A Treasure House of Books : The Library of Duke August of Brunswick-Wolfenbu ttel.

Laminated illustrated wrappers, 4to, 28 cm, 270 pp, ills (chiefly colour). 58 catalogue entries. Catalogue of the Exhibition held at the Grolier Club, New York City, Dec. 8, 1998-Feb. 6, 1999. From the introduction: "The Wolfenbüttel library reflects the profiles of many collectors, among whom Duke August is the most prominent. The collection takes its proper beginnings, however, from the court library first chartered by Duke Julius (1528-1589) in Wolfenbüttel in the year 1572. On his travels in France in 1550 as a young man Julius purchased an exquisitely bound eight-volume edition of Amadis de Gaule, but one of his most spectacular acquisitions was the first printed book in French with woodcut illustrations, Le livre de Melusine by Jean d’Arras, printed in Geneva in 1478, which he bought in 1567. This complements Ulrich Boner’s Edelstein, printed by Pfister in Bamberg in 1461, the first book printed in German and illustrated by woodcuts, purchased by Duke August. Both books are unique copies and along with the library’s Gutenberg Bible they belong to the most precious items from the early age of printing. Duke Julius also profited as a collector from the dissolution of local monasteries and nunneries after he introduced the Reformation into his territories, and a number of priceless medieval manuscripts were incorporated into the library in this way. Julius’s son and successor, Duke Heinrich Julius (1564-1613), continued to add to his father’s collection.". Contents include: William T. Buice, III: The Grolier Club of New York; Helwig Schmidt-Glintzer: Wolfenbüttel Profiles: Collectors in a Library; Jill Bepler: The Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel: Foundations for the Future; Werner Arnold: Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and the Thirty Years War; Werner Arnold: Libraries in the Seventeenth Century; Maria von Katte: The Bibliotheca Augusta as a Growing Universe from 1586 until 1666; Nicholas Pickwoad: Bookbindings in the Bibliotheca Augusta; Helmar Härtel: Duke August and his Book Agent; Wolf-Dieter Otte: The Hunting Collector; Jill Bepler: Cultural Life at the Wolfenbüttel Court 1635-1666; Wolf-Dieter Otte: Duke August and his Revision of the Holy Bible; Jill Bepler: Herzog August and the Hartlib Circle; Wolf-Dieter Otte: The Unknown Collector: Duke August and his Cabinet of Art and Curiosities. Near Fine.…