous cases as that of Isaac Vossius, the Dutch scholar who auctioned off a part of his library, and whose nephew boasted later that he had deliberately falsified some descriptions in the auction catalogue in order to raise higher

79 For some examples, see chapter seven, below. 80 Lankhorst, ‘Dutch Book Auctions’, p. 74. See also chapter six, below. 81 Catalogus Librorum, Qui Ex Bibliotheca Reverendi & Celeberrimi Viri D. Sibrandi Lubberti Publica auctione Franekerae (Franeker: Feddrick Heyns, 1625), USTC 1122248. With thanks to Forrest Strickland for the reference. 82 Pierre Delsaerdt, Suam quisque bibliothecam. Boekhandel en particulier boekenbezit aan de oude Leuvense universiteit, 16de–18de eeuw (Leuven: Universitaire Pers Leuven, 2001), pp. 286–232. 83 Pettegree and Der Weduwen, Bookshop of the World, p. 311. 84 Catalogus Rarissimorum & vere Insignium in omni materia, Instructissimae Bibliothecae Clarissimi & Consultissimi Viri D°. W. Snellonii (Leiden: Petrus van der Aa, 1691).

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prices.85 Simple compositing errors, crediting a book with a wrong publication date, are more common, as are titles misspelled in haste. Such incidents are frustrating, but they should not limit our engagement with book trade catalogues as sources for the study of early modern book production and circulation.86 Catalogues, like all historical sources, are defined by the unique circumstances that led to their production and survival. Yet if a single book catalogue does not allow us to look into the soul of an individual collector, taken in aggregate the catalogue data does offer a uniquely valuable perspective on the book world. We find in these volumes an extraordinary wealth of information about which books were most coveted by collectors, and, in the publishers’ stock catalogues, which books were most valued for everyday use. We find forgotten authors who were contemporary bestsellers, and texts which are now much admired that were largely ignored on first publication. We can retrieve from oblivion large numbers of books not recorded in national bibliographies that we can now definitively prove were published and sold, often far from their core markets. We can demonstrate which texts found a broad international readership, and which were confined to a more parochial audience. And we have a much better sense of what genres kept the presses turning, than if we rely purely on the information from surviving editions. These expansive interpretative possibilities are all the more remarkable when one considers that in their own time book sales catalogues were regarded as so disposable, and have received relatively little scholarly attention since. Yet as scholars of the book, we have more to lose by ignoring them than to take them in good faith, and work with them with the same probabilistic empiricism that we bring to all documents from past societies. 85 Astrid C. Balsem, ‘Collecting the Ultimate Scholar’s Library: the Bibliotheca Vossiana’, in Eric Jorink and Dirk van Miert (eds.), Isaac Vossius (1618–1689) between Science and Scholarship (Leiden: Brill, 2012), pp. 281–309, here p. 281. 86 Arthur der Weduwen, ‘Lost and found. On the trail of the forgotten literature of the Dutch Golden Age’, Jaarboek voor Nederlandse Boekgeschiedenis, 27 (2020), pp. 45–65, here pp. 57–65.

chapter 2

Booklists and the Republic of Letters: The Case of Peiresc Shanti Graheli Before printed library catalogues became widespread in early modern Europe, and even after the rise of the printed catalogue as a genre, bibliophiles and scholars were responsible for the upkeep of a remarkable information network preoccupied with books, antiquities, and indeed all sort of bio-bibliographical information. Through the circulation, duplication, and exchange of lists (interspersed with a few printed ones, when available), individuals were able to reconstruct a picture of collections located even at a great distance, as well as following the latest publications of their day. This article explores the collection and utilisation of booklists by focusing on the example of Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc (1580–1637), a key figure in the seventeenth-century Republic of Letters. This study is based on two types of sources: Peiresc’s correspondence, and the lists of books collected and used during his lifetime.1 For the first group, I have essentially based my enquiry on the published letters curated by Philippe Tamizey de Larroque, though I have also made use of manuscripts held in Venice and Paris.2 For the second group, a key piece of evidence is represented by Ms. 1769 of the Bibliothèque Inguimbertine in Carpentras, a miscellaneous collection of booklists and other documents assembled by Peiresc in the course of his life.3 It contains handwritten and printed booklists, bibliographical 1 I thank Dr Nina Lamal, Professor Susan Bassnett and the editors of this volume for their precious insights and comments on this text. Any mistakes remain, of course, my responsibility alone. Conventions: in transcribing information from original sources, I have only made minor editorial interventions to facilitate legibility, but in principle I have preserved the original spelling. The letters i/j and u/v have been normalised and names capitalised to reflect modern orthographic norms. When expanding abbreviations, square brackets have been used to signal the intervention. Missing apostrophes or accents have not been added. In using published sources, I have retained the spelling as expressed by the modern editors. 2 Philippe Tamizey de Larroque (ed.), Lettres de Peiresc (7 vols, Paris: 1888–1898). Abbreviated references to this work are given as ‘Lettres de Peiresc’, followed by the number of the volume in Roman numerals. Individual manuscripts are cited where directly referred to. 3 References to Ms. 1769 of Carpentras, Bibliothèque-Musée Inguimbertine have been shortened to ‘Ms. 1769’ throughout.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2021 | doi:10.1163/9789004422247_003

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notes and other documents, amounting to over a hundred individual items. It was assembled through years of research and enquiries, and supported by one of the most remarkable epistolary networks in Europe. Ms. 1769 has been known to scholars for a long time. Most recently, selections of its documents have been discussed by Angela Nuovo in tracing a portrait of Peiresc as a young collector, and Anna Maria Raugei, who used the lists related to Gian Vincenzo Pinelli’s library in her recent monograph.4 Anne-Marie Cheny drew upon selected information from the lists in a wider study about Peiresc’s byzantine library.5 Peter N. Miller has been working on the Peiresc archive and library for some twenty years, producing a staggering body of scholarly research including three major studies on orientalism, antiquarianism and Peiresc’s intellectual network.6 What I propose in this article is a focused investigation of the lists as evidence of bibliophilic and bibliographic endeavour, drawing upon the direct evidence of the lists themselves, as well as the indirect evidence for their importance and use as inferred from the Peiresc correspondence. The example of Peiresc, a leading figure within the Republic of Letters, lends significant insights into the state of bibliographic research in the first half of the seventeenth century. The breadth and frequence of his correspondence, and his habit of documenting such exchanges with a high degree of precision both via letter and in his private archive of booklists enable a forensic investigation of this material. Drawing upon this evidence, and by contextualising Ms. 1769 within Peiresc’s epistolary network, I argue that the study of early modern libraries must be undertaken in combination with the investigation of booklists and similar documentary evidence. Only by adopting such a comprehensive approach are we able to take into account the full breadth of sources originally available to scholars and authors of the past as a meta-library of materials and texts.

4 Angela Nuovo, ‘Ritratto di collezionista da giovane: Peiresc a casa Pinelli’, in Francesco Solinas (ed.), Peiresc et l’Italie (Paris: Alain Baudry et Cie, 2009), pp. 1–17; Anna Maria Raugei, Gian Vincenzo Pinelli e la sua biblioteca (Geneva: Droz, 2018). 5 Anne-Marie Cheny, Une bibliothèque byzantine: Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc et la fabrique du savoir (Ceyzérieu: Champ Vallon, 2015). This is based on the author’s doctoral thesis, completed in 2013. 6 Peter N. Miller, Peiresc’s Europe. Learning and Virtue in the Seventeenth Century (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2000); Miller, Peiresc’s Orient: Antiquarianism as Cultural History in the Seventeenth Century (Farnham: Ashgate, 2012); Miller, Peiresc’s Mediterranean World (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2015).

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Biographical Notes

Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc (1580–1637) received his early education in the south of France: Brignoles, then Saint-Maximin and Aix-en-Provence, before starting his five-year term at the Jesuit College at Avignon (1590–1595).7 He pursued two years of philosophical studies (Aix-en-Provence and Tournon) until he commenced his law degree that took him from Aix to Italy together with his brother Palamède, two years his junior. While the ostensible purpose of this journey was for Peiresc to complete his law degree at the University of Padua, this gave the two brothers the opportunity of travelling widely across Italy: Florence, Bologna, Rome, Naples and Venice all merited a visit. However, it was the time in Padua – though not at the local university – that had the greatest impact on his future studies. In 1599 Peiresc was a guest of Gian Vincenzo Pinelli (1535–1601), one of the greatest bibliophiles in Renaissance Europe and a renowned collector of library catalogues.8 Admittance to the Pinelli library was a great honour and a mark of distinction among scholars of the age, subject to two criteria: true love of knowledge and discretion with regard to the titles of a somewhat delicate nature available for consultation.9 Peiresc was immediately identified as a very promising young scholar. After Pinelli’s death on 4 August 1601, Peiresc remained for a short while at his home in Padua. During this time, he had the opportunity to take copies and extracts of certain book lists and topographic guides within Pinelli’s library. These notes remain today a precious testimony for this most remarkable collection, dispersed in the early seventeenth century.10 The friendship with Pinelli and his circle, and the exposure to such an exceptional library undoubtedly shaped Peiresc’s own interests and his approach to scholarship.11 Throughout his life he maintained a remarkable epistolary network which enabled him to collect information about libraries, recent publications and ongoing projects. Angela Nuovo pointed out that his kindly 7 Cheny, Une bibliothèque byzantine, pp. 23–24. 8 Angela Nuovo, ‘Gian Vincenzo Pinelli’s collection of catalogues of private libraries in sixteenth-century Europe’, Gutenberg Jahrbuch, 82 (2007), pp. 129–144. 9 For the conditions of access to Pinelli’s library, see Raugei, Gian Vincenzo Pinelli e la sua biblioteca, pp. 25–28. 10 Angela Nuovo, ‘Testimoni postumi. La biblioteca di Gian Vincenzo Pinelli tra le carte di Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc’, in Maria Teresa Biagetti (ed.), L’organizzazione del sapere. Studi in onore di Alfredo Serrai (Milan: Sylvestre Bonnard, 2005), pp. 317–334. 11 This intellectual ‘apprenticeship’ is the focus of the article by Angela Nuovo, ‘Ritratto di collezionista da giovane’.

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assistance in upholding Pinelli’s correspondence at this critical time proved somewhat to Peiresc’s advantage.12 He left the house in Padua with a substantial address book at his disposal. This remarkable epistolary network was to be a key asset in Peiresc’s search for knowledge for decades to come. Upon his return from Italy, Peiresc continued his legal studies at Montpellier, where he defended his thesis in 1604. He studied with Giulio Pace (1550–1635), becoming his friend – indeed, later correspondence shows that Peiresc took an active role in securing a professorial position for Pace in Valence.13 His friendship with Pace is thought to have shaped Peiresc’s attitude to scientific investigation, just as that with Pinelli conditioned his bibliographic inclination. Over the years Peiresc conducted pioneering astronomic observations, often with his friend Pierre Gassendi, who was to become his biographer.14 Peiresc approached the quest for books and for ancient texts with the same exacting attitude. Having completed his education, Peiresc took up a position as conseiller in the Parlement of Provence, and acted as a secretary for Guillaume Du Vair, then President of the Parlement. Peiresc spent long periods in Paris in the employ of Du Vair. During the first visit to the capital (1605) he met the Dupuy brothers, starting a lifelong friendship which is represented by the substantial number of letters exchanged between Paris and Aix. In 1606 Peiresc travelled to England with Antoine Le Fèvre, sieur de la Boderie, French ambassador to the English court, kindling a friendship with William Camden, and further extending his epistolary network. In the following years he travelled a great deal, especially between Aix and Paris in Du Vair’s service. From 1623 he settled in Provence (Du Vair had died in 1621), and his intellectual conversations thereafter were held primarily through letters until his death in 1637. Within this context, booklists were of the utmost importance in securing new and old books.

Bibliography as Science

The documents contained in Ms. 1769 vary in length, nature and level of detail, having been compiled individually for different purposes, and by different people. Such variety accounts for the occasional presence of repeated or complementary information. Some are selective lists drawing upon parts 12 Nuovo, ‘Ritratto di collezionista da giovane’, p. 2. 13 About this see in particular: Venice, Biblioteca nazionale Marciana, It. X, 68 (=  6401), Peiresc to Giambattista Gualdo, Paris, 5 February 1619, ff. 106r–107v; Peiresc to Paolo Gualdo, Paris, 19 March 1619, ff. 110r–111v. 14 Pierre Gassendi, Viri illustris Nicolai Claudii Fabricii de Peiresc, senatoris aquisextiensis vita (Paris: S. Cramoisy, 1641). USTC 6040144.

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of larger collections, such as the Greek manuscripts in the library of Catherine de Medici (acquired from the library of Piero Strozzi, and formerly owned by Cardinal Ridolfi in Florence).15 Others contain the entirety of a library as known at the time of appraisal, and indeed appear to have been extracted from probate inventories. One such example is the catalogue of the Ribier library in Paris, the longest single document in the volume.16 Some of the documents are presented as prose texts, and give an account of visits to libraries, either in person or as reported by friends. Such reports, intended as aids to memory for oneself and for others, had to be as detailed as possible. Some individual notes in Ms. 1769 are representative of this habit. On 7 September 1612, Peiresc was granted access to the library of Guillaume Marescot, maître des requêtes.17 This was a rich collection of some 6,000 items by the time of Marescot’s death in 1643, deserving a glowing note in Dibdin’s Bibliographical Decameron.18 Peiresc described it as a vast assortment of titles, especially with regard to the history section. Individual items were carefully described, noting the language, incipit of the text and special ornamentation. In one case, a composite volume of genealogies from Provence that Peiresc must have been especially keen to retrieve at a later stage, a reproduction of the coat of arms found at the start of the volume was also given (Figure 2.1). On 8 September, Peiresc visited the Abbey of Saint-Victor, where he remarked upon some especially ancient manuscripts (a capitulaire, an old chronicle, a Sigebertus Gemblacensis).19 The note is left unfinished, and there are blank areas in correspondence with certain words, which would suggest a hasty visit and an inability to take extensive notes. Peiresc was able to receive further news regarding the Saint-Victor holdings, though this time it was indirect information acquired through Agesilao Marescotti. This document is representative of the minute details that may be included on such occasions. Interested in a manuscript titled ‘DE FLORATA CANONUM’, Peiresc was able to extract a clear description of where the volume could be located ‘in the middle of a desk, to the right of the fifth window south, starting from the rear of 15 16 17 18

19

Ms. 1769, ff. 18r–49v. Ms. 1769, ff. 481r–572r. Ms. 1769, ff. 379r–382r. Thomas F. Dibdin, The bibliographical Decameron; or ten days pleasant discourse upon illuminated manuscripts, and subjects connected with early engraving, typography and bibliography (3 vols., London: for the author, by W. Bulmer and Co., Shakespeare Press, 1817), II, p. 494. For Thomas Dibdin, see John A. Sibbald, ‘Book Bitch to the Rich – the Strife and Times of the Revd. Dr. Thomas Frognall Dibdin (1776–1847)’, in Shanti Graheli (ed.), Buying and Selling. The Business of Books in Early Modern Europe (Leiden: Brill, 2019), pp. 489–521. Ms. 1769. f. 244r.

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figure 2.1 Genealogies of Provence, reproduction of a coat of arms. Carpentras, Bibliothèque-Musée Inguimbertine, Ms 1769, fol. 379v, cop. IRHT

the library, that is to the right walking towards the entrance … It was still there on 27 May 1618, when Mr Agesilao Marescotti went to see it’.20 Several other visits to libraries are documented in Ms. 1769; as a rule, these are furnished with details about who granted access to the collection, what interesting items had been seen, and a ‘date stamp’ as a reminder when the visit took place. While several lists in Ms. 1769 are merely enumerative, offering an overview of titles available at this or that library, others were obviously seen as very practical navigational tools. Alongside notes for individual items information was occasionally recorded for the entirety of a collection. The Greek manuscripts at the library of St Mark’s in Venice are furnished with their pressmark, as well as an inventory number (Figure 2.2). The topographic information for individual copies in the library was correct, as one can easily 20 Ms. 1769, f. 387r. The original reads: ‘… au milieu d’un puppitre, qui est au droict de la Cinquiesme vittre meridionalle, et com[m]ança[n]t au fonds de la bibliotheq[ue], c’est à dire à main droicte en retourna[n]t vers l’entree…. Il estoit encore en estat le 27. May 1618., q[uand] le s[ieu]r Agesilao Marescotti l’allà voir’.

Booklists and the Republic of Letters

figure 2.2 List of manuscripts in the Marciana library, first page. Carpentras, Bibliothèque-Musée Inguimbertine, Ms 1769, fol. 60r, cop. IRHT

39

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Figure 2.3 Booklists copied from the Pinelli collection. Carpentras, Bibliothèque-Musée Inguimbertine, Ms 1769, fols. 340v-341r, cop. IRHT

ascertain by cross-referencing a sample of the entries in Peiresc’s list with the sixteenth-century library’s lending registers.21 The list was so precise that it would have been possible to navigate the library’s shelves with it. The accuracy of the information recorded in the lists was of paramount importance, both for Peiresc’s individual use of the lists, but also for a question of intellectual reliability. Lists were often exchanged and circulated to others. A scholarly reputation was built upon the provision of reliable information, and the ability to offer such services was often voiced in Peiresc’s epistolary network as a way to gain intellectual credit. As a young scholar, Peiresc took some notes from Pinelli’s collection of catalogues in Padua (Figure 2.3). Even back then, guided by the example of his erudite friend, he recognised the central role played by catalogues and booklists in the creation and systematisation of knowledge. These transcriptions remain 21

Ms. 1769, f. 60r–79v. The lending registers are published in Henri Omont, ‘Deux registres de prêts de manuscrits de la bibliothèque de Saint-Marc à Venise’, Bibliothèque de l’École des Chartes, 48 (1887), pp. 651–686.

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some of the best evidence for Pinelli’s library, which was dispersed at an early date.22 They deservedly occupy a prime position in recent studies of Pinelli’s library. Yet, to someone who had had first-hand familiarity with the original sources, they must necessarily appear inadequate. The small quire containing notes taken in Pinelli’s house in 1601 is split into several headings, reflecting the division of catalogues in Pinelli’s own library. These notes were taken after Pinelli’s death, before the books were packed up in boxes. The transcriptions become increasingly hasty and messy, suggesting that time for the transcriptions was running out. The older Peiresc knew this only too well. In later years, he expressed his regret for missing out on such a unique opportunity to gather information. In a 1617 letter to Paolo Gualdo, Peiresc wrote: If this is not inconvenient, I would very much like to know if the library of Mr G[ian] V[incenzo] Pinelli has been sold, and to whom, and in particular if the booklists are accessible. Although I am aware that Mr Lorenzo copied a number of things, I am very sorry that I did not acquire full copies when it was in our power to do so.23 The dispersal of Pinelli’s library occurred in phases from 1601 to 1608 and was marred by various unfortunate events, such as the 1601 shipwreck near Ancona. These made it impossible subsequently to gain a full picture of the collection’s contents.24 Over the years, Peiresc developed a much more reliable research method. His approach to bibliographic information was built on constant updates, 22 The sources available to reconstruct the Pinelli library are listed in Anna Maria Raugei, ‘Gian Vincenzo Pinelli (1535–1601): ses livres, ses amis’, in Rosanna Gorris Camos and Alexandre Vanautgaerden (eds.), Les labyrinthes de l’esprit. Collections et bibliothèques à la Renaissance (Geneva: Droz, 2015), pp. 213–227. Also see Angela Nuovo, ‘The Creation and Dispersal of the Library of Gian Vincenzo Pinelli’, in Michael Harris, Giles Mandelbrote and Robin Myers (eds.), Books on the Move: tracking copies through collections and the book trade (New Castle, DE and London: Oak Knoll Press and The British Library, 2007), pp. 39–68. 23 Venice, Biblioteca nazionale Marciana, It. X, 68 (= 6401), Peiresc to Paolo Gualdo, Paris, 12 April 1617, f. 95r. The original reads: ‘Vorrei ben sapere se non le sarà scommodo, se la Bibliotheca del S[igno]r G[ian] V[incenz]o Pinello di b[uona] m[emoria] e stata venduta, et in che mano si trova, et particolarme[n]te se si trovano gli Indici che se n’erano fatti. Sò ben che il S[igno]r Lorenzo ne haveva copiato certe cosette, ma mi dispiace sommamente che non gli feci coppiare intieri allora che eran in poter n[ost]ro’. Angela Nuovo also cited this letter in her ‘Testimoni postumi’; the quoted text differs slightly, as I am following here the original letter. 24 Nuovo, ‘The Creation and Dispersal of the Library of Gian Vincenzo Pinelli’, gives a detailed account of these events.

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integration and confirmation. Acquiring a list from a single source was not deemed enough; his letters show a distinct habit of cross-referencing information. In reconstructing the jigsaw of universal knowledge, Peiresc sought to enrich already acquired information through subsequent investigations. Indeed, his approach to bibliographic research can be compared to the scientific method he applied to other branches of knowledge. A case in point is represented by his ongoing work to gather a bibliography about units of weight and measure (‘poids et mesures’). Peiresc had been occupied with this topic since at least 1615, when he asked Giambattista Gualdo to oversee the manufacturing of a set of weights to be produced in Italy and sent to Aix.25 Peiresc instructed that the weights be reproduced following a model formerly owned by the Jesuit mathematician and architect Juan Bautista Villalpando, and be certified as accurate copies.26 He also commissioned special reproductions of ancient units of measure. His Roman contacts were well placed for such a task thanks to the vast archaeological market and private collections available to them. The empirical and antiquarian elements of his enquiry were naturally complemented through the study of both published and unpublished materials. Much information collected on this topic over the years was gathered, copied and annotated in a single volume, today held in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.27 The volume contains extracts of booklists, reports sent by Peiresc’s friends and acquaintances, drawings of ancient units of measure and reading notes from books held in his own library. In collecting such information, often from his home in Aix, Peiresc’s meta-catalogue of major libraries located all over Europe became his key asset. The retrieval of information required clear communications, as the exchange of letters took time. In a letter addressed to Dupuy on 31 January 1633, Peiresc requested that two copies of the work on the Bosphorus by Dionysius Byzantinus held in the royal library could be verified for him. Did these volumes contain the whole text, or simply the author’s preface? Peiresc distrusted those who had created the list in the first place (namely, Lucas Holstenius), as they did not share his interest in this topic and may have neglected to confirm their assumptions about the content of these manuscripts by checking the physical copies. The books were identified as numbers 8 and 135 of what was obviously a shared list, and therefore could be accessed at any given time by both 25 26 27

Peiresc to Giambattista Gualdo, Aix, 30 July 1615. Venice, Biblioteca nazionale Marciana, It. X, 68 (= 6401), ff. 75r–76v; but particularly see the letter from Peiresc to Giambattista Gualdo, Aix, 5 February 1616, ff. 78r–79v. Ibid., f. 78v. The original reads: ‘mi sarà à favore di haverne copia (fedelmente essaminata separatamente da quella che V.S. mi fa fare da bollarsi del bollo publico.) cioè di quelli della libra et dell’onze solam[en]te p[er] non imbarasciarsi delli altri’. Paris, BnF, Ms. Français 9532. This is digitised and freely accessible on Gallica.

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correspondents.28 Identical lists were the ideal solution to such investigations, as they offered a shared system of reference. Writing to Dupuy in March that same year, Peiresc announced that Jean-Jacques Bouchard had started to transcribe works about poids et mesures from the Vatican Library.29 Over one year later, Bouchard was still overseeing the transcription of materials in Rome. By consulting his bibliographic tools, Peiresc ascertained that several sections, deemed to lie outwith his declared interest on the subject, had been omitted from the manuscripts reproduced for him. A reparation to this error of judgement was requested immediately from Bouchard, as … I would use these parts no less than the others. Indeed I would not mind receiving the six pages that you say you have had omitted from St Eucherius De variis vocabulis in a small separate quire, even if they are not about units of weight and measure, so that I might examine the author’s choice of vocabulary and use it to make a better conjecture of when he was active. This is [bound] after the Volusius Mecianus in the volume 3852. But most of all there is nothing I regret more than what is missing from the M[arcus] Iunius Nypsus in the volume 4498, as the author appears to be from Trajan’s time, and highly knowledgeable of the matters he is about to discuss. It is a real shame that the subsequent text, where there might possibly be the other most important measures and proportions, has gone lost.30 28

29 30

Peiresc to Pierre Dupuy, [Aix], 31 January 1633. Lettres de Peiresc, II, pp. 426–430: 428. The original reads: ‘Or en voyant ces jours cy le catalogue de la Bibliothèque du Roy pour y cognoistre ce grand nombre qu’il y a de petitz opuscules sur la matiere de ponderibus et mensuris … j’y ay rencontré par hazard deux exemplaires de ce Bosphore de Denys Bizantin, l’un soubs le nombre 8, et l’aultre soubs le nombre 135…’. Peiresc must have referred to his list now in Paris, BnF, Ms. Français 9532, f. 221v. He also owned a large volume entitled ‘Catalogus librorum Bibliothecae regiae’, today Ms. 1788 at the Bibliothèque Inguimbertine in Carpentras. Peiresc to Pierre Dupuy, Aix, 21 March 1633. Lettres de Peiresc, II, pp. 467–475: 470. Peiresc to Jean-Jacques Bouchard, Aix, 5 June 1634. Lettres de Peiresc, IV, pp. 107–110: 109– 110. The original reads: ‘… je ne m’en servirois possible pas moins que des autres. Voire ne serois je pas marry d’avoir en un petit cahier à part les six pages que vous dictes avoir faict obmettre, du S. EVCHERIVS DE VARIIS VOCABVLIS, encores que ce ne soit de la matière des poids et mesures, pour y pouvoir recognoistre les dictions du siecle de l’autheur et en pouvoir mieux fonder la conjecture de son temps. C’est derriere le Volusius Mecianus, au volume 3852. Mais surtout il n’y a rien que je plaigne davantage que ce qui manque de ce M. IVNIVS NYPSVS au volume 4498. Car cet autheur semble estre du temps de Trajan, et grandement intelligent de ce qu’il entreprend de traicter. Estant grand dommage que les suittes s’en soient perdües, où pouvoient estre les aultres mesures et proportions plus importantes’.

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Bouchard was not the only friend guilty of making such assumptions about Peiresc’s interests. On 8 January 1636, Peiresc complained to Dupuy about some incomplete transcriptions produced for him by their mutual friend Pierre Pithou: I have also found these chapters about de auri probatione and proportione cerae et metallorum fusilibus that you sent in the transcription of Mr Pithou alongside the enumerative chapter on units of weight, but Mr Pithou has neglected to include the notes on these weights, which are not all useless.31 Peiresc was keenly aware of the pitfalls of scribal errors, and of the dangers intrinsic to the remote collection of bibliographic details. His approach was based on the constant cross-referencing of information, whether it was found in a volume, a letter or one of his booklists. A 1609 letter from Lorenzo Pignoria is a case in point. Attaching the curious engraving of a fiore della granadilla (known as Passiflora ligularis), Pignoria noted that it was known to be a real plant, as it had been described by Nicolás Monardes in his botanical observations in the West Indies. No reference was provided on this matter. Upon reception of the letter, Peiresc endeavoured to verify where Monardes had described such a plant. Having identified the relevant passage, he noted on Pignoria’s original letter the correct coordinates, as well as adding that the same plant had been discussed by Pedro de Cieza De Leon in his histories of Peru.32 Similar examples are indicated in Ms. 1769 by the cross-referencing of the most minute details, for example the length of Terence’s beard as represented in a manuscript in the French royal library, as opposed to a similar portrait in a Vatican copy.33 For a scholar of Peiresc’s intellectual curiosity and exacting inquisitiveness, no detail was deemed unworthy of further investigation. His collection of booklists and catalogues represented the key reference system in approaching the universality of knowledge, offering a platform to undertake new investigations and to oversee ongoing research from his home in Aix.

31

Peiresc to Jacques Dupuy, Aix, 8 January 1636. Lettres de Peiresc, III, pp. 428–431: 430. The original reads: ‘J’y ay mesme trouvé ces chapitres de auri probatione et proportione cerae et metallorum fusilibus que vous m’aviez envoyé transcriptz de la main de Mr Pictou ensemble le chapitre du denombrement de poids, mais Mr Pictou avoit negligé de portraire les notes des dicts poids qui ne sont pas toutes inutiles’. 32 Français 9540, ff. 25r–27v. Lorenzo Pignoria to Peiresc, Padua, 23 July 1609. 33 Ms. 1769, f. 122r.

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Finding Book Lists

One of Peiresc’s chief concerns was securing reliable bibliographic instruments. Dependable lists should be unabridged, up-to-date, and ideally acquired from a trustworthy source. Suitable examples included retail lists of newly printed editions, as well as printed and handwritten catalogues of private libraries, and some of the earliest bibliographies. These different typologies of lists catered for complementary research into original sources and ancient texts, as well as recently published works. Printed and handwritten lists were welcome for both categories, although printed editions allowed for a (broadly) identical reference system shared by Peiresc and his circle, and were therefore highly desirable. Conrad Gesner’s Bibliotheca universalis was bound to be one of these all-important texts, itself based on booklists, many of which have since disappeared.34 By the 1630s of course the original edition was some eighty years old, and copies were hard to find. One would necessarily have to look for a second-hand copy, and here the only means of identifying one were library catalogues and inventories. In 1633, Peiresc wrote to Dupuy asking whether the library of cardinal Georges d’Armagnac might contain a copy of Gesner’s Bibliotheca, the unabridged version, and if this could be acquired at a reasonable price.35 What he meant by ‘reasonable price’ was indeed a substantial sum, as he wrote a month later to Dupuy: ‘I thank you … for researching Gesner’s Bibliotheca, of which the price does not seem to me too high at 15 livres given its rarity’.36 Nonetheless, a search for the book proved extremely difficult.37 A compromise needed to be found, as no affordable copy of the unabridged 34

Conrad Gesner, Bibliotheca universalis, sive catalogus omnium scriptorum locupletissimus, in tribus linguis, Latina, Graeca, & Hebraica opus novum (Zürich: Christoph I Froschauer, 1545). USTC 616753. Scholars have used it as a means to establish the disappearance of booksellers’ catalogues, for example see H. George Fletcher, ‘A Manuscript Aldine Catalogue from the Mid-Sixteenth Century’, Gutenberg Jahrbuch, 86 (2011), pp. 131–174: 132–134, 140–142. 35 Peiresc to Pierre Dupuy, [Aix], 31 January 1633. Lettres de Peiresc, II, pp. 431–433: 432. ‘Si dans l’inventaire de Mr d’Auxerre ou ailleurs, vous rencontriez la bibliothèque de Gesnerus de la plus ample édition à prix tollerable, vous m’obligeriez bien de la faire achepter pour mon compte’. 36 Peiresc to Pierre Dupuy, Aix, 27 February 1633. Lettres de Peiresc, II, pp. 452–458: 456. ‘Je vous remercie … de la recherche de ceste Bibliothecque de Gesner dont le prix ne me semble pas si excessif à 15 livres veu sa rareté’. 37 Peiresc to Pierre Dupuy, Aix, 28 March 1633. Lettres de Peiresc, II, pp. 475–482: 480. ‘… Nous attendrons en bonne devotion le ballot de livres, non sans quelque regret si la Bibliotheque du Gesner n’a peu estre du nombre, mais elle pourra venir Dieu aydant avec le Golzius …’

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edition could be found, and Peiresc resolved to turn his attention to the less prestigious, but much cheaper copies of the shorter editions.38 Newly printed lists were expected with much anticipation. Peiresc was an avid reader of the book catalogues produced for the Frankfurt fairs. His letters regularly refer to the contents of these lists, both for his own research and that of others. He had a clear perception of the shortcomings of the book trade. On one occasion he wrote to Dupuy that the bookseller Morel, prominent in the Parisian trade at the time, had been ‘very simple not to have procured the catalogues of the fair’.39 In May 1634 the fair catalogues were rather late, to the extent that Peiresc wondered if the booksellers may even have bothered procuring them at all.40 He had news that copies of the catalogues had been seen elsewhere, and indeed in July he requested that books and catalogues were sent from Geneva.41 In addition to the fair catalogues, individual publishers often issued printed retail catalogues. Such items are extremely rare today; but it seems that they were difficult to come by even at the time of their production. Peiresc owned a manuscript catalogue of the bookshop of Francesco Zannetti in Rome (Figure 2.4).42 The list is dated 1583, and contains titles printed between 1542 and 1583, both by Zannetti and others, such as Paolo Manuzio, Antonio Blado and Giorgio Ferrari. The only extant printed list by Zannetti is dated 1580, which suggests that this might be the only surviving evidence for a printed catalogue that has now disappeared altogether.43 For more recent publications we have direct evidence that Peiresc received inventories compiled by hand, either within the 38 Peiresc to Pierre Dupuy, Aix, 11 April 1633. Lettres de Peiresc, II, pp. 493–497: 494. ‘Pour la Bibliotheque de Gesner, c’est la verité que j’entendois de vous demander la primitifve edition plus ample; mais puis que ce n’est que pour mon usaige, et que l’on la veult vendre si cherement, je m’en passeray plus patiemment que si c’estoit pour quelque bon amy …’ The abridged version was shorter than the original version by about two thirds, containing 102 sheets of paper as opposed to 325: Josiah Simler, Epitome Bibliothecae Gesneri (Zürich: Christoph I Froschauer, 1555). USTC 652948. 39 Peiresc to Pierre Dupuy, Aix, 2 June 1629. Lettres de Peiresc, II, pp. 107–110: 108. The original reads: ‘Le pauvre Morel a esté bien simple de ne se pas ester pourveu des catalogues de la foire’. 40 Peiresc to Pierre Dupuy, Aix, 15 May 1634. Lettres de Peiresc, III, pp. 102–106: 102. The original reads: ‘Mais puis que la saison est desja tant advance, Dieu sçaict si les libraires se seront hazardez d’y en aller querir’. 41 Peiresc to Jacques Dupuy, Aix, 20 June 1634. Lettres de Peiresc, III, pp. 127–132: 129; Peiresc to Pierre Dupuy, Aix, 11 July 1634. Lettres de Peiresc, III, pp. 143–146: 145. 42 Ms. 1769, f. 591r–592v: ‘Index librorum quorundam Romae Impressorum’. 43 Index librorum quorundam Romae impressorum (Rome: Francesco Zannetti, 1580). USTC 801308 and EDIT16 CNCE 51877. This edition survives in the Vatican Library, in the New York Public Library, and in three different copies in the Augusta Library in Perugia.

Booklists and the Republic of Letters

figure 2.4 Books from the shop of Francesco Zannetti in Rome, first page. Carpentras, Bibliothèque-Musée Inguimbertine, Ms 1769, fol. 591r, cop. IRHT

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trade or outside. Thanking Dupuy for sending a set of bound Elzevier editions, he asked for ‘a list of all the assortment that can be found of these small volumes, to identify and be able to request those that have escaped my attention, including the ancient classics, these Little Republiques [i.e. Elzevier editions of modern French works], and these small volumes of prayers and devotion’.44 These were the famous Elzevier small-format editions, probably the most collectible books of the whole seventeenth century.45 For many booksellers, business with Peiresc was to be actively cherished. An example is represented by a list of recent books (1628–1630) sent by letter by Andrea Brogiotti for the Stamperia Camerale in Rome (Figure 2.5).46 The Stamperia’s output had to be of great interest to an antiquarian like Peiresc, since as recently as 1628 Brogiotti had printed a book of type specimens, including several oriental scripts.47 Brogiotti was aware of the importance of such a customer, and his letter reflects his eagerness to please. He selected a few titles for Peiresc’s attention (the Stamperia’s output was much broader, mostly represented by broadsides of ordinances and edicts to serve the Vatican administration), promising that the price was well below retail.48 Brogiotti also made it clear that he was doing Peiresc a favour, as he was no longer in the habit of sending books abroad now that he was ‘Camerlengo del Popopolo [sic!] Romano e Stampator Camerale’.49 By the first half of the seventeenth century, printed catalogues of prominent libraries had started to appear alongside printed retail catalogues. Illustrious examples of the former include the Bodleian Library, Leiden University Library

I would like to thank Dr Paolo Renzi of the Augusta Library for kindly confirming the Perugia holdings. 44 Peiresc to Pierre Dupuy, Aix, 24 January 1633. Lettres de Peiresc, II, pp. 421–426: 423. The original reads: ‘Je voudrois bien cependant voir un peu d’inventaire de tout l’assortiment qui se peut trouver de cez petits volumes, pour recognoistre et pouvoir demander ceux qui me seront eschappez tant de bons autheurs classiques anciens que de cez petites Republiques et de cez petitz volumes de prière et devotion’. 45 About the Elzeviers in particular, and the Dutch book market in general, see Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen, The Bookshop of the World. Making and Trading Books in the Dutch Golden Age (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2019). 46 Ms. 1769, f. 682r–v. 47 Indice de caratteri, con l’inventori, & nomi di essi, esistenti nella Stampa Vaticana & Camerale (Rome: [Stamperia Camerale], 1628). USTC 4004473. 48 Ms. 1769, f. 682r. The original reads: ‘… prometto di darli a lei a meglior prezzo che io non do alialtri’, ‘I promise to send you books at a better price than I do for others’. 49 Ms. 1769, f. 682r.

Booklists and the Republic of Letters

figure 2.5 List of recent books (1628–1630) produced by the Stamperia Camerale in Rome, sent to Peiresc by Andrea Brogiotti. Carpentras, Bibliothèque-Musée Inguimbertine, Ms 1769, fol. 682v, cop. IRHT

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and Antwerp Public Library.50 In 1633, news circulated that a new ‘very precise’ catalogue of the Public Library in Augsburg would be ready for the Strasburg quarterly fairs.51 It was considered a matter of some importance, and much discussed within Peiresc’s circle. Peiresc himself named several people who would be interested in perusing a copy – suggesting that even before publication copies were expected to run out; those who had secured a copy ought to make it available for lending.52 The catalogue received from the Augsburg Public Library was duly reciprocated with a gift that was at the same time valuable and representative of Peiresc’s own power within the intellectual milieu of his day. In 1634, Henri de Valois (or Henricus Valesius, 1603–1676) published a collection of fragments of classical texts, taken from a codex acquired by Peiresc in Cyprus. The dedication was addressed to Peiresc and detailed at some length his own role in procuring the source materials for the new edition, thus contributing to his portrayal as a prince of the Republic of Letters.53 It is clear that Peiresc used this text as a sort of personal manifesto in this capacity. On a single occasion he ordered twelve copies of the edition – six standard ones, and six on fine paper.54 50 Oxford: Catalogus librorum bibliothecæ publicæ quam vir ornatissimus Thomas Bodleius eques auratus in Academia Oxoniensi nuper instituit (Oxford: Joseph Barnes, 1605). USTC 3002176; Antwerp: Hubertus Miraeus, Bibliothecæ Antuerpianae primordia (Antwerp: David Mertens, 1609). USTC 1003476 (I thank Nina Lamal for bringing this catalogue to my attention); Leiden: Petrus Bertius, Nomenclator autorum omnium, libri vel manuscripti, vel typis expressi exstant in bibliotheca academicae Lugduno-Batavae (Leiden: Franciscus I Raphelengius, 1595). USTC 423469. 51 Peiresc to Pierre Dupuy, Aix, 19 December 1633. Lettres de Peiresc, II, pp. 666–674: 671: ‘On me promet pour la Foire d’Argentine un nouveau catalogue fort exacte de la Bibliothèque Augustane’, ‘I have been promised a new and very precise catalogue of the Augsburg [Public] Library for the Strasburg fair’. The catalogue was published in 1633: Elias Ehinger, Catalogus Bibliothecae Amplissimae Reipublicae Augustanae (Augsburg: Hans Schultes, 1633). USTC 2074167. The catalogue contained both printed books and manuscripts. 52 Peiresc to Pierre Dupuy, Aix, 9 May 1634. Lettres de Peiresc, III, pp. 97–101: 101: ‘Mr Aubert vous fera voir le catalogue de la bibliotheque d’Auspourg, que Mr Lumaga me mande luy vouloir remettre pour cet effect selon la prière que je luy en avoys faicte’; p. 126: ‘Cependant j’ay esté bien estonné de voir venire ce catalogue de la bibliotheque d’Auspourg sans que vous, Monsieur, ni Mr Valoys me disiez rien de la pensée que j’avoys eüe de le faire voir au dict sr Valloys tandis que vous l’aviez de par delà, car je crains d’avoir oublié de vous en supplier, comme je l’avoys resolu en mon esprit, tant nous sommes aulcunes foys divertys et persequutez lorsqu’il fault faire les expeditions pour l’ordinaire’. 53 Henri de Valois (ed.), Polybius, Diodorus Siculus, Nicolaus Damascenus, Dionysius Halicarnasseus, Appianus Alexandrinus, Dionysius and Johannes Antiochenus, Excerpta ex collectaneis Constantini Augusti Porphyrogenetae, Henricus Valesius nunc primum Graece edidit, Latine vertit, notisque illustravit (Paris: Mathurin Du Puy, 1634). USTC 6029757, ff. a2r–3r. 54 Peiresc to Pierre Dupuy, Aix, 11 July 1634. Lettres de Peiresc, III, pp. 143–146: 145. The original reads: ‘Quant au libvre des Eclogues de Mr Valoys, il ne m’en fault pas moings de troys

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Two of the latter were reserved for two German libraries – the Augsburg Public Library, and a second unnamed one  – from which he had recently received catalogues of the holdings. Such a distinguished gift underlines once more the importance of booklists within Peiresc’s system of knowledge. Despite the increasingly widespread habit of printing catalogues, much of Peiresc’s research was conducted through handwritten library catalogues, inventories and partial lists of holdings. The compilation of an updated manuscript catalogue of the French royal library in 1622 was considered an important event.55 Peiresc was early at work to secure a copy of the list, though it appears that Nicolas Rigault, who was responsible for compiling the inventories, was not keen to oblige. The catalogue was considered very precious and highly confidential. Perhaps Rigault feared that it could be used as a way of tracking down and stealing the king’s property – the theft of precious books was not uncommon. It is also possible that Rigault, as the king’s librarian, wanted to retain a position of power as the sole custodian of this most extraordinary French library. Either way, Peiresc hinted that he might resort to strong means in securing the catalogue, in the form of a letter bearing the King’s seal.56 Having received permission to obtain a copy, Peiresc suggested using different scribes to speed up the work; this would also have the ancillary benefit that a single copyist would not be tempted to steal a copy of the catalogue. He also recommended that the scribal work should be conducted under the supervision of the Dupuy brothers or a trusted friend.57 Once he had finally à Rome pour troys cardinaulx qui m’en ont demandé, et le 4me pour moy; des aultres deux Mr Valoys en a destiné l’un à Mr Petit. Et je vouldroys bien en envoyer deux ou troys exemplaires en Allemagne plus tost en fin papier que aultre, l’un pour la Bibliotheque d’Auspourg, en eschange de leur catalogue, et l’aultre pour une aultre Bibliotheque dont on me faict feste, avec offre d’une disposition fort honeste, garnie de 30 mille volumes. C’est pourquoy, si vous m’en pouvez retenir quelques aultres exemplaires en fin papier, vous m’obligerez grandement, s’il estoit possible jusques à une demy douzaine’. 55 Léopold Delisle, ‘Notice sur les anciens catalogues des livres imprimés de la Bibliothèque du roi’, Bibliothèque de l’École des Chartes, 43 (1882), pp. 165–201: 165–167. 56 Peiresc to Pierre Dupuy, Aix, 13 August 1627. Lettres de Peiresc, I, pp. 330–336: 332. ‘J’escripts à Mr Rigault touchant la copie du catalogue de la Bibliotheque du Roy, que s’il y faisoit de la difficulté, en un besoing je luy en ferois donner un commandement par lettre de cachet du Roy, soit de la part de Mr de Lomenie ou de Mr le Beauclerc’. 57 Peiresc to Pierre Dupuy, Aix, 18 Seprember 1627. Lettres de Peiresc, I, pp. 354–367: 365. ‘… j’ay bien de l’obligation à Mr Rigault de la franchise avec laquelle il luy a pleu me laisser prendre communication de son catalogue. Il se peult asseurer que cela ne passerà poinct mes mains tant que je vivray, Dieu aydant. Seulement faut-il pourvoir de par delà que le coppiste ne puisse pas faire de fraude, s’il est possible, en l’obligeant d’aller escrire chez vous ou chez quelqu’un de voz amys plus voisin du lieu de demeure dudict coppiste, à qui vous puissiez confier ledict livre, et plustost voir d’y employer diverses persones, au deceu les uns des autres, tant pour avoir plus tost faict que pour rendre le grec qui y est plus correct et pour esviter qu’ils ne puissent faire dessein d’en desrober une coppie’.

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laid his hands on the coveted catalogue, Peiresc ‘could not resist reading it for days’.58 His next letter to Pierre Dupuy contained queries for the verification of thirty-nine individual volumes in the royal library, two of which were booklists themselves (a ‘repertoire des livres du Chastelet’, that is, the judicial registers of the tribunals of Paris; and ‘l’inventaire des livres de Bloys’, an early catalogue of the royal library).59 Titles were referred to with the aid of the inventory number, also listed in the catalogue, and therefore easy to find.60 Many subsequent letters over the years contained such requests. Unique collections such as the royal library were known to contain treasures; less prominent collections may well preserve gems among their shelves, though this might be even more of a mystery. Securing lists at the right time was of critical importance, as Peiresc learnt only too well after Pinelli’s death in 1601. Libraries were often dispersed after the owner’s death. In 1627, eager to learn what had become of the library of cardinal Georges d’Armagnac (c. 1501–1585), Peiresc started to make enquiries, but no news could be had about the books. Information was sought not only within the book trade, but directly from the notary who had compiled the probate inventory.61 It took a long time to track down the list, in which Peiresc hoped to locate an ancient manuscript of Dionysius Byzantinus.62 The title could not be found, though naturally many more items of interest were listed. Many similar examples combine to underline the importance of probate inventories to Peiresc’s system of enquiry, demonstrating how his bibliophilic information network included notaries as well as booksellers and scholars. Peiresc’s own position as conseiller in the Parlement of Provence undoubtedly provided him with the useful contacts to undertake such an in-depth investigation. The identification and recovery of booklists was one of the principal activities undertaken by Peiresc, with the aid of his extended network, in order to enable his antiquarian and scientific research. Booklists were secured both within and beyond the book trade. Indeed, Peiresc’s letters often show his exasperation with the standard infrastructure of trade, and demonstrate his 58 59 60 61

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Peiresc to Pierre Dupuy, Aix, 1 January 1628. Lettres de Peiresc, I, pp. 462–472: 464. Ibid., pp. 464–472. Ibid., p. 464. Peiresc to Lucas Holstenius, Aix, 30 December 1627. Lettres de Peiresc, V, pp. 259–265: 264–265. ‘Depuis avoir escript j’ay eu responce de divers endroicts d’Avignon touchant les livres du card[inal] d’Armagnac, et une mauvaise nouvelle en ce que le notaire qui a faict l’inventaire de ses meubles aprez sa mort a dict n’avoir poinct ouy parler qu’il eust des livres …’ Peiresc to Jacques Dupuy, Aix, 2 January 1635. Lettres de Peiresc, III, pp. 248–251: 249. ‘J’ay enfin extorqué l’inventaire des libvres de la Bibliothèque du cardinal d’Armagnac où nous n’avons pas trouvé le Denys Byzantin …’

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reliance on others, namely notaries, in sleuthing the whereabouts of private libraries. Friends located in major centres were regularly tasked with the acquisition of printed and handwritten lists, and thus contributed to the constant integration of Peiresc’s reference system.

Practical Uses of Booklists

The collection and compilation of lists was not for the benefit of Peiresc alone. This was an activity which was routinely performed for the service of others. For example, he shared information from the fair catalogues (and often his own copies of the catalogues) with a number of friends. He was accustomed to peruse his copy of the catalogues and send it to Pierre Gassendi after taking a note of the interesting items.63 More generally, news about the content of the fair catalogues circulated across Peiresc’s epistolary network. Based on such exchanges, he would then order books for his own library as well as for certain friends, lending access to his wider network for the provision of the latest editions. An example was the enquiry made for Honoré d’Agut in 1625, for which Peiresc wrote to his brother in Paris: We have seen a new volume Rerum indicarum in folio [printed] in Frankfurt with engraved illustrations on the catalogue of the fair. Mr d’Agut would very much like to own it to complete the collections that Mr Tavernier sold him from the previous volumes Indiae Orientalis as well as Occidentalis, if it is a new thing, as we were not able to verify it, and the others that may have been printed since he purchased his two volumes …64

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Peiresc to Pierre Gassendi, Aix, 5 November 1633. Lettres de Peiresc, IV, pp. 372–375: 373. ‘… j’ay eu le Catalogue de la Foire, mais ne l’ayant encores peu lisre, je differeray à la premiere commodité aprez celle cy de le vous envoyer’. The catalogue was promptly sent a week later: Peiresc to Pierre Gassendi, Aix, 13 November 1633. Lettres de Peiresc, IV, pp. 380–383: 383. Peiresc to Palamède, Aix, 24 July 1625. Lettres de Peiresc, VI, pp. 237–241: 240. The original reads: ‘Nous avons veu au catalogue de la foire un nouveau volume Rerum indicarum in folo de Francfort avec les figures en taille doulce. Mr d’Agut le vouldroit bien avoir pour en accomplir les recueils que Mr Tavernier luy avoit vendus des precedants tomes tant Indiae Orientalis quam Occidentalis, si c’est chose nouvelle, car nous ne l’avons peu verifier, et les aultres qui pourroient avoir esté imprimez depuis qu’il achepta sez 2 volumes’. Melchior Tavernier was perhaps the most prominent Parisian bookseller who dealt in engravings, and was well placed to make such enquiries regarding illustrated books.

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We do know that publishers strove to organise their production around the fairs, ensuring that large editions be ready to be sent to the fairs and thus more easily distributed to an international audience. Examples such as these show that similar patterns also existed for readers, who waited eagerly for the latest novelties of the season. While new texts could be found through the regular channels of the book trade, much scholarly work needed to be done on old texts. Such items could often be borrowed or copied by trusted scribes, but acquiring an existing copy second-hand was clearly the preferred option. Peiresc was extremely attentive to any upcoming sales of known collections, and the key to navigating these libraries were booklists. Books that were difficult to locate could always ‘be found perchance in the sale of old libraries, such as are sold often enough in Paris’.65 Letters within Peiresc’s circle often contained separate notes of desiderata, in case certain titles could be found in private library sales.66 Booklists compiled as part of a probate inventory were a good definitive listing of the titles accumulated during someone’s lifetime and offered an excellent opportunity for rare items to become available again. Writing to Pierre Dupuy in 1629, Peiresc complained about the small print run of the Figures des monnoyes de France, but ‘if the books of Monsieur Poulain were for sale, I would gladly purchase the copy given to him by Monsieur Aultin  … to have it cut up in small pieces, and apply to each item [in Peiresc’s collection of coins] the correct match from this register’.67 Henri Poulain, Conseiller en la Cour de Monnoies and the author of treatises on coinage, must have had a substantial working library on this topic. The Figures des monnoyes de France was possibly produced in anticipation of such use, as only the rectos are printed, allowing 65 Peiresc to Pierre Dupuy, 31 March 1627. Lettres de Peiresc, I, pp. 176–189: 184. ‘Quant à vostre memoire des livres, pour ceux qui ne se trouvent poinct, il fauldrà prendre patience principalement de cez Hespagnols, en attendant, s’il en viendrà ou s’il s’en trouveroit par hazard en quelque vente de vieille bibliotheque, comme il s’en vend assez souvent dans Paris’. For similar examples see: Peiresc to Pierre Dupuy, Aix, 16 January 1633. Lettres de Peiresc, II, pp. 415–421: 419; Peiresc to Pierre Dupuy, Aix, 12 December 1633. Lettres de Peiresc, II, pp. 661–666: 662 Peiresc to Jacques Dupuy, Aix, 22 May 1635. Lettres de Peiresc, III, pp. 315–318: 318; Peiresc to Jacques Dupuy, Aix, 15 October 1635. Lettres de Peiresc, III, pp. 387–392: 389; Peiresc to Jacques Dupuy, Aix, 18 November 1636. Lettres de Peiresc, III, pp. 604–607: 606; Peiresc to Jacques Dupuy, Aix, 23 December 1636. Lettres de Peiresc, III, pp. 621–623: 622. 66 Only rarely do these lists survive together with the letters they originally came with. They were obviously written on separate slips of paper, so that they could be kept separately, without impacting on the archival practices for standard correspondence. 67 Peiresc to Pierre Dupuy, Aix, 4 May 1629. Lettres de Peiresc, II, pp. 88–91: 89. ‘Si les livres de Mr Poulain se vendoient, j’achepterois volontiers l’exemplaire que luy avoit donné’.

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the owner to cut out the single coins without losing any material on the verso of the page.68 Although a death was (usually) a cause for regret, it was also the opportunity for the discovery of rare books. This was true of bibliophiles and people in the book trade alike. In 1627 Peiresc wrote to Pierre Dupuy: The event of Morel’s demise might have led to the compilation of an inventory of his warehouses, by the means of which they may have found some piles of copies of that first volume on large paper, as he was keen to always store away a few of each edition to be kept aside for stock sales …69 Undoubtedly, the carefully noted visits to libraries in Peiresc’s archive were retained for such occasions, too. The sale of the mathematical books from the library of Matthias Bernegger in 1636 was an event of some interest, and Peiresc wrote to Pierre Dupuy indicating that he would like to see the catalogue. He was especially eager to know whether the ‘good edition of Ptolemy’s Almagest could be found’.70 Booklists catered for different needs, according to their typology. Over the years, a vast number of enquiries were commissioned by Peiresc in Aix-en-Provence to be carried out in the royal library. The presence of classmarks attached to the individual manuscripts allowed for as smooth a process as possible, with titles submitted for verification alongside their topographic location. Such precaution sometimes provided the opportunity to make an explicit request that multiple copies of a text be inspected, a key advantage

68 Figures des monnoyes de France ([Paris]: s.n., 1619). USTC 6002009. If all readers sought, like Peiresc, to turn this work into cuttings, the low survival rate of this work is easily explained not only by its low print run but also by patterns of use. Only three copies are listed in the USTC, at the British Library in London, the John Rylands University Library in Manchester, and the BnF in Paris. The latter is fully digitised and freely available. 69 Peiresc to Pierre Dupuy, undated [but 1627]. Lettres de Peiresc, I, pp. 132–141: 136–137. The original reads: ‘L’occasion de la mort dudict Morel peult avoir faict proceder à des inventaires du fonds de ses magasins par le moyen desquels il se soit retrouvé quelque pille d’exemplaires dudict premier volume en grand papier comme il estoit curieux d’en cacher tousjours quelques uns de toute sorte de libvres pour les garder aux occasions de vente de gros assortimens …’ 70 Peiresc to Jacques Dupuy, Aix, 12 August 1636. Lettres de Peiresc, III, pp. 538–545: 543. ‘J’ay veu … que le sieur Bernegger vault metre en vente les livres de mathematiques dont le cathalogue seroit tousjours trez bon à voir, et si Mr de Thou en prenoit quelques uns, et qu’il y eust moyen d’y faire joindre la bonne edition de l’Almageste de Ptolemee in fol. que je vous avois souvent demandée, ce seroit une grande charité de le nous procurer …’

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of using major collections for the collation of different versions.71 The Dupuy brothers were particularly good contacts for this sort of investigation, as not only did they have access to the royal library, but they could even have volumes from that collection fetched to their house. Peiresc made extensive use of his collection of lists to locate books he wished to own or read. He also occasionally relied on inventories to locate alternative copies to his own to be lent out. In 1632 a request came in to borrow Peiresc’s copy of the Thesaurus temporum edited by Joseph-Juste Scaliger in 1606.72 This was an imposing folio edition, certainly very valuable, and made even more so by extensive manuscript annotations. Peiresc went to some length to explain that unfortunately my poor Eusebius is so damaged by inconvenient marginalia for my own use that I would be very ashamed if such people saw them. It is for that reason that if the library of cardinal d’Armagnac has a copy, and if I could have one to avoid lending mine, in such a poor state as it is, I would happily pay for it twice its value.73 Beyond using book fair and retail catalogues, probate inventories, full or partial catalogues of private libraries, Peiresc was resourceful in finding new ways to secure rare books. If his own network failed, he was more than willing to take advantage of other instruments at his disposal. As a regular subscriber to printed newspapers, he was well aware of the power of advertising. Why limit the use of adverts to finding lost objects? In a letter to Dupuy he expressed the wish that the then-emerging periodical newssheets of the Bureau d’Adresse, which circulated through the standard news networks, could also be used as a means for seeking rare books.74 Writing about the usefulness of the ‘lost objects’ section in modern newspapers, he commented: 71 72 73

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Examples of the investigation based on multiple copies are detailed in: Peiresc to Pierre Dupuy, Aix, 15 January 1634. Lettres de Peiresc, III, pp. 14–21: 20–21; Peiresc to Jacques Dupuy, Aix, 12 December 1634. Lettres de Peiresc, III, pp. 237–240: 238. Eusebius Caesariensis; Joseph-Juste Scaliger (ed.), Thesaurus temporum (Leiden: Thomas Basson for Commelinus, 1606). USTC 1011382. Peiresc to Jacques Dupuy, Aix, 30 October 1635. Lettres de Peiresc, III, pp. 395–397: 395– 396. The original reads: ‘… par disgrace mon pauvre Eusebe est tellement gasté d’importunes apostilles que j’ay mises à la marge pour mon usaige en divers endroictz que je serois honteux que cela parust devant des gentz de celte sorte là. C’est pourquoy si la bibliothèque de Mr d’Auxerre n’est point sans ce livre là, et m’en pouvoit fournir un exemplaire pour me redimer de l’exhibition du mien, au mauvais estat qu’il est, je le payerois volontiers le double plus qu’il ne peut valloir’. Many thanks to Dr Nina Lamal for clarifying the context of the Bureau d’Adresse newssheets in relation to the French Gazette. The first of these was issued on 1 April 1633. Peiresc

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I would find it very useful if one could by the same means introduce the habit of recovering a rare book that is desired and that cannot be found in bookshops, and whenever one wants to get rid of certain curious books, to advise people living far away, who may have a much deeper interest than the locals, that these [books] are available for sale, as has been done in the past for libraries or the whole stock of a bookshop …75 The use of booklists as research instruments within Peiresc’s circle included updating and re-fashioning certain lists to reflect their new environment. The Index librorum by Scipione Tetti, a list of Latin and Greek unpublished manuscripts, has been picked apart by modern scholars for a number of erroneous references demonstrated to be in fact misinformed citations.76 The Peiresc and Dupuy copies of this list seem to indicate that seventeenth-century scholars were just as aware of these pitfalls, and did their best to remedy mistakes in the list so to be able to exploit it as a bibliographic tool.77 Compared with a third copy of this list, preserved in the Municipal Library in Troyes, the other two appear to have been expanded to include further references, relevant to the French public.78 These included manuscripts in the Holy Roman Emperor’s library in Vienna and the French royal library in Paris, the Public library in Augsburg and the Marciana library in Venice, as well as the private libraries of the Dupuy brothers, Pierre Pithou, Jacques-Auguste de Thou, Aldo Manuzio the Younger, Pierre Daniel, Barnabé Brisson and the Basel printer Oporinus.79 was probably discussing it as someone who had been familiar with the idea from the planning phase. 75 Peiresc to Pierre Dupuy, Aix, 21 March 1633. Lettres de Peiresc, II, pp. 467–475: 468. The original reads: ‘… je les estimerois bien d’avantage si on pouvoit introduire la mode par ce moyen là de recouvrer un livre rare quand on’ en a envie et qui ne s’en trouve pas chez les libraires communément et quand quelqu’un se vouldroit deflaire de quelques livres bien curieux, pour advertir qu’ilz sont en vente les personnes esloignées qui en peuvent avoir plus affaire que ceux qui en sont presentz comme l’on a pratiqué aulcunes fois pour les bibliothèques ou boutiques entières …’ 76 Aubrey Diller, ‘Scipio Tettius’ Index Librorum Nondum Editorum’, The American Journal of Philology 56.1 (1935), pp. 14–27. About Scipione Tetti, or Scipio Tettius, see Girolamo Tiraboschi, Storia della letteratura italiana. Seconda edizione modenese riveduta corretta ed accresciuta dall’autore, Tomo VII. dall’anno MD. all’anno MDC. Parte III (Modena: Presso la Società Tipografica, 1792), pp. 1037–1038. 77 Ms. 1769, ff. 295r–302r. Paris, BnF, Ms Dupuy 651, ff. 236r–245r. 78 Troyes, Médiathèque de Troyes Champagne metropole, NN.8.2931, item 4. 79 These are listed in the Peiresc copy, Ms. 1769, f. 295v and 295[bis]r, and do not feature as a list in the Dupuy copy. However, they would appear to have been adopted in the Dupuy list first, and this to be used as a model by Peiresc. A number of transcription errors would corroborate this; for example, the entry ‘Interpretes Homeri XXX antiqui tomi II Opor. [=  Oporinus]’ in the Dupuy list (Ms Dupuy 651, f. 242r) was mistakenly transcribed as

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figure 2.6a

List of sources for Scipione Tetti’s booklist in two different copies: Peiresc’s copy, held in Carpentras, and an anonymous manuscript in Troyes (Fig 2.6B, below). Carpentras, Bibliothèque-Musée Inguimbertine, Ms 1769, fol. 295v, cop. IRHT

Such an expansion of bibliographic references would serve the purpose of making the list more useful for a transalpine audience, by including citations for collections nearer home. At the same time, these additional citations show that the Dupuy and Peiresc were attempting to identify some of these unpublished texts with extant manuscripts. The example of Tetti’s list, already recognised at the time as not being entirely reliable, demonstrates one key factor in the use of early modern booklists: any list could be used as a useful bibliographic instrument, as a starting point for investigation and analysis. In verifying such information, the cross-referencing of lists was a critical step to confirm the existence and location of texts, and for the advancement of knowledge. ‘Interpretes Homeri XXX antiqui tomi II Oper. [= Opera]’ in the Peiresc copy (Ms. 1769, f. 299v).

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figure 2.6b

Troyes, Médiathèque de Troyes Champagne metropole, NN.8.2931 (4)

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Conclusions

Booklists were a tremendous asset for any work of erudition, and they were considered highly valuable by all scholars of this time. The example of Nicolas Rigault’s management of the royal library catalogue, discussed in this study, is a case in point. As conveyors of knowledge, booklists were perceived as powerful tools, and were invested with intellectual credit. Retaining such instruments meant having access to a vast information network that granted a firm position of power in the intellectual exchanges all over Europe. The prominence of Gian Vincenzo Pinelli in the humanist circles of his time, with a particular stress on the value of his collection of catalogues, stands proof of this. Peiresc’s attitude to the collection and use of booklists certainly benefitted from his approach to information management in general. As a result, the critical – one may say ‘scientific’ – approach applied to bibliographic information takes centre stage. The circulation of catalogues, inventories and thematic lists provided an important mediation between agents in the book trade and private epistolary networks. In particular, the proliferation of lists in manuscript copies shows to what extent print and the book trade still fell short in the higher circles for the circulation of knowledge – both in quantity and quality. Peiresc’s epistolary network, with key representatives located in major centres such as Paris and Rome, ensured that the offer of the French book trade was heavily supplemented with access to the greatest collections of his time. The case of Peiresc, while exceptional for the breadth of his epistolary network and of collecting patterns, is demonstrative of the importance of booklists to the upkeep of the early modern information system. While the study of library catalogues, probate inventories and provenance linked to specific individuals is essential to acquiring insights into their working methods and intellectual endeavour, our understanding remains necessarily incomplete without taking into account the extended network of libraries to which individuals had access. Booklists are the manifestation of the meta-library truly accessible to individuals and must be considered an integral part of their epistemological framework. Yet the examination of such documents in isolation – within a single library, or as a single typology of source – may in itself be misleading. The inclusion and complementary study of booklists and correspondences into a holistic methodological approach allows us to demonstrate to what extent they are critical to the study of early bibliography, textual criticism and intellectual history.

chapter 3

The Auction Catalogue of Charles III of Croÿ’s Library (Brussels, 1614): An Object-Oriented Approach Pierre Delsaerdt Historians of the book share a fascination for first instances. One might even say that book history, as a scholarly discipline, originated from questions concerning the very start of its research object, the printed book. Who invented typography? Where did this event take place? What was the title of the first printed book? These questions dominated historical research on the book for several decades in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Later on, they were supplemented by a long series of additional ‘first instance’ questions. Who printed the first book containing Greek or Hebrew characters? When was the first lithograph produced? When and where did the first public library start its activities? First instances are markers of change, and book history, like history in general, is very much concerned with change. In Western liberal societies, change has been implicitly associated with creativity and success, with emancipation from out-of-date techniques and traditions. To have been part of processes of change, then, is an object of pride. The history of the book trade has its own canonical series of first instances, such as the first examples of posters advertising the publication of a new book, or the start of the international book fairs in Frankfurt. A major event in this canon of the European book trade is the publication of the first printed book auction catalogue. Ever since Pollard and Ehrman’s The Distribution of Books by Catalogue, book historians have been intrigued by the origins of auction catalogues.1 The earliest occurrences of book auctions making use of printed lists are considered to be important moments in cultural and intellectual history. They indicate that from that particular moment in time, having actual books on show was no longer considered effective in preparing auctions, due to their increasing number and to the growth of the private collections

1 Graham Pollard and Albert Ehrman, The distribution of books by catalogue from the invention of printing to A.D. 1800 based on material in the Broxbourne Library (Cambridge: The Roxburghe Club, 1965).

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2021 | doi:10.1163/9789004422247_004

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figure 3.1 Duke Charles iii of Croÿ at the age of 39. Engraving by Antoine Wierix in Jean Bosquet, Reduction de la ville de Bone par messire Charles, duc de Croy et d’Arschot, prince de Chimay, &c. en l’an 1588, et autres siens faits memorables, meslangés du succinct recit de plusieurs choses notables, advenuës depuis ledit an jusques à ce jour (Anvers: de l’imprimerie de Martin Nutius, 1599). Antwerp, Plantin-Moretus Museum – UNESCO World Heritage; USTC 13651

offered for sale. In other words, printed auction catalogues are proof of the growing importance of the book in the private and public spheres in early modern Europe.2 2 B. van Selm, Een menighte treffelijcke boecken. Nederlandse boekhandelscatalogi in het begin van de zeventiende eeuw (Utrecht: HES, 1987), pp. 20–50.

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The Earliest Book Auction Catalogue

It is generally assumed that the very first book auction catalogue was printed in the Dutch Republic, and that it took several decades before similar lists appeared in other European countries. Pollard and Ehrman acknowledged the Dutch pre-eminence in this regard, confirming what had already been observed by previous authors: the first private library to have been auctioned from a printed catalogue was the collection owned by Philip of Marnix of Saint-Aldegonde (1540–1598), a resolute Calvinist who served as a diplomat for William of Orange and the author of several polemical writings attacking the Catholic Church. The majority of Marnix’s books were auctioned at Leiden in his widow’s house starting on 6 July 1599. The catalogue was printed by Christoffel Guyot for the bookseller Louis I Elzevier, who most probably acted as the auctioneer at the request of Marnix’s heirs.3 At least three copies of this catalogue have been preserved: in the University of Amsterdam Library, the Royal Library in Copenhagen and the Bibliothèque interuniversitaire de santé in Paris, while a facsimile edition of the Amsterdam copy was published in 1964.4 The layout and the contents of Marnix’s auction catalogue are remarkable. It is a quarto volume of 30 leaves which lists approximately 1,647 lots. The title-page is bilingual and addresses a public of both Latin and Dutch-speaking clients. It emphasizes the reputation of the deceased collector, but does not expand on his many titles and functions. The starting date and the location of the auction are announced on the last page. The book titles are classified under a series of six subject headings, each of which is subdivided into bibliographical formats. The titles are not numbered; their descriptions generally mention the author, the title, the place and year of publication, sometimes the printer’s name and the number of volumes. The titles are presented in such a way that the language in which the books were written can be recognized at first glance: Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Italian and Spanish titles are composed in 3 Pollard and Ehrman, The distribution of books by catalogue, pp. 218–219; Van Selm, Een menighte treffelijcke boecken, pp. 20–22. 4 Catalogus librorum bibliothecae nobilissimi clarissimique viri piae memoriae D. Philippi Marnixii Sancto-Aldegondij = Catalogue van de boecken des edelen wijtberoemden heeren saligher ghedachtenisse Philips van Marnix heer van Ste Aldegonde, &c (Leiden: Christoffel Guyot, 1599), USTC 429893; STCN 314891277 and 411994336. G.J. Brouwer, ed., Catalogue of the library of Philips van Marnix van Sint-Aldegonde, sold by auction ( July 6th), Leiden, Christophorus Guyot, 1599 (Nieuwkoop: B. De Graaf, 1964). For references to the copies: Otto S. Lankhorst, ‘Dutch Book Auctions in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries’, in Robin Myers etc. (eds.), Under the Hammer: Book Auctions since the Seventeenth Century (Newcastle: Oak Knoll Press, London: The British Library, 2001), pp. 65–87.

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roman type, while italics are used for French titles, and blackletter type for Dutch and German volumes. The auction catalogue of Marnix’s books was soon followed by others, such as the Leiden catalogues describing the libraries of the Antwerp-born merchant Daniel van der Meulen (Leiden: Christophorus Raphelengius, 1600), the Amsterdam schoolmaster Cornelis de Rekenare (Leiden: Christoffel Guyot, 1603) and the geographer and cartographer Gerard Mercator (Leiden: Thomas Basson, 1604). Auction activities then spread to other Dutch towns, including The Hague (1605), Middelburg (1605), Franeker (1616), Rotterdam (1620), Dordrecht (1623), and Utrecht (1625), while the first printed auction catalogue to appear in Amsterdam dates from 1627.5 It can be safely stated that auctions of private libraries found fertile ground in the Dutch Republic and that printed auction catalogues were introduced by the Dutch book trade at the very end of the sixteenth century. Other European countries were surprisingly late in adopting printed auction catalogues as an innovative tool for selling private book collections. To be sure, printed bibliographies, institutional library catalogues and publisher’s lists had long been familiar to the European Republic of Letters, but it took several decades before book auction catalogues were printed outside the Dutch Republic. According to Van Selm, they only appeared in Germany in 1659, then in Denmark (1661), Sweden (1664) and England (1676).6 The French book trade introduced the practice of auctioning books from printed catalogues in 1646.7 In Spain, the earliest specimens date from 1660 and 1666.8

5 Van Selm, Een menighte treffelijcke boecken, pp. 22–38. 6 Van Selm, Een menighte treffelijcke boecken, p. 11. On book auctions in England see Giles Mandelbrote, ‘The Organization of Book Auctions in Late Seventeenth-Century London’, in Robin Myers et al. (eds.), Under the Hammer, pp. 15–50. For Germany see Hans Dieter Gebauer, Bücherauktionen in Deutschland im 17. Jahrhundert (Bonn: Bouvier, 1981). 7 Françoise Bléchet, Les ventes publiques de livres en France, 1630–1715: répertoire des catalogues conservés à la Bibliothèque nationale (Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 1991); Yann Sordet, ‘Imprimer des catalogues pour vendre des livres: marché de la librairie, pratiques culturelles et transmission des bibliothèques (XVIe–XVIIIe siècle)’ in Pierre Delsaerdt and Yann Sordet (eds.), Lectures princières & commerce du livre. La bibliothèque de Charles III de Croÿ et sa mise en vente (1614) (2 vols., Paris: Fondation d’Arenberg, Société des bibliophiles françois, Éditions des Cendres, 2017), II, pp. 56–57 and notes 25–26. 8 Joaquín de Entrambasaguas, La biblioteca de Ramírez de Prado (Madrid: CSIC, 1943); Isabel Villaseñor Rodríguez, ‘El catálogo de la biblioteca, “que en castellano se llama librería” de Don Diego de Arce Reinoso’, Revista general de información y documentación, 3 (1993), pp. 251–259. I wish to thank Lluís Agustí and Pedro Rueda for these references.

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The Earliest Book Auction Catalogue in the Southern Low Countries

Thus far, no mention has been made of the Southern Low Countries, a region that had been part of the same political entity as the Northern Netherlands for almost a century. Only after 1588, when the north started to consider itself an independent republic, did the Southern Low Countries constitute a separate country under Spanish-Habsburg rule, although the ties between the seventeen old Provinces remained strong well into the seventeenth century. It is not very surprising, then, that new commercial techniques of the second-hand book trade readily crossed the borders between the two countries, certainly if one takes into account that book auctions had been popular in the Southern Low Countries since at least the mid-sixteenth century.9 The first printed book auction catalogue that appeared outside the Dutch Republic was published in Brussels in 1614. It was prepared for the auction of the library of Duke Charles III of Croÿ, a member of an important aristocratic family. As it is the first instance of an auction catalogue printed outside Dutch borders, and much earlier than in other European countries, it seems reasonable to pay greater attention to it than has been the case thus far.10 How was the catalogue designed in terms of both bibliographical quality and typographical style? Does the document tell us something about the reasons behind the sale? Is it a reliable source to reconstruct this aristocratic library? What is there to be said about the provenances of the unique copy that has been preserved? How do we explain why it has been preserved? It is my firm conviction that patient

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Pierre Delsaerdt, Suam quisque bibliothecam. Boekhandel en particulier boekenbezit aan de oude Leuvense universiteit 16de–18de eeuw (Leuven: Universitaire Pers, 2001), pp. 150–156. 10 Catalogus universalis seu designatio omnium librorum, qui sub auctione publica bonorum mobilium, quondam illustrissimi D. Ducis Croy & Arschotani Bruxellae 19 Augusti huius anni 1614 divendi incipientur (Bruxellae: Ex officina Rutgeri Velpij & Huberti Antonij typog. iur. anno 1614). Unique copy in Enghien (Belgium), Arenberg Foundation, LP 600 A (USTC 1531405). A facsimile edition of this copy was published in 2017: Pierre Delsaerdt, Yann Sordet (eds.), Lectures princières & commerce du livre. La bibliothèque de Charles III de Croÿ et sa mise en vente (1614) (2 vols., Paris: Fondation d’Arenberg, Société des bibliophiles françois, Éditions des Cendres, 2017). The Croÿ catalogue was first discussed (on the basis of another copy) by Edward Van Even, ‘Notice sur la bibliothèque de Charles de Croy, Duc d’Aerschot (1614)’, Bulletin du bibliophile belge, IX (1852), pp. 380–393 and 436– 451. The discovery of the Enghien copy was the occasion for renewed interest: Christian Coppens, ‘A post-mortem inventory turned into a sales catalogue: a screening of the auction catalogue of the library of Charles Duke of Croy, Brussels 1614’, Quaerendo, 38 (2008), pp. 359–380.

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figure 3.2 Title-page of the auction catalogue of Charles III of Croÿ (Brussels, 1614). Enghien, Arenberg Foundation

scrutiny of the catalogue as an object can shed new light on its significance for the history of book distribution in the early modern Low Countries. Graham Pollard and Albert Ehrman knew of the sale of Charles of Croÿ’s library thanks to a printed placard announcing its ‘vendition … au plus offrant et dernier enchérisseur’ in Brussels, but they claimed that no catalogue of this sale was known.11 However, in his ground-breaking work on Dutch book 11

Pollard and Ehrman, The distribution of books by catalogue, p. 236; they incorrectly dated the auction to 1612.

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catalogues in the early seventeenth century, Bert van Selm wrote a long note on the Croÿ auction, in which he did make mention of a catalogue, following an article by the Louvain librarian and archivist Edward van Even, dated 1852.12 Van Selm relied entirely on this secondary information, as the only copy known at that time  – the one that Van Even had described  – had been lost due to the destruction of Louvain’s university library in 1914. Nevertheless, Van Selm refused to consider the 1614 catalogue as the starting point for the auctioning of books from a printed catalogue in the Southern Low Countries, stating that it was in fact a memorial catalogue, drawn up following the terms of the late Duke’s will – a catalogue that was only used subsequently as a tool to organise the auction. For Van Selm and Pollard and Ehrman, auctioning books from a printed catalogue only took root in the Southern Low Countries in 1636, with two catalogues used for auctions in the university town of Louvain.13 In view of these assumptions, the recent discovery of another – indeed unique – copy of the catalogue was of major importance. It came to light thanks to the opening to researchers of the documentary heritage collections kept at Enghien (Belgium) by the Arenberg family, who are related to the Croÿ family.14 For decades, the Croÿ auction catalogue had been kept there without drawing anyone’s attention. Thanks to this copy, we are in a position to understand better how the catalogue was conceived, how it reflects the contents of Charles of Croÿ’s library, and how it was used and preserved over the past four centuries.

Charles III of Croÿ

Charles III of Croÿ was a member of a prominent aristocratic family that had gradually attained a prestigious position at the Burgundian court of Philip the Bold and John I the Fearless.15 In later years, the family had entered the service of the Habsburg dynasty, with William II of Croÿ (1458–1521) serving as a preceptor and a minister to the Emperor Charles V. Charles III of Croÿ was 12 Cf. supra, note 10. Van Selm, Een menighte treffelijcke boecken, pp. 53–54, note 15. 13 Pollard and Ehrman, The distribution of books by catalogue, p. 228; Van Selm, Een menighte treffelijcke boecken, p. 11 and pp. 53–54, note 15; more about these auction catalogues in Delsaerdt, Suam quisque bibliothecam, pp. 161–173, and a facsimile-edition of the earliest one: Pierre Delsaerdt (ed.), Catalogus librorum ex domibus mortuariis. De eerste gedrukte Leuvense boekveilingcatalogus (Wildert: De Carbolineum Pers, 1995). 14 Cf. supra, note 10. More information about the Arenberg Foundation is found at www.arenbergfoundation.eu. 15 These paragraphs on Charles III of Croÿ, his life, library and will, are based on Jean-Marie Duvosquel, ‘Charles III de Croÿ (1560–1612), un prince de la Renaissance, collectionneur et bibliophile’ in Pierre Delsaerdt, Yann Sordet (eds.), Lectures princières & commerce du livre, II, pp. 17–43 (with extensive reference to archival sources and literature).

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born in 1560 at Beaumont castle in the County of Hainaut. He was the son of Philippe III, Duke of Arschot and of Jeanne of Halluin. He studied at Louvain University and soon accepted military and diplomatic missions. During one of these missions, accompanying his parents to Aachen in 1580, he married Marie de Brimeu, a rich widow and a Calvinist who convinced him to renounce his Catholic faith and his loyalty to King Philip II. As early as 1583, however, he returned to the Spanish party and to Roman Catholicism. He then became a military leader in the service of Philip II and the Archdukes Albert and Isabella, sovereigns of the Southern Low Countries. In 1598, he was part of the Spanish delegation that negotiated the Peace of Vervins between Spain and France. As a reward for his intervention, the French king, Henry IV, elevated the small family seigniory of Crouÿ, near Amiens, to a duchy. At that time, Charles of Croÿ was already a man of great wealth, being the owner of vast domains in Artois, Picardy, Flanders, Brabant and Hainaut. In order to manage his numerous possessions, he had them carefully listed and mapped. From 1595 onwards, copies of the maps were produced on vellum, to which lavish gouaches were added in a series of volumes known as the Albums de Croÿ, representing numerous towns and landscapes in the Low Countries. At the age of 45, after the death of his first wife, Charles married his cousin Dorothée of Croÿ (1575–1662), apparently in an attempt to beget a male heir. He also retired from his military functions and settled in Beaumont castle ‘in order to live there with more pleasure, satisfaction, peace and rest than he [had] done in the past’ (pour y pouvoir vivre avecq plus de joye, contentement, paix et repos que je n’ay faict du passé). He occasionally stayed in one of the family’s castles, or in Mons or Brussels, where he owned a mansion at the Place des Bailles near the Archducal palace. In his later years, Duke Charles seems to have settled down to manage his manifold collections. These included a coin collection, some four hundred statues, jewellery, precious stones, more than a thousand paintings, a multitude of furniture, and – in the words of the Duke himself – ‘the most beautiful and extensive collection of books in all arts and sciences that [had] ever been seen in the Low Countries’ (la plus belle et copieuse librairie en tous arts et sciences qui fut onques au Pays Bas). Charles had bought books on a regular basis, thus continuing the family’s long tradition of collecting books and manuscripts. Moreover, he had inherited and transferred to Beaumont the famous library of his great-grandfather on his mother’s side, Georges of Halluin (1473–1536), an erudite humanist who had served as a councillor and a diplomat to several Burgundian and Habsburg sovereigns. The quality of this collection had been demonstrated in 1511, when some of the manuscripts were bought by Margaret of Austria, governess of the Low Countries and an aunt of the Emperor.

The Auction Catalogue of Charles III of Croÿ ’ s Library

figure 3.3 Poster announcing the sale of Charles of Croÿ’s collections (s.l.: s.n., [1614]). Washington DC, Folger Shakespeare Library, Z 999 C7 Cage-fo Used by permission of the Folger Shakespeare Library under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

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In the two versions of his will, dated 1606 and 1610, Charles of Croÿ bequeathed all of these collections to his wife Dorothée and to his nephew and universal heir Alexander of Arenberg (1590–1629). He explicitely instructed that all the objects be preserved in their original locations, where they would honour his memory. In a later codicil, he gave orders to have several catalogues of his collections printed within three years of his death.16 After Charles’s death on 13 June 1612, his will was fiercely contested, especially by his sister Anne of Croÿ (1564–1635), Alexander’s mother, who was married to Charles of Arenberg (1550–1616). Ultimately, she came into possession of large parts of her brother’s immovable property. The testamentary disposition requiring all the collections to be kept in their original location was also disregarded. Several archival documents attest to some pieces of furniture and works of art being moved from Beaumont to Brussels in 1613. By order of the executors, a small poster announced the auction of the Duke’s collections from 15 July 1614 onwards; among them was ‘a library of 6,000 volumes, many of them manuscripts’ (une bibliothèque de six mille volumes, beaucoup d’iceulx manu-scrits).17

The Typographical Quality of the Catalogue

The present state of research does not allow us to confirm that all of the collections were actually auctioned. However, as far as the books are concerned, an auction catalogue did appear in Brussels in 1614. The title-page announced that the books were to be sold there from 19 August 1614 onwards. Thus far, no other document has been found to confirm that the auction did take place, nor is it possible to determine how the books changed hands: Were they indeed auctioned in separate lots, or was the whole library bought by one single person? We do not know, but at the very least we can deduce from the catalogue’s title-page that the intention was to sell the books by auction and to do this in a well-organized manner.18 16 Frédéric de Reiffenberg (ed.), Une existence de grand seigneur au seizième siècle. Mémoires autographes du Duc Charles de Croy (Bruxelles: Delevingne et Callewaert, 1845), pp. 229– 294 and 303–304. 17 Copies of this poster can be found in Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, ms. Dupuy 488, f. 165, and in Washington DC, Folger Shakespeare Library, Z 999 C7 Cage-fo; according to Duvosquel, ‘Charles III de Croÿ’, p. 41 n. 45, a third copy is kept in a private collection in Brussels. 18 It is important to note that not all of the Duke’s books are listed in the catalogue. True, individual works that have been identified in present-day collections and bearing his handwritten provenance marks are listed in the catalogue (e.g. an edition of Hubertus Goltzius on p. 93, mentioned by Duvosquel, ‘Charles III de Croÿ’, p. 43, note 62; and

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figure 3.4 First page of the table of contents of Charles III of Croÿ’s auction catalogue. Enghien, Arenberg Foundation

The preserved copy of the Croÿ auction catalogue can be described using the following formula: 4o: a4 (−a4), A–Q4: 67 folios = p. [I–VI], 1–127 [128]. In other words, it is a quarto volume with 17 quires of 4 leaves, the first quire lacks its another volume now in the Mazarine Library, mentioned by Sordet, ‘Imprimer des catalogues’, p. 70). But some other preserved volumes with a Croÿ-provenance are not listed in the catalogue, e.g. a copy of Justus Lipsius’s Admiranda, sive De magnitudine Romana (Antverpiae: Joannes Moretus, 1599), now in Louvain, University Library: cf. Coppens, ‘A post-mortem inventory’, p. 369, n. 20.

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figure 3.5 Page 41 of Charles III of Croÿ’s auction catalogue, with blackletter type on the penultimate line. Enghien, Arenberg Foundation

fourth leaf, and all the pages are numbered, except for the first quire and the verso of the last leaf, which is blank. From a typographic point of view, the first gathering differs from the corpus of the volume in more than one respect. While the list of books and manuscripts clearly reflects hurried typesetting, the first gathering, with the titlepage and a detailed table of contents, is more fitting of the reputation of the library and its owner. These preliminary pages are the only ones bearing typographical ornaments; the italics used for the table of contents are larger and definitely more elegant than the plain roman type used for the list of books.

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The title-page does not highlight the name of the library’s former owner, nor his many functions and titles. However, by visually stressing the word universalis, which is grammatically linked to the word catalogus, this ‘universal’ quality would perhaps be associated with the library that was for sale rather than with the catalogue itself. The design of the title-page thus gives the impression of a very rich and varied library, of which every single book (omnium, stressed by the use of large capitals) is to be found in the catalogue. The page is a subtle example of typographic design used as a marketing tool. Under a lozenge-shaped ornament, the imprint tells us that the catalogue was printed in Brussels by the sworn printers Velpius and Anthoine. The executors may have considered this as a self-evident choice. Rutger Velpius (active from 1565, †1614 or 1615) and his son-in-law Hubert Anthoine (1567/70–1630) had their printing shop at The Golden Eagle, in the immediate neighbourhood of the Archducal court – and thus in close vicinity to Duke Charles’s Brussels mansion.19 The main part of the catalogue, however, is much more matter of fact. The characters used for the list of titles are smaller than those of the table of contents, and only very rarely are titles in non-Latin languages set in non-roman type. One would have expected italics for French titles, and blackletters for German and Dutch ones. However, italics are absent, and only a few Dutch titles stand out through the use of blackletter type (e.g. D’licht der apothekers on p. 41). Another typographical detail reveals a certain haste and the thrifty use of paper. In quires A to C, the printers have made use of indented ‘paragraphs’ (where one paragraph equals one title), a system that is not very effective in saving space or assisting in discriminating between several titles in one list, especially not when titles are only one line of type long. It looks as if the printers evaluated their work after having printed the first three sheets, observed that the result was not very satisfactory, and so decided to use hanging indents from page 25 onwards. It is significant that they did not decide to compose and print a new version of gatherings A to C.

The Catalogue as a Bibliography

The poor typographic style overall reflects the low quality of the bibliographical information. As a general rule, the catalogue mentions the author and an abridged title of each book, but almost never the place or year of publication, 19

Anne Rouzet, Dictionnaire des imprimeurs, libraires et éditeurs des XVe et XVIe siècles dans les limites géographiques de la Belgique actuelle (Nieuwkoop: B. De Graaf, 1975), pp. 230– 232, 1–2.

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figure 3.6 Start of the title list on p. 1 of Charles III of Croÿ’s auction catalogue. Enghien, Arenberg Foundation

the number of volumes, nor the bibliographical format. In most cases – but not consistently – the manuscripts can be distinguished from the printed books thanks to notes such as ‘written by hand’ (escript à la main, p. 42). Sometimes, the language of the books is added to the title, as is the presence of illustrations. An effort has been made to define the contents of the books and to arrange them according to a set of 55 sections, from Libri theologici – Biblia (page 1) to Libri grammatici & grammaticales (page 116). The section headings are sometimes composed in letter-spaced roman capitals, sometimes in small capitals, sometimes in lower-case romans – not a very convenient design. Most of the

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headings are in Latin, but a French section appears on page 38 (‘Agriculture’), and a bilingual one on page 102 (‘Historiae Belgicae sive des Pays Bas, tant manuscripti quam impressi’). The use of French is less surprising when the title of the list is taken into account, as it appears on page 1, immediately following the front matter. Contrary to the Latin title-page, this title reads: Inventaire des livres trouvez en la librairie de feu … le Duc de Croy & d’Arschot (Inventory of the books found in the library of the late Duke of Croÿ and of Arschot). An intriguing heading is added in print on page 122: ‘Subsequent books, partly on medicine, partly on other subjects and on history, not bearing title labels as do the previous ones’ (Livres suyvans en partie en medecine, & en partie traictans autres choses, & aucunes histoires, n’ayant point de billets de leurs titulations par dehors comme les precedens). Clearly then, the titles listed on pages 1 to 122 have been copied from labels that were in some way attached to every single book; either pasted on the spine or the front cover of each volume, or inserted in them as a kind of file card. It is possible that these labels were added to the books during Duke Charles’s lifetime.20 In any case, this would mean that the section headings of the main part of the catalogue reflect the arrangement of the books in the rooms of Beaumont castle, and that the subsequent titles listed on pages 122 to 127 needed to be described book-in-hand. This first-hand inspection, probably performed by the booksellers Velpius and Anthoine, resulted in more detailed bibliographic descriptions. From that heading onwards, the descriptions include the format, sometimes the place of publication, sometimes even the name of the printer, the year of publication and, more rarely, the quality of the binding. Due to the limited nature of the bibliographic descriptions, the exact size of the library can only be approximately determined; Christian Coppens estimated it at 3,105 items.21 In addition, it is also very difficult if not impossible to identify the precise editions of the titles listed – apart from those mentioned 20

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Two manuscripts coming from Charles III of Croÿ’s library, but which are not recorded in the auction catalogue, have been described in the nineteenth century as ‘intitulés sur le plat de la couverture’. Cf. Louis-Prosper Gachard, ‘Notice sur la collection de manuscrits de M. le comte de Ribaucourt’, Compte-rendu des séances de la Commission royale d’histoire ou Recueil de ses bulletins, v (Bruxelles: F. Hayez, 1842), p. 376–377 (cited in François Bougard and Françoise Fery-Hue, ‘Les manuscrits de Charles III de Croÿ: une enquête en cours’, in Pierre Delsaerdt and Yann Sordet (eds.), Lectures princières & commerce du livre, II, pp. 130). A similar use of labels pasted on the spine and fore-edges of books is illustrated by the Great picture (1646, attributed to Jan van Belcamp), a painting on canvas now in Abbot Hall Art Gallery (Kendal, Cumbria) representing Lady Anne Clifford, Countess of Pembroke, Dorset and Montgomery (1590–1676). See Leah Knight, in Joseph L. Black (ed.), Private Libraries in Renaissance England, vol. 9 (Tempe: ACMRS, 2017), p. 349. Coppens, ‘A post-mortem inventory’, p. 368.

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figure 3.7 Page 122 of Charles III of Croÿ’s auction catalogue, announcing volumes without title labels. Enghien, Arenberg Foundation

on pages 122 to 127 – let alone to trace the Croÿ copies in current collections. Nevertheless, this is exactly what François Bougard and Françoise Fery-Hue attempted to do with the manuscripts mentioned in the catalogue.22 Although it is at times unclear whether a title is represented in manuscript or as a printed book, they estimated that 150 entries referred to manuscripts, or five percent of the total collection. Interestingly, some of these manuscripts can be 22 François Bougard and Françoise Fery-Hue, ‘Les manuscrits de Charles III de Croÿ: une enquête en cours’, in Pierre Delsaerdt and Yann Sordet (eds.), Lectures princières & commerce du livre, II, pp. 101–132.

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identified in present-day libraries thanks to written notes signed by the Duke, or to his handwritten ex-libris, by which he dated his reading of some texts. In 2017, Bougard and Fery-Hue had identified 34 manuscripts mentioned in the catalogue that can be linked with certainty to the library of Charles III of Croÿ. They are held in libraries in Belgium, France, Germany and Spain, with a large proportion (21 manuscripts) held at the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Eighteen of these manuscripts and another held at the Bibliothèque muni­ cipale in Soissons were once part of Richelieu’s library. It has not been established whether these manuscripts were bought at the Croÿ auction directly, or through the sale of another collection. Bougard and Fery-Hue continue their investigations.

Copy-Specific Features

Moving from the catalogue’s typographical and bibliographical qualities to the specific features of the unique copy kept at Enghien, the naked eye is struck by the differences in shade between the leaves. The presence of paper sheets of several origins was confirmed by microscopic analysis, which revealed three different watermarks, while some gatherings lack any watermark at all. Moreover, the distance between the chain lines of the sheet used to print the first gathering (that containing the title-page and the table of contents) is larger than that between the chain lines of the subsequent quires. In all, at least four different paper qualities were used to print this copy.23 In other words, the printers decided that the auction catalogue did not need to be printed on sheets of the same quality. After all, it was just an ephemeral publication, and therefore different stacks of paper could be used for different gatherings within each copy. Based on this additional information, we can formulate the following hypothesis: Duke Charles of Croÿ died at Beaumont castle on 13 June 1612. Only one year earlier, he had added a codicil to his will, by which he obliged his heirs to draw up a catalogue of his library within three years of his death. Possibly, this work had been prepared some time after the Duke’s death, by transcribing the title labels (billets de leurs titulations) pasted on or inserted into the volumes. The idea may have been to print this list without further editing, thereby fulfilling the Duke’s will as soon as possible, or to print it later, 23

Lieve Watteeuw, Catalogue de Croÿ, unpublished report, in Dutch (Leuven: Book Heritage Lab, 2017). The analysis consisted of high-resolution macro-photographs, of photographs produced by a Hirox 3D microscope, and of a visual analysis using the WL Microdome, which was developed through the RICH-project. I wish to thank prof. Lieve Watteeuw for her help in analyzing the material aspects of the catalogue.

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when the descriptions would have been transformed into fully fledged bibliographic descriptions. In any case, this list started with a French formula that was typical of a post-mortem inventory: Inventaire des livres trouvez en la librairie de feu (…) Monseigneur le Duc de Croÿ & d’Arschot, &c. However, it would seem that at some point the Duke’s heirs or his executors decided to sell the books – or that they were forced to do so. Thus, they called upon two Brussels booksellers to finish the inventory of the books and to publish it as an auction catalogue. For that purpose, the printers added a table of contents to the list and an eye-catching title-page, written in Latin and recommending the universal character of the library, with the unmistakable objective of attracting more buyers: Latin-speaking intellectuals in the country and possibly even abroad.

Provenances

What can we tell about the circulation of the Enghien copy of the Croÿ catalogue? In the top right-hand corner of the title-page, a handwritten mark indicates that the brochure entered the library of the Jesuit college of Louvain in 1639, thus 25 years after its publication (‘Collij Societatis Jesu Lovanij 1639’). The addition of the letters ‘M.B.’ indicates that it was held in the college’s Major Bibliotheca, while the handwritten code ‘B.3’ should be understood as the book’s call number. The Louvain Jesuit college differed from other Jesuit colleges in the country in that it did not offer secondary education, but rather courses in theology and philosophy for the Jesuit members who had just finished their noviciate. The Major Bibliotheca served as a central library for all of the Jesuit fathers, in contrast to the Parva Bibliotheca, which was only open to the teaching staff, and which specialized in theological controversy. It was common practice for Jesuit libraries to record in writing the name of the library and the acquisition date in each volume entering the collection.24 We do not know who owned the catalogue before 1639. A register of gifts for these years to the Louvain library has been preserved – and indeed numerous gifts entered the collection  – but it does not mention the Croÿ auction catalogue.25 It is possible that it was not thought important enough to be mentioned alongside the more voluminous works by prominent theologians. Alternatively, the college library may have acquired it by itself, or have received 24 Bart Op de Beeck, Jezuïetenbibliotheken in de Zuidelijke Nederlanden. De liquidatie 1773– 1828 (unpublished doctoral dissertation, Leuven, 2008), pp. 66–67, 72. 25 Leuven, State Archives, Archives of the Leuven Jesuit college, 20: Catalogus alter complectens patres ac magistros Soctis nostrae Bibliothecae huius nostrae benefactores et simul librorum indicem quos in eius incrementum sua munificentia contulerunt ab anno MDCXXXV. Bart Op de Beeck, Jezuïetenbibliotheken, pp. 234–243.

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it from one of the community’s fathers. We may assume that the catalogue was bound for the first time when it entered the college library. Before that, the gatherings were most probably sewn into a simple bifolium of decorated paper of some kind. This, at least, is what can be deduced from two perforations – one at the top and one at the bottom of each leaf – that only became apparent very recently, when the catalogue was removed from its nineteenth-century binding.26 When the brochure entered the college’s library, it may have been bound in a Sammelband volume, of which it must have been the first item, thus bearing the acquisition date and call number. During this operation, the brochure’s edges may have been cut for the first time, and then perhaps painted in a greyish blue colour, as the microscopic analysis of the Enghien copy revealed traces of paint on the edges of some pages.27 That the catalogue was part of a pamphlet volume during its years in the Jesuit college library of Louvain is confirmed by the manuscript catalogue of this library, which is now kept at the Royal Library of Belgium.28 It dates from approximately 1665 and records a total of 16,583 items. The Croÿ catalogue is mentioned under the section ‘Bibliothecae & Indices’ as ‘Catalogus librorum Ducis Croy et Arschostani [sic] et multorum aliorum, Brux. 1614.’ The note ‘and of many others’ (et multorum aliorum) points toward a Sammelband volume containing many additional library catalogues. After the suppression of the Society of Jesus in the Austrian Netherlands in 1773, their colleges were closed and their libraries confiscated. A selection of books was transferred to the Royal Library in Brussels and to some other institutional libraries, but the bulk of the collections were sold during epic auctions.29 The sale of the Louvain college library took place in the university town in April 1779, from a catalogue listing no less than 12,310 lots, of which 11,140 came from the Major Bibliotheca. The Croÿ catalogue is mentioned as number 914 within the section ‘Histoire. In-quarto’. The same lot has a bookseller’s catalogue of Petrus Zangrius, dated Louvain 1632. A brace connects these two catalogues to an unidentified number of varia: additional proof that they were part of a Sammelband.30 26 Lieve Watteeuw, Catalogue de Croÿ, p. 2. 27 Ibid. 28 Brussels, Royal Library of Belgium, Manuscripts, Ms. 4673A, p. 457. Cf. Op de Beeck, Jezuïetenbibliotheken, pp. 225–227. 29 Op de Beeck, Jezuïetenbibliotheken, p. 249; Pierre Delsaerdt, ‘The inheritors of loss. Seized libraries and bibliophily in late 18th-century Antwerp’, De Gulden Passer, 92 (2014), pp. 59–64. 30 Catalogue de livres du collège des ci-devant Jésuites de Louvain, dont la vente se fera audit collège lundi 12 avril 1779 & jours suivans (Louvain: Michel, Bruxelles: J. Vanden Berghen, [1779]), p. 321.

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figure 3.8 Armorial bookplate of Duke Prosper-Louis of Arenberg affixed to the upper paste-down of the nineteenth-century binding. Enghien, Arenberg Foundation

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We do not know who bought lot 914 in 1779. Early in the nineteenth century, however, it entered the extensive library of the Arenberg family’s Brussels palace. This can be deduced from a set of indications. The first clue is the nineteenth-century binding in which the individual auction catalogue was bound until the autumn of 2016, when it was unbound in order to digitize the catalogue, and consequently rebound for conservation purposes.31 The boards and the spine of this binding were preserved and can be described as a light-brown calfskin half-binding with gilt floral ornaments on the spine and an indication of the content and the date of the catalogue (‘bibliothèq du duc de croy 1614’). The boards are covered with Annonay-type paper, while comb marbled paper has been used for the paste-downs and the flyleaves. An armorial bookplate is affixed to the upper paste-down. It is signed by the Belgian painter Auguste-Félix Schoy (1838–1885), and by the engraver Édouard Vermorcken (1820–1906). The coat of arms with three medlar flowers and the device ‘Christus protector meus’ refer to the Arenberg family. Within the blank cartouches, the librarian has noted the call number by hand as ‘76 / III / 8K2’. Later on, a stamp in violet ink was added across the bookplate, indicating that the book was part of the Biographie section. The Arenberg library, located in the family’s palace at the Brussels Petit Sablon (Kleine Zavel), has been studied at length; the ex-libris can be attributed to Duke Prosper-Louis of Arenberg (1785–1861), one of the family’s main bibliophiles.32 Once again, a handwritten catalogue of this extensive aristocratic library tells us more: the Arenberg family archives, kept largely at the National Archives of Belgium (Brussels), include a monumental and very detailed handwritten catalogue in eight folio volumes dating from 1822–1825.33 On page 65 of the second volume, the Croÿ catalogue appears as part of the pamphlet volume, which is described as ‘one square octavo volume bound in parchment containing 23 catalogues’ (23 catalogues en 1 volm 8o quarré relié en parchemin). Not only is the assumption of a pamphlet volume confirmed, but its other components are also mentioned: the auction catalogue 31 32

33

The catalogue was unbound, restaured and rebound by the staff of the Mazarine Library, Paris (Francis Gicquel and Anne Weber). It was digitized at the Service Images of the Institut de recherche et d’histoire des textes, Paris (Gilles Kagan). Jan Roegiers, ‘De bibliotheek’, in Mark Derez etc. (eds.), Arenberg in de Lage Landen. Een hoogadellijk huis in Vlaanderen en Nederland (Leuven: Universitaire Pers, 2002), pp. 358– 369. Elly Cockx-Indestege and Pierre Delsaerdt, ‘The odyssey of a rare books library. The Dukes of Arenberg and their Collection spéciale’, in Mark Derez, etc. (eds.), Arenberg. Portrait of a family, story of a collection (Turnhout: Brepols, 2018), pp. 244–251. Brussels, State Archives of Belgium, Arenberg archives, Sa 1598/1–8: Minute du catalogue des livres de la bibliothèque de Son Altesse Sérénissime Monseigneur le Duc d’Arenberg dressè, d’après ses ordres, suivant l’emplacement qu’ils occupaient le 1er may 1822.

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figure 3.9 Page 127 of Charles III of Croÿ’s auction catalogue. Enghien, Arenberg Foundation

figure 3.10

Pencil drawing on tracing paper after p. 127 of Charles III of Croÿ’s auction catalogue. Enghien, Arenberg Foundation

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of the library of Janus Rutgersius (Leiden: Elzevier, 1630); the bookseller’s catalogues of Petrus Zangrius (Louvain, 1632, mentioned above) and of Gerardus Rivius (Louvain, 1634); fourteen supplements to a Thesaurus bibliothecarius (1604–1624); the book auction catalogues of the Louvain academics George of Austria jr. (Louvain, s.a.) and Petrus Castellanus (Louvain, 1634), both hitherto unknown; a bookseller’s catalogue of Joannes Oliverius ([Louvain], 1634); and ‘2 Catalogues de livres de diverses mortuaires par George Lipsius, Louvain 1636’.34 Due to this description, we know with certainty that the Croÿ catalogue was still part of the Sammelband in 1825; that this volume was bound in parchment; and that it had a consistent content, with its 23 publications of a bibliographic nature, which included three Louvain bookseller’s catalogues and four Louvain book auction catalogues, of which two were hitherto unknown.

The Catalogue’s Last Leaf

Clearly, it was only after 1825 that someone linked to the Arenberg library decided to unbind the rich pamphlet volume and rebind the Croÿ catalogue into a single volume. This was not the only change made to the brochure at that time. Indeed, one last feature should be discussed here: the last leaf, the recto of which bears page number 127. As a result of the catalogue’s digitization in 2016, we were able to confirm what had already struck the naked eye. The words on page 127 are not aligned properly, and some individual characters vary from one to the other in a striking way: for example, the lower case ‘e’, the ampersand and the number ‘6’. Moreover, the distance between two characters within one word on this page sometimes differs significantly from the 34 The auction catalogues of George of Austria and Petrus Castellanus were hitherto unknown. George of Austria was the illegitimate son of George sr., who had been prince bishop of Liège and an illegitimate son of the Emperor Maximilian of Austria; George jr was dean of Louvain’s St Peter’s chapter and a chancellor to the university; his will, dated 16 september 1613 is preserved in the archives of the old university of Louvain, 1464. He died in Brussels in 1619. See Gert Gielis, ‘De bibliotheek van het Collegium Trilingue: de schenking van kapitteldeken Joris van Oostenrijk (1613)’, in Jan Papy (ed.), Erasmus’ droom. Het Leuvense Collegium Trilingue 1517–1797 (Leuven/Paris/Bristol: Peeters, 2017), pp. 82–83. Unfortunately, the catalogue of the Arenberg library does not tell when this auction catalogue was printed. Petrus Castellanus (1585–1632) was a professor of greek at the Louvain Collegium Trilingue; he was also a professor at the Louvain faculty of Medicine. See Jan Papy, ‘Petrus Castellanus, Leuvens professor Grieks en geneeskunde: antieke eruditie en vroegmoderne geneeskunst in (non-)vegetarische gezondheidsadviezen aan het Collegium Trilingue’, De Boekenwereld (2017), pp. 14–17.

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distance between the same characters on the previous pages. Interestingly, the reason behind these anomalies is found on a small sheet of tracing paper that was bound between pages 126 and 127, showing a pencil drawing of the outline of every single character on page 127, including the word finis, set in letter-spaced capitals. Bringing together all these elements, we can presume the following scenario. The pamphlet volume containing the Croÿ catalogue entered the Arenberg library before the 1820s. When Duke Prosper-Louis of Arenberg decided to have the Sammelband volume unbound in order to rebind the auction catalogue from one of his ancestors into a single binding, he found that its last leaf was missing. He then appealed to someone capable of providing him with an accurate outline of page 127 on transfer paper, copied from a complete version of the catalogue. This outline was then transferred to a lithographic stone or a zinc plate to be printed on a blank page. Similar techniques were common among nineteenth-century collectors of manuscripts and antiquarian books. In this case, the technique was applied to complete the deficient copy. We can speculate even further and assume that the producer of the copy on tracing paper was the Arenberg family’s librarian, Charles de Brou (1811–1877), who had been trained as an artist and engraver before entering the Duke’s service. De Brou had previously produced facsimile editions of medieval manuscripts at the request of the director of the Royal Library in Brussels, and his name is mentioned at the bottom of some outlines of precious manuscript leaves, published as lithographs in the first catalogue of the manuscripts of the same library.35 He may, therefore, have applied the same technique at the request of his employer to produce a ‘complete’ copy of the Croÿ auction catalogue. It is plausible that he traced the missing page 127 from the only other copy known at the time, the one in Louvain university library, which was described and discussed by Edward van Even in the 1852 volume of the Bulletin du bibliophile belge, and bore the provenance mark of another Jesuit library  – that of the Jesuit Society’s Domus professa in Antwerp. One final question remains: What about the paper on which the lithographic or zincographic facsimile was printed? Here again, close observation provides an answer. Page 127 appears to include more than the last nine titles of Croÿ’s library. It also has a counter-impression of folio a3 vo, that is, the last page of the catalogue’s table of contents found in the first gathering of the brochure. This is proof that the facsimile on page 127 was not printed on the blank last 35 Elly Cockx-Indestege and Claudine Lemaire, Handschriften en oude drukken in facsimile van 1600 tot 1984, (Brussels: Royal Library of Belgium, 1984), p. 35. On Charles de Brou, see Roegiers, ‘De bibliotheek’, pp. 363–364.

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leaf of gathering Q, but on the last leaf of gathering a, which was completely blank because the last leaves of the gatherings were never signed. This is confirmed by a detailed analysis of the quality and tone of the paper, and by the distance between its chain lines, which is identical on the catalogue’s first and currently last leaves.36 When the facsimile page was added to the brochure, all leaves were washed and pressed, the edges were cut once more, and the gatherings were bound in the calfskin half-binding described above. As a witness to the facsimile production process, the small sheet of tracing paper was integrated into the new binding. Thus, the formula for the ideal copy of the 1614 auction catalogue requires a slight correction. It should read: In-4o: a4, A–Q4: 68 leaves = p. [I–VIII], 1–127 [128]. The Arenberg copy differs from this ideal copy by the absence of leaf Q4, which was replaced by the original (blank) leaf a4, that was detached from its linked leaf a1.

Conclusion: An Auction Catalogue Turned into a Memorial Catalogue

As mentioned before, there is reason to believe that the auction catalogue of Charles of Croÿ’s library was the first to appear outside the Dutch Republic. It is striking, however, that its printers did not stress the unprecedented character of their work – just like Christoffel Guyot and Louis Elzevier did not market Marnix’s catalogue as an innovation in 1599. Did they consider printing their catalogue an obvious choice, a natural next step towards more efficiency in the second hand book trade, one that did not need further highlighting? Or is this proof that other auction catalogues had appeared earlier, catalogues that were not preserved because the owners of the books were not as famous as Marnix of Saint-Aldegonde or Charles of Croÿ? There is no conclusive evidence to state this, but the findings regarding the earliest auction catalogues that were published at Louvain, in 1634 – the catalogues that were originally included in the same Sammelband as the Croÿ catalogue, but of which no copies have survived – indicate that we cannot exclude this hypothesis. Another general observation is that the fifteen years separating the Brussels catalogue of 1614 from its Dutch counterpart of 1599 did not result in a better designed publication, quite the contrary. Elegant as it is in its front matter, Croÿ’s auction catalogue was definitely inferior to its Leiden counterpart, in terms of both bibliographical and typographical quality. This raises the 36 Watteeuw, Catalogue de Croÿ, p. 2.

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question whether the Brussels printers were aware of the existence of printed auction catalogues in the Northern Low Countries. First instances may be markers of change, but as far as the history of the book trade is concerned, improvements in efficacy and accuracy were not always adopted by younger tradesmen, at least not immediately. The object-oriented approach to the 1614 catalogue has not yielded answers to all the questions asked. We can only guess the reasons behind the sale of the late Duke’s books. We do not know exactly who drew up the book list, nor why he did it. It remains unclear if the auction actually took place, and if so, who were the buyers of the lots. On the other hand, the detailed scrutiny of the Enghien copy has demonstrated that the catalogue was composed and printed in a hurry, with no ambition whatsoever to produce a fine impression paying tribute to the Duke’s memory. Moreover, it has revealed that this unique copy is not fully authentic, its last page having been reproduced from another copy, now no longer extant. Nevertheless, everything points towards a reproduction that was reliable, although it was produced with the rather primitive techniques that were available in the middle of the nineteenth century. Finally, the catalogue’s provenances show that it first functioned as a source of bibliographic reference in a Jesuit college library, together with other publications of a bibliographic nature. For almost two centuries, it had been part of a pamphlet collection, which explains why this ephemeral publication survived. Later on, it was acquired by a member of the Arenberg family, who was related to the Croÿ family. He called upon an expert to have it completed with its last page, and he decided to rebind it separately. The catalogue was now approached as a witness documenting the long and prestigious family history, and was significantly kept in the library’s section on Biographie, no longer as a source of bibliographical information. From a list intended to facilitate an auction, it was finally turned into a memorial catalogue.

chapter 4

Dutch Printed Private Library Sales Catalogues, 1599–1800: A Bibliometric Overview Rindert Jagersma As historical sources, early modern printed private library sales catalogues can be used to study the book trade, book ownership, and readership.1 Just as other historical documents, these sources should be handled with care and the researcher should be aware of the pitfalls.2 For example, a book owned is not necessary a book read, and the other way around. Furthermore, a catalogue represents a library only at a specific time (mostly after the death of the collector). Before a sale, books could have been taken out of the collection by heirs, or books could be added by a bookseller who wanted to get rid of unsold stock. The purpose of a catalogue was not to register a private library or a collection as accurate and detailed as possible, but to sell the profitable books for as much profit as possible. An overly detailed description would cost additional

1 Daniel Mornet, ‘Les Enseignements des Bibliothèques Privées (1750–1780)’, Revue d’Histoire Littéraire de La France, 17 (1910), pp. 449–496; S.A. Krijn, ‘Franse lektuur in Nederland in het begin van de 18e eeuw’, De Nieuwe Taalgids, XI (1917), pp. 161–178; Bert van Selm, Een menighte treffelijcke boecken: Nederlandse boekhandelscatalogi in het begin van de zeventiende eeuw (Utrecht: HES, 1987); Alicia C. Montoya, ‘French and English Women Writers in Dutch Library Catalogues, 1700–1800. Some Methodological Considerations and Preliminary Results’, in Suzan van Dijk (ed.), ‘I Have Heard about You’. Foreign Women’s Writing Crossing the Dutch Border: From Sappho to Selma Lagerlöf (Hilversum: Verloren, 2004), pp. 182–216; Alicia C. Montoya and Rindert Jagersma, ‘Marketing Maria Sibylla Merian, 1720–1800: Book Auctions, Gender, and Reading Culture in the Dutch Republic’, Book History, 21 (2018), pp. 56–88. This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 682022. The author would like to thank Tamara Bouwman for her helpful advice, and the reviewers and the participants of the ‘Book Trade Catalogues in Early Modern Europe’ workshop for their comments on the draft of this paper. 2 For the question to what extent and in which capacity printed catalogues of private libraries can be used as a source for the history of reading and the main pitfalls of this source: Helwi Blom, Rindert Jagersma and Juliette Reboul, ‘Printed Private Library Catalogues as a Source for the History of Reading’, in Mary Hammond (ed.), Edinburgh History of Reading. Early Readers (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2020), pp. 249–269.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2021 | doi:10.1163/9789004422247_005

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labour and would make the catalogue more extensive and thus more expensive to produce.3 Using printed private library catalogues as a historical source provides insight into book ownership in the Dutch Republic in the period 1599–1800. It is important to state that the content of the printed private library catalogues does not represent the average book collection of a Dutch household or library. Handwritten probate inventories show that most families had only a couple of (mainly religious) books – Bibles, catechisms, psalms, and sermons. Those books were accompanied by works that contained practical information, like almanacs.4 Researchers should thus be aware that the printed book sales catalogues of private libraries only show us the books and collections considered worth auctioning.5 Besides this, one should be conscious that the preserved copies are not representative of the actual auctions held. We therefore have to establish how many, and especially which, Dutch book sales catalogues have survived the test of time. After all, catalogues are ephemeral material.6 It is necessary to create a typology of preserved Dutch book sales catalogues to gain more insight into the phenomenon of catalogues and by doing so, lessen the bias on this topic. In the present study, data from the project ‘Book Sales Catalogues of the Dutch Republic, 1599–1800’ – a project conceived and started by Bert van Selm – is used to create this typology of printed private library catalogues.7 3 Depending on the print run, the use of one extra quire (sheet of paper) could cost between ƒ 10 (500 copies) and ƒ 20 (1,000 copies) (around 1700, cautious estimate). This was a considerable amount at a time when the average labourer earned one gulden per day. 4 Henk de Kooker and Bert van Selm, Boekcultuur in de Lage Landen, 1500–1800: bibliografie van publikaties over particulier boekenbezit in Noord- en Zuid-Nederland, verschenen voor 1991 (Utrecht: HES, 1993); C. Gijzen, Boekbezit in Boedelinventarissen: mogelijkheden en onmogelijkheden van onderzoek naar zeventiende eeuws boekbezit in notariële archieven (Leiden: s.n., 1993); K.M.P. Strengers-Olde Kalter, ‘Boeken in Bossche boedels. De belangstelling voor lectuur in de achttiende eeuw’, Noordbrabants Historisch Jaarboek, 14 (1998), pp. 143–179; José de Kruif, Liefhebbers en gewoontelezers: leescultuur in Den Haag in de achttiende eeuw (Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 1999); Ruud Lambour, ‘Het boekenbezit van Amsterdamse Doopsgezinden uit de Gouden Eeuw’, Doopsgezinde Bijdragen Nieuwe Reeks, 40 (2014), pp. 135–160. 5 Collections of pamphlets and other ephemeral printed matter were often left out or were mentioned in packages. 6 Here a law of book history applies: the higher the print run, the smaller the chance that something has been preserved. After all, the printed catalogue was useless after the auction had ended. (Although some people used and collected them for their bibliographical information as instrument of reference.) 7 J.A. Gruys and Henk W. de Kooker, Book Sales Catalogues of the Dutch Republic, 1599–1800. Guide (Leiden: IDC Publishers, 1997). This was based on the catalogues gathered in more than fifty contributing libraries and archives. Digital copies of the catalogues and the

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More than thirty years ago, Van Selm published Een Menighte Treffelijcke Boecken (1987), his dissertation on Dutch book trade catalogues at the beginning of the seventeenth century.8 In this book, Van Selm published studies relating to the thirty-one earliest Dutch auction catalogues published in the period 1599–1611.9 This enabled him to outline the rise of the printed book auction catalogue, an innovation that he considered ‘an important event in the history of the book trade’.10 The aim of his study of Early Dutch book auction catalogues as historical documents was to ‘describe the characteristics of the oldest printed auction catalogues and determine their value for book history research in general and private book ownership in particular’.11 It was an exploratory study since little was known about the nature and development of the auction catalogue as a historical document.12 However, the corpus he used was small, and Van Selm emphasised that his choice to stop at the year 1611 was ‘relatively arbitrary’.13 He immediately admitted: ‘Hopefully in the near future it will be possible to track down and register the later published catalogues’.14 With his work, Van Selm laid the foundation for an international inventory under the name ‘Book Sales Catalogues of the Dutch Republic, 1599–1800’ (BSC).15 Based on this inventory and accompanying metadata, the metadata are currently hosted by Brill: http://primarysources.brillonline.com/browse/ book-sales-catalogues-online. See note 15. 8 Van Selm, Een menighte. 9 Ibid., pp. 6, 152–163. 10 Ibid., p. 9. Translations of the originally Dutch quotes by the author. 11 Ibid., pp. 75–144, 76. 12 Ibid., pp. 3, 75. 13 In the context of his research Van Selm had to choose a certain period of time and he opted for the earliest timeframe: 1599–1611. Van Selm, Een menighte, p. 145. 14 Van Selm, Een menighte, p. 145. A large inventory of Dutch bookshop catalogues was started by Wytze Hellinga and came to be known under the name ‘Apparaat Hellinga’. 15 Ibid., Een menighte, p. 145. After Van Selm passed away, the project ‘Book Sales Catalogues of the Dutch Republic, 1599–1800’, was executed by his collaborators; H.W. de Kooker, E. Hofland and J.A. Gruys. Together with other researchers like O.S. Lankhorst, they traced unknown copies and had them filmed on microfiches. Gruys and De Kooker noted that: ‘In the past book sales catalogues have scarcely been used for historical research because of their inaccessibility’. They elucidated this by saying ‘that of the roughly 1,760 items printed before 1701, only 200 (11.4%) are to be found in Dutch libraries’. Most of the book trade catalogues are unique copies and can be found worldwide. In 2015, this collection of 3,750 digital facsimiles was digitised by publisher Brill and placed online together with the collected metadata as ‘Book Sales Catalogues Online’ (BSCO). Gruys and De Kooker, Guide. Book Sales Catalogues of the Dutch Republic, pp. III–IV; O.S. Lankhorst, ‘Vijftien pakketten catalogi teruggevonden. Nederlandse boekhandelscatalogi in Sint Petersburg’, De Boekenwereld, 9 (1992), pp. 66–76; O.S. Lankhorst, ‘Les ventes de livres en Hollande et leurs catalogues (XVIIe et XVIIIe Siècles)’, in Annie Charron and Elisabeth Parinet

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characteristics of the Dutch printed private library sales catalogues in the period 1599–1800 will be examined in this study. The aim of this bibliometric study is to look beyond the rise (1599–1610) of the Dutch catalogue initiated by Van Selm.16 The available BSC data on 4,756 catalogues allows for a large-scale study of the development of the book sales catalogue to the year 1800.17 The data provides information about the catalogues, collectors, and auctions, which can offer insight in book collecting, readership, and the second-hand book market. By analysing the database, we can explore the size of catalogues, collectors, and the locations of the auctioned collections. This allows us to gain insight into the phenomenon of the Dutch printed book sales catalogue, and more specifically the ‘private library sales catalogue’, in the seventeenth and eighteenth century. In the first section of this study, the data of the available (preserved) editions of catalogues is divided by decade and the places of origin. In the second section, an overview is given of how the survived catalogues relate to the actual book auctions. The number of auctions will be compared to the number of preserved catalogues. In the third section, the surviving editions will be investigated based on the size of the catalogues. What can we say about the larger and smaller collections of the former owners?

16 17

(eds.), Les Ventes de Livres et Leurs Catalogues XVIIe–XXe Siècle (Paris: Ecole des Chartes, 2000), pp. 11–26; O.S. Lankhorst, ‘Les ventes aux enchères des livres à La Haye dans la première moitié du 18e siècle’, in C. Berkvens-Stevelinck (ed.), Le magasin de l’univers. The Dutch Republic as the Centre of the European Book Trade (Leiden: Brill, 1992), pp. 199– 210; O.S. Lankhorst, ‘Dutch Book Auctions in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth centuries’, in Robin Myers and Michael Harris (eds.), Under the Hammer: Book Auctions since the Seventeenth Century (New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 2001), pp. 65–88; J.A. Gruys, ‘Rijklof Michael van Goens. Het mysterie van de 24.200 verdwenen catalogi’, in Ton Croiset van Uchelen and Hannie van Goinga (eds.), Van pen tot laser: 31 opstellen over boek en schrift (Amsterdam: De Buitenkant, 1996), pp. 150–156, p. 152; Berry Dongelmans, ‘Book Sale Catalogues in the Dutch Republic, 1599–1800’, in Lotte Hellinga (ed.), The Bookshop of the World: The Role of the Low Countries in the Book-Trade, 1473–1941 (’t Goy-Houten: Hes and De Graaf, 2001), pp. 263–276. Van Selm also looked at the content of the early auction catalogues, such as the order of auctioning and the classification of the books. In this study no attention will be paid to this. Van Selm, Een menighte, pp. 76, 82–92. When I mention ‘catalogue’, I aim for a preserved edition according to the BSC database, not a single copy, unless it is explicitly mentioned. Data collected in November 2016. Data processed with SPSS 21.0.0.0.

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Corpus

When Van Selm started to collect all the known copies of book sales catalogues in a database, he included auction catalogues of (anonymous) private libraries and collections, auction catalogues of book printers and booksellers, retail stock, and wholesale stock catalogues.18 Most of the 4,756 records (2,536 or 53.3%) fall into the category ‘auction catalogue private library’. Together with the 686 anonymous collections they represent 67.7% of the total (3,222). This results in the following subdivision of the categories of book trade catalogues (Table 4.1): table 4.1 Main categories of book sales catalogues in the BSC database

Category

Count

Percentage

auction catalogue private library auction catalogue anonymous collection (auction) catalogue retail or wholesale stock Other Total

2,536 686 1,243 291 4,756

53.3% 14.4% 26.1% 6.1%

This study focuses on the printed private library sales catalogues, whether the name of the collector is printed on the title-page, or whether it was sold anonymously. Combined, both categories  – henceforward private library catalogues – contain 3,222 editions. In principle, these are all known copies of private library catalogues – from the famous first known catalogue of Philips van Marnix van Sint Aldegonde (1540–1598) published in 1599, until the auction of the library of Johannes Hiddinga on 25 November 1799.19 Collections of over fifty European institutions have been searched to establish this census. Beyond doubt, new copies will be discovered in other collections in the future.20 18 Gruys, ‘Rijklof Michael van Goens’, p. 151. 19 The BSC also contain some catalogues published after 1800 and catalogue of which the year of publication is uncertain. Auctions were held before 1599, perhaps including printed catalogues, but the 1599 catalogue is still regarded as the oldest (surviving) catalogue of the Northern Netherlands (and the only one from the sixteenth century). Lankhorst, ‘Dutch Book Auctions’, p. 65. 20 Karel Bostoen and Henk de Kooker, ‘Nederlandse boekhandelscatalogi uit het bezit van de Hongaarse adellijke familie Teleki’, Acta Neerlandica. Bijdragen tot de Neerlandistiek Debrecen, 2 (2002), pp. 101–25.

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The preserved catalogues are not evenly distributed over time. When we group the preserved catalogues (private library catalogues as well as the retail or wholesale stock catalogues) by decade, we see the following distribution (Table 4.2): table 4.2 Number of editions of auction catalogues, sorted by decade (1590s–1790s)

Year

(Auction) catalogue Auction catalogue Auction catalogue retail or wholesale stock anonymous collection private library

1590s 1600s 1610s 1620s 1630s 1640s 1650s 1660s 1670s 1680s 1690s 1700s 1710s 1720s 1730s 1740s 1750s 1760s 1770s 1780s 1790s Total

0 11 3 6 19 38 32 63 49 37 79 74 73 49 99 141 90 82 85 75 64 1,169

0 2 3 6 21 36 25 64 145 72 62 19 18 12 27 20 25 19 21 38 39 674

1 19 22 30 55 71 59 130 200 158 249 150 113 112 108 141 147 192 187 181 178 2,503

When we visualize this distribution, the graphs (Figure 4.1 and 4.2) clearly show that the private library catalogues (auction catalogue private library and the auction catalogue anonymous collection) form a large group (3,177) compared to the retail or wholesale catalogues.21 21

In the period 1599–1799. Without some catalogues from after 1799, and without a specific year (‘17uu’). Missing years: ‘(auction) catalogue retail stock or wholesale stock auction’: 74; ‘catalogue anonymous collection’: 12; ‘auction catalogue private library’: 33.

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250 200 150 100 50 0

1590s 1600s 1610s 1620s 1630s 1640s 1650s 1660s 1670s 1680s 1690s 1700s 1710s 1720s 1730s 1740s 1750s 1760s 1770s 1780s 1790s

Number of catalogues

300

Decades (Auction) catalogue retail stock and/or wholesale stock Auction catalogue anonymous collection Auction catalogue private library figure 4.1 The number of editions of auction catalogues, sorted by decade (1590s–1790s) (absolute)

15

90 16 s 00 16 s 10 16 s 20 16 s 30 16 s 40 16 s 50 16 s 60 16 s 70 16 s 80 16 s 90 170 s 0 17 s 10 172 s 0 173 s 0 174 s 0 175 s 0 176 s 0 177 s 0 178 s 0 179 s 0s

400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 (Auction) catalogue retail stock and/or wholesale stock Auction catalogue private library and auction catalogue anonymous collection Linear (auction) catalogue retail stock and/or wholesale stock) Linear (auction catalogue private library and auction catalogue anonymous collection)

figure 4.2 Private library catalogues and the retail or wholesale stock catalogues, sorted by decade (1590s–1790s), including trend line (absolute)

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2000 1800 1600 1400 1200 1000 800 600 400 200 0

Seventeenth Eighteenth century century (Auction) catalogue retail stock and/or wholesale stock Auction catalogue private library and auction catalogue anonymous collection

figure 4.3 Private library catalogues and the retail and/ or wholesale stock catalogues, sorted by century (absolute)

Broken down into two centuries, we see that the private library catalogues are by far the largest group. For both groups the numbers increase in the eighteenth century, as Figure 4.3 shows. Looking at the two centuries, we see that 45% (1,429) of the private library catalogues come from the seventeenth century, compared to 55% (1,747) in the eighteenth century. For the retail or wholesale stock catalogue however, this is 28.8% (337) compared to 71.2% (832). Based on this data, we can conclude that catalogues from the period 1660– 1699 are particularly well preserved. Some peaks could be explained by the way catalogues are preserved in collections as collected by contemporary owners. For example, the peak in the 1640s is the result of the collection of the student Peder Laridsen Scavenius who studied in Leiden in 1643–1646. He visited a lot of auctions and kept the accompanying catalogues. In 1655, he donated those to the Royal Library of Copenhagen. Thanks to two collections in the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel, we have a lot of Dutch catalogues from the periods 1660–1678 and 1685–1700. This second collection, consisting of around 300 catalogues, was bought at the auction of the library of Joan Huydekooper in 1704.22

22

Gruys, ‘Rijklof Michael van Goens’, p. 155; Lankhorst, ‘Vijftien pakketten’; Lankhorst, ‘Les Ventes de Livres’; Marika Keblusek, ‘Gekocht in Den Haag. Hertog August van Wolfenbüttel en de Haagse Elzeviers’, in B.P.M. Dongelmans, P.G. Hoftijzer, and O.S. Lankhorst (eds.), Boekverkopers van Europa: het 17de-eeuwse Nederlandse uitgevershuis Elzevier (Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 2000), pp. 221–224.

95

Dutch Printed Private Library Sales Catalogues, 1599–1800

A large proportion of these auctions were held in Amsterdam, Leiden, and The Hague though not necessarily evenly distributed between these three places (Table 4.3).23 table 4.3 Private library catalogues sorted by city (1600s–1790s)

Year

Total private library catalogues

Amsterdam

Leiden

The Hague

1600s 1610s 1620s 1630s 1640s 1650s 1660s 1670s 1680s 1690s 1700s 1710s 1720s 1730s 1740s 1750s 1760s 1770s 1780s 1790s

21 25 36 76 107 84 194 345 230 311 169 131 124 135 161 172 211 208 219 217

0 0 2 4 4 9 38 60 61 58 33 8 30 20 23 34 17 25 66 52

16 24 15 32 63 33 55 116 66 139 61 31 20 50 30 19 29 51 34 30

2 0 7 17 20 21 42 68 50 51 22 53 51 40 49 55 77 60 58 68

23 Hannie van Goinga, ‘Books on the Move: Public Book Auctions in the Dutch Republic, 1711–1805, Mainly in Amsterdam, Groningen, The Hague and Leiden’, Quaerendo, 35 (2005), pp. 65–95, p. 91.

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400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50

16 0

0s 16 10 s 16 20 s 16 30 s 16 40 s 16 50 s 16 60 s 16 70 s 16 80 s 16 90 s 170 0s 17 10 s 172 0s 173 0s 174 0s 175 0s 176 0s 177 0s 178 0s 179 0s

0 Total private library catalogues

Amsterdam

Leiden

The Hague

figure 4.4 Private library catalogues sorted by city (1600s–1790s) (absolute)

Leiden’s leading position in the seventeenth century (when it comes to preserved catalogues) is ceded to The Hague in the eighteenth century (Figure 4.4). However, it is essential to realize that we are dealing here with preserved editions and not the number of auctions held. We obtain a slightly more nuanced picture when we consider the importance of these three cities in relation to the total number of surviving auction catalogues (Figure 4.5). Once again it is clear that Leiden is the most important city when it comes to auctions, but that the city loses that position in the eighteenth century to The Hague. Amsterdam starts relatively late and remains relatively stable after the mid-seventeenth century – between 10% and 20% of the total (average over the period 1650–1799: 18.3%). With respect to other locations, the role of Utrecht (199 catalogues), Middelburg (121), and Rotterdam (109) is not inconsiderable. Table 4.4 provides an overview of places with ten or more preserved catalogues.24

24

Noteworthy is Batavia with nine catalogues. J. van Kan, De rechtsgeleerde boekenschat van Batavia ten tijde der Compagnie (Bandoeng: A.C. Nix and Co, 1935); Katharine Smith Diehl, Printers and Printing in the East Indies to 1850. Volume I Batavia (New Rochelle: Caratzas, 1990), pp. 170–183, 394–397, 424.

Dutch Printed Private Library Sales Catalogues, 1599–1800

16

00 16 s 10 16 s 20 16 s 30 16 s 40 16 s 50 16 s 60 16 s 70 16 s 80 16 s 90 170 s 0 17 s 10 172 s 0 173 s 0 174 s 0 175 s 0 176 s 0 177 s 0s 178 0 179 s 0s

100,0% 90,0% 80,0% 70,0% 60,0% 50,0% 40,0% 30,0% 20,0% 10,0% 0,0% All three

Amsterdam

Leiden

The Hague

figure 4.5 Private library catalogues for auctions in Amsterdam, Leiden, and The Hague relative to the total known number of auctions table 4.4 Private library catalogues sorted by number by city (1600s–1790s)

City

Count

Leiden The Hague Amsterdam Utrecht Middelburg Rotterdam Groningen Den Bosch Leeuwarden Dordrecht Haarlem Delft Franeker Maastricht Deventer Arnhem Nijmegen Enkhuizen Other

914 811 544 199 121 109 77 67 50 43 40 34 26 17 15 13 12 10 86

97

98

Jagersma

Although this article focuses on private library catalogues, it is meaningful to provide context and therefore to draw a comparison with the origins of the other large group within book sales catalogue: the retail or wholesale stock catalogues (Figure 4.6): 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20

16

00 16 s 10 16 s 20 16 s 30 16 s 40 16 s 50 16 s 60 16 s 70 16 s 80 16 s 90 170 s 0 17 s 10 172 s 0 173 s 0 174 s 0 175 s 0 176 s 0 177 s 0 178 s 0 179 s 0s

0 Total

Amsterdam

Leiden

The Hague

figure 4.6 Retail or wholesale stock catalogues sorted by decade (1600s–1790s) (absolute)

Compared with private library catalogues, it is striking that Leiden publishers produced fewer retail or wholesale stock catalogues, for which Amsterdam had the lead. More striking however, is the peak in the 1740s. This is related to an infamous crisis in the book trade in The Hague caused by the involvement of several booksellers in speculation on books and payments in bonds, resulting in a number of bankruptcies.25 It is interesting that during this decade not only in The Hague, but also in Amsterdam the number of preserved retail and wholesale stock catalogues increases. In Leiden however, the number of these catalogues hardly changes in the first half of the eighteenth century.

Surviving Catalogues

This data poses one further interpretative question. How representative is the sample of auctions known from surviving catalogues of the auction market as a 25

Hannie van Goinga, Alom te bekomen: veranderingen in de boekdistributie in de Republiek 1720–1800 (Amsterdam: De Buitenkant, 1999), pp. 133–135.

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99

whole? Van Goinga points out that the ‘survival chances of catalogues are very erratic’.26 Catalogues often originate from collections of contemporary collectors, from bibliophiles eagerly looking for the latest catalogue in search of long cherished books or using them to create wish lists, to rich collectors who let their international agents visit the auctions and who received their purchased books together with the catalogues of the collections from which the books originated. Booksellers also regarded the catalogues annotated with the prices yielded as unique reference works and these too have been absorbed into institutional libraries in modern times.27 Earlier research has already shown that contemporary collectors mainly preserved the catalogues of the larger, more spectacular collections.28 This could mean that we have a distorted view of the book ownership since the catalogues of smaller collections are relatively absent.29 This study is not the first attempt to estimate how many editions have been preserved and how many catalogues we consider as lost. In 1996, Gruys attempted to determine how many editions of catalogues have ever been printed.30 He argued that, if Amsterdam, The Hague, Leiden, and the rest of the Dutch Republic, each had organised 25% of the auctions, we have 14% of the catalogues of the first three cities, and 6% of the last category. Overall, this meant that around 12% of the catalogues have be preserved. Reality, however, is different, and the preserved catalogues were not evenly distributed over the two centuries nor between the cities. Gruys concluded that from 1599 until 1800, 27,500 auctions had been organised.31 Since there were 3,300 editions of catalogues, this means 24,200 catalogues are lost.32 To gain a more complete picture of printed private library catalogues in the seventeenth and eighteenth century, it is important to realise what we have. How does a preserved catalogue of an auction relate to all those auctions for

26 27

Van Goinga, ‘Books on the Move’, p. 86. Lankhorst, ‘Vijftien pakketten’; Gruys, ‘Rijklof Michael van Goens’; Keblusek, ‘Gekocht in Den Haag’; Lankhorst, ‘Les Ventes de Livres’. 28 Gruys, ‘Rijklof Michael van Goens’, p. 154; Lankhorst, ‘Dutch Book Auctions’, p. 68; Van Goinga, ‘Books on the Move’, p. 86. 29 Since book sale catalogues have only been drawn up for larger collections that were considered to hold a substantial value, probate inventories provide other information on historical book ownership, namely on smaller book collections. 30 Gruys, ‘Rijklof Michael van Goens’. 31 At that time, the BSC database had 3,900 catalogues in 8,600 copies. By sampling 80 catalogues (every fiftieth issue), Gruys came to the conclusion that in 68.8% of the 3,900 catalogues only one preserved copy is known. Gruys, ‘Rijklof Michael van Goens’, pp. 152–154. 32 Gruys, ‘Rijklof Michael van Goens’, pp. 154–155.

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which a catalogue has been printed, but of which we no longer have a copy? Van Goinga, Veldhuijzen, and Gerritsen posed the same question. They each tried to create a list of all auctions held in various Dutch cities in the eighteenth century based on archival material and newspaper advertisements.33 By comparing their numbers with BSC data, the percentage of preserved catalogues can be calculated.34 The catalogue was not only vital for marketing of sales, and in some cities, like Leiden and Amsterdam, it was mandatory to be able to present a catalogue to the authorities prior to the sale (eighteenth-century public book auctions were officially registered by the authorities or the booksellers’ guild).35 We can therefore assume that for every auction held, there was a catalogue printed. Combining the data of Van Goinga, Veldhuijzen, and Gerritsen with the BSC data, a reliable estimation can be given of the chance of survival of Dutch printed private library sales catalogues in the eighteenth century. The available data covers the period 1711–1800.36

The Number of Auctions

When we look at the auctions held in the eighteenth century, we see that most auctions were organised in Amsterdam, Leiden, and The Hague. Amsterdam has the most with 3,099 auctions (32.9%), followed by Leiden (1,970 auctions; 20.9%), and The Hague (1,819 auctions; 19.3%). Only 26.9% of all auctions took place in other Dutch cities. Utrecht follows with 521 auctions, together with Rotterdam (390), and Groningen (359). In all, 9,424 auctions took place in the Republic during these years. 33 Results published in Van Goinga, ‘Books on the Move’. The combined data collections formed the core of the Repertorium van Nederlandse publieke boekenveilingen 1711–1805 which has been incorporated in Bibliopolis, the electronic national history of the printed book in the Netherlands: http://www.bibliopolis.nl. 34 Van Goinga, ‘Books on the Move’. Particularly: Table 7, pp. 94–95. 35 At least in Leiden and Amsterdam, booksellers had to hand over a catalogue to the wardens of the guild for visitation to gain permission to organize the auction. Van Goinga, ‘Books on the Move’, pp. 70, 76; I.H. van Eeghen, De Amsterdamse boekhandel, 1680–1725, volume 5, part 1 (Amsterdam: N. Israel, 1978), pp. 237–274; Lankhorst, ‘Les ventes de livres’, p. 15. 36 Cf. Van Goinga, ‘Books on the Move’, pp. 80–88, 94–95 who carried out a similar study. She compared the amount of surviving catalogue and the number of auctions in Amsterdam, The Hague, Leiden, and Groningen. When comparing the data of Van Goinga, Veldhuijzen, and Gerritsen (in Van Goinga, ‘Books on the Move’) with the BSC data it is important to note that the coding is slightly different. The BSC data was coded per decade, ranging from 1710 up to and including 1719 representing the 1710s. Van Goinga uses the range 1711 up to and including 1720 to represent the 1710s. Therefore, the comparisons over the decades of BSC catalogues and Van Goinga’s auctions derives.

Dutch Printed Private Library Sales Catalogues, 1599–1800

101

Amsterdam may hold the leading position when it comes to auctions, but more catalogues have been preserved from The Hague and Leiden. Only 271 editions of the Amsterdam catalogues are known, a survival rate of 8.7%. Compared to other cities in the Dutch Republic, this is one of the lowest percentages. Many smaller cities score better. It is striking that a city with such a high number of auctions, and associated book production, scores so low. A conclusive explanation for this is difficult to find. For Leiden, the second city in terms of number of auctions, 14.9% of the catalogues have been preserved (294 editions). The Hague has a higher percentage of surviving editions, especially for a large city with many auctions: 511 editions, including a complete set of the auctions held in 1800. This translates to 28.1%.37 The preservation of this complete collection of seventeen catalogues is due to two libraries, and its safeguarding is probably thanks to collector Johan Meerman.38 When we look at the number of inhabitants (estimate of around the year 1750), it is noticeable that although Amsterdam held many auctions, there were proportionately many more auctions per capita in The Hague and Leiden.39 Looking at the preserved catalogues for auctions held in the other cities in the Dutch Republic, the cities of Utrecht (16.7%), Rotterdam (10.5%), and Groningen (8.1%) also have a low rate of survival. The situation is dramatically different in some of the smaller cities in the period 1711–1800. Den Bosch with 70 auctions and 59 known editions of catalogues, registers a survival rate of no less than 84.3%. Maastricht (62.5%), Vlissingen (30.8%), and Harderwijk (30%) also fare well, as did Delft (25.4%), and Leeuwarden (26.6%). Middelburg had around 164 auctions. Of these auctions, 96 catalogues (58.5%) have been preserved.40 Table 4.5 shows the percentage of preserved catalogues per decade.41 Especially after the 1760s we have a larger percentage of surviving catalogues (Figure 4.7). In total, of a minimum of 9,424 auctions held in the period 37

The numbers are higher than Van Goinga, ‘Books on the Move’, p. 94. The percentages are: 7.9%; Leiden 14.2%; The Hague: 27.4%; Groningen: [7.5%]. 38 Van Goinga, ‘Books on the Move’, p. 88. Eleven editions are in Museum Meermanno, five in the Royal Library, The Hague, and the last one in Paris. 39 A.M. van der Woude, ‘De demografische ontwikkeling van de Noordelijke Nederlanden 1500–1800’, in D.P. Blok (ed.), Algemene Geschiedenis Der Nederlanden 5. Nieuwe tijd: sociaal-economische geschiedenis, geografie en demografie 1500–1800, instellingen 1480– 1780, politieke- en religiegeschiedenis na 1480 (Haarlem: Fibula-Van Dishoeck, 1980), pp. 102–168, pp. 136–139. 40 Only twelve of them are kept in the Zeeuwse Bibliotheek, Middelburg. 41 Based on the cities of we do have the numbers per decade (9,249): Amsterdam, Groningen, The Hague, Leiden, Arnhem, Den Bosch, Delft, Deventer, Dordrecht, Franeker, Gouda, Haarlem, Leeuwarden, Middelburg, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Zutphen and Zwolle.

102

Jagersma

table 4.5 The number of the auctions held, the number of preserved catalogues and percentage of preserved catalogues per decade

Years

Auctions held

Catalogues preserved

Percentage preserved

1711–1720 1721–1730 1731–1740 1741–1750 1751–1760 1761–1770 1771–1780 1781–1790 1791–1800 Total

708 789 1,075 1,146 1,157 1,142 1,172 1,152 908 9,249

127 117 130 158 167 204 198 208 200 1,509

17.9% 14.8% 12.1% 13.8% 14.4% 17.9% 16.9% 18.1% 22.0% 16.3%

figure 4.7 Percentage of preserved catalogues per decade

1711–1800, 1,539 catalogues have been preserved. This means in total 16.3% are preserved and that we do not have a copy of 7,885 editions of catalogues from the period 1711–1800. For the second half of the seventeenth century, we can attempt a similar investigation for Leiden (Table 4.6).42 42 Based on: Van Goinga, ‘Books on the Move’, pp. 91–92; Laura Cruz, The Paradox of Prosperity: The Leiden Booksellers’ Guild and the Distribution of Books in Early Modern Europe (New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 2009), p. 137.

Dutch Printed Private Library Sales Catalogues, 1599–1800

103

table 4.6 Number of auctions held, the number of surviving editions of catalogues and the percentage of preserved editions of catalogues, in Leiden in the period 1650–1799

Years

Auctions Leiden

Catalogues Leiden

Percentage

1650s 1660s 1670s 1680s 1690s 1700s 1710s 1720s 1730s 1740s 1750s 1760s 1770s 1780s 1790s

297 297 221 205 231 250 198 202 273 295 205 206 199 198 194

33 55 116 66 139 61 31 20 50 30 19 29 51 34 30

11.1% 18.5% 52.5% 32.2% 60.2% 24.4% 15.7% 9.9% 18.3% 10.2% 9.3% 14.1% 25.6% 17.2% 15.5%

The data in Table 4.6 and Figure 4.8 show that relatively more catalogues from Leiden in the second half of this seventeenth century have been retained than from the eighteenth century. This raises the next question: is there a link between the production date of the catalogues and the survival rate? Since the complete data for auctions of the seventeenth century are missing, it is hard to give a conclusive answer to this question. However, we can calculate how many copies per edition have been preserved per decade in the period 1600–1799.43 Are more copies of a specific edition of catalogue retained from the seventeenth or from the eighteenth century? As Table 4.7 shows, of 2,111 catalogues only one unique copy survives. This means they are among the rarest books in the world. Of 482 catalogues we still have two copies in of one the fifty European libraries surveyed for the BSC database. This number decreases quickly to 198 editions of which three copies are preserved. We still have four copies of 101 editions. Between eleven and twenty copies have been preserved of 74 editions of catalogues.

43

3,176 catalogues, in the period 1600–1799. Without 1599, catalogues after 1799, and 17uu. See note 21.

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figure 4.8 Percentage of preserved editions of catalogues, in Leiden in the period 1650–1799 table 4.7 Number of editions and in how many copies they have been preserved

Numbers of editions

Preserved copies

2,111 482 198 101 65 30 24 12 26 9 74 17 13 7 2 3 1 0 1

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11–20 21–30 31–40 41–50 51–60 61–70 71–80 80–90 >90

Dutch Printed Private Library Sales Catalogues, 1599–1800

105

16 0 16 0s 16 10s 2 16 0s 3 16 0s 4 16 0s 16 50s 6 16 0s 16 70s 8 16 0s 9 1700s 17 0s 17210s 1730s 1740s 1750s 1760s 1770s 1780s 1790s 0s

700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0 Copies

Editions

figure 4.9 Number of preserved copies, compared with the number of surviving editions, sorted by decade

figure 4.10

Ratio between the number of preserved copies and the editions, sorted by decade

With 92 copies, the Catalogue Des Livres De La Bibliothéque De M. Pierre-Antoine Bolongaro-Crevenna (1790) is the catalogue of which the most copies are preserved.44 The enormous collection of the wealthy merchant and bibliophile Bolongaro-Crevenna (1736–1792) was sold during his lifetime in Amsterdam. It is striking that this is a catalogue from the late eighteenth century. Is there a correlation between the more recent decades and the number of preserved specimens? Figure 4.9 shows that from the second half of the seventeenth century onwards, more copies were preserved with each passing decade. When we look at the ratio between the preserved editions and the number of preserved copies, Figure 4.10 shows that proportionally in the first half of the eighteenth century more copies have been saved. Noteworthy are the 1720s, 44 Catalogue Des Livres De La Bibliothéque De M. Pierre-Antoine Bolongaro-Crevenna (Amsterdam: D.J. Changuion and P. den Hengst, 1790).

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in which for each edition there are on average five copies preserved. Looking at the numbers for each half century, we see that in terms of ratio, the second half of the eighteenth century scores the second best. Not surprisingly, the earliest fifty years (1600–1649) scores pro rata the lowest.

Size of the Surviving Catalogues

Private library catalogues come in all sizes. With only nine pages, the collection of Jacob Molenyser (a broker in The Hague) which was sold in 1732, contained 197 lots.45 This makes his collection one of the smaller auctioned collections. Other catalogues contain hundreds of pages. A preliminary study of 72 Dutch private library catalogues from 1670–1750, shows that the average is 33 items per page. However, this is an average and the real number depended on the design of the catalogue.46 Some catalogues carried 55 items per page, others hardly 18.47 In his study of the earliest of the Dutch book trade catalogues, Van Selm concluded that the size of the catalogues varied considerably from 16 to 120 pages. Three catalogues contain more than 2,000 items, ten between 1,000 and 2,000, and fourteen fewer than 1,000.48 For the MEDIATE project we look at Dutch, French, and English printed private library catalogues to study the circulation of books and ideas in eighteenth-century Europe.49 To research relatively modest libraries  – compared to large scholarly, encyclopaedic collections which sometimes contained thousands of titles – we examine catalogues of less than 1,000 lots. With an estimated average of 20 lots per page, our intention is to look at catalogues of fewer than 53 pages.50 Several studies have suggested that these 45 46

As part of a larger auction; Catalogus variorum and insignium librorum (The Hague, 1732). Some pages have a layout with two columns. Or they were printed in small format to be more convenient for letter post (Lankhorst, ‘Dutch Book Auctions’, p. 68). 47 Unpublished data collected for Alicia C. Montoya and Rindert Jagersma, ‘Livres français dans les catalogues de vente aux enchères des bibliothèques privées dans les ProvincesUnies (1670–1750)’ in Mathilde Bombart, etc. (eds.), “A qui lira”: Littérature, livre et librairie en France au XVIIe siècle (Tübingen: Narr Francke Attempto Verlag, 2020), pp. 733–746. Of the 72 collections described, the average size is 1,044.3 items, remembering the notion that we only looked at catalogues with less than 53 pages. 48 Van Selm, Een menighte, p. 92. 49 A.C. Montoya, ‘Middlebrow, religion, and the European Enlightenment. A new bibliometric project, MEDIATE (1665–1820)’, French History and Civilization, 7 (2017), pp. 66–79, pp. 68–69. 50 Alicia C. Montoya, ‘Shifting Perspectives and Moving Targets: from Conceptual Vistas to Bits of Data in the First Year of the MEDIATE Project’, in Simon Burrows and Glenn Roe

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smaller or medium-sized libraries are more likely to be ‘choice libraries’.51 Owners of choice libraries are more expected to be real readers of the books they owned. By identifying and studying a corpus of collections of this size we hope to capture the real taste of the eighteenth-century book owners, instead of the libraries of collectors who aspired to gather all the knowledge of the world.52 What was the average size of the Dutch catalogue in the seventeenth and eighteenth century? To answer that question, we look at the number of catalogues with the name of one person on the title-page (single-person catalogues). After all, a catalogue comprised of two collections, distorts the image of the size of collections.53 A sample based on catalogues shows that in the last decades of the seventeenth century an average page contains 40 lots, while in the first half of the eighteenth century this numbers drops to 30 lots per page. In the seventeenth century, most catalogues were published in a quarto format. This switched suddenly to octavo in the 1690s. In just two decades octavo had become the standard size. In the 1680s almost no catalogues were printed in octavo, in the 1690s, 13.4%. In the 1700s, 47.6%, almost half of them, are printed in octavo. A decade later, in the 1710s, 86.7% of the catalogues appeared in octavo (leaving 13.3% in quarto). The seventeenth century is the age of the catalogue in quarto; the eighteenth century of the catalogue in octavo format. The average size of the printed catalogues of the private library of one owner is 87 pages (2,561 lots).54 However, there are a lot of outliers. It is more fitting to look at the median, the middle score of the dataset. The median is 52 pages; meaning that the lower 50% of the catalogues consist of 52 or fewer pages, and the upper 50% consist of more than 52 pages. This reveals that half of the Dutch printed private library catalogues of single person, are 52 pages or less (first quartile = 28 pages, third quartile = 104 pages). Shown in Table 4.8, the most frequently occurring (mode) are catalogues with 32 pages (130), followed by those of 24 pages (122).

(eds.), Digitizing Enlightenment: Digital Humanities and the Transformation of EighteenthCentury Studies (Oxford: Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment, 2020), pp. 195–218. 51 For an overview: Ibid. 52 Montoya and Jagersma, ‘Livres français’. 53 Although of course a seemingly single-person catalogue (based on the name of the former owner on the title-page) can contain merged collections. Cf. Lankhorst, ‘Dutch Book Auctions’, pp. 72–75. An anonymous catalogue is counted as a single-person catalogue. 54 For some catalogues in the BSC database the number of pages is unknown.

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table 4.8 Most common size of catalogues

Pages

Number of editions

32 24 16 20 40 36 44 28 48 12 56 64 8

130 122 112 105 98 90 81 77 74 71 67 55 54

16 0 16 0s 16 10s 2 16 0s 3 16 0s 40 16 s 16 50s 6 16 0s 16 70s 8 16 0s 90 170 s 17 0s 17210s 1730s 1740s 1750s 1760s 1770s 1780s 1790s 0s

180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 Mean Linear (mean) figure 4.11

Median Linear (median)

Mean and the median size of the catalogues throughout the decades, including trend line

Looking at the average size of the catalogue throughout the decades, we see a rise of larger catalogues after 1700. The upper line in Figure 4.11 indicates the average number of pages. However, due to the number of outliers, the median indicates a more moderate trend. Still, the sudden increase in size after 1700, and the peak of the 1710s, is surprising. The numbers suggest that personal libraries grow in size (Figure 4.12). One needs to keep in mind that the catalogues are (most often) drawn up after the collector’s death, implicating that they reflect the purchases of an earlier period.

Dutch Printed Private Library Sales Catalogues, 1599–1800

figure 4.12

109

Median size of the catalogues, sorted by decade

Specifying the size of the catalogue by century, we see a clear growth of the collections that were offered for sale. The median size of catalogues in the seventeenth century is 32 pages. For the eighteenth century this number more than doubles: 88 pages. When we look at catalogues with a median of more than 52 pages (Table 4.9), we see that the collections grow up to and including the 1650s (88 pages for the 1650s). In the second half of the seventeenth century the median drops (64 pages in the 1670s, 84 pages for the 1690s). After this, an enormous growth follows (Figure 4.13). In the 1700s the median length of the catalogues is 120 pages. This number continues to grow up to 134 pages in following decade (1710s). In the second half of the eighteenth century the median number of the pages of the larger catalogues increases, with the exception of the (1770s). In the last decade of the eighteenth century the median number of the pages of larger catalogues is 112. When we look at the smaller collections (52 pages or fewer) we do see that, comparing the numbers between the seventeenth and eighteenth century, the median number of the catalogue pages does increase. Which means that also the smaller collections (although limited to 53 pages) do grow. We can assume that there is a connection between the number of preserved copies and the size of the catalogues.55 Lankhorst once stated that the ‘thicker the catalogue, the better the chance of survival; the more valuable a collection, the better chance that the catalogue was preserved by a collector’.56 This supposition is borne out by the evidence presented here. Of

55 56

Van Goinga, Alom te bekomen, p. 192. Lankhorst, ‘Dutch Book Auctions’, p. 68. Cf. Van Goinga, ‘Books on the Move’, p. 86: ‘a theory is held that thick catalogues for important collections have a better chance of survival than small specimens’.

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table 4.9 Number of editions and the medians of catalogues of larger collections (more than 52 pages), and the smaller collections (52 pages or fewer) throughout the decades

Year

Count Editions ≤52

Median ≤52

Count Editions >52

Median >52

1600s 1610s 1620s 1630s 1640s 1650s 1660s 1670s 1680s 1690s 1700s 1710s 1720s 1730s 1740s 1750s 1760s 1770s 1780s 1790s

14 11 21 59 78 39 127 262 156 198 70 22 23 27 32 40 34 34 41 34

36 36 30 20 24 36 32 24 30 28 32 35 36 30 36 37 39 36 44 37

6 8 4 12 9 24 42 47 44 65 73 81 76 77 95 89 113 125 119 130

72 73 78 80 82 88 73 64 74 84 120 134 121 122 126 118 116 122 116 112

the 34 auctions with proceeds of more than ƒ 10,000 (organised in Leiden, The Hague and Groningen), a catalogue is preserved in every case. This contrasts with the mere 9% of surviving catalogues of which the auctions had proceeds of between ƒ 500 and ƒ 1,000. Of catalogues of auctions with proceeds between ƒ 200 and ƒ 500, only 5% are preserved. Copies of half of the catalogues of auctions that raised ƒ 3,000–ƒ 5,000 can be traced.57 This leads to the conclusion that there is a clear connection between and the value of the collection and the number of surviving catalogues. Is there also a connection between the 57

Van Goinga, ‘Books on the Move’, p. 86.

Dutch Printed Private Library Sales Catalogues, 1599–1800

111

160 140 120 100 80 60 40

0

1600s 1610s 1620s 1630s 1640s 1650s 1660s 1670s 1680s 1690s 1700s 1710s 1720s 1730s 1740s 1750s 1760s 1770s 1780s 1790s

20

≤52

figure 4.13

>52

Linear (≤52)

Linear (>52)

Medians of catalogues of larger collections (more than 52 pages), and the smaller collections (52 pages or fewer) throughout the decades, including trend line

size of the catalogues and the number of preserved copies? To establish this, we split the catalogues again in smaller (52 pages or fewer) and larger collections (more than 52 pages). As Table 4.10 shows, over 80% of the catalogues of smaller collections have survived in a unique copy (1,065). Two or more copies are known in only 20% of cases (257). From the larger collections however, it is more equally divided: 47,9% are unique (593), compared to 52.1% (646) of which more than one copy is known. In total, almost two-third (64.7%) of the catalogues (1,658) are unique.58 It can be concluded that larger catalogues (more than 52 pages) are handed down in larger numbers than the small ones (52 pages or fewer).

58 Concerning catalogues with collections of multiple persons (348), there are 75 editions with ≤52 pages and 273 editions with >52 pages. Not surprisingly, multi-person catalogues are often more extensive.

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table 4.10 Number of preserved copies sorted by smaller (52 pages or fewer) and larger collections (more than 52 pages)

Preserved copies

Pages

≤52 >52

Total

Count Percentage Count Percentage Count Percentage

1 copy

>1 copy

1,065 80.6% 593 47.9% 1,658 64.7%

257 19.4% 646 52.1% 903 35.3%

Total

1,322 100.0% 1,239 100.0% 2,561 100.0%

table 4.11 Smaller (52 pages or fewer) and larger collections (more than 52 pages) sorted by location

Pages

Other

Location

Amsterdam The Hague Leiden

Total

Count Percentage Count Percentage Count Percentage Count Percentage Count Percentage

Total

≤52

>52

382 49.7% 279 57.3% 233 39.6% 428 59.6% 1,322 51.6%

386 50.3% 208 42.7% 355 60.4% 290 40.4% 1,239 48.4%

768 100.0% 487 100.0% 588 100.0% 718 100.0% 2,561 100.0%

When looking at the size of the catalogue, we can wonder if there is a link between the location and the size of the collection auctioned. Table 4.11 shows an interesting pattern. In both Amsterdam and Leiden, about 60% of the catalogues contain 52 pages or fewer (57.7% and 59.6% respectively). For The Hague these numbers are reversed. In the case of The Hague, 60.4% (355) of the catalogues are larger than 52 pages. The remaining 30% of the catalogues,

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derived from other locations, are evenly distributed (49.7% 52 pages or fewer, versus 50.3% >52 pages). Another relationship worth exploring is that between the age of the collector and the size of the catalogue. The assumption is that older people have larger collections of books. After all, they have had more time to put together a collection. It is possible to establish the age of 690 collectors when they passed away (Table 4.12).59 table 4.12 Smaller (52 pages fewer than) and larger collections (more than 52 pages) sorted by age

Pages

20–29 30–39 40–49

Age (years)

50–59 60–69 70–79 80–89 90–99

Total

Count Percentage Count Percentage Count Percentage Count Percentage Count Percentage Count Percentage Count Percentage Count Percentage Count Percentage

Total

≤52

>52

4 44.4% 30 66.7% 47 46.5% 69 43.4% 65 35.9% 30 21.1% 11 22.9% 0 0,0% 256 37.1%

5 55.6% 15 33.3% 54 53.5% 90 56.6% 116 64.1% 112 78.9% 37 77.1% 5 100.0% 434 62.9%

9 100.0% 45 100.0% 101 100.0% 159 100.0% 181 100.0% 142 100.0% 48 100.0% 5 100.0% 690 100.0%

59 Catalogues with the name of one collector (single-person catalogues), according to the title-page, and if the owner was more than 20 years old.

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The Age of the Collectors

Figures 4.14–15 and Table 4.13 show that we have few catalogues of young collectors (who died in their twenties). Of people in their thirties, often a smaller collection (52 pages or fewer) was auctioned, compared to collectors who died at a later age. The difference starts to grow among the collectors who died somewhere between their 40th and 50th year. In this category the number of books in the collection increases. 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0

20–29 30–39 40–49 50–59 60–69 70–79 80–89 90–99 ≤52

figure 4.14

>52

Smaller (52 pages or fewer) and larger collections (more than 52 pages) sorted by age (absolute)

20 – 30 29 – 40 39 – 50 49 – 60 59 –6 70 9 – 80 79 – 90 89 –9 9

100,0% 90,0% 80,0% 70,0% 60,0% 50,0% 40,0% 30,0% 20,0% 10,0% 0,0% ≤52

>52

figure 4.15 Smaller (52 pages or fewer) and larger collections (more than 52 pages) sorted by age (relative)

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Dutch Printed Private Library Sales Catalogues, 1599–1800

table 4.13 Smaller (52 pages or fewer) and larger collections (more than 52 pages) sorted by age (under 60 or 60 and over)

Pages

60

Count Percentage Count Percentage Count Percentage

Total

≤52

>52

150 47.8% 106 28.2% 256 37.1%

164 52.2% 270 71.8% 434 62.9%

314 100.0% 376 100.0% 690 100.0%

Auction Season

When was the best time to hold an auction? When we look at which months the auctions were held, based on preserved catalogue, we see something remarkable that was already suspected by Van Selm.60 Based on the auction dates of the first decade of the seventeenth century, he showed that most auctions took place in the late spring/early summer and autumn. This was probably due to better weather circumstances in these months, in which it was more comfortable to travel. Similar, the non-winter seasons were more convenient for transport, fairs and mail delivery.61 Analysing all the dates on which the auctions were held (3,086), it is evident that we can speak of ‘auction seasons’ (Figure 4.16). Spring (March, April, May), and autumn (September, October, November) are the seasons in which most auctions took place. The decline in the summer months could have to do with recess and people leaving the city. When we look at the percentage of catalogues with 52 pages or fewer (smaller collections), and more than 52 pages (the ‘larger’ collections), we see that in relative terms the months of April, June, September, October and November were the optimum time to bring books to market (Figure 4.17). In the month of July, only 38.2% of the catalogues contained over 52 pages, meaning that 61.8% of the auctioned collections can be considered as ‘smaller’. But 60 Van Selm, Een menighte, p. 80. 61 Ibid.

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figure 4.16

600

Number of catalogues sorted by the month when the auction was held

54.1%

500 400

46.2% 300 43.1% 40.7%

52.3%

49.2%

62.9% 60.8% 60.3%

70.0% 60.0% 50.0%

47.2% 38.2%

200

44.4% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0%

100

10.0% 0.0%

Ja nu Fe ary br ua ry M ar ch Ap ril M ay Ju ne Ju l Au y g Se us pt t em be Oc r t No obe ve r m De be ce r m be r

0

month figure 4.17

>52

Number of catalogues sorted by the month when the auction was held, compared with the percentage of the catalogues that had more than 52 pages (the larger collections)

certainly, for autumn it is explicit that larger collections are auctioned, with over 60% of the catalogues of containing more than 52 pages.

Conclusion

This study attempts to gain a more complete picture of Dutch printed private library sale catalogues in the seventeenth and eighteenth century, by describing what we know about the catalogues based on the most complete data available. Building on foundations of the project ‘Book Sales Catalogues of the

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Dutch Republic, 1599–1800’, by Bert van Selm, we can gain a more complete view of what was published and create a typology of the preserved Dutch book sales catalogues. Compared to the seventeenth century, the number of private library catalogues do increase in the eighteenth century, although we also have many catalogues from the period 1660–1699. Comparing the number of preserved catalogues and organised auctions in the eighteenth century, we see that the years 1720–1759 score below the average. Striking is that this is the period from which proportionally more copies of the editions have been saved. Most editions are preserved in only one copy. Leiden has the most preserved catalogues for the seventeenth century, but loses that position in the eighteenth century to The Hague. Local regulations of the city and the guild should also be taken in consideration. Relatively few catalogues from Amsterdam are preserved. For the eighteenth century the survival rate of printed private library catalogues is 16.3%. Considering a print run of hundreds of copies per edition, the amount of lost printed matter is enormous. The assumption that the thicker the catalogue, the higher the chance of survival, proves to be correct. The median of a seventeenth-century catalogue is 32 pages, while this number more than doubles (88 pages) in the eighteenth century. Over time, the larger collections (more than 52 pages) become larger, and the smaller catalogues (52 pages or fewer) also grow. Owners who lived longer had larger libraries. We can speak of auction seasons in spring (March, April, May), and autumn (September, October, November). Around these months, the larger collections were auctioned.

chapter 5

The Art of the Steal: The Economics of Auctioning Books in Late Seventeenth-Century London Graeme Kemp At the end of the seventeenth century, the English antiquary Anthony Wood at last completed his Athenae Oxonienses.1 This monumental work of biography had been decades in the making.2 Wood had been meticulous and resolute in gathering detail for his text. He corresponded widely, sought access to private libraries and visited well-stocked bookshops whenever possible. In addition to these sources, Wood made extensive use of published library catalogues, periodicals and auction catalogues. His surviving library has numerous examples of auction catalogues that had been bound up together.3 Often these catalogues contain brief annotations. Wood recorded provenance notes about how the catalogues came into his possession: ‘ex dono Dris Thomae Marshall Coll. Linc. Oxon Rectoris, 23 Jan. 1676.’4 Sometimes one can even find Woods’s dry commentary on a catalogue as he assessed its usefulness for his writing: ‘No Christian names to the authors in this cat. & therefore for my use not worth a straw’.5 Occasionally, an inspection of these catalogues can also turn up something unique and unexpected. 1 Anthony Wood, Athenæ Oxonienses. An exact history of all the vvriters and bishops who have had their education in the most ancient and famous University of Oxford, from the fifteenth, from the fifteenth year of King Henry the Seventh, Dom. 1500, to the end of the year 1690, (London, Thomas Bennet, 1691–1692). 2 See Allan Pritchard, ‘According to Wood: Sources of Anthony Wood’s Lives of Poets and Dramatists’, The Review of English Studies, New Series, 28 (1977), pp. 407–420; T.A. Birrell, ‘Anthony Wood, John Bagford and Thomas Hearne as Bibliographers’, in Robin Myers and Michael Harris (eds.), Pioneers in bibliography (Winchester: St Paul’s Bibliographies, 1988), pp. 23–39; Robert Beddard, ‘Anthony Wood and Izaak Walton : an exchange between two seventeenth-century biographers’, Bodleian Library Record, 18 (2004) pp. 301–32. 3 Nicolas K. Kiessling, The library of Anthony Wood (Oxford: Oxford Bibliographical Society, 2002). 4 On Flyleaf of: Catalogus variorum & insignium librorum selectissimæ bibliothecæ Revendi viri D. Thomæ Kidner ([London, William Cooper], 1676/7). Copy at Bodleian Library Wood E. 13 (2). 5 On Flyleaf of: Catalogus variorum & insignium librorum instructissimæ bibliothecæ clarissimi doctissimiq; Viri Thomæ Manton, S.T.D. ([London, William Cooper], 1678). Copy at Bodleian Library Wood E. 13 (3).

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2021 | doi:10.1163/9789004422247_006

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In one of the bound volumes of auction catalogues, just before the titlepage of the auction catalogue of Benjamin Worsley (1678), is an additional ephemeral advertisement for the sale. It reads: An Advertisement. This Catalogue is well liked of here, and we doubt not of the same Approbation in other places, it being a Collection of many excellent and scarce Books in every faculty, and in nothing more considerable, than for the variety of Editions of the Bible, of which Dr. Worsley bought up all that ever he could meet with, from the time he began to collect, amongst which is one great Rarity, and seldom appears in Catalogues, which is Pope Sixtus Quintus his Bible, printed in the Vatican in Rome 1590, from which that published within few years after by Urban the next Pope (the now common Vulgar Bible) so very much differs (as Dr. James his Bellum Papale (a Book writ on purpose) hath made appear) that the Roman Church endeavours all they can to suppress it: We have been tempted by a very considerable proffer to sell it from the rest, but refused; being rather desirous some publick Library in our own Nation should enjoy such a Jewel, than it should be carried away by our Adversaries and stifled; and therefore thought it (as also the other Bibles and Rarities in this Collection) worthy of the notice of such Societies of the Clergy, where there is any common Library or common Stock of Books. John Dunmore. Richard Chiswell. It is desired that you would be pleased to communicate this Catalogue to the rest of the Learned Clergy, residentiaries of your Church. [Last printed line struck-through and then Inserted in MS:] Gentlemen of your College6 This advertisement is something of a curiosity. The initial lines make clear that it was intended to be sent alongside the auction catalogue to potential bidders. However, it is not present in any other surviving copy of the auction catalogue that I have inspected.7 It was probably added in incidentally as some sort of wrapping when the catalogue was distributed to certain parties. At first the sellers targeted the members of the clergy, but then with a stroke of the 6 Catalogus librorum in quavis lingua & facultate insignium instructissimarum bibliothecarum tum clarissimi doctissimique viri D. Doctoris Benjaminis Worsley ([London, s.n.], 1678). Copy at Bodleian Library Wood E. 13 (4). 7 Kiessling, Library of Anthony Wood, no. 1635 describes this item with the following pagination: pp. [5], 26, 51, [1], 58, 27–32, 40 (misnumbering); ESTC R220044 records pagination as: pp. [4], 26, 51, [1], 58, 27–32, 40.

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pen they thought to recycle the advertisement to Oxford Colleges. To date, this represents one of the earliest known printed advertisement associated with book auctions in England. Alongside notices for auctions placed in the London Gazette, the first of which appeared in 1678, they acted to generate public interest in sales.8 What is striking about this advertisement is that the focus was not on the time, date, or quality of the books for auction but a single lot, the Sixtine Vulgate.9 This edition was printed in April 1590 and almost immediately mired in controversy. Only a few months after publication, Sixtus V died and the text was condemned. Accusations of widespread errors in the text led to the recall and suppression of copies on the authority of the College of Cardinals and Clement VIII. The auctioneers tell this story in their advertisement and even go as far as to stress that this copy may still be ‘carried away by our adversaries.’ With the Popish Plot in full swing and anti-Catholic sentiment at an all-time high, the auctioneers showed a canny ability to play on the emotions of the crowd and present collecting as an act of cultural patriotism. Controversies aside, this advertisement raises some new questions that deserve investigation. The clear focus on one single individual lot draws into focus the economic imperatives of early modern auctions. How vital were individual lots like the Sixtine Vulgate for a sale’s overall revenue and therefore success? Did a sale rely on generating a sufficient public interest through high-quality individual lots with the intention of selling large quantities of more common books for good prices? In essence, did the auctioneers utilise enticing lots to lure people to the sale, and did such lots actually perform well under the hammer? The investigation of these questions is the subject of this paper. The aim is to take a varied sample of auction catalogues, record the annotated prices, and then subject this data to statistical analysis. We will argue that each sale reviewed displayed a similar price distribution pattern. A large volume of low valued lots was accompanied by a relatively small volume of expensive lots. Despite such stratification, the expensive lots underpinned the economic success of the sale and provided the majority of the revenue.

8 The advertisement read: ‘This is to give Notice, that the library of Mr. William Greenhill, late of Stephney in the County of Middlesex, will be put to sale, by way of auction, at the Turk’s Head Coffee-house in Bread Street, on the 18 February next, beginning punctually at Nine a clock In the morning, and two in the afternoon; at which places, the catalogue and books may be seen by any person’. London Gazette, 11 February 1678. 9 Biblia sacra vulgatae editionis tribus tomis distincta (Rome: ex Typographia Apostolica Vaticana, 1590), USTC 806524.

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Under the Hammer

Public book auctions began in England in 1676 with the sale of the library of Lazarus Seaman.10 This means of selling books was embraced by the post-Restoration public and a considerable expansion in sales took place. By 1700 at least four hundred sales had occurred, with hundreds of thousands of titles sold in this manner.11 Remarkably, the prices realised at these book auctions have received little attention.12 This is in marked contrast to the literature on the economics of art auctions, another development of this era.13 The oversight is all the more surprising as catalogues with annotated prices are far from unknown. In 1898, John Lawler commented that the British Museum held eleven fully-priced sales catalogues that had belonged to the great bibliophile Narcissus Luttell.14 Contemporaries had several reasons to record prices in their catalogues. Prices could be used to compare with other sales, either retail or at auction. They could provide a record, when a book was purchased, of the sum they had 10 On the development of Book Auctions in England, see: Giles Mandelbrote, ‘The Organization of Book Auctions in Late Seventeenth-Century London’, in Robin Myers, Michael Harris and Giles Mandelbrote (eds.), Under the Hammer: Book Auctions since the Seventeenth Century (New Castle, DE/London: Oak Knoll Press and the British Library, 2001), pp. 15–50. 11 For the most recent bibliographical survey of private library auctions in England, see: R.C. Alston, Inventory of Sale Catalogues of Named and Attributed Owners of Books Sold by Retail or Auction, 1676–1800: An Inventory of Sales in the British Isles, America, the United States, Canada and India (2 vols., St Philip, Barbados: Privately Printed for the Author, 2010). 12 John Lawler, Book Auctions in England in the Seventeenth Century, (London: Elliot Stock, 1898); D.R. Woolf, Reading History in Early Modern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000); on retail, rather than auction, sales the most cited studies are F.R. Johnson, ‘Notes on English Retail book-prices 1550–1640’, The Library, 5th series, 5 (1950), pp. 83–112; H.S. Bennet, ‘Notes on English Retail Book-prices, 1480–1560’, The Library, 5th series, 3 (1950), pp. 172–178; and David McKitterick, ‘Ovid with a Littleton: The Cost of English Books in the Early Seventeenth Century’, Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society, 11 (1997), pp. 184–234. 13 For example, A. Turpin and J. Warren (eds.), Auctions, Agents and Dealers: The Mechanisms of the Art Market 1660–1830 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007); C. Gould and S. Mesplede, Marketing Art in the British Isles, 1700 to the Present (Farnham: Ashgate, 2012); Neil De Marchi, ‘Auctioning Paintings in Late Seventeenth-Century London: Rules, Segmentation and Prices in an Emergent Market’, in Economics of Art and Culture Invited Papers at the 12th International Conference of the Association of Cultural Economics International; Brian Cowan, ‘Art and Connoisseurship in the Auction Market of Later Seventeenth-Century London’, in Mapping Markets for Paintings in Europe, 1450–1750 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2006), pp. 263–285. 14 Lawler, Book Auctions, p. xxi.

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bid. This may account for catalogues that have one or two occasional annotated prices but the rest are blank. Fully priced catalogues are rarer. Some that survive were the copies used by the auctioneers, printed on large paper with the extra margins filled with buyers’ names and prices. Others were priced by the vendor’s assistant and for a small fee could be provided on demand. The eighteenth-century auctioneer Christopher Cock offered such a service to his clients.15 Auctions could run for days and few contemporaries had the stamina to endure the tedium of meticulously pricing every lot themselves. The recording of prices was done on a lot by lot basis. It is worth noting however, that lots could contain multiple titles. In the printed catalogue, a bracket showed those titles that were to be sold together as a single lot. Alternatively, catalogue descriptions stated that multiple titles were available. One lot offered, ‘several books about Presbytery and Independency, Pro & Con’, while another, ‘Volume of X Plays (viz.) Amazon Queen, Wild Gallant, English Princess, Siege of Rhodes both Parts, Elvira, Mony’s an Ass, Geraclius, Andronicus, Comnemius, Rival Ladies’. However, at the sale the auctioneer had a great deal of discretion to put printed lots together as they worked the room and moved through proceedings. For example, in Lazarus Seaman’s sale, five lots of Andreæ Sennerti’s works were listed as distinct lots in the printed catalogue, but on the day were sold together for £1.10s.6d. Indeed, so common was the practice of combined lots when the situation demanded it that it even featured in popular satires of auctions.16 Given such practices, this survey has attempted to model the price of lots as indicated by the annotations and not price per title, or price per printed lot. This will better reflect the actual practices adopted in the saleroom. A final point should be made about the annotated prices – they should be treated with some caution. There was nothing illegal at this time about auctioneers manipulating bids to their advantage. Confederates, or even the sellers themselves, could inflate prices by proposing their own bids. Worsley’s catalogue even carried a note in the preface of the catalogue to reassure bidders that the auctioneers did not intend to use any indirect means to advance the prices, suggesting well-known practices that were frowned upon by bidders

15 Robin Myers, ‘Sale by Auction: The Rise of Auctioneering Exemplified in the Firm of Christopher Cock, the Langfords, and Henry, John and George Robins (c. 1720–1847)’ in Robin Myers and Michael Harris (eds.), Sale and Distribution of Books from 1700 (Oxford: Oxford Polytechnic Press, 1982), pp. 127–163, here p. 136. 16 Myers, ‘Sale by Auction’, p. 134.

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at auction. To remove suspicion, they added that they had refused all manner of commissions – this presumably meant any arrangements with sellers too.17 Edward Millington, the most renowned auctioneer of the seventeenth century, sometimes left out items he favoured or even placed his own bids to drive up prices in the sales he was conducting.18 Moreover, it was not just the auctioneers who acted disingenuously. The bidders occasionally did not honour the price they had agreed to pay. In 1681, Millington protested that many people had placed bids with great freedom at the expense of others, only to have neglected to come back and pay for their purchases.19 Such experiences led some to deride the extravagant bids made at auction. The bookseller and publisher Richard Clavell did not hide his loathing of auctions. In the preface to his General Catalogue of Books Printed in England he wrote that buyers had a better chance at a lottery than the auction house: the lots for sale were little more than old junk out of the bookshops, and bad quality editions were commonly put out under the guise of great men’s libraries. In terms of prices paid at these sales, Clavell believed them to be virtually fraudulent: And it cannot be judged otherwise, for a thousand at least of the Printed Catalogue of a Library to be expos’d by Auction being dispersed, many commissions for the best Books are given, it may be twenty Order for one Book, that when the Buyers think to have it Cheap, they out-bid one an other and run 10 or 12 s. in 30 beyond the Price in Shops, sometimes more, sometimes less.20 As a bookseller, Clavell was a partisan voice to be sure, but his point that the sums paid at auction were extravagant when compared to retail is worth keeping in mind as we turn to the analysis of prices recorded in auction catalogues. For this statistical survey, four of the earliest private library sales were selected as our sample. In order to provide a check on any inflationary effects on prices, all the auctions selected took place within a few years of each other.

17 Catalogus librorum … Worsley, A2v. 18 T.A. Birrell, ‘Books and Buyers in Seventeenth-Century English Auction Sales’, in Myers, Harris and Mandelbrote, Under the Hammer, pp. 51–64, here pp. 53–54. 19 Marchi, ‘Auctioning Paintings’, p. 103; Mandelbrote, ‘The Organization of Book Auctions’, p. 30. 20 Robert Clavell, The General Catalogue of Books Printed in England since the Dreadful Fire of London MDCLXVI. To the End of the Trinity-Term MDCLXXX (1680), A[2]r–A[2]v.

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All sample catalogues are fully priced, but they vary in the background of the owner and the individual responsible for administering the sale. The catalogues under review consist of the sale of the English clergyman Lazarus Seaman (October 1676), the first book auction by catalogue in England; Benjamin Worsley (May 1678), physician and Surveyor-General of Ireland; Edward Bysshe (November 1679), lawyer and member of parliament; and George and Kenelm Digby (April 1680).21 Each sale was presided over by different auctioneers: William Cooper and Edward Brewster took charge of Seaman’s sale, John Dunmore and Richard Chiswell held the Worsley sale, John Dunmore and Benjamin Tooke were responsible for Edward Bysshe’s auction, and Benjamin Tooke and Henry Broome were involved in the Digby sale. Together these sales consisted of over 20,000 titles, divided into individual lots. One should be careful not to attribute all the titles in these auctions as the property of those whose name was on the title-page, nor to believe that these catalogues are representative of their entire collection. As has been well documented, booksellers often inserted extraneous books into the auctions of libraries of renowned contemporaries. Indeed, in the case of the Worsley’s sale, the title-page implied that it was his library alone, but a small note at the start of the preface to the catalogue makes clear that there were actually another two libraries present as well.22 Before his death, Lazarus Seaman gave away some of his most cherished books to friends and members of his congregation.23 Meanwhile, Edward Bysshe’s sale was only a part of his collection; the remainder was sold after his death. Bysshe was overwhelmed by debt; his sale has the unfortunate fame of being the first private library auction held in England to meet the demands of creditors. A basic overview of each catalogue is provided below. It should be noted that the discrepancy between ‘priced lots’ and ‘usable prices’ relates to the difficulty in accurately reading the annotation or due to poor reproduction. All lots and their associated prices were recorded in a database to assist with statistical analysis.

21 Catalogus variorum & insignium librorum instructissimæ bibliothecæ clarissimi doctissimiq[ue] viri Lazari Seaman, S.T.D. (London, Edward Brewster and William Cooper, 1676); Catalogus librorum in quavis lingua & facultate insignium instructissimarum bibliothecarum tum clarissimi doctissimique viri D. Doctoris Benjaminis Worsley ([London, s.n.], 1678); Bibliotheca Bissæana ([London, s.n.], 1679); Bibliotheca Digbeiana, ([London, s.n.], 1680). 22 Catalogus librorum … Worsley, A2r. 23 B.J. McMullin, ‘Lazarus Seaman and his bequest to James Hulbert’, The Bulletin of the Bibliographical Society of Australia and New Zealand, 14 (1990), pp. 141–144.

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Overview of sample auction catalogues

Seaman

Worsley

Bysshe

Digby

Date Auctioneer/ Dealer

31/10/1676 Cooper, William

Total Titles Printed Lots Priced Lots Usable Prices

6,379 5,023 3,820 2,681

13/05/1678 Dunmore, John and Chiswell, Richard 6,662 5,277 4,744 4,489

15/11/1679 Dunmore, John and Tooke, Benjamin 2,595 2,239 2,222 2,139

19/04/1680 Tooke, Benjamin and Broome, Henry 4,781 3,803 3,301 2,835



Big-Hitters

Auctions were immense commercial operations. The Digby sale raised over 900 pounds, while the Bysshe sale pulled in just over 760 pounds. Such figures, although informative, provide us with little sense of the character of individual sales. On the retail market, books could be had for anything from £0.0s.1d upwards. Printed advertisements can provide us with some specific examples of the normal range of prices for small books. The Coffee-house Mercury listed A Voyage round the World, or a Pocket Library for sale for £0.1s.6d., while The Wonders of Free Grace was announced for sale for £0.1s.0d.24 Other periodicals like The Athenian Mercury also advertised books, including books for schools and clerks, such as the Copie of the Court and Chancery-hands, to be sold for £0.1s.0d.25 A periodical listing of newly published books in England, entitled the Term Catalogues, provides us with the greatest number of advertised books to feature retail prices. Advertised for sale in 1677, for example, was Minerva, or The Art of Weaving for £0.0s.8d.; The Life and Death of Pomponius Atticus for £0.2s.6d.; The Complete Chymist for £0.4s.0d.; The six Voyages of Jean Baptiste Tavernier for £1.0s.0d.; and Francis Willoughby’s Ornithology was for £1.10s.0d.26 The sample of annotated prices in auction catalogues is suggestive of a similar varied range of prices. 24 Coffee House Mercury, Issue 3, 25 November 1690. 25 The Athenian Mercury, Issue 16, 9 February 1695. 26 Edward Arber (ed.), The Term Catalogues, 1668–1709, With a Number for Easter Term, 1711 A.D. A Contemporary Bibliography of English Literature in the Reigns of Charles II, James II, William and Mary, and Anne (London: Privately Printed, 1903), vol. 1, pp. 265–298.

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At the top end of the price range were prestige works like Blaeu’s Atlas Major in 11 volumes, published in Amsterdam in the 1660s: a sumptuous set that consisted of 594 engraved maps, plans, views, and plates. It sold at Digby’s auction as the first lot of the philology section for £36.5s.0d. Considering that only 6 per cent of families had an income of over 100 pounds in 1700, and only 2 per cent had incomes over 200 pounds, to pay such a sum for a single title was a luxury available to only a very small number. At Bysshe’s sale, it was James Ussher’s account of the origins of Christianity in Britain and Ireland, Britannicarum Ecclesiarum, that fetched the highest price, £13.0s.0d. Meanwhile, at the earliest auction in our sample, it was the very first lot – the Parisian Opera Omnia of the Church Father John Chrysostom in 11 volumes – that fetched the highest price of the sale, £8.5s.0d. Finally, John Dunmore and Richard Chiswell’s faith in the pulling power of the Sixtine Vulgate was justified. It was the top-selling lot at Worsley’s sale at £32.5s.0d. What is immediately obvious when considering those lots that achieved the highest prices is the prevalence of multi-volume editions that represented a complete set of a text, or a collection of an author’s writings. A typical example would be Elias Hutter’s Testamentum Novum in 2 volumes, a polyglot New Testament in twelve languages that included Greek, Latin and eight Protestant versions in European languages, as well as his own Hebrew and Syriac translation. It was also the first polyglot Bible to include an English translation. It sold for £1.1s.0d. at Lazarus Seaman’s auction in 1676. Similar examples can readily be furnished from the other sales: Caesar Baronius’ Annales Ecclesiastici, a history of the first twelve centuries of the Church in twelve volumes, sold at Digby’s auction for £7.4s.0d. A 1624 Parisian edition of Plutarch’s Opera in 2 volumes was recorded in Thomas Worsley’s catalogue as having been sold for £3.16s.0d. Ulisse Aldrovandi’s Opera Omnia, a collection of all the works by the great naturalist that had been printed between 1599 and 1668, realised £12.2s.6d. at Bysshe’s sale. Some of the lots that achieved the highest prices consisted of a number of volumes put together as one lot. A set of the Philosophical Transactions for the years 1667 and 1669–1673 were sold as one lot for £2.2s.0d. at Worsley’s sale. Similarly, a large lot of the varied writings of Jean de Launoy, including his controversies and dissertations on Gallicanism, sold for £2.18s.0d. The large bundles of titles appear to have drawn significant interest. A collection of 21 different volumes including, Zovellus’ Statu Pestilenti, Aristotle’s Problemata, Fernel’s Luis Venereae curatione perfectissima, Galen’s Remediis Parabilibus, and other medical or natural history texts, sold for £0.4s.0d. Similarly, a huge collection of almost 50 separate political titles, such as The Recantation and Confession of John Lambert, A Collection of Papers sent to Oliver Cromwell, Of

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Bloody Massacres, as well as a final entry that added in 21 more titles, was sold for £0.10s.6d. at Worsley’s sale. Auctioneers were keen to draw attention to any copy-specific features of their better lots. Edward Bysshe, who had a particular interest in Heraldry, had a copy of Elias Ashmole’s Order of the Knights of the Garter, described as bound in turkey leather, on royal paper, and with gilt on the leaves. It sold for £2.15s.0d. The presence of engravings, illustrations, maps, and the quality of paper and binding were sometimes referenced. In the Digby catalogue, Thomas Ross’s translation of Silius Italicus was described as curiously bound, on large paper with ‘cuts’ and gilded on the leaves and ruled. It sold for £1.1s.0d. The same edition at Bysshe’s auction, which only mentioned the illustrations, sold for £0.14s.2d., about one-third less. Perhaps most important was the physical size of an edition. A folio drew more interest than a quarto, a quarto was worth more than an octavo, an octavo was worth more than a duodecimo and so on. Smaller formats could only command significant demand if they formed an attractive lot because of their subject matter or author. Erasmus’s Opuscula Varia in eight duodecimo volumes sold for £1.1s.6d., while a collected set of titles encompassing the disputes on the execution of King Charles I written by John Milton and Claude de Saumaise sold for £1.0s.0d. One must be cautious in one regard here. Recent studies have demonstrated that the number of printed sheets used in an edition had a direct effect on the retail price. The situation in auctions was more nuanced. A copy of Webster’s Principles of Arithmetick was just over 12 sheets in length but sold for only £0.0s.4d. Jakob Heerbrand’s Compendium Theologiae consisted of well over 100 sheets but sold for just £0.0.6d. It is impossible to know if the condition of an item affected such results. Yet, it is likely that without the need to recoup the production costs, the length of an item in terms of sheets seemingly had little effect on the price at auction. In each catalogue, there are instances of remarkably low bids. Sold for just £0.0.3d. at Seaman’s sale was a lot that consisted of both Leonhart Fuchs De Humani Corporis Fabrica and his Compendium Medicinae. Similarly, a 1550 quarto edition of Peter Apian’s Cosmographia, one of the most celebrated scientific texts of the Renaissance, also sold for just £0.0.3d. Meanwhile, at Digby’s sale, a copy of Castiglione’s famous treatise on courtesy in Italian fetched three pence as well. Finally, Il Magno Palazzo del Cardinale di Trento, a text known to have been sent to Francis I of France as a prestigious gift, must have found almost no interest at Digby’s sale as it achieved a paltry £0.0.2d. on the day.27 27

Laffitte and Le Bars, Reliures royales de la Renaissance. La librairie de Fontainebleau, 1544– 1570 (Paris: BNF, 1999), p. 60, no. 18.

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Of course, we do not know the binding or condition of these items, but it is still striking that such titles made so little. It may well be that this lower end consisted of either texts that were relatively common on the retail market, or continental editions on subjects that had lost their lustre and been superseded by new knowledge or controversies as one generation’s treasures were disregarded by a new age.

The Key to Profit

Examples such as those cited above can provide some orientation, but also suggest that the prices raised at auction, then as now, had a considerable element of chance. Some books attracted a fierce bidding war, where pride was at stake; others were disdained for no particular reason: perhaps most likely purchasers had already gone home. To delve into the wider patterns at work in the marketplace, we need to analyse the whole population of books sold. Overall statistics calculated for each sale are presented in Table 5.2. The results obtained would suggest that the sales exhibited striking similarities. The Seaman, Worsley and Digby sale all produced a mean in the range of between five and six shillings per priced lot. Only the Bysshe sale moved slightly outside this figure, averaging seven shillings per priced lot. On the face of it, such average figures would lend support to Clavell’s statement that books at auction were more expensive than those at retail, which likely had an average of somewhere between one and three shillings. However, we should not be drawn to a quick conclusion on this data alone, as the arithmetic mode suggests otherwise. The most common value in the range of prices recorded in each catalogue was far lower than the average, being in the range of one to two shillings for each sale. The calculations above attest that the prices are not symmetrically distributed around the mean. The low median value alongside a high average table 5.2 Average, median and mode price calculations in four English auction sales, in pence

Collection

Average

Median

Mode

Seaman Worsley Bysshe Digby

65 71 84 67

36 30 48 30

18 12 24 12

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The Art of the Steal Lazarus Seaman (1676)

Benjamin Worsley (1678)

700

1200

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0

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Edward Bysshe (1679)

George and Kenelm Digby (1680)

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> 20 ≥ 19 but < 20 ≥ 18 but < 19 ≥ 17 but < 18 ≥ 16 but < 17 ≥ 15 but < 16 ≥ 14 but < 15 ≥ 13 but < 14 ≥ 12 but < 13 ≥ 11 but < 12 ≥ 10 but < 11 ≥ 9 but < 10 ≥ 8 but < 9 ≥ 7 but < 8 ≥ 6 but < 7 ≥ 5 but < 6 ≥ 4 but < 5 ≥ 3 but < 4 ≥ 2 but < 3 ≥ 1 but < 2 ≥ 0 but < 1

200

> 20 ≥ 19 but < 20 ≥ 18 but < 19 ≥ 17 but < 18 ≥ 16 but < 17 ≥ 15 but < 16 ≥ 14 but < 15 ≥ 13 but < 14 ≥ 12 but < 13 ≥ 11 but < 12 ≥ 10 but < 11 ≥ 9 but < 10 ≥ 8 but < 9 ≥ 7 but < 8 ≥ 6 but < 7 ≥ 5 but < 6 ≥ 4 but < 5 ≥ 3 but < 4 ≥ 2 but < 3 ≥ 1 but < 2 ≥ 0 but < 1

100

500

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150 50

100

0

0

> 20 ≥ 19 but < 20 ≥ 18 but < 19 ≥ 17 but < 18 ≥ 16 but < 17 ≥ 15 but < 16 ≥ 14 but < 15 ≥ 13 but < 14 ≥ 12 but < 13 ≥ 11 but < 12 ≥ 10 but < 11 ≥ 9 but < 10 ≥ 8 but < 9 ≥ 7 but < 8 ≥ 6 but < 7 ≥ 5 but < 6 ≥ 4 but < 5 ≥ 3 but < 4 ≥ 2 but < 3 ≥ 1 but < 2 ≥ 0 but < 1

200

> 20 ≥ 19 but < 20 ≥ 18 but < 19 ≥ 17 but < 18 ≥ 16 but < 17 ≥ 15 but < 16 ≥ 14 but < 15 ≥ 13 but < 14 ≥ 12 but < 13 ≥ 11 but < 12 ≥ 10 but < 11 ≥ 9 but < 10 ≥ 8 but < 9 ≥ 7 but < 8 ≥ 6 but < 7 ≥ 5 but < 6 ≥ 4 but < 5 ≥ 3 but < 4 ≥ 2 but < 3 ≥ 1 but < 2 ≥ 0 but < 1

100

figure 5.1 Price frequency distribution in four English auction sales. Shilling intervals (x-axis) and price frequency (y-axis)

establishes that the prices fetched at auction were far from evenly distributed. To explore this trend, we will turn from our basic statistical overview and instead consider how many instances of each price occurred in a sale. The price frequency distribution for each auction is presented in the appendix and in the charts (Figure 5.1) below. Twenty class intervals were chosen, each with a width of one shilling. Consequently, all prices in the first interval are equal to or greater than zero shillings (abbreviated to ≥ 0) but less than one shilling (abbreviated to  20). The frequency is shown in column three, and the relative frequency in column four of the tables in the appendix. The relative frequency shows the share of the observations in each class interval as expressed as a percentage of the total. The cumulative frequency, column 5, provides us with the corresponding proportions or percentages. Additionally, the gross and cumulative revenue for each class interval has also been calculated. These are particularly helpful in illustrating where most of the revenue in an auction was being made  – the cheaper or more expensive lots. The initial conclusion from examining the data is that all of these auctions were remarkably similar in their distribution of prices. Given the underlying differences in the background of each sale, this is a striking discovery. Only Edward Bysshe’s sale illustrates some notable variations from the others. The sale had fewer lots that raised under one shilling, as well as slightly more sales greater than twenty shillings. The circumstances of this sale can explain this variation, however. Bysshe sold the largest part of his collection to cover his debts and likely selected the best books accordingly. Such minor variations aside, each sale illustrates similar key features. Each chart of the price frequency distribution features a right-tailed distribution, with the majority of the lots present in the lower price bracket. Close to fifty per cent of all lots sold for less than three shillings. In contrast, on the right-hand side of each chart we can observe relatively few lots, but with high sale prices. Only between four and six per cent of lots achieved over twenty shillings across the sample. Given the varied historical backdrop of each auction, which nevertheless displaying an almost identical price frequency distribution, it can be suggested that a common pattern existed. On the one hand, each sale included a small set of expensive lots, while on the other, a much larger volume of comparatively modest lots. This pattern alone does not suggest which of these two extremes produced the greatest impact on overall earnings. To assess this, it is necessary to consider the gross and cumulative revenue at each sale. This data will indicate where the revenue in each sale was being generated, the lower quantity of expensive lots or the higher volume of cheaper ones. The calculations are presented fully in columns six and seven in the tables in the appendix and summarised in the charts (Figure 5.2) below. The conclusion to be drawn from this data is that each auction generated most of its revenue from a small number of lots. In Benjamin Worsley’s sale, for example, over fifty per cent of lots sold for under three shillings but accounted

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The Art of the Steal Price Frequency as Overall Percentage in Shilling Intervals Seaman

Worsley

Bysshe

Digby 0%

10%

20%

≥ 0 but < 5

30%

40%

≥ 5 but < 10

50%

60%

≥ 10 but < 15

70%

80%

≥ 15 but < 20

90%

100%

> 20

Gross Revenue as Overall Percentage in Shilling Intervals Seaman

Worsley

Bysshe

Digby 0%

10%

20%

≥ 0 but < 5

30%

40%

≥ 5 but < 10

50%

60%

≥ 10 but < 15

70%

80%

≥ 15 but < 20

90%

100%

> 20

figure 5.2 Price frequency (top) and gross revenue (bottom) as overall percentage of sale. Grouped into 5 intervals (in shillings)

for less than fifteen per cent of all revenue. Meanwhile, just over 600 lots out of almost 4,500, which made over ten shillings at the sale, contributed more than half of all the revenue generated. Indeed, only five per cent of the lots in the entire sale sold for over one pound each, but they realised more than thirty-five per cent of all revenue. A similar pattern was observed in all the other auctions in our sample. This finding suggests that while lots were sold at a wide range of prices, for the auctioneer, it was only a few hundred items that really contributed towards generating overall revenue. It was on these items that the financial success of the auction rested.

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This paper sheds light upon three under-studied points about the London book auctions. Firstly, that regardless of who administered the proceedings, the background of the collection, or the date and place of sale, each auction displayed a remarkably similar price frequency distribution. Secondly, although there was a greater recurrence of lots being sold at low to moderate prices, they played a relatively minor role in generating the overall revenue from each sale. Instead, this was dependent on the success of a small percentage of lots that achieved high prices. Thirdly, those in charge of their sales were not oblivious to this fact. This economic pattern was understood, and the structure of the sale, order of the catalogue, and even the advertisement of proceedings were shaped accordingly. In London, the retail and auction trade occupied a similar physical space. The majority of bookshops were situated at St Paul’s Churchyard and, especially after the Great Fire, Paternoster Row. The same was true of book auctions. The Worsley sale was held at the sign of the Hen and Chicken’s, the Digby auction at the Golden Lion and the Bysshe sale at the Wool-pack on Ivy Lane. All were in the vicinity of, or actually on, Pasternoster Row. Even Lazarus Seaman’s sale, which was held at his residence at Warwick Court, was only a short walk from London’s bookselling hub. Such a close spatial relationship meant that personal ties were also important. Those in charge of these auctions were embedded in the traditional book trade. Richard Chiswell was perhaps the most prominent of all, responsible for publishing thousands of editions. Meanwhile, the customers at both bookshop and auction were drawn from the same pool. Samuel Pepys, Robert Hooke, Edward Stillingfleet and countless other English bibliophiles left evidence of their purchase both at retail bookshops and auctions. Such interconnections might lead one to believe that the auction market was nothing more than an extension of the retail trade, distinguished only by the disposal of used books and personal libraries. The data presented in this paper has highlighted at least one key divergence between the retail and auction trade: they operated with different economic imperatives. A consistent theme within recent scholarship has been the commercial value of cheap print to the retail and publishing trade. Almanacks, histories, travels, self-help books and especially bibles and prayer books were particularly important.28 Together with playbooks, ballads and newspapers, 28 See for example: James Raven, The Business of Books: Booksellers and the English Book Trade, 1450–1850 (New Haven: Yale UP, 2007); Andrew Pettegree, The Book in the Renaissance (New Haven: Yale UP, 2010); Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen,

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these sorts of cheap everyday editions provided the regular sales on which a bookseller’s business relied. At auction, this situation was reversed. Large quantities of books can be demonstrated to have been sold for low prices at auction, but they were not critical to the success of the auctioneer’s trade. Overall revenue was not reliant on the sale of a high volume of editions at low rates; instead, it depended on a few hundred texts promoted to attract interest and prompt competing bids. The very character of an auction was organised toward this sort of business model: There was a fixed time limit to acquire a desired item and, in most cases, the quantity available was limited to a single unit. A typical sale began at nine in the morning, continued for four hours, had a break for lunch, and then continued until perhaps six in the evening. This practice continued each day until all the lots were sold. Sales were designed so that the items believed to be the most valuable went under the hammer early. A visual reconstruction of the sequence of prices at the various sales, from the first lot until the last, illustrates this in practice (Figure 5.3). In three of the sales, two peaks in occur in succession. These likely signifying the start of day one and day two, with the most expensive lots sold by around lot 1,000 or so in the proceedings. The first few days of a sale were apparently crucial for generating revenue. Based on this analysis, we might suggest that the organisation of catalogues had an economic motivation. It ensured that the best lots had pride of place the sale. Future studies should investigate just how disruptive auctioneering was to the book trade. For now, we can say that contemporary booksellers like Richard Clavell who criticised the prices at auction were almost certainly exaggerating the situation. The data presented in this paper demonstrates that consumers could acquire lots for only a couple of pence, or something in the region of the average retail price of a new edition – around 1 to 3 shillings. Indeed, if we take Clavell’s own index of newly printed books, the Term Catalogues, as a guide to retail rates, many entries were advertised for prices close to what they achieved at auction. For example, Physick for Families: safe and powerful Way of Physick was advertised new as 1s. bound in 1674. Meanwhile, at Digby’s sale, it realised 11d. Thomas Hardcastle’s Christian Geography and Arithmetick was advertised at £0.1s.6d. bound at retail; while a copy at auction returned only £0.0s.9d. Even at the upper end, auctions seemed to provide buyers with a relatively good deal for used books. Francis Willoughby’s Ornithology or, History of Birds was advertised for £1.10s.0d. in 1678; but at auction a copy found a buyer The Bookshop of the World: Making and Trading Books in the Dutch Golden Age (London: Yale University Press, 2019); William St Clair, The Reading Nation in the Romantic Period (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2004).

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Benjamin Worsley (1678) 9000

3000

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7000 6000

2000

5000

1500

4000 3000

1000

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1000 1 355 717 1086 1415 1787 2130 2481 2872 3203 3548 3908 4281 4635 5029

0 1 192 399 625 845 1288 1603 2144 3044 3486 3858 4421 4762 5284 5922

0

Edward Bysshe (1679) 3500

George and Kenelm Digby (1680) 10000 9000

3000

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1000 1 195 453 713 937 1314 1683 1937 2247 2506 2856 3064 3273 3489 3717

0 2 237 401 557 725 874 1034 1203 1367 1537 1700 1850 2144 2299 2458

0

figure 5.3 Prices as they occurred in lot order for each sale. Order of lots (x-axis); price of lot in pence (y-axis)

at £0.19s.0d. – two-thirds of the advertised cost as a new book. Further research on the comparison of retail prices and auction prices will be required to confirm such trends, but one recent article has lent support to the argument that – on the whole – books were very likely cheaper at auction.29 Taken as a whole, the data presented here suggests that as our research on auction sales and their catalogues develops, we should be conscious their differences from the traditional model of the retail book trade. Organising an 29

Leah Orr, ‘Prices of English Books at Auction c. 1680’, The Library, 20 (2019), pp. 501–526.

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early modern auction was a tiresome operation. Only one account book of such an event has so far come to light, and it is a testament to all the drudgery involved.30 One had to catalogue, clean and transport the books; a venue had to be hired and seats arranged; occasionally food and drink needed to be provided; catalogues had to be printed and advertisements placed; an auctioneer, assistants and cleaners had to be hired; and ink, paper and other miscellanies purchased. Even after all this effort, most of the lots that made up an auction only sold for modest prices. But if the stage for the theatre of the sale had been setup correctly, then the choicest items could realise such prices as to make the whole affair worthwhile. This was, as the eulogy to the auctioneer Edward Millington makes clear, the true art of the steal: … When your neglected works did mouldering lie Upon the shelves, and none your Books would buy, How oft he has with strained Eloquence, Affirmed the leaves contained a World of Sense, When all insipid dull impertinence. ‘Come gentlemen, come, bid what you please, Upon my word it is a curious piece; Done by a learned hand, and neatly bound, What say you? come, I’ll put it up one pound; One pound, once, twice? fifteen – who bids a crown? Then shakes his head with an affected frown; Good lack-a-day, ‘tis strange, then strikes a blow, Then in his hand another piece he takes, And in its praise a long harangue he makes; And tells ‘em that ‘tis writ in lofty Verse, One that is out of print and very Scarce; Then with a high language and a stately look, He sets a lofty price upon the Book; Five pound, Four pound, Three pound, he cries aloud, And holds it up, expose it to the crowd, With Arm erect the bidders to provoke To seize the price before the impending stroke. This in the strong does emulation breed, And makes ‘em strive each other to out-bid; While he decants upon their learned heats, 30 B.J. Enright, ‘The Later Auction Sales of Thomas Rawlinson’s Library, 1727–34’, The Library, 5th series, 1 (1956), pp. 23–40.

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And his facetious Dialect repeats: For none like him, for certain, knew so well By way of Auction, any Goods to sell …31

Appendix

table 5.3 Price frequency and revenue distribution. Lazarus Seaman Sale, 1676

Class intervals (shillings)

Frequency Relative frequency

Cumulative Cumulative Gross frequency relative revenue frequency

Cumulative gross revenue

≥ 0 but < 1 ≥ 1 but < 2 ≥ 2 but < 3 ≥ 3 but < 4 ≥ 4 but < 5 ≥ 5 but < 6 ≥ 6 but < 7 ≥ 7 but < 8 ≥ 8 but < 9 ≥ 9 but < 10 ≥ 10 but < 11 ≥ 11 but < 12 ≥ 12 but < 13 ≥ 13 but < 14 ≥ 14 but < 15 ≥ 15 but < 16 ≥ 16 but < 17 ≥ 17 but < 18 ≥ 18 but < 19 ≥ 19 but < 20 > 20

131 609 535 357 218 181 114 97 74 47 42 35 22 22 26 23 15 12 10 5 106

131 740 1275 1632 1850 2031 2145 2242 2316 2363 2405 2440 2462 2484 2510 2533 2548 2560 2570 2575 2681

1% 6% 15% 23% 29% 35% 40% 45% 49% 52% 55% 58% 60% 62% 64% 67% 68% 70% 71% 72% 100%

31

4.89% 22.72% 19.96% 13.32% 8.13% 6.75% 4.25% 3.62% 2.76% 1.75% 1.57% 1.31% 0.82% 0.82% 0.97% 0.86% 0.56% 0.45% 0.37% 0.19% 3.95%

Quoted in Lawler, Book Auctions, pp. xxxi–xxxiv.

4.89% 27.60% 47.56% 60.87% 69.00% 75.76% 80.01% 83.63% 86.39% 88.14% 89.71% 91.01% 91.83% 92.65% 93.62% 94.48% 95.04% 95.49% 95.86% 96.05% 100%

1% 6% 9% 8% 6% 7% 5% 5% 4% 3% 3% 3% 2% 2% 3% 2% 2% 1% 1% 1% 28%

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The Art of the Steal table 5.4 Price frequency and revenue distribution. Benjamin Worsley Sale, 1678

Class intervals Frequency Relative (shillings) frequency

Cumulative Cumulative frequency relative frequency

Gross revenue

Cumulative gross revenue

≥ 0 but < 1 ≥ 1 but < 2 ≥ 2 but < 3 ≥ 3 but < 4 ≥ 4 but < 5 ≥ 5 but < 6 ≥ 6 but < 7 ≥ 7 but < 8 ≥ 8 but < 9 ≥ 9 but < 10 ≥ 10 but < 11 ≥ 11 but < 12 ≥ 12 but < 13 ≥ 13 but < 14 ≥ 14 but < 15 ≥ 15 but < 16 ≥ 16 but < 17 ≥ 17 but < 18 ≥ 18 but < 19 ≥ 19 but < 20 > 20

526 1666 2423 2899 3185 3421 3585 3698 3790 3870 3955 3995 4048 4085 4109 4168 4203 4230 4254 4263 4489

1% 6% 7% 6% 5% 5% 4% 3% 3% 3% 3% 2% 2% 2% 1% 3% 2% 2% 2% 1% 38%

1% 7% 14% 20% 24% 29% 33% 36% 39% 42% 45% 47% 49% 51% 52% 56% 58% 59% 61% 62% 100%

Gross revenue

Cumulative gross revenue

526 1140 757 476 286 236 164 113 92 80 85 40 53 37 24 59 35 27 24 9 226

11.72% 25.40% 16.86% 10.60% 6.37% 5.26% 3.65% 2.52% 2.05% 1.78% 1.89% 0.89% 1.18% 0.82% 0.53% 1.31% 0.78% 0.60% 0.53% 0.20% 5.03%

11.72% 37.11% 53.98% 64.58% 70.95% 76.21% 79.86% 82.38% 84.43% 86.21% 88.10% 89.00% 90.18% 91.00% 91.53% 92.85% 93.63% 94.23% 94.76% 94.97% 100%

table 5.5 Price frequency and revenue distribution. Edward Bysshe Sale, 1679

Class intervals Frequency Relative (shillings) frequency

Cumulative Cumulative frequency relative frequency

≥ 0 but < 1 ≥ 1 but < 2 ≥ 2 but < 3 ≥ 3 but < 4

45 379 782 1062

45 334 403 280

2.10% 15.61% 18.84% 13.09%

2.10% 17.72% 36.56% 49.65%

0% 3% 6% 6%

0% 3% 10% 16%

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table 5.5 Price frequency and revenue distribution. Edward Bysshe Sale, 1679 (cont.)

Class intervals Frequency Relative (shillings) frequency

Cumulative Cumulative frequency relative frequency

Gross revenue

Cumulative gross revenue

≥ 4 but < 5 ≥ 5 but < 6 ≥ 6 but < 7 ≥ 7 but < 8 ≥ 8 but < 9 ≥ 9 but < 10 ≥ 10 but < 11 ≥ 11 but < 12 ≥ 12 but < 13 ≥ 13 but < 14 ≥ 14 but < 15 ≥ 15 but < 16 ≥ 16 but < 17 ≥ 17 but < 18 ≥ 18 but < 19 ≥ 19 but < 20 > 20

1272 1450 1567 1652 1711 1765 1827 1854 1889 1915 1935 1955 1976 1986 2000 2003 2139

6% 6% 5% 4% 3% 3% 4% 2% 3% 2% 2% 2% 2% 1% 2% 0% 36%

22% 28% 33% 37% 40% 44% 48% 50% 53% 55% 57% 59% 61% 62% 64% 64% 100%

210 178 117 85 59 54 62 27 35 26 20 20 21 10 14 3 136

9.82% 8.32% 5.47% 3.97% 2.76% 2.52% 2.90% 1.26% 1.64% 1.22% 0.94% 0.94% 0.98% 0.47% 0.65% 0.14% 6.36%

59.47% 67.79% 73.26% 77.23% 79.99% 82.52% 85.41% 86.68% 88.31% 89.53% 90.46% 91.40% 92.38% 92.85% 93.50% 93.64% 100%

table 5.6 Price frequency and revenue distribution. Kenelm and George Digby Sale, 1680

Class intervals Frequency Relative (shillings) frequency

Cumulative Cumulative frequency relative frequency

≥ 0 but < 1 ≥ 1 but < 2 ≥ 2 but < 3 ≥ 3 but < 4 ≥ 4 but < 5 ≥ 5 but < 6 ≥ 6 but < 7 ≥ 7 but < 8

416 1095 1563 1886 2064 2206 2304 2374

416 679 468 323 178 142 98 70

14.67% 23.95% 16.51% 11.39% 6.28% 5.01% 3.46% 2.47%

14.67% 38.62% 55.13% 66.53% 72.80% 77.81% 81.27% 83.74%

Gross revenue

2% 6% 7% 7% 5% 5% 4% 3%

Cumulative gross revenue 2% 7% 14% 21% 26% 30% 34% 37%

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table 5.6 Price frequency and revenue distribution. Kenelm and George Digby Sale, 1680 (cont.)

Class intervals Frequency Relative (shillings) frequency

Cumulative Cumulative frequency relative frequency

Gross revenue

Cumulative gross revenue

≥ 8 but < 9 ≥ 9 but < 10 ≥ 10 but < 11 ≥ 11 but < 12 ≥ 12 but < 13 ≥ 13 but < 14 ≥ 14 but < 15 ≥ 15 but < 16 ≥ 16 but < 17 ≥ 17 but < 18 ≥ 18 but < 19 ≥ 19 but < 20 > 20

2433 2465 2524 2553 2593 2614 2629 2663 2671 2680 2692 2699 2835

3% 2% 4% 2% 3% 2% 1% 3% 1% 1% 1% 1% 38%

40% 42% 46% 48% 51% 53% 54% 58% 58% 59% 61% 62% 100%

59 32 59 29 40 21 15 34 8 9 12 7 136

2.08% 1.13% 2.08% 1.02% 1.41% 0.74% 0.53% 1.20% 0.28% 0.32% 0.42% 0.25% 4.80%

85.82% 86.95% 89.03% 90.05% 91.46% 92.20% 92.73% 93.93% 94.22% 94.53% 94.96% 95.20% 100%

chapter 6

How to Sell Left-Over Stock? Lessons from Mattheus van Nispen’s Book Sale Catalogue of 1681 Marieke van Egeraat Book sales catalogues are in vogue nowadays. Major projects, like the MEDIATE-project at Radboud University Nijmegen and the Universal ShortTitle Catalogue (USTC) at the University of St Andrews, use book sales catalogues to answer new research questions.1 These catalogues are digitalised in large databases which give access to new and unexplored fields of research. These catalogues prove to be useful and interesting sources to analyse the consumption or the production of books. But just like any other source, book sales catalogues also have their own specific set of problems. For example, they can hardly say anything definitive on actual readership and they often neglect books in smaller formats and topical works, since these works were not profitable enough to include in the catalogue in detail.2 In this paper, I will focus on a third problem of book sales catalogues: to whom did the books in the catalogue belong? As Cis van Heertum recently noted in her work on the 1673 book sales catalogue of the Dutch philosopher Johannes Koerbagh: There is, of course, no absolute certainty that what was offered in the catalogue was also on Koerbagh’s shelves…. Although by a guild rule of 1639 it was expressly forbidden to ‘adulterate’ auction catalogues with 1 For the MEDIATE-project, see: http://mediate18.nl/. Project leader Alicia Montoya reflects upon her project in: Alicia C. Montoya, ‘Middlebrow, religion, and the European Enlightenment. A new bibliometric project, MEDIATE (1665–1820)’, French History and Civilization, 7 (2017), pp. 66–79. For an explanation on how the USTC uses auction catalogues, see: Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen, ‘What was published in the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic?’, Livre  – Revue historique, 1 (2018), pp. 1–22, here pp. 13–15. 2 Alicia C. Montoya, ‘French and English women writers in Dutch library (auction) catalogues, 1700–1800. Some methodological considerations and preliminary results’, in Suzan van Dijk (ed.), ‘I have heard about you’. Foreign women’s writing crossing the Dutch border: from Sappho to Selma Lagerlöf (Hilversum: Verloren, 2004), pp. 182–216; here p. 212.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2021 | doi:10.1163/9789004422247_007

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books from stock or from third parties, booksellers regularly disregarded this injunction.3 Michael Suarez calls this the ‘salting’ of book sale catalogues and he argues that ‘the judicious scholar working in this period must generally assume, unless there exists evidence to the contrary, that the inventories of books sold at auction have been salted’.4 Especially when considering an individual library, this is a problematic issue, since ‘it is often virtually impossible to know which books belonged to the original owner and which were added by the bookseller’.5 Pierre Delsaerdt showed, for example, that the auction catalogues issued by the Louvain bookseller Joannes Franciscus van Overbeke were often marketed under the name of one illustrious university member, but in fact consisted mostly of books from other collections.6 Until quite recently, this practice was hardly taken into account. The auction catalogues of individual libraries were taken at face value without considering the possibility that a catalogue had been salted.7 But also when compiling a database of dozens of catalogues of individual libraries to study consumption, the question whether or not the books in the catalogues were actually in the possession of their presumed owners is relevant.8 The books added by the bookseller can alter the characteristics of the database profoundly. It is difficult, however, to examine these practices.9 The compilers of the catalogues did not want to be accused of including their own stock, since this

3 Cis van Heertum, ‘Reading the career of Johannes Koerbagh: The auction catalogue of his library as a reflection of his life’, Lias, 38 (2011), pp. 1–57, here p. 16. 4 Michael F. Suarez, ‘English book sale catalogues as bibliographical evidence: Methodological considerations illustrated by a case study in the provenance and distribution of Dodsley’s Collection of poems, 1750–1795’, The Library, 21 (1999), pp. 321–360; here p. 330. 5 Suarez, ‘English book sale catalogues’, p. 327. 6 Pierre Delsaerdt, Suam quisque bibliothecam. Boekhandel en particulier boekenbezit aan de oude Leuvense universiteit 16de–18de eeuw (Leuven: Universitaire Pers, 2001), pp. 213–222. 7 The problem of salting is for example not dealt with in the following review essay on library catalogues (including auction catalogues): Hugh Amory, ‘Desire, knowledge, status: The library as index, or, “Habe nun, ach! Bibliographie durchaus studiert”’, Bibliographical Society of America, 85 (1991), pp. 423–431. 8 Alicia Montoya dealt with this problem by excluding stock catalogues and private catalogues that were suspected of including bookseller stock: Montoya, ‘French and English women writers’, p. 184. 9 Suarez, ‘English book sale catalogues’, pp. 327, 332.

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was often illegal.10 They would have made sure that their own books did not stand out among the works of the estate. According to Suarez, we have to look out for ‘a change or inconsistency in the organization of the catalogue’.11 Still, it remains difficult to determine exactly whether a catalogue has been salted or not. Sometimes, however, historians are in luck. In this paper, a catalogue will be put centre stage in which the compiler had to make clear which books belonged to him and which belonged to the estate. Why he had to do this is up for debate, but the catalogue can certainly shed light on the differences between books of the bookseller and the estate and on the wider question of why booksellers engaged in this practice. This paper will first focus on the bookseller himself, Mattheus van Nispen, and the context in which he worked. After that, the contents of the specific catalogue will be discussed, especially the alterations in the characteristics of the catalogue caused by the books he added to the sale. Lastly, I will focus on yet another interesting aspect of this specific catalogue, namely the titles that were retained by the children of the deceased. This touches upon another problem of book sales catalogues already alluded to, namely the actual readership.

A Bookshop in Dordrecht: Choosing Your Specialisation

Mattheus van Nispen was a bookseller and land surveyor. There are a variety of sources that tell us about his varied life, not least his own published works on land surveying, some books he printed in his bookshop and a number of manuscript sketches of the lands he surveyed. There is however one more source that is indispensable if we want to know more about the life of this man: he wrote his memoirs at the admirable age of 92.12 Six years later, in 1727, he died. These memoirs mostly deal with births and deaths in his family, but also reveal something about his profession as a bookseller. The difficulty with this source is that it was copied in the nineteenth century, while the original piece has likely been lost. The text does seem to be genuine, although one can imagine that the copier might have left out some details. Luckily, the text as it is still

10 From 1680 onwards, regulations on selling one’s own stock might have diminished, but the number of complaints from other booksellers was still high: Hannie van Goinga, Alom te bekomen. Veranderingen in de boekdistributie in de Republiek 1720–1800 (Amsterdam: De Buitenkant, 1999), p. 186. 11 Suarez, ‘English book sale catalogues’, p. 332. 12 Gelders Archief (GA), 3027, Familie Van Nispen, 1135, Afschrift van het dagboek van Mattheus van Nispen (1629–1727), afkomstig uit Dordrecht, z.j.

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gives us valuable personal information on Van Nispen. When we add other sources to this, a clear picture of the life of Van Nispen arises. Van Nispen was born on 6 January 1629 as the fifth son of Marcus Cornelis van Nispen and Hendriken Jans. In 1657, he married Maria van der Eyk and together they had four children, of whom three survived into adulthood. In 1660 he received official approval from the Court of Holland to be a land surveyor.13 This became his main job and, in this function, he undertook many surveys of land in the province of Holland. That this occupation was indeed his focus point is also confirmed by his publication in 1662 of De Beknopte Land-Meet-Konst (The concise art of surveying). In this work, he updated an older work in the field. It proved to be popular, with at least five reprints in 82 years. It is likely that Van Nispen also educated others on the art of surveying, since he mentioned in his De Beknopte Land-Meet-Konst that he would use this book for lessons as well.14 Alongside his work as a teacher and land surveyor, Van Nispen also opened a bookshop in his hometown Dordrecht. From 1654 onwards, he sold books at ‘the corner of the Nieuwbrugh in The Sundial’. In his memoirs, he proudly mentioned that this was also the shop where his father used to work as a tailor’s servant. It is interesting that he noted down the beginning of his career as a bookseller in his memoirs, but his profession as a land surveyor is never mentioned. And yet, his services for the States of Holland must have been a more secure source of income than the irregular sale of books in his own bookshop, especially considering that in 1668 he was selected as official land surveyor for the Court of Audit of Holland.15 There is one place where he talked about his love for measuring the earth. He ended his memoirs with a poem, in which he wrote: … maar hemelmeet, En aard en zee en zon en maan, Een sterrenloop wel te verstaan, Daar nam ik groot genoegen in….

13

This information is not in the memoirs, but noted down by Th. W. Harmsen, De Beknopte Lant-Meet-Konst: beschrijving van het leven en werk van de Dordtse landmeter Mattheus van Nispen (Delft: Delftse Universitaire Pers, 1978), p. 1. 14 ‘De reden die mijn bewogen heeft sulcx aen te vangen, is  … om dat ick verscheyde Leerlingen hebbe gehadt, en noch hebbe’. Mattheus van Nispen, De Beknopte Lant-Meet-Konst (Dordrecht: Van Nispen, 1662). 15 Harmsen, De Beknopte Lant-Meet-Konst, p. 1.

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But heaven’s measure, and earth and sea and sun and moon, and the course of the stars to understand, that is what gave me most delight. But this love for the art of surveying is only mentioned as a hobby, not as his profession. This is all the more surprising, since he wrote his memoirs for his offspring in order for them to know the lives of their parents and grandparents. Since his son-in-law, grandson and great-grandson all followed him in his profession as a land surveyor and as a bookseller, it would have made sense to also mention his career as a land surveyor.16 Instead, we only find a reference to his work as a bookseller. Van Nispen had some stiff competition in the book market in the oldest city of Holland and his shop was certainly not the most successful. There were at least thirty-eight other bookshops in Dordrecht in the second half of the seventeenth century.17 In a historiographical overview of the book industry in Dordrecht in this period, Van Nispen is not even mentioned.18 It is clear that he had to establish himself in an already crowded market. In order to stand out, Van Nispen had to make sure that he had his own specialisation. He chose one that was close to his own profession: his publications focus mainly on land surveying and mathematics. At least ten of the twenty-three works of Van Nispen in the Short-Title Catalogue Netherlands belong to this categorisation.19 He also added state publications to his regular output. As in other cities, the booksellers in Dordrecht held auctions.20 The Book Sales Catalogue Online shows that in the period 1650–1699, booksellers in Dordrecht organised at least twelve auctions. The bookseller family Goris was most active with five auctions, followed by Cornelis Willegaert with four. Van Nispen participated in these auctions as well. In the two book sales 16 Ibid, pp. 133–134. 17 Based on the data in J.A. Gruys and Jan Bos (eds.), Adresboek Nederlandse drukkers en boekverkopers tot 1700 (Den Haag: Koninklijke Bibliotheek 1999). 18 Jan Alleblas, ‘Gedrukt in Dordrecht: de boekenbranche’, in Willem Frijhoff, Hubert Nusteling and Marijke Spies (eds.), Geschiedenis van Dordrecht van 1572 tot 1813 (Hilversum: Verloren, 1998), pp. 326–340. He is mentioned as a bookseller in a nineteenth-century overview, see: Regionaal Archief Dordrecht, 150, collectie van handschriften, 1183, Naamlijst van boekdrukkers en boekverkopers te Dordrecht van de 16e tot in de 19e eeuw, door P.M. Beelaerts. 19 This data is extracted from the Short Title Catalogue Netherlands (STCN). 20 Book auctions in Dordrecht started in 1623: Bert van Selm, Een menighte treffelijcke boecken. Nederlandse boekhandelscatalogi in het begin van de zeventiende eeuw (Utrecht: Hes & De Graaf, 1987), p. 38.

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figure 6.1 The title-pages of the 1670 catalogue and the 1681 catalogue

catalogues with Van Nispen’s name on them, his specialisation is well represented. The first catalogue dates from 1670. It is an anonymous catalogue which, according to the title-page, focussed on books in the English language, works on the art of siege warfare, paintings, and music books.21 It also included a list of mathematical instruments and manuscripts on mathematics. The catalogue of 1681 is even more clearly related to Van Nispen’s own occupation. The final section in this catalogue again listed ‘geometrical and mathematical instruments’, including a T-square and a ‘quadraet-stock’ (a stick to measure the depth of a barrel). His own work, De Beknopte Land-Meet-Kunst, was also up for auction. Could the books and instruments have belonged to colleagues? This might explain why the auction was held at Van Nispen’s shop. The close ties between the families would have made sure that Van Nispen was chosen as the auctioneer. Unfortunately, both catalogues are anonymous which makes it impossible to answer this question with certainty. This last catalogue is the focus of this paper and therefore deserves some further contextualisation. It was printed in 1681 and the auction would take place in the house of Van Nispen himself on Tuesday 16 September 1681. It was an anonymous catalogue, but it can be assumed that (most of) the works belonged to one estate. It includes 938 works in 876 lot numbers (mathematical 21 Mattheus van Nispen, Catalogus van treffelijcke boecken (Dordrecht: Van Nispen, 1670). Wolfenbüttel, HAB: Be Kapsel 13:10.

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figure 6.2 Manuscript notes by Mattheus van Nispen in his book sales catalogue of 1681. Bijzondere Collecties van de Universiteit van Amsterdam, OTM: O 06-7099

instruments not included). The works are divided by size. The different languages in which the books were published are indicated by the typefaces used. Van Nispen added details like place and year of publication mainly for the larger formats and even in this respect he is not very consistent. All in all, this catalogue would not have been especially interesting or outstanding, were it not for the handwritten notes (Figure 6.2) by Van Nispen on the sole surviving copy. Let us turn therefore to the content of this ordinary, and at the same time, exceptional catalogue.

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What to do with Left-Over Stock?

On the reverse of the catalogue’s title-page, Van Nispen entered the following handwritten note: Na verdagt te sijn dat in dese gedruckte catalogus Boecken staen, die niet tot den boedel behooren, maer door andere hier v[er]cogt zijn om de laste vande onkosten der vercoopinge te v[er]lichten, gelijck dickmael in sucken regart geschiet, maer alle die voorhooffs met een streepken get[ekend] staen behooren tot den boedel, en zijn vercoght tot soodanigen prijs als de Erffhuyscedull behelst waervan den staet hiernevens wort overgelevert. M. van Nispen

After suspicion that in this printed catalogue books are included, that do not belong to the estate, but are sold by others to ease the charge of the expenses of the sale, as happens often in such cases, [it is certified that] all that are signed in front with a dash belong to the estate and are sold for such a price as the erfhuiscedel states, of which the condition is stated hereafter. M. van Nispen

A couple of things stand out in this note. First of all, including books not belonging to the estate would ‘ease the expense of the sale’, because the bookseller would receive the whole profit from the sale of his own books, rather than just a commission due for on the sale of the library.22 Secondly, to do this was, according to Van Nispen, common practice among booksellers. Lastly, although the catalogue itself does not contain any price lists, the text indicates that there was a record of the sale. It remains unclear if this was a list made before the auction specifying a reserve price or if the final bid was noted down

22

Suarez sees this as the number one reason to add books to a catalogue: ‘Having gone to the expense of advertising the sale, compiling, printing, and distributing the catalogue, renting a room large enough to accommodate the buyers and the books, and moving the stock, the auctioneer would quite naturally wish to sell as many volumes as possible in order, first, to regain his capital investment, and then to make a profit. Within certain limits, an auctioneer would make more money on each individual lot if he could distribute these costs over as many lots as practicably possible’. Suarez, ‘English book sale catalogues’, p. 328.

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in this ‘erfhuiscedel’.23 This was probably a document containing all the goods, not only books, that were up for sale from an estate.24 The practice of adding books to a catalogue was widespread according to Van Nispen. Why then would Van Nispen add the information on provenance of the books to the already printed catalogue? There are at least two possible explanations. First, the guild of booksellers in Dordrecht could have kept a close eye on the auctioning of books from the bookseller’s own inventory. If Van Nispen violated these rules, he could have been summoned to alter the catalogue before the auction or he had to account for his actions afterwards with a more detailed catalogue. Since the notes are written in a past tense, this last option seems likely. In other cities, this was already a tested procedure. The booksellers’ guild of Leiden, for example, forbade the selling off of one’s own stock during a public auction of an estate as early as 1636.25 In Amsterdam as well the auctions were regulated and adding booksellers’ stock was forbidden. Still, the guild received many complaints. Apparently, booksellers did not always obey the rules.26 In 1674, the ‘book and paper sellers and book printers’ of Dordrecht came together to form a ‘confrèrie’.27 On 5 April 1674, their regulations (signed by Van Nispen as well) were approved by the court of Dordrecht.28 There is, however, nothing in the rules that explicitly restricted the selling of new books in an auction. It would have been odd if Van Nispen broke his own rules. If Van Nispen wanted to fool the guild and break (unwritten) rules, he would not have hidden it in plain sight. The books added by Van Nispen were all placed under a new heading (i.e. ‘also in folio’).29 Although this did not say anything about prove23 On fixed price catalogues, see: Suarez, ‘English book sale catalogues’, p. 330. 24 For more information on the two words making up the word ‘Erfhuiscedel’, see: ‘Erfhuis’, http://gtb.inl.nl/iWDB/search?wdb=WNT&actie=article&uitvoer=HTML&id= M016041 and ‘Cedel’, http://gtb.inl.nl/iWDB/search?wdb=WNT&actie=article&uitvoer= HTML&id=M012586. 25 Laura Cruz, ‘The secrets of success: Microinventions and bookselling in the seventeenth-century Netherlands’, Book History, 10 (2007), pp. 1–28, here p. 16. 26 Otto S. Lankhorst, ‘Dutch Book Auctions in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries’, in R. Myers, M. Harris and G. Mandelbrote (eds.), Under the Hammer: Book Auctions since the Seventeenth Century (London: British Library, 2001), pp. 65–87, here pp. 72–73. 27 A confrèrie was similar to a guild, but without the political associations: Alleblas, ‘Gedrukt in Dordrecht’, p. 330. 28 Regionaal Archief Dordrecht, 9, Gerecht van Dordrecht, 106, Rekestboek 1673–1674, folio 95vs–101r. 29 In Dutch: ‘Noch in Folio’. This would be a typical thing to look out for according to Suarez. The inconsistency in the catalogue points to the adding of own stock. Suarez, ‘English book sale catalogues’, p. 332.

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nance, it was still pretty obvious that something was going on with the books under the new heading. A second possibility is that the family of the deceased did not want the works of Van Nispen in a catalogue devoted to the books of their parent. It is, however, peculiar that the title of the catalogue did not imply that the books were sold from one estate and yet, Van Nispen was forced to make this clear. Since, as we will see, the children also requested some books back, it is certainly possible that they were the ones that demanded the careful annotation of the books of their inheritance and the books of Van Nispen. After all, a book sales catalogue was not only a list of books that were sold: it also reflected upon the character of the deceased. Although this catalogue was anonymous, the children or other relatives could still be worried about the image that was portrayed by the books in the catalogue.30 They therefore wanted to make clear which books belonged to their estate and which did not. And indeed, if this was the case, the relatives were right in one thing: from the graphs below (Figure 6.3), it becomes clear that the books of Van Nispen significantly modified the overall character of the catalogue. Latin was predominant in both the estate and Van Nispen’s titles, but the books added by Van Nispen made sure that Dutch was the second language in the catalogue, while the estate contained more books published in French. The picture becomes even more distorted when looking at English works. Where only 1% of its titles from the estate were English, the books of Van Nispen contain over 10% of English titles. The estate includes only three English books: an English-French grammar, a collection of rarities of London’s first public museum (Musaum Tradescantianum), and a publication on merchandise prices. They are all in octavo format and included in the catalogue without any further details. The English works in Van Nispen’s part show completely different characteristics. These works (thirty in total) range from folio to duodecimo formats and are better described than the estate’s. For twenty lot numbers the author is given and the three folio works include a date and place of publication. Most noticeable is the difference in content. In contrast to the estate, the English publications in Van Nispen’s part of the catalogue are largely religious works. The other auction catalogue of Van Nispen, published in 1670, contains many works in English as well. A count shows us that of the 108 lot numbers in folio format, 82 are in English. Even more striking is the fact that English works in the 1681 catalogue also appear in the 1670 catalogue. Lot number 33 of the ‘Also in Folio’ section of the 1681 catalogue is described as follows: 30

Van Selm, Een menighte treffelijcke Boecken, p. 97.

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Percentage language

(Total = 916, Estate = 654, Mattheus van Nispen = 262) 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%

Latin

Dutch Total

Estate

French

English

Mattheus van Nispen

Percentage format

60%

(Total = 916, Estate = 654, Mattheus van Nispen = 262)

50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%

Folio

Quarto Total

figure 6.3a–b

Estate

Octavo

Duodecimo

Mattheus van Nispen

Languages and formats of the books in the book sales catalogue of Mattheus van Nispen, 1681

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33. The Dyet of 2 Diseasad, by Ia. Hart. Lond. 1633. In the 1670 catalogue, we find this lot number in the folio section: 76. The diet of the diseased, by Ja. Hart. Lond. 1633. The same is true for lot number 32 in the same section of the 1681 catalogue. It reads: 32. Riverius Practice of Phisick. Lond. 1655. In the 1670 catalogue, the following work appears in the folio section: 77. The practice of Physick by Laz. Riverius, Nic. Culpeper, and others. Lond. 1655. Are we dealing here with the same books? Is it possible that Van Nispen did not sell these works in his first auction and included them in his second eleven years later in hopes of getting rid of it this time? Or did he buy multiple copies of the same work and included different copies in the two auctions?31 Whatever is the case, it is interesting that the same two works appear in both catalogues. It might be a hint that Van Nispen also included books of his own in the 1670 catalogue, but in that case, he was not forced to clarify which books belonged to him and which to the estate. Unfortunately, the other book descriptions in the 1681 catalogue can either not be matched to the lot numbers in the 1670 catalogue or are not detailed enough for such a comparison. The format features of the 1681 catalogue changed as well with the adding of Van Nispen’s books, although somewhat less dramatically than language. It is clear that Van Nispen tried to auction off his larger formats. The number of folios and quartos is relatively high compared to the books from the estate. The estate, on the other hand, included more books in smaller formats, mainly octavo and duodecimo. Although it is only mentioned for 141 of the 938 books (15%), the year of publication is also interesting to look at when it comes to the difference between the two parts of the catalogue (Figure 6.4). In both parts, the percentage of books with the year of publication is low: in Van Nispen’s part 34 of 262 31

Bert van Selm acknowledges both the adding of the bookseller’s stock or left-over material from a previous auction as common practice in salting the catalogues. Van Selm, Een menighte treffelijcke Boecken, p. 95.

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Year of publica�on, estate (total = 107) 35% 30% 25% 20% 15%

15 13

15

16 12

10% 5% 0%

8

8

8

1650 1659

1660 1669

9

3

1518 1549

1550 1599

1600 1609

1610 1619

1620 1629

1630 1639

1640 1649

1670 1679

Year of publica�on, Van Nispen (total = 34) 35%

11

30% 25% 20% 15%

4 3

10% 5% 0%

6

5

1

3

1 0

1518 1549

figure 6.4a–b

1550 1599

1600 1609

1610 1619

1620 1629

1630 1639

1640 1649

0 1650 1659

1660 1669

1670 1679

Year of publication of the books in the book sales catalogue of Mattheus van Nispen, 1681

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Subjects of the books added by Van Nispen, divided by format. 100% 90% 80% 70%

1 3

13 22 9 9 12 10

1

3

2

2

2

8

8

7

10

3 1

1

4 2

8 1

60%

7 1

50% 40% 30%

72 187

25

Total (262)

Folio (36)

47

43

20% 10% 0%

Quarto (85)

Octavo (77)

Duodecimo (64)

Bible & religious works

Topical/polemics

Language

Plays/Poems/Literature

Law/Medical

Rhetorics/History/Philosophy

Unknown

figure 6.5 Subjects of the books added by Van Nispen, divided by format

publications are dated (13%) and the estate includes 107 dated works out of 676 (16%). In the graphs above it becomes clear that the books are not evenly spread throughout the decades. Compared to the estate, Van Nispen’s section contains a lot of works from the period before 1600. The estate, on the other hand, has a more contemporary feel. The two parts of the catalogue also differ completely in their preferences for authors. Where Van Nispen chose Calvin (eight works) and Willem Teellinck (nine works) as his favoured authors, in the estate Hugo Grotius (nine works), Descartes (eight works) and Calvin (eight works) compete for the number one position. Calvin and Teellinck were both theologians, whereas Grotius and Descartes wrote a varied range of scholarly works. This seems to be a trend in the overall catalogue: books added by Van Nispen have a more theological nature, whereas the titles from the estate focus more on contemporary scholars. The content of the estate in general is more diverse with genres ranging from contemporary literature (like the poems of Jacob Cats) to classical rhetorical works (such as Cicero’s speeches). The books added by Van Nispen, on the other hand, can mostly be categorised as Biblical texts and religious treatises. The graph above (Figure 6.5) shows the character of the books added Van Nispen in more detail. Bibles and religious books dominate. In every

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figure 6.6 Frontispieces of The True Convert (USTC 3015993) and De ware sondaar by Nehemia Rogers

format, these make up more than sixty percent of the total. There is however a marked difference between the larger formats (folio and quarto) and the smaller formats (octavo and duodecimo), not only in the percentage of religious books, but also in the number of different subjects. Especially in the octavo format, there is a wide variety with works belonging to all the different categories. Within the most prominent category, the religious books, there is one striking detail: many of the works added by Van Nispen were written by English Reformed ministers. Names like John Preston, the Anglican minister, and William Couper, the Scottish bishop, frequently show up in the catalogue. They appear in English as well as in Dutch and sometimes even in both, as is the case with the work The true convert (first published in 1632) of Nehemia Rogers. The Dutch translation, De ware bekeerde sondaar (first published in 1659), also appears in the works added by Van Nispen (Figure 6.6). If the relatives had been concerned by the extent to which the catalogue no longer faithfully reflected the character of the collection of their deceased relative, they had good reason to ask for a revision of the catalogue. But why did Van Nispen choose to include these books in the first place? As I have made clear above, his own specialisation was in mathematics. Yet, this is not reflected in the works included by him in the catalogue. How can this be explained? I would suggest that he tried to sell off left-over stock. The fact that two works also appeared in the 1670 catalogue also points in this direction. People did not go to Van Nispen’s bookshop to buy religious works. They went there for works that they could not find in the bookshops of the more successful booksellers

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in Dordrecht. With the excitement of an auction, Van Nispen might have been able to get rid of books that would otherwise have been collecting dust. Income could also have been a leading motive in Van Nispen’s actions. In general, booksellers received a commission of 5–10% of the sums raised by an auction.32 But Van Nispen would retain all of the sums paid for books from his own stock. More than a quarter of the books up for auction (262 out of 938) were added by Van Nispen. This caused the overall takings from the auction to be higher and, therefore, also Van Nispen’s revenue. As he himself noted in the catalogue, he included his own stock in order ‘to ease the charge of the expenses of the sale’.

Requesting Books Back

After the handwritten notes on the ownership of the books, Van Nispen also wrote this line: Nota alle die ge[tekend] staen voorhooffs zijn vercogt, maerde ongeteekende voor de kinderen uijtgehouden. Note, all that are signed in front are sold, but the unsigned are left out for the children. Apparently, the children of the deceased made a decision at the last moment to keep some of the books owned by their parent. Van Nispen carefully noted down which books were saved for the children, so that there would not be any confusion about their whereabouts. The fact that these works were kept out of the auction for the children suggests that they meant something to them. They probably had some use in mind for these works, whether this was of a memorial or practical nature. Although it is still not certain that the children read these books, it does give them a different status from the hundreds of other books that were auctioned off. All of the works retained by the family were written in Latin. Some of the books included several languages, such as the Nomenclator of Junius which was written in no less than eight, but even then, Latin is probably most important. The auctioning of hundreds of books already proves that we are dealing with a well-to-do family, so it is no surprise that the children could speak Latin. They probably studied at the Latin school in Dordrecht where they had used 32

Van Selm, Een menighte treffelijcke Boecken, pp. 47–48.

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table 6.1 Books saved for the children in the book sales catalogue of Mattheus van Nispen, 1681

Author

Title

Plutarch Cicero Livy

Opera Opera [Opera] cum notis Gruteri [Opera] [Opera] cum notis variorum [Opera] cum notis Taubmanni [Opera] Lambini De Statu Religionis Nomenclator octo linguarum [Opera]

2 2 2

Latin Latin Latin

Paris 1624 Hamburg 1618 Paris 1625

2 2

Latin Latin

Frankfurt 1608 Geneva 1628

4

Latin

1618

4 8 8

Latin Latin Latin

1605

8

Latin

[Opera]

8

Latin

Orationes P. Freigium 8 [Opera] 8 Colloquia 12 Institutiones 12 [Opera] 12

Latin Latin Latin Latin Latin

Epigrammata Laus Asini De Constantia [Opera] Epigrammata

Latin Latin Latin Latin Latin

Herodotus Seneca Virgil Horace Sleidanus Junius Alexander ab Alexandros Catullus, Tibullus, Propertius Cicero Suetonius Erasmus Justinian Horace, Catullus, Tibullus, Propertius Clement Marot Lipsius Boethius Owen

Format Language Printing place

12 12 12 12 12

Printing year

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the ‘Diverse Packetten met Latijnse Schoolboecken’ (multiple packets with Latin school books) which were also in the auction catalogue. Were the heirs keeping these books for the use of their own children?33 The nineteenth-century scholar Gillis Schotel wrote specifically about the Latin school in Dordrecht and the books used in the different classes. In the lowest classes, Latin was taught using some basic grammar books. Next to these, the students also started to learn by heart the Colloquia of Erasmus, which is included in the list of books retained.34 In higher classes, Schotel notes that students used among others the Nomenclator of Junius, the works of Cicero and Virgil and later on also the works of Livy and Horace to further enhance their knowledge of Latin.35 All these works appear on our list. In higher classes, Greek was also part of the curriculum for which bilingual works in Latin and Greek were useful tools. The works in the list by Plutarch and Herodotus belonged to this category and could be used to learn Greek. These classics were all used for teaching, but what about the other works that were kept behind for the children? Apart from Erasmus and Junius, the only authors not from classical antiquity were Lipsius, Boethius, Sleidanus, Clement Marot, and John Owen. The first two are both philosophers and were frequently used in philosophy classes. Sleidanus, on the other hand, was a historian. His work De statu religionis dealt with the history of the Reformation. Again, it is very well possible that this work was used in history classes in the Dutch Republic, since especially the Reformation was one of the key foundations of the Dutch state. That leaves us with the works of Clement Marot and John Owen. Both books carried the title Epigrammata and this was exactly what they were: books containing short witty poems known as epigrams. All in all, it seems likely that these works were mostly saved for educational purposes. When the students had learned their basic Latin grammar, they went on to the Roman classics to further enhance their language skills. Greek was added to the curriculum in a later stage and learned with the help of classical Greek works provided in Greek with Latin translations. For specific subjects, the children could use the works on philosophy, history and maybe even the epigrams. Next to this educational purpose, almost all of the works could also have an entertaining function, since the content of these works consisted of 33

On the importance of Latin for education in the Netherlands, see: P.N.M. Bot, Humanisme en onderwijs in Nederland (Utrecht: Spectrum, 1955), see especially chapters 4 and 5. Dirk van Miert, Illuster onderwijs. Het Amsterdamse Athenaeum in de Gouden Eeuw, 1632–1704 (Hilversum: Verloren, 2005), pp. 149–154. 34 G.D.J. Schotel, De illustre school te Dordrecht (Utrecht: Kemink en zoon, 1857), p. 67. 35 Ibid, pp. 68–69.

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historical stories (Herodotus and Plutarch), ardent speeches (Cicero) and even witty poems (Clement Marot and John Owen).

Concluding Remarks

The practice of book auctions was widespread in the Dutch Republic. Dordrecht was no exception in the long list of cities where auctions were held. It is therefore not surprising to see that Mattheus van Nispen also participated in these events. His auction catalogues in themselves were not exceptional nor very interesting, as they were anonymous and often not very detailed. However, the catalogue of 1681 stands out because of the handwritten notes by Van Nispen. This makes this catalogue an excellent starting point for a reflection on the tendency of booksellers to introduce works from their own stock into the sale. Van Nispen’s share of the books accounted for more than a quarter of the total catalogue. With these books, he substantially altered the character of the catalogue, not least in the introduction of so much pious literature. This stock from his bookshop deviates quite markedly from the specialisation Van Nispen chose for his printing business, namely a focus on mathematics and land surveying. A possible conclusion might be that Van Nispen tried to sell left-over stock. After all, people in Dordrecht had plenty to choose in a city with over thirty bookshops. Van Nispen stood out because of his mathematics, but not because of his religious works. Buyers probably went to other bookshops for these. This resulted in a pile of books that Van Nispen could not sell. He therefore included this stock in the catalogue. He hoped to profit from the excitement of the auction and to get rid of books that were taking up space in his bookshop. Van Nispen did not succeed in silently including his own works, since he later had to annotate which books belonged to the estate and which he had added. The reason for this remains unclear, but could have had everything to do with the wishes of the children of the deceased. After they requested some books back from the catalogue, they could have been bothered by the alterations to the characteristics of the catalogue. The works no longer properly reflected the interests of their parent and, therefore, they asked Van Nispen to make clear the provenance of the books.

part 2 Personal Libraries

∵

chapter 7

Building a Library in the Dutch Golden Age: André Rivet and His Books Forrest C. Strickland On 2 January 1651, André Rivet lay dying. On Christmas day, he had given his last sermon. He had amended and finalized his will, his son had been summoned from The Hague and his doctors were resigned to the inevitable. Marie du Moulin, his niece, remained by his side to record his last hours and comfort him as best as possible. Rivet only had to write two final letters – one to his brother, the other to his brother-in-law – and fulfil his final pledge: the aged theologian had promised to give Marie a Bible. That final Monday, he had enough strength to make the journey from his bedroom to his library. Going ‘into his study,’ his ‘shaking and dying hand’ pulled four books from his shelves: the promised Bible for his niece, an Arabic New Testament for Monsieur Dauber, a book for Monsieur Hulsius and one for his brother in Champvernon, France.1 This was the last time Rivet visited his study. His book collection had arrived at his final home in Breda with difficulty. On 24 October 1646, the theologian wrote to his friend and colleague Constantijn Huygens (1596–1687). Rivet had just been offered the position of Principal of the Illustrious school of Breda. Rivet approved of the house the Stadtholder offered him. It had a large garden and much needed space. He did not trouble his friend with details of how inconvenient his sprawling book collection could be when moving. The ninety-kilometre journey from The Hague to Breda required much effort. A brief reminder of his plight was enough. ‘I am pained by the transportation and changing of my library,’ Rivet wrote. ‘I am burdened by over eight-hundred folios. By proportion, you can judge the 4o, 8o, 12mo, 16o.’2 Amongst the formats of books, folios were less common than quartos and especially octavos. If Rivet owned eight hundred folios, Huygens could assume Rivet’s book collection was indeed massive. 1 Marie du Moulin, The Last Houers, of the Right Reverend Father in God Andrew Rivet, trans. G.L. (The Hague: Samuel Brown, 1652), pp. 41–44. 2 ‘Je suis en peine du transport et changement de la mienne, me trouant charge de plus de huit cents volumes in folio, d’ ou par proportion vous pouvez juger des 4, 8, 12 et 16.’ Rivet to Constantijn Huygens, 24 October 1646, in J.A. Worp (ed.), De Briefwisseling van Constantijn Huygens (6 vols., The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1911–1917), IV, p. 360.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2021 | doi:10.1163/9789004422247_008

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Rivet’s book collection was a constant feature of his life. His life ended in the same way his pastoral career began over fifty years earlier: surrounded by books. How did Rivet acquire and use this collection? Many of Rivet’s writings and letters survive, and often they discuss his books: how he acquired books, from whom he acquired them and occasionally the prices he paid for them. His library did not remain static throughout his life. Friends, international scholars and fellow ministers sent him books as gifts. Rivet asked them to buy books on his behalf, and he wrote to printers requesting books. He took books from his own collection to give away. With the survival of much archival material from Rivet’s life and the catalogue of his book collection, Rivet offers a remarkable window into the book culture of the early modern world. His collection sold at auction after he died and a detailed auction catalogue listing his remaining books was composed. Happily, we have at least one copy neatly annotated with the prices raised at the sale noted in the margins. When complemented with his correspondence and published works, the auction catalogue presents a vivid portrait of a theologian and his library. Rivet was a prominent minister, professor of theology at the University of Leiden and private tutor to Stadtholder William II (1626–1650). Despite his stature, his life and work has not attracted a great deal of interest, and even less has been written about his book collection. Two book-length surveys – one of his theology, the other a condensed biography – were written early in the twentieth century.3 More recently, Irena Backus examined his thoughts on the Church Fathers, and Anthony Ossa-Richardson compared his exegetical work to that of his theological opponents, Robert Bellarmine and Hugo Grotius.4 We also encounter Rivet in research on Hugo Grotius, as one of the many people with whom Grotius engaged in polemical disputes.5 Rivet is generally presented as an educated, orthodox Calvinist minister. His assiduous learning is unavoidable when scholars consider his published works and correspondence. Based on Rivet’s correspondence and publications, A.G. van Opstal 3 A.G. Van Opstal, André Rivet: Een Invloedrijk Hugenoot aan het Hof van Frederick Hendrik (Harderwijk: Flevo, 1937); H.J. Honders, André Rivet: Als Invloedrijk Gereformeerd Theoloog in Holland’s Bloeitijd (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1930). 4 Irena Backus, ‘The Bible and the Fathers according the Abraham Scultetus (1566–1624) and André Rivet (1571/73–1651)’, in Irena Backus (ed.), The Reception of the Church Fathers in the West: From the Carolingians to the Maurists, vol. 2 (Brill: Leiden, 1997), pp. 839–865; Anthony Ossa-Richardson, ‘The Naked Truth of Scripture: André Rivet between Bellarmine and Grotius’, in Dirk van Miert etc. (eds.), Scriptural Authority and Biblical Criticism in the Golden Age: God’s Word Questioned (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017), pp. 325–348. 5 For example, Hans Bots, ‘Hugo Grotius et André Rivet: Deux Lumieres Opposées, Deux Vocations Contradictoires’, in Henk J.M. Nellen and Edwin Rabbie (eds.), Hugo Grotius, Theologian: Essays in Honor of G.H.M. Posthumus Meyjes (Leiden: Brill, 1994), pp. 145–155.

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acknowledged in 1937 that Rivet was well-read, while lamenting that he had not found the auction catalogue for Rivet’s library.6 In fact, the auction catalogue survives in nine libraries throughout Europe, spread from Oxford to Budapest. An article published in 2006 discusses how his collection came to be auctioned, the events surrounding the auction and the general contents of the catalogue.7 No-one, to this point, has discussed at any length how the collection was assembled, and for this purpose the sources at our disposal are particularly rich. Thousands of Rivet’s manuscript letters survive at the University of Leiden. Rivet’s letters to and from the French advisor of the parliament of Paris, Claude Sarrau, were edited and published in 1982.8 The correspondence Rivet exchanged with Claude de Saumaise between 1632 and 1648 was published in 1987.9 Rivet’s writings combined with his auction catalogue offer an abundant and heretofore neglected source of material on building a library in the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic. The auction catalogue offers the most comprehensive evidence for the books he owned, and his correspondence and publications detail the process by which he built his library. Like other ministers at the time, Rivet built his library as a working tool for the life of a pastor and theologian: correcting error and encouraging faithfulness. He had an overwhelming sense of divine calling to study and explain the Bible. Rivet was convinced that God had sovereignly foreordained his mental and spiritual preparation. ‘Thou hast taught me from my youth,’ Rivet prayed on his deathbed, ‘and I have shown forth thy wonders.’10 Learning took on religious significance in Rivet’s life. Rivet’s book collection took on the shape of the controversies in which he was involved. Many of the most popular authors in his library are those with whom he vehemently disagreed. He used those books to construct his own responses, deconstructing their arguments and presenting a Reformed alternative. Rivet was not as polemical as some of his theological counterparts in the Republic, but nevertheless he spent significant amounts of time and effort in acquiring books that aided him in his pursuit of a pure Reformed faith. 6 7

Van Opstal, André Rivet, p. 142. Arjan Nobel and Otto van der Meij, ‘“De Luijden sijn daer seer begeerich na”: De veiling van de bibliotheek van André Rivet in 1657’, in Maurits Ebben and Pieter Wagenaar (eds.), De cirkel doorbroken (Leiden: Instituut voor Geschiedenis, 2006), pp. 215–238. 8 Hans Bots and Pierre Leroy (eds.), Correspondence Intégrale, d’André Rivet et de Claude Sarrau (3 vols., Amsterdam: APA – Holland University Press, 1978–1982). 9 Hans Bots and Pierre Leroy (eds.), Claude Saumaise & André Rivet, Correspondance échangée entre 1632 et 1648 (Amsterdam: APA – Holland University Press, 1987). 10 Du Moulin, Last Houers, p. 12.

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figure 7.1 A portrait of Rivet from the same year that he became principal of the Illustrious School of Breda. Portret van André Rivet (Leiden: Cornelis Banheyning and Jonas Suyderhoef, 1647), Rijksmuseum RP-P-1943-356

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figure 7.2 Rivet’s catalogue lists prices in the margins for the vast majority of his books. Here, twenty-two of his folios are listed with price for a total of 316 gulden and seventeen stuivers Image from Book Sales Catalogues Online. Scanned from The Hague, Haags Gemeentearchief: Weeskamerarchief 2351

The theologian had made a considerable financial investment in his collection over several decades. But Rivet could afford it. When he came to Leiden, his yearly salary was 1,200 gulden, plus 300 gulden for housing. He had already received between 300 gulden and 400 gulden for moving costs.11 In addition to his salary from the university, he earned a healthy additional income from writing. The university awarded him 200 gulden after he published his commentary on the Psalms, and 100 gulden for a book against Grotius.12 When 11 Honders, André Rivet, p. 15. 12 P.C. Molhuysen, Bronnen tot de Geschiedenis der Leidensche Universiteit (7 vols., The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1913–1924), II, pp. 129, 269.

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Rivet divided his time between the University of Leiden and pastoring the Walloon Church in The Hague, he received 600 gulden a year from the Walloon Church, with an additional 200 gulden for rent.13 This already compared very favourably with the annual stipend granted to most ministers of the Reformed church, but his financial status improved further when he joined the court of Frederick Henry. It doubled to 3,600 gulden per year. He received free food and lodging, and his stipend was guaranteed for the remainder of his life, even if he resigned after a few years or illness kept him from his duties.14 With a salary of this size, Rivet could easily care for his family and build a library of nearly five thousand books.

A Book-Enthralled Life

After studying theology at Bern and La Rochelle, from 1595 to 1620, André Rivet served as chaplain and pastor to the Duke of La Trèmouille: at the time, one of the most powerful Protestant families in France. It was during these years that his book collection began to take shape. To assist his chaplain in the performance of his new role, the duke purchased a library in Paris and gifted it to Rivet. Within a year of being called to the pastorate in 1595, Rivet married Susanne Oyseau, the daughter of Francois Oyseau, a minister in St Maixent. Francois, himself a minister, gave Rivet a large number of books.15 The University of Leiden asked Rivet to become a professor of theology a little over a decade after he began his career in Thouars. Through his correspondence and written works, Rivet made his name in the Reformed world. He participated in several French synods. Eventually, Rivet was invited to join the French delegation to the Synod of Dordt (1618–1619). When Leiden created a second chair of Hebrew, their star professor of Oriental languages, Thomas Erpenius went to Thouars to persuade Rivet to join the faculty. Erpenius was given a letter from the curators of the university authorizing him as their messenger.16 Stadtholder Maurice of Nassau, whose father William of Orange established Leiden University, encouraged Rivet to take up the post.17 Rivet was not easily

13 Van Opstal, André Rivet, p. 12. 14 Ibid., p. 19. 15 Nobel and Van der Meij, ‘“De Luijden sijn daer seer begeerich na”’, p. 216. Honders, André Rivet, pp. 7–9. 16 J. van Swanenburch to Rivet, 31 August 1619, UB Leiden, ms. BPL 293 I. 17 Maurits of Nassau to Rivet, 19 September 1619, UB Leiden, ms. BPL 293 I.

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swayed. Erpenius had to make a second trip, finally convincing Rivet to leave France and move to Leiden.18 Leiden was a booming centre of print. Authors from all over Europe hoped to have their works published and printed by Leiden’s printers. Books and tracts flowed from Leiden’s most prestigious print shops, and Rivet and his colleagues found publishers eager to print their works. Rivet was prolific in his professorial role. He published sermons, commentaries on books of the Old Testament and a textbook on hermeneutics. Rivet’s prowess as an author was not confined to scholarly Latin tomes. Rivet continued writing devotional works in his native French. The Frenchman not only wrote and lectured: he openly encouraged others to write, and served as an intermediary for authors whose books were printed in Amsterdam and Leiden.19 The Parliament of Rouen issued an arrêt to printers in Caen in 1644, where Samuel Bochart hoped his work on the origin of peoples, the Geographia Sacra, would be printed.20 After this obstacle, Bochart approached Rivet about having the book printed in Leiden. The book was eventually published in Caen in 1646, but not before Rivet began putting together plans to have it printed in Leiden.21 ‘We will try to have J. le Maire print it,’ Rivet wrote to Gerardus Vossius, ‘L’Empereur and Golius will be in charge of making corrections.’22 Rivet likely received a copy of it for his troubles. This was the one of many books mentioned in his correspondence where we can document Rivet’s ownership from the catalogue of the auction after his death.23 Rivet always tried to keep his books close at hand. From Thouars to Leiden, The Hague and Breda, they travelled with Rivet. In 1622 the university helped pay to have some of his books transported to his new home; indeed, much of his relocation grant from Leiden was expended on moving his library.24 They designated fifty gulden to have his son and part of Rivet’s book collection sent 18 J. Wevelinchoven to Rivet, 7 March 1620, UB Leiden, ms. BPL 293 I. 19 For Rivet and Blaeu, see Rivet to Isaac Vossius, 5 August 1645, UB Amsterdam, Remonstrant Kerk Amsterdam, inv. III E8–107. 20 Zur Shalev, Sacred Words and Worlds: Geography, Religion, and Scholarship, 1550–1700 (Leiden: Brill, 2011), pp. 141–142. 21 USTC 6804112. 22 ‘Tentabimus (nempe quia Cl. Viri L’Empereur & Golius possent emendationi praesse.) J. Le Maire, quod se facturum suscepit D. Salmasius.’ Rivet to Gerardus Vossius, 8 October 1644, in Paulus Colomesius (ed.), Virorum Eruditione Celeberrimorum Epistolae, clarorum Virorum ad Vossium (London: Sam Smith and Benjamin Walford, 1698), p. 267. 23 Catalogus Librorum Bibliothecae D. Andreae Riveti S.S. Theologiae Doctoris, & Sacrarum Literarum in Celeberrima Lugdenensi Batavorum Academia olim Professoris, & verbi Dei Ministris (Leiden: Pieter Leffen, 1657), p. 89. Henceforth, Catalogus. 24 Molhuysen, Bronnen tot de Geschiedenis der Leidsche Universiteit, II, p. 107.

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to Leiden. Not all of his books made it to Leiden. In 1630, Rivet lamented that a significant portion of his library had not been saved from the predations of the French King, Louis XIII. The king had declared that all Protestant ministers return to France, otherwise their goods would be forfeited. Despite the States General interceding on behalf of Rivet, he lost a portion of his library and furniture he had bought for his children. The books and furniture were valued at about 3,000 livres tournois, about 2,500 gulden.25 In Rivet’s understanding, intellectual and spiritual gain were divine blessings that were brought about by pursuing specific means, such as reading godly books.26 For ministers, diligent study of books was an act of service to the Church. ‘In private study, be unremitting and diligent,’ he wrote to a young minister.27 Rivet believed this wholeheartedly, and over the course of his life he built a book collection comparable to the largest libraries owned by other theologians of his time.

Holy Teaching

Rivet left behind a collection of books that made most other ministers’ collections seem paltry: he owned 4,803 books. An average ministerial library that sold at auction during the seventeenth century contained about 1,300 books, and many ministers owned far fewer than this (there were many thousands of ministers whose collection did not justify a separate auction sale). Rivet’s 3,082 theological books alone were larger than most private libraries. As could be expected, he owned numerous books by the Reformers, none of whom figure as largely as John Calvin, with over fifteen works. He even owned two copies each of the Epistola et Responsa and the Institutes.28 With fourteen books listed in the catalogue, Johann Heinrich Alting comes close behind Calvin. Other Swiss Reformers compliment his collection of Calvin. At least eleven works by Theodore Beza were listed, nine by Heinrich Bullinger and seven by Pierre Viret. Rivet also read broadly among contemporary theological authors. Conrad Vorstius, Guillaume Rivet (his brother), Gisbertus Voetius of Utrecht,

25 Nobel and Van der Meij, ‘“De Luijden sijn daer seer begeerich na”’, p. 217. 26 André Rivet, On Faith and the Perseverance of the Saints (disp. 31), in Henk van den Belt (ed.), Synopsis of a Purer Theology: Latin Text and English Translation, trans. Riemer A. Faber (2 vols., Leiden: Brill, 2014–2016), II, pp. 228–275. 27 ‘In privatis studiis asiduus & diligens.’ Rivet to Justinus van Assche, 5 April 1620, UB Leiden, ms. BPL 245. 28 For Epistola et Responsa, see Catalogus, pp. 5, 56; for Institutes, see Catalogus, pp. 5, 68.

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and Claude de Saumaise of Leiden are all listed with more than ten titles in his catalogue. All but Conrad Vorstius were Reformed. When he began teaching at Leiden in 1621, Rivet established an immediate connection with the publishing firm of Abraham and Bonaventura Elzevier. Rivet bought books from them, in addition to doing occasional jobs and publishing works with them. Three years after arriving in Leiden, Rivet bought books from an auction with the Elzeviers as his agent. Abraham Elzevier wrote to Rivet enclosing an invoice for books he had purchased and to update him on how the auction went. Rivet owed the Elzeviers just over four gulden for four books: Epistolas doctorum eucharistia (2 gulden 8 stuivers), Bernardinus de Busti’s Mariale (1 gulden 7 stuivers), Thomas Cranmer’s De Sacramento Corporis (6 stuivers), and Lucius’ Synopsis Antisociniana (8 stuivers).29 Apparently, Rivet had requested several other books, but the reserve prices were too high. When Rivet’s collection sold at auction thirty years later, three of these four titles were sold for sums broadly comparable to the price Rivet paid. De Busti’s Mariale sold in a lot with one other book for a gulden and a nine stuivers. Cranmer’s work went for two gulden in a lot of four books, and Lucius’ Synopsis went with a lot of six books for just over two gulden. The Epistolas doctorum eucharistia was not listed in his catalogue. This case helps us understand why the new auction market played so important a role in helping collectors amass such impressive collections. The books Rivet bought had held their value despite thirty years of use. The books bought at auction also came bound, eliminating further expense and inconvenience of having books bound. Like countless other ministers in the Dutch Republic, if Rivet did not attend the auction himself, he could ask a friend or colleague to purchase books on his behalf. Rivet likely knew what books were for sale through accompanying printed auction catalogues. In addition to buying books through agents at auctions, Rivet also received books from correspondents. Letters to and from Rivet often mention sending and receiving books. Sentences like this from Rivet’s nephew are common: ‘I am sending you a booklet that you will enjoy reading.’30 Marin Mersenne wrote to Rivet in 1628 to suggest an exchange of books: ‘From now on, I will have a particular care to maintain our communication for books and other matters of literature, only for whatever you think will be able to bring contentment.’31 29 30

Abraham Bonaventure to Rivet, 18 May 1623, UB Leiden BPL 293 II. ‘Je vous envoiay un petit livret que je ne sçay si vous avez recue.’ J.M. de Langle to Rivet, 4 November 1625, in Jean Luc-Tulot (ed.), ‘Correspondence of Jean-Maximilien de Langle (1590–1674)’, p. 16. Available at http://jeanluc.tulot.pagesperso-orange.fr/Rivet-Langle.pdf. 31 ‘J’auray desormais un soin particulier d’entretenir nostre communication, tant pour les livres et autre choses qui concernent la litterature que pour tout ce que vous jugerez

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Mersenne practiced a long established tradition in elite intellectual circles: recognizing common scholarly interest.32 Rivet and the Amsterdam scholar Gerardus Vossius would continue this tradition a decade later. Mersenne regularly sent Rivet the newest and best publications from Parisian presses.33 In 1626, he had sent André Rivet a copy of his response to Johannes Drusius’ edition of the Bible.34 The French polymath was an intelligencer for mathematicians and philosophers throughout Europe in the seventeenth century, and he hoped that Rivet could become a possible contact in his network. Rivet did not keep his copy of Mersenne’s work on the Drusius Bible. The catalogue only lists one of Mersenne’s books: his commentary on Genesis (Paris, 1623).35 Rivet’s letters indicate what happened to the book. Rivet sent it Sixtinus Amama, professor of theology at Franeker. Amama defended Drusius, his colleague at Franeker. Amama briskly composed a response to Mersenne, printed in 1628 in Franeker and Amsterdam.36 Amama sent Rivet a copy of his response.37 Unlike Mersenne’s publications, Rivet’s catalogue lists five of Amama’s works.38 Rivet’s habit of buying books from auctions and receiving them from correspondents continued throughout the 1620s and beyond. As he settled into his role as professor of Hebrew, Rivet’s name became better known. By 1628, Rivet was sufficiently recognised in ministerial circles to ask his colleagues to purchase books on his behalf. On one such occasion, he turned to one minister whose family was known for their own extravagant book buying. Balthazar Lydius and his sons were ministers in and around Dordrecht. Balthazar’s collection of nearly 6,000 books sold at three auctions in 1629 and 1630; one of his sons owned over 4,000 books. Rivet knew that the Lydius family followed Dordrecht’s book market closely. On 4 April 1628, nearly one thousand books previously owned by the Dordrecht minister Daniel Demetrius were sold at

32 33 34 35 36 37 38

vous pouvoir apporter du contentement.’ Marin Mersenne to Rivet, 30 October 1628, in Paul Tannery, Cornelis de Waard and Armand Beaulieu (eds.), Correspondence du P Marin Mersenne (17 vols., Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1945–1988), II, p. 104. Henceforth, CM. Felicity Heal, The Power of Gifts: Gift-Exchange in Early Modern England (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), p. 46. Justin Grosslight, ‘Small Skills, Big Network: Marin Mersenne as Mathematical Intel­ ligencer’, History of Science, 51 (2013), pp. 337–374. Sixtinus Amama to Rivet, June 1626, in CM, I, p. 476. Catalogus, p. 10. USTC 1010657. Sixtinus Amama to Rivet, 13/23 February 1628, in CM, II, p. 27. Catalogus, pp. 28, 43, 54.

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auction.39 The minister’s sister supervised the sale. Rivet asked Isaac Lydius (Balthazar’s oldest son) to buy a couple of books on his behalf.40 Rivet’s bids were not successful, and Lydius was forced, with some embarrassment, to write explaining why he had failed to fulfil his commission. A friend’s obligation or not, the books were surprisingly expensive. Beroaldi’s Chronicon in quarto sold for 1 gulden 12 stuivers. David Chytraeus’ commentary on the Pentateuch sold for three gulden. Several other commentaries sold for over a gulden and a half. Most egregious, Lydius thought, was Aeneas Sylvius’ folio Opera selling for more than eleven gulden. A representative for the Bibliothecae Zeelandia bought many of the books and Demetrius’ sister held back a large proportion of the collection, presumably because they did not meet the reserve price. The apologetic Lydius hoped he could be of use at another time. Perhaps Lydius was being overly cautious, or Rivet had been too greedy for bargains. By 1651, Rivet had obtained most of the books Lydius listed, and almost all them went for similar prices to what Lydius considered excessive. Matthew Beroaldi’s Chronicon (Frankfurt, 1606) sold for one gulden.41 Chytraeus’ commentary on the Pentateuch was not listed in Rivet’s catalogue, but he had several of Chytraeus’ other works, one of which raised three gulden.42 Augustinus Tornerlius’ Annales Veteris Testament (Cologne, 1622) sold for seven gulden.43 Rivet owned numerous French Bibles, and their prices ranged from two to twenty gulden. Though Rivet’s catalogue does not list Sylvius’ Opera, Rivet did eventually acquire his papal epistles, which sold for five gulden.44 Bibliander’s De ratione linguarum sold in a lot with two other books for five gulden sixteen stuivers.45 Rivet’s catalogue does not mention Pererius’ commentary on Exodus. But price was again not the concern. Rivet’s copy of Pererius’ commentary on Genesis sold for seven gulden five stuivers.46 Rivet owned several commentaries by Ferus, all of which sold for over a gulden and a half. By the end of his life, he had acquired these books – whether at different auction or in a book shop.

39 Catalogus Miscellaneus variorum ac insignium, inprimis Theologicorum, Librorum Doctissimi Viri D. Danielis Demetrii (Dordrecht: Peeter Verhagen, 1628), USTC 1122269. 40 Isaac Lydius to Rivet, 11 April 1628, UB Leiden, ms. BPL 285 Bf199r. 41 USTC 2079451. Catalogus, p. 91. 42 Ibid., p. 86. 43 USTC 1021597. Ibid., p. 85. 44 USTC 435622. Ibid., p. 86. 45 USTC 631253. Ibid., p. 93. 46 USTC 2144262. Ibid., p. 16.

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figure 7.3 Isaac Lydius’ letter to André Rivet explaining how he was unable to procure books from the auction of the books of his fellow Dordrecht minister Daniel Demetrius in 1628. UB Leiden, ms. BPL 285 Bf199r. Bijzondere Collecties, Universiteit Leiden

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Isaac Lydius was not alone in trying to help Rivet build his collection of theological books. His Dutch colleagues were helpful, but Rivet’s book collecting network extended beyond the Dutch Republic. Throughout his time in his adopted home, Rivet maintained close connections with intellectuals in France. Though the Dutch warmly welcomed Rivet as a public servant and theologian, a part of Rivet’s heart always remained in France. Rivet sought to help French Calvinism remain on the straight and narrow path of faithful orthodoxy. He took up his pen to write against any who threatened that goal. To keep his uncle up to date, Jean-Maximilian de Langle in Rouen sent Rivet the most recent theological books printed in France.47 De Langle knew Rivet looked down on Rouen booksellers, so he sent his uncle a book that would hopefully change his opinion  – David Blondel’s Esclaircissements familiers, which is listed in Rivet’s auction catalogue.48 In 1633, De Langle came across La Papesse Jeanne, a French translation of an English theologian’s tract. De Langle hoped to send it to his uncle for his enjoyment.49 Rivet held on to it for twenty years, as it is listed in his catalogue.50 In December 1634, De Langle sent Rivet Defense des ministers de l’Evangile contra Cacherat.51 It is listed in his catalogue with three other books in the lot.52 He left the package with Johannes de Laet, one of the directors of the West India Company and a prodigious book buyer himself. De Langle hoped he would deliver it to his uncle.53 De Langle was deeply concerned about a new book by a French Protestant, De universi orbis christiani pace et concordia.54 Its author, Théophile Brachet de la Milletière, proposed to reconcile Protestants and Catholics in France.55 The book and its author were subjected to a barrage of criticism from both Protestants and Catholics, and Rivet was one of its primary critics. Rivet wrote

47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55

De Langle to Rivet, 29 November 1633, in ‘Correspondence of Jean-Maximilien de Langle’, p. 26. USTC 6813767. De Langle to Rivet, 27 July 1641, in ‘Correspondence of Jean-Maximilien de Langle’, p. 58. Catalogus, p. 142. USTC 12574. De Langle to Rivet, 6 May 1633, in ‘Correspondence of Jean-Maximilien de Langle’, p. 24. Catalogus, p. 134. USTC 6033970. Catalogus, p. 141. De Langle to Rivet, 20 December 1634, in ‘Correspondence of Jean-Maximilien de Langle’, p. 29. USTC 6028044. R.J.M. van de Schoor, The Irenical Theology of Théophile Brachet de la Milletière (1588–1664) (Leiden: Brill, 1995), p. 33.

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a critique of it before he read the book, but eventually he acquired it.56 La Milletière argued that by reconciling with Roman Catholics, Calvinists like Rivet would no longer have to defend several false theological and historical claims: their belief in the spiritual presence of Christ at the Lord’s Supper and, perhaps more damaging to the Protestant cause, the absence of any claim on the Church Fathers. La Milletière’s charge that Protestants had no claim on the Fathers was as old as the Reformation itself. In the theological war between Protestants and Catholics, both turned to the Fathers when they needed to present their beliefs in their historic context. For Roman Catholic thinkers, the Fathers stood as the fount of pure theology. From the beginning of the Reformation, Protestants forcefully claimed the Church Fathers as their own, despite Roman Catholic claims to the contrary. La Milletière remained unconvinced. He directed the rest of his letter from 23 December 1634 against L’Eucharistie de l’ancienne Eglise (Geneva, 1633), a Genevan theologian’s attempt to reconcile Calvinist and Patristic thought on the Eucharist.57 The reference was not lost on Rivet. Rivet had corresponded with Aubertin, the Genevan theologian in question, since 4 January 1633.58 He owned both L’Eucharistie de l’ancienne Eglise and Aubertin’s work printed in 1642, Contre Limbourgh, sur la presence Reele en l’Eucharistie.59 Rivet considered La Milletière’s critique facile.60 Any Protestant who had studied the Fathers in depth could easily defend themselves against La Milletière, Rivet thought. Rivet was certainly suggesting Aubertin was capable of ably handling the argument, but Rivet was also happy to weigh in.61 Throughout the 1630s, Rivet sought to deepen his knowledge of the Fathers. His correspondents were helpful to that end. In 1631, Rivet wrote to David de Wilhelm in Amsterdam, encouraging him to acquire manuscripts of Isidore of Pelusium, so that the unreliability of Jesuit editions would be displayed.62 In 1632 Gerardus Vossius hoped to send Rivet the new London edition of Optatus

56 André Rivet, Lettres de Messieurs Rivet, De La Milletière et du Moulin (Sedan: Jean Jannon, 1635), USTC 6809619, p. 4. Catalogus, p. 105. 57 Rivet, Lettres de Messieurs Rivet, pp. 35–37. Rivet’s catalogue lists this work as Edme Aubertin, De L’Eucharistie in folio. 58 Jean-Luc Tulot, ‘Les pasteurs en maris et pères, au travers des corresondances adressées à André Rivet, 1620–1650’, Bulletin de la Société de l’Histoire du Protestantisme Français, 159 (2013), p. 82, n26. 59 Catalogus, pp. 125, 142. 60 Rivet, Lettres de Messeuirs Rivet, p. 48. 61 Van de Schoor, The Irenical Theology, p. 41. 62 Rivet to David de Wilhelm, 12 February 1631, UB Leiden ms. BPL 293 I, fol. 4.

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of Milevis’ work, printed in 1631, and it is listed in his catalogue.63 Such was the culture of gift-giving amongst intellectuals in the Dutch Republic that even theological adversaries sent books to each other. Rivet had first-hand knowledge of the Church Fathers’ own writings. He owned nearly eighty works by them and a dozen works on them  – De vita patrum or Johannes Hoornbeeck’s Disputationes de Theologia patrum, for example.64 His nine-volume Froben edition of Augustine’s Opera (Basel, 1542) sold for eighty-four gulden.65 The catalogue states that Rivet had written manuscript notes throughout.66 Such evidence rebuffs La Milletière’s claim that Rivet had paid no credence to the Fathers. Rivet had spent his life studying the Church Fathers, actively buying their books and receiving them as gifts from his correspondents. La Milletière further claimed that Protestants like Rivet did not understand Roman Catholic theology. Yet Rivet was not a distant observer of Catholic thought either. Catholic books occupied a large amount of shelf space in his collection. Rivet was proud of his knowledge and use of Catholic authors and their works. In the titles of two of his anti-Catholic books, he stated that the opinions he summarized were taken directly from Catholic works and one of the tracts included bibliography.67 Rivet encouraged the reader to verify his interpretation of Catholic authors against their sources. Indeed, Rivet could claim substantial knowledge of Catholic thought. Rivet acquired several works by the Bishop of Ypres, Johannes Jansenius, including his controversial Augustinus sive adversus haereses pelegianorum & semipelagianorum (Louvain, 1640).68 Beyond Jansenius, Rivet read numerous books by the founder of the Jesuits, Ignatius of Loyola, and many of his followers like Famiano Strada and Cornelius a Lapide. He owned as many books by Benedictus Arias Montanus as he did by Franciscus Gomarus, Rivet’s counterpart in Groningen. He owned eight works by Thomas Aquinas and wrote notes 63 USTC 3015206. Gerardus Vossius to Rivet, 8 April 1632, in Virorum Eruditione Celeberrimorum Epistolae, p. 198. Catalogus, p. 45. 64 USTC 142840. In the USTC, these disputations are not listed with an author, though it is known Hoornbeeck composed them. It also lists them individually: USTC 1528382, 1528375, 1528376, 1528379, 1528377, 1528378, 1528374, 1528373, 1528385 and 1528380. 65 USTC 679359. 66 Catalogus, p. 4. 67 André Rivet, The state-mysteries of the Iesuites, by way of questions and answers. Faithfully extracted out of their owne writings by themselves published (London: George Eld, 1623); Rivet, Eschantillon des Principaux paradoxes de la Papaute, sur les poincts de la Religion controuersez en ce temps. Recueillis des propres escrits de ses plus approuuez Docteurs (La Rochelle: Havltin, 1603) USTC 6803696. 68 USTC 1003186. Catalogus, pp. 9, 15, 17, 37, 62.

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in at least one of them.69 There are four works by Robert Bellarmine listed. On occasion, he even favourably cited Roman Catholic authors in his writings. Cardinal Cajetan, Rivet suggested, was the first Roman Catholic to argue that someone can legitimately interpret Scripture differently than the Church Fathers, in so far as it is derived from other passages of Scripture.70 Rivet all but plagiarised a Jesuit professor at Alcalá when describing how biblical passages only have one meaning.71 If Rivet had misunderstood Catholic theology as La Milletière suggested, it was not because he did not own their books. The controversy between La Milletière and Rivet raged on into 1642. La Milletière continued writing to try to convince Protestants and Catholics to reconcile. Rivet wrote to counter him. Though Rivet waded into the controversy without first reading the book, by 1642 he had acquired most of La Milletière’s published works. A year prior, in 1641, the irenicist finished his work on the Eucharist, a dialogue between two Protestants, one named Eusebius, an orthodox Calvinist; the other named Irenaeus, an irenicist La Milletière modelled after himself.72 Irenaeus sought to convince Eusebius of where the Reformation was mistaken in its formulation of Roman Catholic belief. Rivet saw the dialogue differently: La Milletière lavished praise on himself through the character Eusebius (the ‘orthodox’ Calvinist). Just a year later, Rivet poked fun at the irenicist for his blatant self-congratulations.73 Rivet’s familiarity with the book is unquestioned. He read it in detail and formulated a response. Within a year, he had obtained the book from France and constructed his rejoinder, which was printed in 1642. No copy of the dialogue is listed in his auction catalogue, however. Whether he decided the book was not worth occupying precious shelf-space or gave it to a friend, we know Rivet acquired and read it. Three of La Milletière’s other works from the 1630s are listed. Like a reader writing a summary in the back of a book, Rivet’s copy of Concordiae instituendae had his manuscript notes.74 We do not know how many books Rivet bought or received from booksellers. Such transactions were the regular fare of a minister and his local bookseller. But occasionally references to such transactions occur in correspondence. In 69 Catalogus, p. 61. 70 Rivet, Tractatus de partum autoritate, in his Critici Sacri libr IV (Geneva: Jacob Chouët, 1652), p. 29. 71 Ossa-Richardson, ‘The Naked Truth of Scripture’, p. 125. 72 USTC 6034870. 73 Rivet to La Milliètiere, 29 July 1641, in Rivet’s Responses a Trois Lettres du Sieur de la Milletiere (Quévilly: Jean Berthelin and Jacques Cailloüé, 1642), USTC 6810069, p. 57. 74 Catalogus, p. 70.

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1647, Arnoud Leers of Rotterdam reprinted one of Rivet’s works. The pamphlet bore Rivet’s name, but only as an anagram.75 Jesuits had suppressed the work in the Southern Netherlands so that no copy of it could be found in either Antwerp or Douai, Rivet claimed. As a token of his friendship and affection, Rivet sent David de Wilhelm the first copy that came across his desk. Authors sent copies of their books to friends, family and political figures. Rivet was no different. Anna Maria van Schurman accepted a pack of Rivet’s published works. ‘I received most happily, as was appropriate, the volumes with which you wished to adorn my library,’ she wrote. ‘The gift was indeed very pleasing to me when I turned my eyes toward the person of the giver and when I turned to the argument itself, that is to the subject matter of your triumph.’76 In his counsel to her, Rivet hoped his works would aid her investigation concerning whether women should be taught in universities. Rivet did not, however, give away all his author’s copies. In greater numbers than Erasmus, Grotius, or Calvin, Rivet’s catalogue lists nearly all his published works. Several of his personal copies remained unbound. Ironically, André Rivet was the most popular author in his own auction catalogue. Rivet came to the Dutch Republic as a celebrated theologian. His collection of theological books far surpassed an average minister’s collection in size and diversity. Throughout his years, he built his library by buying books from booksellers and at auctions or by acquiring books from correspondents and printers. Correspondents kept him informed of the newest publications, and regularly sent them to him. Though his catalogue does not record every book he was sent, more often than not Rivet held on to the books he received for the duration of his life and most of them sold in 1657. Rivet owned over 3,000 theological books, and he acquired them from a number of friends, booksellers, correspondents and auctions.

A Prince Instructed

Rivet devoted most of his years to serving as a pastor or a professor of theology, caring for the spiritual needs of others and helping to train the next generation of pastors. From 1630 to 1646, Rivet worked in a role unlike any he had had 75 Rivet to David de Wilhelm, 8 December 1649, UB Leiden ms. BPL 293 I, fol. 53. 76 Joyce L. Irwin (ed.), Anna Maria van Schurman: Whether a Christian Woman Should Be Educated and Other Writings From Her Intellectual Circle (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998), pp. 41–42.

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before. Leiden was his first home in The Netherlands, but he moved away from Leiden and became minister of the Walloon congregation in The Hague in 1630, while serving a few days a week at the University.77 The Prince of Orange, Frederick Henry, was delighted by the church’s new minster. And within two years, the Prince selected Rivet as the personal tutor to his son, William II. He served in that capacity until 1646. While building a collection of theological books that would make many ministers envious, he acquired over a thousand books on topics such as philosophy and ethics, jurisprudence, science and history. Such books became the bed-rock of Rivet’s work in the Stadtholder’s court. As William’s tutor, Rivet was responsible for helping the young prince develop into a leader on the international stage. Rivet set him on a rigorous course of education, designed to cultivate noble virtue and administrative competence. The Republic needed a morally exemplary Stadtholder who could efficiently lead the army. Reading books was the primary catalyst for turning young William into the man the Republic needed. A prince began his cultivation of martial virtue with study of the Bible. One should also read the great books from classical antiquity and the Christian tradition. ‘I have spoken to you beforehand about the laudable exercises of the mind in communicating with the mute doctors, by reading of good books that are worthy of you,’ Rivet wrote.78 With references to writers from antiquity, the Church Fathers, contemporary thinkers and the Bible, Rivet put forward a paradigm for the learned statesmen, leading his nation in piety and governance. A prince was to be well versed in the liberal arts: letters, rhetoric, history and dialectic.79 Throughout his life, Rivet acquired books on these topics. Rivet, on occasion, received books of history from his correspondents, many of whom hoped for his thoughtful critique. In 1630, Johannes Meursius, a Dutch scholar of antiquity, sent Gerardus Vossius several copies of his newest work on Danish history.80 Meursius hoped Vossius would send a copy to Rivet.81 In 1637, Meursius sent Rivet a copy of his history of the Republic.82

77 78 79 80 81 82

Van Opstal, André Rivet, p. 12. ‘Au reste, je vous ai parlé ci devant, des exercices louables de l’esprit, en la cõmunication avec les docteurs muets, par la lecture des bons livres, dignes de vous.’ Ibid., p. 454. Ibid., pp. 33–53. USTC 1011558. Johannes Meursius to Gerardus Vossius, 19 September 1630, in Virorum Eruditione Celeberrimorum Epistolae, Clarorum Virorum ad Vossium Epistolae, p. 79. USTC 1011745. Johannes Meursius to Gerardus Vossius, 7 October 1637, Virorum Eruditione Celeberrimorum Epistolae, Clarorum Virorum ad Vossium Epistolae, p. 169.

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Both sold with Rivet’s auction in 1657.83 The books Meursius sent him were a fraction of Rivet’s collection of histories. By the end of his life, Rivet acquired over four hundred history books. This was larger than the entire collection of at least seventeen ministers whose libraries were sold by auction during the seventeenth century. Books of church history were common. He owned several of the most popular histories from the medieval era: Nicephorus Callistus’ Historia Ecclesiastica (Paris, 1630) and Haymo of Halberstadt’s Historia Ecclesia (Leiden, 1617).84 His copy of the Venerable Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum (Cambridge, 1646) was listed with the curious note, ‘from the public library of Cambridge.’85 The Historia Martyrii Angeli by the Leiden historian and university librarian Paulus Merula sold for less than a gulden. The lives of Ignatius of Loyola, Philip Melanchthon and Erasmus would have been necessary reading for any theologian worth his salt in the seventeenth century. Rivet did not focus on church history alone, however. Histories of nations, monarchies and wars helped the professor of theology understand the broader geopolitical landscape in which he served. The Annales de vita Friderici II Electoris Palatini cum figuris (Frankfurt, 1624), Carolus Sigonius’ De Regno Italiae (Basel, 1579), and Everhard van Reyd’s Annales Belgarum (Leiden, 1637), and the hundreds of other history books on his shelves aided the professor in cultivating a historically informed view of the world.86 Ten of these books contained his manuscript notes. He owned a full run of the Republics printed by Bonaventura and Abraham Elzevier. The Republics were the Elzeviers’ most successful publications, and they were exported throughout Europe. In a small, neat, elegant 24mo format, the forty-one volumes combined topographical description with a description of the country’s political culture and customs. In Rivet’s catalogue, they are listed proudly at the beginning of the Libri Miscellanei in 12, 16, & 24 section. The same annotator who marked the prices also noted ‘41 Voll vande Repub’ in the margin.87 Not all of Rivet’s library was devoted to his professional responsibilities: he also read extensively in the fields of science, mathematics and philosophy. In his work for Leiden’s printers in 1628, Rivet oversaw the copy-editing of the Dutch astronomer Willebrord Snellius’ work on optics.88 Unlike the copy 83 84 85 86 87 88

Catalogus, p. 90, 94. USTC 6022570. Catalogus, pp. 17, 119. ‘Ex Bibliotheca publica Cantabrigiana.’ Ibid., p. 9. Anneles is likely USTC 2178807. USTC 856349. USTC 1029045. Ibid., pp. 97, 92, 86. Ibid., p. 118. C. de Pater, ‘Experimental Physics’, in Th.H. Lunsingh Scheurleer and G.H.M. Posthumus Meyjes (eds.), Leiden University in the Seventeenth Century: An Exchange of Learning (Leiden: Universitaire Pers Leiden/Brill, 1975), p. 309.

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figure 7.4 Rivet’s collection of De Republica are listed with a few other books on topography and literature. The faded prices, like the ‘5’ at lot thirty, have bled through from the previous page Image from Book Sales Catalogues Online. Scanned from The Hague, Haags Gemeentearchief: Weeskamerarchief 2351

he likely received of Bochart’s Geographia, another book with which he was involved in the print-shop, this book by Snellius is not listed in his catalogue. Rivet did acquire a copy of Snellius’ investigation into the circumference of the earth, Eratosthenes Batavus (Leiden, 1617).89 Beyond his work for Leiden’s printers, he regularly discussed the scientific discoveries of the first half of the seventeenth century with his correspondents, and received numerous scientific books from them. The mathematical intelligencer Marin Mersenne wrote to Rivet regularly about recent scientific discoveries. In 1638, Mersenne pushed 89 USTC 1027727. Catalogus, p. 98.

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his friend to divulge his thoughts on Nicolaus Copernicus’ theory that the Earth orbited the Sun. Sensitive to what lay behind Mersenne’ thinly veiled question, Rivet answered that he thought there should be little controversy over Galileo’s recent defence of Copernicus. After all, theology claimed to ask and answer different questions than mathematics or philosophy.90 If Mersenne assumed that the chaplain to William II owned a copy of any of Copernicus’ or Galileo’s works, however, he would have been mistaken. Rivet owned more works on astrology than he did on astronomy. In 1638 Johann Gronovius sent Rivet a copy of Marmora Arundeliana by John Selden, to make up for the property Rivet lost while he was visiting Oxford.91 It is listed alongside other astrological works and historical works in his collection.92 His few books on astronomy were outdated by the time Mersenne asked him about Copernicus.93 In the realm of philosophy, too, Rivet’s connections with French intellectuals contributed to his book collection. In the same year that Mersenne questioned Rivet about astronomy, René Descartes was stirring the intellectual world into a frenzy.94 His Discours de la Méthode had just been printed in Leiden by Jean Maire. As an important figure amongst the international intellectual community, Rivet was well-aware of the publication of the Discours.95 Rivet’s catalogue records Descartes’ most controversial work; it sold for six gulden.96 It is possible that Rivet received a copy directly from Descartes. When Descartes completed work on his Principia Philosophiae, he sent proofs to scholars throughout Western Europe, including André Rivet.97 During the dog-days of summer Rivet took a few minutes to compose a thank you note for sending him three copies. Rivet insisted that he would send the two extra copies to a couple of contemporaries once the postal route was clear.98 Rivet’s copy of the Principia sold for one gulden ten stuivers.99

90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99

Marin Mersenne to Rivet, 20 November 1638, CM, VIII, p. 222; Marin Mersenne to Rivet, 20 December 1638, CM, VIII, p. 239. USTC 3013788. Johann Gronovius to Gerardus Vossius, 4/14 August 1638, in Virorum Eruditione Celeberrimorum Epistolae, Clarorum Virorum ad Vossium, p. 187. Catalogus, p. 91. Ibid., pp. 105, 99. USTC 1011874. Grosslight, ‘Small Skills, Big Network’, p. 351. Catalogus, p. 129. USTC 1013725. Rivet to Renè Descartes, 19 July 1644. ePistolarum, http://ckcc.huygens.knaw.nl/epistolar ium/letter.html?id=desc004/7441bis Accessed 8 September 2017. Catalogus, p. 100.

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Descartes’ treatises were not the only provocative works from French intellectuals to come across his desk. Samuel Sorbière sent Rivet several incendiary books. The French philosopher had just completed his translation of Thomas Hobbes’ De Cive in 1649, and he promptly sent it to Rivet for his consideration.100 Rivet took the time to read the work, and he denounced the book.101 It is listed amongst the section of French books at the end of the catalogue.102 Furthermore, Sorbière was almost certainly the origin of Rivet’s French translation of More’s Utopia. A French translation of Thomas More’s L’Utopie (1643) sold for two gulden with a book of sermons.103 Sorbière published the French translation of the Utopia in 1643.104 When Rivet moved from The Hague to Breda in 1646 to serve as Principal of its new illustrious school, he sent his niece Marie ahead with five trunks of books. Despite leaving Holland, Rivet stayed abreast of the intellectual endeavours of humanists and scientists around the continent. On 4 November 1647, Marin Mersenne sent Rivet a copy of Blaise Pascal’s newest work, the Expériences nouvelles touchant le vide.105 Unlike most of the other books Rivet received from correspondents, no copy is listed in the catalogue. In his capacity as tutor to the young William, Rivet had cultivated a thorough knowledge of political theory. Rivet possessed over seventy books on the role of government. Understanding the political philosophy of the great classical thinkers was not only a duty for the Christian prince. Rivet acquired three copies of Aristotle’s Politica, and a paraphrase by a contemporary scholar.106 Rivet’s Paris edition, printed in 1511, had several manuscript notes, and his 1621 Elzevier edition with Daniel Heinsius’ notes was likely a gift from Heinsius himself as the book contained Heinsius’ manuscript annotations.107 Rivet remained abreast of the political debates of his own day with books by Machiavelli, Justus Lipsius, Christopher Besold, and dissertations on political thought from various authors. While he no longer had immediate access to the print centres of Leiden and The Hague, Rivet avidly added to his collection in Breda, reading books with quill in hand. Over one hundred books published between 1647 and 1651 100 USTC 1019694. 101 Noel Malcom, ‘Hobbes and the European Republic of Letters’, in his Aspects of Hobbes (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2002), p. 473. 102 Catalogus, p. 144. 103 Catalogus, p. 172. 104 USTC 1013791. 105 USTC 6041259. Marin Mersenne to Rivet, 4 November 1647, in CM, XV, p. 518. 106 Catalogus, pp. 88, 96, 125. 107 Ibid., p. 102. USTC 143768. USTC 1028333.

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are listed in Rivet’s collection. Six of them contained manuscript notes. Five remained unbound, and he acquired four books printed in Breda. When he died in 1651, these books were some of Rivet’s newest acquisitions.

Artefacts of Controversy

In his dying days, Rivet’s mind turned to the controversies and books that had marked his life. Theological controversy was the norm for Rivet’s life, as it was for all professors of theology and many ministers. Print was an effective theatre in which controversy took place. In Rivet’s experience with the Dutch book trade, that was certainly the case. Ripples of controversy added shape to Rivet’s book collection. Rivet invested in the controversies occurring within his adopted nation, and amongst his mutual correspondents. But Rivet’s eye remained fixed on France and the works her ministers published. Even after living in the Dutch Republic for three decades, by the end of his life he owned fewer than ten Dutch vernacular works, in comparison to the almost nine hundred books written in French. Rivet hated to wait for controversial books when time was of the essence. In addition to his concern for the havoc he thought La Milletière would cause amongst French Protestants, Rivet was also concerned about Moïse Amyraut, professor of theology at the Academy of Saumur.108 In 1641, Amyraut wrote to Rivet, saying he would send a copy of his De Reprobatione.109 But it had not arrived. ‘I wait for it every hour,’ Rivet said, writing to Claude Sarrau.110 It seems it eventually arrived in Leiden, as it is listed in Rivet’s collection.111 Amyraut faced the charge of teaching a heterodox view of the atonement, and Rivet impatiently waited for the condemned book to come across his desk. At Leiden, Rivet had taught one of the principal theologians at Saumur, Paul Testard, whose work Irenicum was listed in the auction catalogue, in a copy annotated with Rivet’s manuscript comments.112 The controversy at Saumur would continue after Rivet’s death, but its legacy is evident in his book collection. Moïse Amyrault was one of the most popular authors in Rivet’s catalogue.

108 On Amyraut and the Academy of Saumur, see Albert Gootjes, Claude Pajon (1626–1685) and the Academy of Saumur (Leiden: Brill, 2014), pp. 21–50. 109 USTC 6802863. 110 ‘Je l’attens tous les jours.’ Rivet to Claude Sarrau, 22 November 1641, in Bots and Leroy (eds.), Correspondence Intégrale, I, p. 16. 111 Catalogus, p. 42. 112 USTC 6809476. Catalogus, p. 53.

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Rivet had many theological opponents: Jesuits in the Southern Netherlands, Remonstrants and Socinians in the Republic and theologians in France. No other of Rivet’s opponents, however, received more concerted attention than the heterodox Hugo Grotius. Exiled from the Republic because of his role in the Remonstrant controversy, Grotius fled to Paris to continue his career as an author of political and theological works. Rivet stayed abreast of Grotius’ work through his contact in Paris, Claude Sarrau. Sarrau was a significant ally in Rivet’s polemic against Grotius. Though Sarrau was a regular source of news from France and books from French presses, he was most helpful when Rivet set his sights on the exiled Dutchman, Hugo Grotius.113 Sarrau sent Rivet many pamphlets by Grotius.114 Grotius and Rivet sought the same end: the peace and health of the Church. But this was the extent of their agreement.115 Rivet thought Grotius had invented a new religion. Grotius belittled the Reformed church as nothing more than a sect, but himself did not belong to any recognized confession, Rivet thought. According to Rivet, Grotius’ explanation of the Bible was equivalent to that of ‘Judaico-Socinianae’ heretics.116 Despite the vitriol with which both Grotius and Rivet could attack each other, both were deeply versed with each other’s printed works. In 1625, within five years of arriving in Leiden, Rivet read Grotius’ tract on the theory of war, De iure belli ac pacis, and vehemently disagreed.117 Grotius had denied the principle of going to war with those who persecuted Christians for their faith, and had argued against using force to secure conversion of new believers.118 Writing to Grotius’ brother-in-law, Nicolaes van Reigersberch, Rivet knew Jesuit readers would despise Grotius’ work.119 He read the book so intently that he cited one portion from memory: in his Exercitationes CXC in Genesin, printed in 1633, Rivet referenced Grotius’ work, but often without citing his source.120 Within ten years, Rivet became Grotius’ most ardent opponent. In 1640, three works by Grotius came off Joan Blaeu’s press 113 Rivet to Claude Sarrau, 19 September 1642, in, Correspondence Intégrale, I, p. 253. 114 Henk Nellen, Hugo Grotius: A Lifelong Struggle for Peace in Church and State, 1583–1645, trans. J.C. Grayson (Leiden: Brill, 2017), p. 698. 115 Bots, ‘Hugo Grotius et André Rivet’, pp. 145–155. 116 Rivet, Operum Theologicorum (3 vols., Rotterdam: Arnoud Leers, 1651–1660), II, p. 814. 117 USTC 6026902. 118 Nellen, Hugo Grotius, pp. 374–375. 119 N. van Reigersberch to Hugo Grotius, 8 September 1625, in P.C. Molhuysen, etc. (eds.), Briefwisseling van Hugo Grotius (17 vols., The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 2001), XVII p. 282. 120 USTC 1024329. Nellen, Hugo Grotius, pp. 537–8.

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in Amsterdam: De veritate religionis christianae, De fide et operibus and De antichristo.121 Grotius could not hide his frustration that Blaeu delayed printing two of his tracts for a year.122 But André Rivet would have been delighted if they were delayed indefinitely. Rivet wrote to his close friend Constantijn Huygens, to solicit the secretary’s views on the new publications. Despite being busy, Huygens fired off a two-page letter offering a summary of his thoughts. Huygens was not impressed by Grotius. ‘His writing is primitive and against all reason,’ the Secretary snapped.123 Rivet would have certainly agreed. All three texts are listed in his collection.124 By July 1642, he wrote a substantive critique of Grotius’ work. The Republic’s greatest humanist failed the test of orthodoxy. Rivet thought Grotius was a danger to the health of the Church, despite Grotius’ claims to the contrary. Grotius was not only an enemy to the theological purity of the Republic, Rivet thought: Grotius’ political philosophy could devastate the concord of the Republic. His Verantwoordingh van de wettelijcke regieringh van Holland ende West-Vrieslandt (Defense of the Lawful Actions of Holland and West-Friesland) levelled the final death-blow of any hope Grotius had in returning to the Republic, Rivet wrote to Sarrau in 1642.125 Published in 1622, the pamphlet argued that Maurits of Nassau was an illegitimate ruler, and Grotius sought to revive Johan van Oldenbarnevelt’s legacy of religious unorthodoxy. Rivet owned the Latin translation, Apologeticus.126 Throughout the 1640s, Rivet wrote responses to Grotius’ works, usually within a few months. How did Rivet acquire Grotius’ books so quickly? Rivet’s personal network in France sent him the books as soon as they came off the press. Claude Sarrau delivered Grotius’ books as soon as he could get his hands on them. In 1642, Sarrau denied the claim that he had sent Rivet proofs of Grotius’ Votum pro pace ecclesiastica, while ‘still damp from the press.’127 Sarrau claimed Grotius had given him a presentation copy, and that it somehow made its way to Rivet in Holland. Despite Sarrau’s protest, the accusation was 121 USTC 1013672. USTC 1030612. USTC 1013465. 122 Henk J.M. Nellen, ‘Disputando Inclarescet Veritas: Grotius as a Publicist in France’, in Nellen and Rabbie (eds.), Hugo Grotius, Theologian, p. 137n75. 123 ‘La epist ist ecrite de vant la primitive contre touti raison.’ Constantijn Huygens to Rivet, 2 June 1640, UB Leiden ms. BPL 293 II. 124 Catalogus, pp. 71, 122. 125 USTC 1015416. Rivet to Sarrau, 6 October 1642, in Bots and Leroy (eds.), Correspondence Intégrale, I, p. 272. 126 USTC 6010286. Catalogus, p. 111. 127 USTC 6004921. Nellen, Hugo Grotius, p. 702.

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accurate. On 12 September 1645, Sarrau sent Rivet a letter and swore him to secrecy. Overcoming the hurdles of embargo, Sarrau managed to send the first sheet to the eager Rivet, and the rest of the book followed two weeks later.128 Rivet tore through the book, jotting down personal notes in the front.129 On 11 September 1645, word reached André Rivet that his greatest opponent, Hugo Grotius, had died shortly after being shipwrecked and washing up on the shores of Rostock, on Germany’s Baltic coast. Grotius’ final work against Rivet reached the theologian just prior to hearing of his death.130 Though death had claimed Grotius in Rostock, his works continued to circulate throughout Europe. Rivet aimed his newest polemic not merely ad hominum but sought to convince his reader that he engaged with the ideas Grotius espoused. At one point, he appended Grotius’ original work as an appendix to his own.131 By the end of his life, Rivet had acquired twenty-four books by Grotius.

Rivet in the Company of Book Collectors

After five decades of acquiring books from auctions, friends, correspondents and booksellers, Rivet died in 1651 leaving behind 4,803 books. Six years after his death, his book collection was auctioned in Leiden. It sold for over 10,200 gulden, twenty times an average minister’s annual salary in the Republic during the seventeenth century. Rivet’s books made the journey from Breda to Leiden; while the same year, his body was moved from Breda to The Hague. Frederik Rivet spent sixty gulden to have his father’s books packed away in boxes and crates, placed on a covered barge and sent to his home in The Hague. In 1656, Frederik wrote to a correspondent, asking for advice on who should be charged with auctioning the collection. Frederik knew he wanted to have the auction in Leiden because his father always treasured his time there – and in Leiden they would fetch the highest prices. The correspondent suggested Pieter Leffen, the leading bookseller at the time.132 The sale was promoted weeks before it began in November. Leffen sent the catalogue to booksellers throughout Europe, in Paris, London, Denmark, and 128 Sarrau to Rivet 12 September 1645, in Bots and Leroy (eds.), Correspondence Intégrale, I, p. 248. 129 Catalogus, p. 117. 130 Rivet to Sarrau, 19 September 1645, in Bots and Leroy (eds.), Correspondence Intégrale, III, p. 218. 131 André Rivet, Examen Animadversionum Hugonis Grotii (Leiden: Elzevier, 1642), USTC 1028501. 132 Nobel and Van der Meij, ‘“De Luijden sijn daer seer begeerich na”’, p. 221.

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Germany.133 The Tijdinghen uyt verscheyde Quartieren of Amsterdam advertised the sale on two separate occasions: 13 October 1657 (no. 41) and a fortnight later (no. 43): On 6 November the library of the late Andreas Rivet, consisting of many beautiful and rare books, will be auctioned in Leiden at the house of Pieter Leffen. The auction catalogue is available with the booksellers.134 The staging of the auction cost 783 gulden and 18 stuivers. Most of this considerable sum, 514 gulden and six penningen, went to Leffen as an auction fee. 237 gulden and 10 stuivers were paid for the printing of the 600 copies of the catalogue. The remaining costs paid for the two advertisements, fees to the overseers of the auction and the permission from the city to hold the sale.135 The catalogue was compiled on the basis of an inventory made of Rivet’s possessions almost immediately after his death.136 His wife sold the portion that was hers by right, valued up to 300 livres tournois (about 250 gulden), to be freed from the debts her late husband owed to booksellers throughout the Republic. She took several French devotional works for her own edification.137 Rivet’s collection of almost 5,000 books was one of the largest amongst ministers and theologians in the Republic during the Golden Age. Only a few of the 260 surviving auction catalogues of ministers’ book collections list over 5,000 books. The prestige of their office and the higher salary created an environment in which professors like Rivet could own more books. Furthermore, it would not be surprising if he received more books as gifts than a minister would. Theological faculty members were well-connected to those who were charged with calling prospective ministers. Giving gifts to curry favour with powerful people has been common throughout human history, and it was certainly so in the seventeenth century. Thomas Hobbes stated, ‘to give great gifts to a man is to honour him; because it is buying of protection and acknowledging 133 Ibid., p. 224. 134 ‘Den 6 November eerstkomende / sal tot Leyden ten huyse van Pieter Leffen, Boeckverkooper inde Klockstegh / by openbare Auctie werde verkoft de naergloten Bibliothecq van d’Heer Andreas Rivetus zal bestaende in veele schoone en rare Boecken / waer van de Catalogus by de Boeckverkoopers zijn te bekomen.’ Tijdinghen uyt verscheyde Quartieren, no. 41, 13 October 1657, and no. 43, 27 October 1657. Cf. Arthur der Weduwen, Dutch and Flemish Newspapers of the Seventeenth Century, 1618–1700, vol. 1 (Leiden: Brill, 2017), p. 306. 135 Nobel and Van der Meij, ‘“De Luijden sijn daer seer begeerich na”’, pp. 229–230. 136 Ibid., p. 220. 137 Ibid.

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Strickland The ten largest ministers’ collections which sold at auction in the seventeenth century

Owner

Year of sale

Residence

Total books

Balthazar Lydius Gisbertus Voetius Jacob Lydius Stephan le Moyne Wilhelmus Anslaar André Rivet Samuel Gruterus Johannes Cloppenburg Johannes Pechlinus Abdias Widmarius

1629 1677 1680 1689 1696 1657 1700 1653 1690 1668

Dordrecht Utrecht Dordrecht Leiden Amsterdam Breda Rotterdam Franeker Leiden Groningen

5,900 5,535 5,391 5,175 4,840 4,803 4,284 3,890 3,703 3,645

of power.’138 A student, then, could attempt to win over a professor by contributing to their book collections. Some of Rivet’s books certainly came from such sources. It would be wrong, however, to claim gifts were the bulk of his collection. Other professors owned significantly smaller collections than Rivet. Abraham Heidanus in Leiden owned 3,493 books.139 When the collection owned by the Groningen professor of theology Franciscus Gomarus sold in 1641, only 2,783 works were listed in his auction catalogue.140 Carolus de Maets owned 1,450 books, meagre in comparison to his contemporary in Utrecht, Gisbertus Voetius, with 5,535.141 With barely five hundred books, Sibrandus Lubbertus, the Franeker theologian, owned one of the smaller collections that sold at auction during the entire century.142 138 Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, ed. Michael Oakeshott (Oxford: Blackwell, 1960), p. 58. Cf. Heal, The Power of Gifts, p. 87. 139 Catalogus Instructissimae Bibliothecae D. Abrahami Heidani, S.S. Theol. in Acad. Lugd. Bat. Professoris (dum viveret) Senioris, Ecclesiaeque ibidem Pastoris dignissimi (Leiden: Felix Lopez de Haro & widow and heirs Adrianus Severinus, 1679). 140 Catalogus Librorum Reverendi atque eximii Theologi D. Francisci Gomari (Leiden: Bonaventura and Abraham Elzevier, 1641), USTC 1511696. 141 Catalogus librorum […] Caroli de Maets, theologiae doctoris […] auctio in aed. viduae […] (Utrecht: Johannes (I) Janssonius van Waesburge, 1651), Berlin, SBPK: Ap 8° 266:15. 142 Catalogus Librorum, Qui Ex Bibliotheca Reverendi & Celeberrimi Viri D. Sibrandi Lubberti (Franeker: Fredrick Heinsius, 1625), USTC 112248.

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table 7.2 The format of Rivet’s books compared to the average of 234 surviving ministerial catalogues from the seventeenth century

Folio Quartos Octavos Duodecimos

Rivet

Other ministers in the Dutch Republic

15.47% 26.53% 45.62% 12.39%

15.4% 28.13% 39.2% 16.9%

Rivet sought to build a substantial library, worthy of his profession and rank. His library easily matches the size and scope of other similarly reputed book collectors in the Republic during this time. 4,000 books were listed in the auction catalogue for the Leiden humanist (and colleague of Rivet) Daniel Heinsius’ book collection.143 Constantijn Huygens Jr., the statesman and poet, owned a collection of 6,000 books.144 Gaspar Fagel, Grand Pensionary of the States of Holland from 1672 to 1688, owned a respectable 2,804 books.145 Rivet’s library easily matched and in some cases surpassed these in size and scope. Rivet was a distinguished collector. The libraries of only a select number of professors and ministers rival his own. His library, though impressive and of equal standing to some high-ranking collectors of the Dutch Golden Age, was not a merely status symbol. Though such libraries were the domain of an elite group of theologians like the Lydius family or Gisbertus Voetius and influential citizens like Fagel and Huygens, Rivet’s library was not merely a monument to his wealth, reputation, or celebrity: it was a tool to be used for securing a more Reformed society. Though Rivet owned far more books than an average minister or professor in this time, in format and genre of books, Rivet’s collection is nearly identical to other ministers’ collections. Like all ministers in the Republic, he focused heavily on theological works, those books of most

143 Catalogus Variorum & Exquisitissimorum Librorum, Nobilissimi Doctissimique Viri Danielis Heinsii (Leiden: Pieter Leffen, 1656). 144 Bibliotheca Magna & Elegantissima Zuylichemiana, Rarissimorum Exquisitissimorumque Librorum, In omnibus Facultatibus & Linguis, Nobilissimi Viri D. Constantini Huygens (Leiden: Pieter vander Aa, 1701). 145 Catalogus Instructissimae & exquisitissimae Bibliothecae Illustrissimi Viri Gasparis Fagel (The Hague: Arnout (II) Leers, 1689).

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immediate value to his religious pursuits.146 Over sixty percent of his collection was comprised of biblical commentaries, devotional works, contemporary polemical writings, or theological treatises. These 3,082 works dwarf every other classification of books, with the next largest classification, philosophy and classics, at thirteen percent. Three quarters of Rivet’s books were written in Latin, about the same proportion as other ministers during the era. About half of Rivet’s books were printed in octavo, a quarter in quarto, and a quarter evenly divided between folio and duodecimo. What distinguishes Rivet’s collection is its depth and diversity. His collection of theological works in folio is illuminating on this point. Ministers during this era would usually own a few of the Church Fathers’ collected works with some commentaries and a few Bibles, all in folio. Rivet owned nearly twenty folio Bibles and New Testaments and numerous works by lesser known Church Fathers and medieval scholastics. In addition to standard works by the Church Fathers and sixteenth-century Protestant reformers, he read books by lesser known authors within the Christian tradition – for example, Thomas Bradwardine’s Libri de causa Dei contra Pelagium (London, 1618).147 Bradwardine’s work is rarely found in small collections. Table 7.3 A statistical overview of the books listed in André Rivet’s book auction catalogue

Folio Religion Bibles History Philosophy/Classics Linguistics Misc. Total

4o

8o

12mo

465 879 1,436 302 17 10 2 18 155 107 138 71 43 122 342 99 27 32 38 7 36 124 235 98 743 1,274a 2,191 595b (15.47%) (26.53%) (45.62%) (12.39%)

Total 3,082 (64.1%) 47 (0.978%) 471 (9.8%) 606 (12.62%) 104 (2.17%) 493 (10.26%) 4,803

a There are seven Italian or Spanish works listed as folio or quarto. I have included them in the quartos. b There are fifteen Italian or Spanish works listed as octavo or duodecimo. I have included them in the duodecimos. 146 For a statistical analysis of all surviving catalogues of ministers’ book collections during this era, see Forrest C. Strickland, Protestant Ministers and their books in the Dutch Republic, 1607–1700 (2 vols., Leiden: Brill, forthcoming). 147 USTC 3008007.

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table 7.4 Rivet’s collection divided by language compared to the average of 234 surviving ministerial catalogues from the seventeenth century

Latin Scholarly Vernacular French Italian Spanish Dutch English German Total:



Rivet

Other ministers

3,661 (76.22%) 242 (5.03%) 900 (18.73%) 868 (18.07%) 25 (0.521%) 4 (.083%) 3 (.062%) 0 0 4,803 books

915 (68.33%) 50.8 (3.793%) 373.6 (27.84%) 97.58 (7.35%) 6.5 (0.48%) >1 (>.076%) 179 (13.4%) 58.69 (4.4%) 28.67 (2.14%) 1,339 books

Diligent in Study

André Rivet moved from one country to the next: he was born in France, he moved to Switzerland to study theology, returned to France as a minister and finally to the Dutch Republic. Once in his adopted home, he moved almost every ten years: from Leiden, to The Hague and finally Breda. But he always kept his books with him. From his earliest days as chaplain in Thouars to his final hours in Breda, Rivet cared deeply about his books. And in those intervening years, he built a collection that stood out amongst men in his profession. When his collection was sold in 1657, his books were dispersed throughout the Republic and beyond. Some of his books, though, remained in Leiden. The professor’s former university bought his collection of Socinian books, about twenty in total.148 Rivet was a precocious user of books. The auction catalogue for his collection offers the most complete view of his book collection at his death; the correspondence he sent and received explains how he acquired many of the books listed in his collection. When used together, these sources present an image of a theologian who acquired books incessantly: buying some for himself and receiving others as gifts. He waited impatiently for controversial books 148 Elfriede Hulshoff Pol, ‘The Library’, in Scheuleer and Posthumus Meyjes (eds.), Leiden University in the Seventeenth Century, p. 407.

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to be printed, so he could read them and write a response – even going as far as getting sample pages before the book’s release. To say Rivet valued books is an understatement. With 4,803 works listed, the auction catalogue for his collection indicates the seriousness with which Rivet treated books. When he died in 1651, a flood of eulogies and laudatory poems celebrated the illustrious professor’s life. He was a praised as faithful servant of the Republic and the Church. Theologians across Europe extolled his erudition as a scholar, his faithfulness to Reformed orthodoxy, and his personal piety in the Christian faith. One eulogy commented on his collection. Rivet was aptly given the title, ‘glutton for books.’149 149 ‘Librorum helluo.’ Georgius Revellus, Clarissimi Viri Andreae Riveti, in Rivet, Operum Theologicorum, III, f. ***r.

chapter 8

Networks of Devotion: Auction Catalogues and the Catholic Book Trade in Amsterdam, 1650–1700 Elise Watson On 13 November 1698, booksellers Louis and Hendrik van Dole placed an advertisement in a local Holland newspaper. In five days’ time, on 18 November, it read, they would hold a public auction in their bookshop in The Hague, for the purpose of selling ‘a curious library in all faculties and languages … with a good quantity of [books by] Roman theologians’.1 The advertisement also specified that the catalogue of books included in this sale could be found in the shops of booksellers in Amsterdam, Haarlem, Leiden, Rotterdam, Delft, Gouda, Dordrecht and Utrecht. Such an advertisement may have scandalised the local Reformed minister, who would have known all too well that the States of Holland had banned the printing and distribution of blasphemous books. However, for the large population of literate Catholics across the Dutch Republic, concentrated in Holland, Utrecht and the Generality Lands, such an auction represented an important opportunity and point of access to the printed texts that guided and sustained their faith as they saw it in partibus infidelium, in the lands of the unbelievers. The sale of private Catholic libraries through public auction in the Dutch Republic, promoted through newspaper advertisements and the advance distribution of catalogues, created and sustained a second-hand corpus of classic Catholic texts in the second half of the seventeenth century. Booksellers used the mechanism of the auction to redistribute and recycle the collections of priests and other individuals with large libraries, meeting local and regional demand for a wide range of texts of the Catholic faith. In Amsterdam, public auctions gave affluent members of the Catholic community access to a sizeable and flourishing assemblage of confessional literature, bolstered by the wide-reaching international distribution networks of fellow Catholics. Catholic print occupied a significant role in the book trade of the Dutch Golden Age. As the seven United Provinces separated themselves from Imperial Habsburg rule during the Dutch Revolt, and the Reformed Church became the 1 Extraordinaire Haerlemse Donderdaegse Courant no. 46 (Haarlem: Abraham Casteleyn, 13 November 1698).

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2021 | doi:10.1163/9789004422247_009

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public face of religion in the newly formed Republic, local governments and the States General banned the public practice of Roman Catholicism beginning in the 1570s.2 However, enabled in part by the legal right to freedom of private belief guaranteed by the 1579 Union of Utrecht, Catholicism continued to grow and thrive in the Dutch Republic. By the middle of the seventeenth century almost half the total population had at least marginal associations to Catholicism, which included around one-third of those living in the seven provinces and the vast majority of the population of the Generality Lands, conquered territories in the South governed directly by the States-General after the end of the Eighty Years’ War, corresponding roughly to the present day province of North Brabant.3 In 1650, the city of Amsterdam housed at least 26 distinct places of Catholic worship, including separate churches for the Jesuit, Augustinian, Franciscan and Carmelite orders, and 40 priests to minister to a community of over 20,000 believers. This represented a substantial religious minority in a city of perhaps 150,000 total inhabitants.4 Such a large population required a correspondingly large selection of literature, and both Catholic and non-Catholic booksellers worked to address this need.5 As Lienke Paulina Leuven has demonstrated in her study of guild registers in Amsterdam, between 1581 and 1700 at least 61 identifiably Catholic tradespeople worked in the book industry as printers, publishers, booksellers and bookbinders. Many of these individuals published only Catholic material. Though productive, this group never exceeded four percent of the membership of the booksellers’ and artists’ guilds in the seventeenth century.6 Wealthy non-Catholic printers in Amsterdam such as Joan Blaeu, son of renowned cartographer Willem Blaeu, and Louis Elzevier of the famous Elzevier printing dynasty freely capitalised on the profitability of the industry by producing Catholic liturgical and devotional books, sometimes even accepting commissions from priests and ecclesiastical officials in Antwerp that would have been difficult for printers with fewer presses to produce. Blaeu printed so 2 Christine Kooi, Calvinists and Catholics During Holland’s Golden Age: Heretics and Idolaters (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), ch. 1 ‘War and Peace’, pp. 16–43. 3 Charles H. Parker, Faith on the Margins: Catholics and Catholicism in the Dutch Golden Age (London: Harvard University Press, 2008), pp. 17, 147. 4 Xander van Eck, Clandestine Splendor: Paintings for the Catholic Church in the Dutch Republic (Zwolle: Waanders Publishers, 2008), pp. 111–12. 5 Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen, The Bookshop of the World: Making and Trading Books in the Dutch Golden Age (London: Yale University Press, 2019), pp. 338–344. 6 Lienke Paulina Leuven, De Boekhandel te Amsterdam door Katholieken gedreven tijdens de Republiek (Epe: Drukkerij Hooiberg, 1951), pp. 11, 34.

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many Catholic books that he hired a Jesuit priest, Bartholdus Nihusius, as his proofreader and overseer. In 1672, the Antwerp Jesuit Daniel Papebroek commissioned Blaeu to print several volumes of the Acta Sanctorum, a compilation of the lives of saints created by the Bollandists. Only a fire in the printing shop prevented this project from seeing the light of day.7 Like its Reformed counterpart, the rituals and practices of Catholic life required many different kinds of texts for both clergy and laity. To observe the Liturgy of the Hours and the Mass, priests needed a selection of liturgical books: missals, breviaries, offices of saints, psalters and graduals, as well as processionals and pontificals for ceremonial occasions. They also needed material for religious education: catechisms, ecclesiastical histories, medieval and patristic writings, and works of contemporary theology and anti-Protestant polemic. Most importantly, Catholics in the Republic required a constant stream of devotional books, lives of saints, and prayer manuals that sustained the day-to-day faith of the believer. Prayer books instructed pious individuals how to live, read, pray and even sleep, structuring their daily lives with contemplation and prayer, and their monthly and yearly calendars around observances of high holy days and the feast days of saints. Priests and ecclesiastical officials envisioned those committed to Roman Catholicism living a life apart, worshipping exclusively in hidden house churches and educating their children with catechisms of the old faith. The introduction of printed auction and stock catalogues provides a valuable window into how members of the Catholic community addressed this necessity for the texts of everyday spiritual life. Over the last decade, the tens of thousands of catalogues distributed in advance of the sale of a private library or collection in the Dutch Republic have become more accessible, thanks to digitisation practices and new databases like Brill’s Book Sales Catalogues Online. Research projects like the Universal Short Title Catalogue at the University of St Andrews have utilised quantitative bibliographical data from catalogues to identify lost titles and editions. The recent consolidation of large-scale national bibliography projects like the Short Title Catalogue Netherlands and the Short Title Catalogue Flanders, which aim to record all printed publications in Dutch or within the boundaries of the modern-day Netherlands and Flanders up to 1800, have also contributed significantly to a more complete picture than ever before of the scale and scope of the Dutch book trade.

7 I.H. van Eeghen, ‘De Acta Sanctorum en het drukken van katholieke boeken in Antwerpen en Amsterdam in de 17e eeuw’, De Gulden Passer, 31 (1953), pp. 52–53.

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Private libraries and collections also contain literal and symbolic-conceptual meaning. Though auction catalogues were seldom compiled by the owner, the collection of books itself functioned as an engaged process of creating meaning. The process of assembling an individual library and the bookseller-auctioneer’s eventual job of recording, advertising, and selling the collection were dual acts of material self-definition and memory preservation.8 As Theo Clemens observed in his 1988 study of Catholic church book registers in the Netherlands, library lists can function as a mirror of Catholic spirituality, reflecting the values and identities of the reader and their bibliographical world. However, as he cautions, this reflection is an imperfect one, as these lists valued texts not according to their level of use, but rather their format, language, age and binding.9 In the same way, personal library catalogues and bookseller stock catalogues reflect the collecting and purchasing habits of their owners, though with the crucial caveat that these catalogues tended to privilege expensive, large-format Latinate texts over smaller vernacular texts, or the sort of devotional ephemera that would have been unlikely to make much money at a sale. One should also note that the fact that a collector owned a text does not necessary imply that it was heavily used, though one could perhaps expect, given the added difficulties of building a library in the Catholic community, that these collections were more freighted with personal meaning.

Advertising Auctions in Dutch Newspapers

In the seventeenth century, booksellers began to use newspapers to advertise their sales across the Republic. These advertisements highlighted particular features of individual collections and gave practical details regarding the date and location of the auction, followed by a list of cities in which the catalogue for the auction could be found, and their distributors. Booksellers advertised and sold the private libraries of many Catholic priests and noblemen in this way.10 Of the surviving advertisements examined here, all appear in Haarlem

8 9 10

Liesbeth Corens, ‘Dislocation and Record-Keeping: The Counter Archives of the Catholic Diaspora’, Past & Present, 230 (2016), pp. 271–2. Theo Clemens, De godsdienstigheid in de Nederlanden in de spiegel van de katholieke kerkboeken 1680–1840 (Tilburg: Tilburg University Press, 1988), pp. 34–36. For more on newspaper advertisements see Arthur der Weduwen and Andrew Pettegree, The Dutch Republic and the Birth of Modern Advertising (Leiden: Brill, 2020) and their News, Business and Public Information. Advertisements and Public Announcements in Dutch and Flemish Newspapers, 1620–1675 (Leiden: Brill, 2020). This second volume contains an

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newspapers between 1650 and 1700. The proliferation of detailed advertisements and the lengths to which booksellers went to advertise auctions indicates their importance to the trade of Catholic books in Amsterdam. These advertisements sought to highlight the attractive features of the collections up for auction. Though few went so far as to name ‘a good quantity of Roman theologians’, as in the example that began this chapter, these auction advertisements usually took the time to highlight notable features of the auctioned collection. The Amsterdam bookseller Adriaan Schoonebeek advertised the auction of the Catholic priest Pieter Coenissen’s library with particular mention of ‘a Blaeu atlas, 11 books, in French binding’, which was sure to fetch an immense sum.11 Other times the advertisement included a brief description of the library’s composition, such as in the Leiden bookseller Pieter van der Meersche’s advertisement for the auction of the Haarlem Catholic priest Cornelius Hagius. He included a description of ‘very beautiful books in good condition in theology, law, history, and literature, as well as some in medicine and mathematics’.12 Booksellers also frequently mentioned the most interesting features of libraries, particularly when it was a diverse or rich collection of note: Nicolaas Braau, a Catholic bookseller in Haarlem, advertised the sale of the books of the nobleman Johan de Kies van Wissen, from a distinguished Catholic family, by noting the presence of ‘different faculties and languages’.13 Along with these details, advertisements often included a list of the booksellers, typically one per city, who held stocks of the catalogues to distribute to potential bidders. The number of these locations varied widely, from three or four for a smaller auction to the eleven cities listed for the auction of Cornelius Hagius. For auctions occurring within the Republic, the locations of the booksellers holding catalogues almost always included Amsterdam, Leiden, Haarlem and The Hague, extending beyond in the case of larger sales. The Hagius auction lists booksellers in Amsterdam, Haarlem, The Hague, Delft, Rotterdam, Dordrecht, Gouda, Utrecht, Den Bosch, Leeuwarden and Franeker, and a number of unspecified ‘other cities’.14 With each city came the name of a bookseller responsible for circulating the catalogue, many of whom appear in many advertisements as recognised distributors. Those who ran or facilitated auctions with a significant Catholic component, such as Frederik van Metelen

11 12 13 14

English version of the first 6,000 advertisements published in Dutch newspapers, half of them for books. Oprechte Haerlemsche courant no. 16 (Haarlem: Abraham Casteleyn, 22 February 1698). Oprechte Haerlemsche Saturdaegse Courant (OHSC) no. 35 (Haarlem: Abraham Casteleyn, 30 August 1698). OHSC no. 20 (Haarlem: Abraham Casteleyn, 13 May 1684). OHSC no. 35 (Haarlem: Abraham Casteleyn, 30 August 1698).

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of Amsterdam or Nicolaas Braau of Haarlem, were usually booksellers of the middling sort, not among the wealthiest in the industry but with substantial businesses producing mostly Catholic literature. In some cases, the sale of an individual’s library took place across multiple auctions. Henricus Loyens, rector and ecclesiastical law professor at the Catholic University of Louvain, died in 1686, and in an issue dated 24 July 1687 the Extraordinaire Haerlemse Donderdaeghse Courant advertised an auction of his collection to take place on 18 August in Louvain. The advertisement notes that different printers in eight Protestant and Catholic cities, Antwerp, Brussels, Cologne, Ghent, Paris, Haarlem, Leiden and Amsterdam, would make the catalogue available locally.15 This catalogue, Catalogus instructissimae et copiosissimae bibliothecae quondam ampliss. Viri D. Henrici Loyens (Louvain: Aegidium Denique, 1687), lists over 7,500 titles in Loyens’ collection.16 Eight years later, in May 1695, part of Loyens’ collection resurfaced in Leiden, in the form of a catalogue of 2,504 titles sold by bookseller Johannes du Vivié through public auction.17 In August 1697, Pieter van der Meersche, also a Leiden bookseller, used the Oprechte Haerlemsche Courant to advertise a third auction of Loyens’ books ‘in very good condition’. This catalogue, containing no traceable overlap with du Vivié’s catalogue two years before, lists 2,067 titles.18 Van der Meersche’s catalogue was distributed by booksellers in Amsterdam, Haarlem, The Hague, Delft, Rotterdam, Dordrecht, Gouda, Hoorn, Franeker, Leeuwarden and Utrecht, all within the Republic and in fact a larger number of cities than the original advertisement.19 These auctions hosted by du Vivié and van der Meersche almost a decade after the original sale demonstrate the healthy market for second-hand Catholic books in Holland. Whereas less than half of Loyens’ collection sold in Louvain, its international appeal was worth the time and cost of transporting thousands of texts north to Leiden for two of the largest auctions of the seventeenth century for a Southern Netherlandish collection. While booksellers of all confessions used advertisements to draw attention to their public auctions, the smaller subcommunity of Catholics in the book trade necessitated that each bookseller distribute his or her co-religionists’ 15 Extraordinaire Haerlemse Donderdaeghse Courant no. 30 (Haarlem: Abraham Casteleyn, 24 July 1687). 16 Catalogus instructissimae et copiosissimae bibliothecae quondam ampliss. Viri D. Henrici Loyens (Louvain: Aegidium Denique, 1687). 17 Catalogus non minimae partis exquisitae & instructissimae Bibliothecae  … D. Henrici Loyens (Leiden: Johannes Du Vivié, 1695). 18 Catalogus Librorum … D. Henrici Loyens, J.V.D. (Leiden: Pieter van der Meersche, 1697). 19 OHSC no. 34 (Haarlem: Abraham Casteleyn, 24 August 1697).

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catalogues more often. Whether through the individual’s name and identity as a Catholic priest or nobleman, the bookseller’s reputation as a member of a particular confessional group, or the explicit description of the collection as one with a large amount of Catholic theology, these advertisements identified particular auctions as opportunities for the sale of confession-specific texts. The example of Henricus Loyens also demonstrates Leiden’s prominence as a hub for the sale of the most distinguished scholarly collections, from the Dutch Republic and beyond. The scholarly collection of a Catholic professor of ecclesiastical law sold far better in the Reformed university town of Leiden than in Catholic Louvain, where Loyens lived and worked for decades. The geographical scope of these advertisements speaks to the far-reaching demand for Catholic books in the second-hand public auction market.

Clerical Library Catalogues

Whether the bookseller and auctioneer had placed an advertisement in the newspaper or not, he or she would have printed and distributed the catalogue of the individual’s collection in advance of the auction. Amsterdam, a city with a large population both of affluent Catholics and highly educated, well-trained priests, became a centre for these public events. Since priests often came to Amsterdam having been trained in Louvain or Cologne, they often had extensive libraries with a large component of international imprints. They also, as career celibates, rarely had heirs with a claim to their collections. Public auctions provided a valuable outlet to disperse these libraries among local booksellers, other priests and educated members of the Catholic community. The catalogues of four Catholic priests whose libraries were auctioned in the second half of the seventeenth century are surveyed below (Table 8.1). Though all contemporaries, these priests occupied divergent roles in the service of the Catholic Church in the Republic. Two of them, Leonard Marius and Simon Kleyn, belonged to the Society of Jesus, and thus had additional responsibilities as regular priests belonging to a monastic order along with their institutional and parochial duties. The others, Anthonius van Mierlo and Joannes Ruysch, as secular priests had no formal affiliations with monastic orders, only duties to their respective parishes. Despite the divergence of vocation, area of residence, and even size of collection, the catalogues of their collections prepared by Amsterdam booksellers in preparation for public auction bear remarkable similarities.

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table 8.1 Survey of priest auction catalogues

Priests Surveyed

Occupation

Location of Auction/Printer

Year of Affiliation Total Auction(s) Books

Leonard Marius

Priest of Begijnhof, Amsterdam Priest in Tilburg

Amsterdam: Hendrik Barentsz. Hartoghvelta Amsterdam: Adriaen van Gaasbeeckb Amsterdam: Machteld Kieft, widow of Joachim van Metelenc Amsterdam: Frederik van Metelend

1653

Regular (Jesuit)

790

1677

Secular

1,575

1679

Regular (Jesuit)

676

1681

Secular

434

Anthonius van Mierlo

Simon Kleyn Priest in Ouderkerk aan de Amstel

Joannes Ruysch

Priest in Amsterdam

a Bibliotheca D. Leonardi Marii p.m. Vendetur Amstelaedami. (Amsterdam: [Hendrik Barentsz. Hartoghvelt], 1653). b Catalogus Rarissimorum  … Librorum  … Bibliothecae Reverendi Dom. Simonis Cleyn. (Amsterdam: vidiae Joachimi à Metelen, 1679). c Catalogus Instructissimae Bibliothecae  … Anthonii à Mierloo, Theologi Pastoris olim in Tielburgh (Amsterdam: Adrianum à Gaesbeek, 1677). London, BL: SC 534:2. d Catalogus Variorum & insignium in omni Facultate, Materia & Lingua Librorum, Praecipuè vero Theologicorum & Miscellaneorum D. Joannis Ruys (Amsterdam: Frederik van Metelen, 1681).

Table 8.2 below shows a general breakdown by genre of these priests’ collections. Along with a wide range of spiritual classics, including theology, ecclesiastical history and Biblical commentary, priests also had access to current devotional, liturgical, and polemical texts written by their peers across the continent. Among these four figures, Catholic texts made up approximately two-thirds of their entire collection, while a small minority of Protestant theological works and miscellaneous non-religious books composed the rest. Texts that corresponded to every part of the Christian life, from the richly decorated folio liturgical books intended for use in the Mass to the basic catechisms that described the decrees of the Council of Trent and everyday tenets of the faith, fill the pages of these catalogues in remarkably similar proportions.

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Networks of Devotion table 8.2 Genres represented in priest catalogues

Leonard Marius

Anthonius van Mierlo

Bibles 25 47 Biblical Commentary 100 243 Ecclesiastical History 25 41 Patristics 59 75 Medieval Theology 24 30 Contemporary Catholic 181 451 Theology Liturgy 12 16 Devotional 11 62 Catechism 8 20 Sermons 20 58 Lives of Saints/Martyrology 12 17 Monastic Rule/Order 7 1 Controversy/Polemic 27 110 All Confessional 511 (65%) 1,171 (74%) Religious Books Protestant Theology 21 9 Local History 30 35 Reference 14 21 Classical 80 49 Miscellany 134 290 All Non-Confessional Books 279 (35%) 404 (26%) TOTAL 790 1,575

Simon Kleyn

Joannes Ruysch

4 43 12 15 11 222

5 26 17 15 13 129

16 45 8 49 12 4 20 461 (68%)

9 15 6 41 3 1 16 267 (62%)

2 24 8 31 150 215 (32%) 676

1 29 5 19 84 167 (38%) 434

However, the particular makeup varied based on the individual’s preferences and interests. Simon Kleyn, a Jesuit who spent his career on the outskirts of Amsterdam, owned a much higher proportion of vernacular devotional texts than the other priests. Conversely, Leonard Marius, who was both pastor at the Begijnhof and vicar-general of the Dutch Mission, as well as a noted and well-respected scholar of Hebrew and sometimes controversialist, had a much higher proportion of biblical commentary, polemic and Protestant theology. As Willem Frijhoff’s 1977 study of priests’ library registers previously demonstrated, far from being members of an isolated religious minority, these figures

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were well-read and engaged in the Tridentine spirit and the theological controversies of the day.20 In some ways, these breakdowns reflect a typical ministerial collection regardless of confession. While in some cases, new editions of classic patristic or medieval texts indicated a particular confessional orientation, the auction catalogues of both Catholic priests and Reformed ministers indicate that they owned Bibles, biblical commentaries, and works by the great thinkers of Christian antiquity such as Augustine, Clement of Alexandria and Bernard of Clairvaux. Both groups also tended to own local and ecclesiastical histories across confessions: the Catholic priest and theologian Leonard Marius owned seven volumes of the Centuriatores Magdeburgici, a Lutheran ecclesiastical history first written in the 1550s, while the Reformed minister and theologian Gisbertius Voetius owned five volumes of Caesar Baronius’ Annales Ecclesiastici, which outlined an orthodox Catholic history in response. Catholic priests and Reformed ministers had the same essential responsibility: meeting the spiritual needs of the lay people in their care. While both Voetius and Marius wrote strongly contrasting theology and polemic, their catalogues demonstrate that they were well-read in opposing confessions. Though these four catalogues demonstrate a particular concentration of Catholic books, it is difficult to find any private collection from the Dutch Republic advertised by an auction catalogue that does not include at least one breviary, the life of a saint, or work by a theologian like Robert Bellarmine. The Utrecht professor of theology Gisbertus Voetius owned eight Catholic liturgical books, mostly missals and breviaries, books of theology by no less than twelve seventeenth-century Jesuits, a hagiographic life of St Ignatius of Loyola, and a religious tract by missionary archbishop Philip Rovenius.21 Similarly, Willem Ploos van Amstel, a jurist and statesmen in Utrecht, owned a fairly substantial collection of liturgical, apologetic and polemical Catholic works, as well as anti-Catholic works and books of ordinances on the elimination of heresy in Utrecht. His auction catalogue lists copies of the Acta Sanctorum and multiple biographies and hagiographies of St Francis beside argumentative tracts on the blasphemy of the Pope and the devilish work of the Jesuits.22 While the primary audience for Catholic books was Catholics themselves, they maintained a universal presence in the Dutch book trade, even if Reformed ministers and 20 Willem Frijhoff, ‘Vier Hollandse Priesterbibliotheken uit de Zeventiende Eeuw’, Ons Geestelike Erf, 51 (1977), pp. 198–302. 21 Bibliothecae Variorum & Insignium Librorum, Theologicorum & Miscellaneorum, Reverendi & Celeberrimi Viri D. Gisberti Voetii [Pars prior & posterior] (Utrecht: Willem Clerck, 1677 & 1679). Many thanks to Forrest Strickland for sharing his transcription of this data. 22 Catalogus Variorum & Insignium Librorum, Praecipue Juridicorum, Nobilissimi Dom. Guilhelmi Ploos ab Amstel (Utrecht: Dirck van Ackersdijck, 1667).

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scholars owned these books in order to refute them. These auctions, therefore, appealed to a wide audience. The auctioneer stood to make substantial profits from these events. The single extant copy of the catalogue of Anthonius van Mierlo in the British Library contains a limited number of manuscript price annotations presumably added during the auction, which help in providing an overall impression of the catalogue’s value. The most valuable item, a thirty-seven volume history of ecumenical councils printed in Paris, sold for 220 gulden, the entire annual income of a manual labourer and about half the typical yearly salary of a Reformed minister.23 Van Mierlo’s forty-seven Bibles and other large Latinate theological folios commanded substantial sums as well: at least three seventeenth-century Biblical editions sold for 40 gulden or more apiece.24 Though the catalogue does not list the total earnings from the auction, based on the existing annotations it was likely in excess of a thousand gulden. The auction catalogue of the Amsterdam Catholic priest Justus Modersohn was printed by Pieter van der Meersche in the neighbouring town of Leiden. A surviving copy in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France records in manuscript that the sale of theology books in folio format alone raised 1,736 gulden and 13 stuivers, approximately half of the collection’s total earnings of 3,368 gulden and 17 stuivers.25 Though these collections provided important resources for the Catholic community in Amsterdam, the majority of texts in these collections were several decades old at the time of their sale (Table 8.3 and Figure 8.1 below). Overall, only four percent of all books in these auction catalogues record a date of publication within ten years of the death of the owner. Though these catalogues contain comparatively few incunabula or even sixteenth-century books, at least half of each priest’s collection was published in the first half of the seventeenth century, meaning that he either owned the text in question for several decades, or acquired it after it had already been in circulation for a substantial period of time. Simon Kleyn, who had the highest amount of both vernacular and devotional books, also had the most recent, with 7% of his collection dating from the decade before his death.

23

Willem Frijhoff and Marijke Spies, Dutch Culture in a European Perspective: 1650, hard-won unity (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), p. 23; the text in question is Conciliorum Omnium Generalium Et Provincialium Collectio Regia (Paris: Typographia Regia, 1644). 24 Catalogus Instructissimae Bibliothecae Anthonii à Mierloo, 2r–3v. 25 Catalogus Instructissimae Bibliothecae Amplissimi ac Doctissimi Viri, Justi Modersohn, P.A. In qua omne Genus Exquisitissimorum Librorum in Theologia, Jure, Medicina, Mathesi, Historiis & quavis denique Disciplina & Lingua (Leiden: Pieter van der Meersche, 1693), 1r–v.

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table 8.3 Text age in priest auction catalogues by number

Blank Before 1500 1500–1550 1551–1600 1601–1650 After 1650

Leonard Marius

Anthonius van Mierlo

Simon Kleyn

Joannes Ruysch

116 (15%) 3 (