«Merge Record #»«Title» - Schulz-Falster Rare Books

individual sales totals; decorative initials and head- and tail-pieces;
contemporary full calf, spine in compartments, decoratively gilt, sides
with triple gilt rule; head and tail of spine chipped, joints worn and
corners rubbed; from the library of Henry Grey, Duke of Kent with his
book-plate to front paste-down.
First edition, rare, of this extensive priced auction catalogue of the Marck library.
Nearly nine and a half thousand titles are listed, divided by format and then in
detailed subject groupings. Areas covered include predictably theology, but also law,
politics, philosophy, history, medicine, emblem and illustrated books, mathematics,
and travel. The collection includes many 15th and 16th century books as well as early
manuscripts. The catalogue is priced throughout in a contemporary hand, with a
final adding up of the sales' total on a separate leaf bound in at the end. Because of its
comprehensiveness this auction catalogue was recommended in early bibliographical
manuals (Struve-Jugler and Schelhorn, Anleitung für Bibliothekare und Archivare,
1791).
There appears to be some confusion as to whose library this really was: NUC puts it
under Henricus Hadrianus van der Marck, the British Library under Joannes à
Marck, a professor of theology and Blogie attributes the catalogue to Thomas
Nicolaas van der Marck.
The books, or at least are large proportion of them, were in 1727 sold at auction
again, entitled Bibliotheca Marckiana, but then with the owner Henricus Hadrianus
van der Marck mentioned on the title, this time the auction was conducted by Petrus
de Hondt, the son of Abraham. 'Except for the somewhat greater proportion of
incunabula and books from early sixteenth century presses in the 1727 catalogue, the
character of the catalogues is similar' (Taylor, p. 252).
[Provenance:] From the library of Henry Grey (died 1741), the Duke of Kent, with his
engraved book plate (1713) to front paste-down and a further bookplate by Thomas
Philip, earl de Grey of Wrest Park on the inside front cover. Books from Wrest Park
were sold by Sotheby's on 29 April - 2 May 1918; October 1920; 21 June 1922; 20 May
1926; 7 - 9 March 1932; 30 October - 1 November 1950 and 18, 19 October 1954, and
by Christie's on 8 November 1978. (Cambridge University Library website).
Taylor, A. Book catalogues. Their varieties and uses, New York, 1986, p. 252; Blogie
IV, 7 (lists under Thomas Nicolaas van der Marck); Book Sales of the Dutch Republic
414; Peignot p. 112.
48.
MELLANI, Giovanni. L'Uomo Straordinario ovvero la Filosofia, la
Politica, e la Morale dell'Incognito Persiano. Rome, Poggioli, 1820. £
550
8vo, pp 76; apparently removed from a Sammelband, as additional page
numbers are added in ink; recent wrappers.