Hatfield House Library Survey (3)

In this post, we return once again to Hatfield for a further selection of highlights from Lord Salisbury’s splendid book collection. This gilt-stamped image of Queen Elizabeth I is a poignant reminder of her close connections with Hatfield and the Cecil family.

Hatfield House Library Survey (2)

Printers’ device used by Johannes and Hieronymus Froben

About a month ago I promised to write about some of the highlights in the collection of Hatfield House where I’ve been doing a library survey. Going through my photographs again, my attention stuck to the Froben edition of St Augustine’s complete works I mentioned in that earlier post. Apart from still being in a contemporary pig-skin binding, it is also interesting for being the final project with which Johannes Froben (ca. 1460-1527) was involved before he died. His eldest son, Hieronymus (1501-1563) took over his father’s business (and there are two publications from the early 1520s to suggest he was already active in his father’s workshop) and finished the Augustine edition after his father’s death.

Calke Abbey Highlights (1)

Having just finished another round of cataloguing at Calke Abbey, I thought I’d show you some of my highlights. With the books in the main library fully catalogued (and in the process of receiving conservation treatment – see my last post), I am concentrating on the stores, where there are another ca. 5000 books. Being Calke, when the National Trust took on the property in the mid-80s, there were books everywhere. Some of the spirit of the chaos still permeates the house (posing an interesting conservation challenge of showing a country house in a frozen – permanent – state of decline).