Lot 243
Naude, Gabriel
Rare Books, Maps, Manuscripts & Photographs
Auction: 10 January 2007 at 11:00 GMT
Description
Instructions concerning erecting of a library. London: printed for G. Bedle and T. Collins, 1661, small 8vo, A1 title; A2a-A7a dedication; a7B "To the reader..."; A8a "A tale of...; A8b Latin lines; B1a-G7b (pp.1-94) text; G8 (pp.95-96) "The copy of a letter sent to... Dr Barlow, lacking errata leaf, later half calf gilt, red label gilt, rubbed at edges and to backstrip, lacking original endpapers, small ms note bound in at front, bookplate
Footnote
Provenance: Bookplate of John Newington Hughes.
Note: Wing N-247, Keynes 30
Gabriel Naude, the great French librarian, expressed the essence of bibliophily when he urged that there is no book whatsoever, be it never so bad or decried, but may in time be sought for by some person or other. He found a good student in John Evelyn, who eventully produced a translation of his work after some delay in 1661. However, Evelyn was not happy with the finished product "as fo rthe translation, it has been so insufferably abus'd at the presse that the shame any uncorrected copy should come abroad has made me suppresse as many as I could light on..." This suppression and the original small edition size has made the first 1661 edition of Evelyn's work very rare.
Literature: Keynes, G. John Evelyn : a study in bibliophily with a bibliography of his writings London, 1968. Second edition.
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