[PW] the cult of the first edition

[Barbara Bussart]

  This looks like it might be what you need.  They mention first editions as
well as original editions.
Hope this helps.

Barb Bussart
**
*History*
 Contemporary accounts mention personal manuscript collections in ancient
Egypt, Greece, and Rome; because manuscript media—scrolls and papyri—were
scarce and expensive (and illiteracy general), collecting was confined to
religious leaders and heads of state. During the Middle Ages monastic
institutions were the main accumulators of valuable manuscripts. *   2* Book
collecting proper began after the invention of movable type (c.1437) and the
proliferation of inexpensive books. The aim of early collectors, such as
Willibald Pirkheimer (1470–1530) and Jean Grolier de
Servières<http://bartleby.com/65/gr/Grolierd.html>,
was to assemble personal working libraries. Many early collections became
the cornerstones of public libraries. The Bodleian
Library<http://bartleby.com/65/bo/Bodleian.html>at Oxford and the
Harleian
Library <http://bartleby.com/65/ha/Harleian.html> of the British Museum were
founded respectively on the private collections of Sir Thomas Bodley and
Robert Harley, 1st earl of Oxford. By the end of the 17th cent., book
auctioning was common throughout Europe. *   3* In the 18th cent. collectors
shifted their focus from building up libraries to seeking original editions,
including incunabula <http://bartleby.com/65/in/incunabu.html>, of earlier
works. At first criteria were more visual than literary: early printing,
fancy binding, and colorful illumination. Richard Heber (1773–1833),
whose *collection
of first editions* of literature and history filled several houses, was one
of the first collectors to consider contextual factors primary. *   4*  During
the 19th cent. first editions of native contemporary literature began to
attract book collectors. The two most notable collectors of the second half
of the century were Henry Huth (1815–78), an Englishman, and Robert Hoe, the
first important American collector. In 1884 Hoe became the first president
of the newly founded Grolier Club, a New York-based society dedicated to the
appreciation of fine book production. The three greatest American book
collectors were Henry Clay Folger <http://bartleby.com/65/fo/Folger-H.html>,
John Pierpont Morgan (see under
Morgan<http://bartleby.com/65/mo/Morgan.html>family), and Henry E.
Huntington <http://bartleby.com/65/hu/HuntngtH.html>. During the 20th cent.
book collecting on the massive scale practiced by Huntington has declined.
Institutional libraries now vie with private collectors for rare books
dispersed by auction and through antiquarian bookshops.

http://bartleby.com/65/bo/bookcoll.html
*   5*

On 8/16/07, Kevin O'Kelly <rkokelly at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> The patron is me so no rush. I am reviewing a novel set in 1857, and am
> occasionally struck by anachronistic language. In the chapter I finished
> last night, the main character is in a Boston bookshop and finds  a first
> edition of Rasselas--using that exact phrase in a discussion with a friend.
> 1857 strikes me as rather early for the concept of 'a first edition' to be
> on a bibliophile's mind.
>
> My library is rather short on books on collecting. Does anyone have any
> idea when the concept of the first edition came into being?
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Kevin
>
>
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-- 
Barbara J. Bussart
Chief Information and Adult Services Librarian
Woonsocket Harris Public Library
303 Clinton St.
Woonsocket, RI 02895
401-767-4124 (voice)
401-767-4120 (fax)
http://www.woonsocketlibrary.org
barbarbt at gmail.com