An Introduction to the Study of Bibliography. To which is prefixed a Memoir on the Public Libraries of the Antients

Folding frontis., 11 plates (several folding), & numerous text illus. (including facsimiles & type specimens). xvi, i-[xxvi], [27]-402 pp.; 1 p.l., [403]-758, [2], clvi pp. Two vols. Large 8vo, mid-19th cent. half-morocco & marbled boards, joints & extremities rubbed, spines gilt, t.e.g. London: T. Cadell & W. Davies, 1814.

First edition, a large and thick paper set. "This is a very valuable work to the student of the history of printing."­Bigmore & Wyman, I, p. 345. Topics include paper, MSS., history and techniques of printing, (truncated) bookbinding, the nature of rarity, classification systems, bibliographies, catalogues and reference books, etc.

"Thomas Hartwell Horne relied largely on Peignot, but made some independent additions. He names (pp. 564-614) perhaps a hundred and fifty institutional catalogues published outside the British Isles. His references to catalogues printed in the latter part of the eighteenth century are especially valuable. Few bibliographers have mentioned catalogues of Russian and Turkish libraries and few European bibliographers have cited those issued by Harvard College (1790) and the Library Company of Philadelphia (1807). Horne's list (pp. 614-637) of these and other foreign libraries has not been completely replaced by any later list."­Taylor, Book Catalogues, p. 209 & see pp. 16, 118, 188, 214, & 220.

A very good set on large and thick paper..

Besterman 784 & 3561. (Inventory #: 164)