Bill's Virtual Library

I've liked books for as long as I can remember, and have accumulated a small, but nice collection over the years. Lately, my interests have moved towards early printing - particularly books published before 1600. Some of the highlights of my collection follow.

Lycosthenes [Conrad Wollfhart], Prodigiorum ac Ostentorum Chronicon... Published in Basle, Switzerland in 1557, this is a chronicle of portents and omens. It lists comets, earthquakes, floods, etc. and tries to correlate them with human affairs. When I first started collecting books, I bought a single leaf from another copy of this book. The leaf didn't identify the book, and I later tried to translate it from Latin to English. In the process, I discovered the identity of the book and a few years later located a complete copy at an antiquarian book fair in Los Angeles. Among the most impressive woodcuts in the book are a two-page spread of sea monsters. Here are the left and right pages.

Marchesinus, Johannes, Mammotrectus super Bibliam... This is my oldest complete book, published in 1506, and one of my most attractive. If is effectively "Cliff's Notes" for the less educated priests of the day. I ran across a (derisive) reference to it by Erasmus in his 1515 letter to Martin Dorp (see footnote). Like many early printed books, it was rubricated (highlighted in red). I'm guessing that the rubrication was done by the owner. It was diligently done, but not terribly skillfully. There are also lots of marginal notations in what appears to be the same hand. Click here for a sample page.

Ovidus Naso, Metamorphoseos.... A copy of Ovid's Metamorphosis published in 1518, I was attracted to this book by the woodcuts. Here is a sample.

Fabyan, Richarde, Fabyans Cronycle of Englande and France. This is my oldest book in English, published in London by William Rastell in 1533. It's the second edition of a history of England and France (with emphasis on London where Fabyan was an official). As history go, this one doesn't seem to have garnered much respect by historians. Much of the material is collected from other secondary sources, but in the few references to it that I've seen, it is looked to for info on local London happenings. My copy is a bit incomplete and in somewhat poor condition, but it is fun to read. At first it's a little hard, but by sounding out the words you can quickly get past the archaic spellings. Click here to give it a try.

Medieval manuscripts. Some of my earliest aquisitions were single leafs from medieval manuscripts. Here is a scan of the most attractive, a leaf from a book of hours from about 1450. The one I find the most interesting is a leaf from a bible. It was done in England in about 1220, and has incredibly small writing. I'd scan it, but I've got it framed at the moment.

If you're interested, follow this link for a complete inventory of my library (as of 1994)