Day: June 13, 2012

Front facade of Houghton Library

The Grand Æra of Bibliomania: the Roxburghe Sale of 1812

2012 is the 200th anniversary of the event that could be said to mark the start of the modern era of book collecting: the sale of the library of John Ker, 3rd Duke of Roxburghe. The sale of this extensive and masterfully assembled collection attracted the interest of every major book collector in Britain, its…