Great Books and Book Collectors

London: Chancellor Press. Very Good/Very Good. 1975. First Edition. Hard Cover. Folio - over 12" - 15" tall 0907486134 Dust jacket price clipped, rubbed to top of spine. Bright clear illustrated cloth boards. Bright clear titling on spine. No ownership inscription. 40 colour and 250 b/w illustrations. ALAN G. THOMAS, the eminent bookseller, here tells the story of some of the world's greatest books, their creation and survival, and' the men who were responsible for them. Unlike many writers on the subject, he never loses sight of their importance as landmarks in the history of mankind. Beginning with manuscripts from their emergence in the Dark Ages down to the Renaissance, he discusses many fascinating o aspects of the subject: the invention of. printing - Gutenberg, Aldus and Caxton, and the beautiful early woodcut books; bookbinding, from the Gospel found in the coffin of St Cuthbert to the superb work. of French craftsmen still alive today; the heroic. story of early editions of the Bible, and the Bible in Hebrew, both of'which were often produced under conditions of persecution; the fifteenthocentury herbals, the beautiful colour' plate flower books such as Redoute and Thornton's Temple of Flora, and a charming-example of the art of book production, English books with coloured aquatint plates; the great books produced by Palladio, Gibbs and Robert Adam which did so much to influence architecture in Europe and America. Alan Thomas also considers the achievements of the New World, from the letter in which Columbus announced his discovery of . America to one of the finest ornithological works ever produced - Audubon's The Birds of America. In more recent times he discusses` the revival of printing_ through the Private Press movement, why first editions are collected, and recounts an astonishing series of fakes and forgeries. Finally, he follows the history of great book collectors, from men like Sir Robert Cotton who salvaged the manuscripts scattered by the sack of the monasteries to the great American collectors -Pierpont Morgan and Henry Huntington - who established libraries fully comparable to those of the Old World. The lively text and many beautiful illustrations, chosen from the finest books ever produced, do justice to the subject as one of the most glorious achievements of Western civilization. .