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.
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, was to assemble personal working libraries. Many early collections became the cornerstones of public libraries. The Bodleian Library at Oxford and the Harleian Library 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.
In the 18th cent. collectors shifted their focus from building up libraries to seeking original editions, including incunabula, 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.
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, John Pierpont Morgan (see under Morgan family), and Henry E. Huntington. 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.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.