1834-1835 Bibliotheca Heberiana Catalogue of the Library of the Late Richard Heber, Esq Three of the Complete Thirteen Volumes

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Rebound

Three of the complete thirteen volumes. The set consists of: Part I, IV, and VI, and is missing Parts II, III, V, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII and XIII. Richard Heber (5 January 1773 ? 4 October 1833) was an English book-collector. A taste for book collecting was developed in him in childhood. As an undergraduate, he began to collect a purely classical library, but his taste broadening, he became interested in early English drama and literature, and began his wonderful collection of rare books in these departments. After ransacking England for books, Heber travelled extensively on the Continent, purchasing everywhere, and leaving large depots of books in Paris, Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent, and elsewhere in the Netherlands and Germany. At booksales he sometimes purchased single volumes, sometimes whole libraries. Sir Walter Scott classed Heber's library as "superior to all others in the world"; Thomas Campbell described him as "the fiercest and strongest of all the bibliomaniacs." He did not confine himself to the purchase of a single copy of a work which took his fancy. "No gentleman," he remarked, "can be without three copies of a book, one for show, one for use, and one for borrowers." To such a size did his library grow that it overran eight houses, some in England, some on the Continent.