Produced by Chris Curnow, Margo Romberg and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) BOOK COLLECTING A GUIDE FOR AMATEURS BY J. H. SLATER Editor of _Book Prices Current_; formerly Editor of _Book Lore_; Author of _The Library Manual_; _Engravings and their Value_; _The Law relating to Copyright and Trade Marks_, etc., etc. LONDON SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO. PATERNOSTER SQUARE 1892 [Illustration: AN OLD PRINTING PRESS. From the _Quintilian of Vascosan_, folio, _Paris_, 1538.] THE ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY PRESS. CONTENTS. Page. CHAPTER I. 1 CHAPTER II. 12 CHAPTER III. 20 CHAPTER IV. 25 CHAPTER V. 34 CHAPTER VI. 44 CHAPTER VII. 51 CHAPTER VIII. 62 CHAPTER IX. 74 CHAPTER X. 100 CHAPTER XI. 112 PRINCIPAL SECOND-HAND BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM WHO PUBLISH CATALOGUES. 121 CHAPTER I. AN ANCIENT MANUSCRIPT--THE LIBRARY OF THE MEMNONIUM--THE ALEXANDRIAN LIBRARY--GREECE AND ROME--MONASTIC MANUSCRIPTS--THE DISCOVERY OF PRINTING--THE BOOK HUNTERS OF THE PAST--THE BOOK HUNTERS OF TO-DAY--BIBLIOGRAPHICAL AIDS. The Bibliophile, as he is somewhat pedantically termed, probably dates his existence from the time when books began to be multiplied in sufficient quantities to render the acquisition of duplicate copies by the public a matter of possibility, but his opportunities of amassing a large number of volumes can hardly be said to have arisen until many years after the invention of printing.