THE LIBRARY COMPANION; Or, the young man's guide, and the old man's comfort, in the choice of a library

Pp. [iv]+lii+912, title page vignette, index, errata; thick demy 8vo; early half calf over marbled papered boards, rebacked (not recently), with the original gilt lettered and decorated spine laid on, the gilt worn away from the decorations between the raised bands, the boards a trifle rubbed, edges lightly worn, with a few mainly small surface chips (heavier below top fore-corner of upper board), both joints worn, with the upper joint cracking; uncut; ribbon marker; hinges cracking, book label of David Levine, Sydney, on upper pastedown, some light foxing and browning, occasional slight soiling; printed for Harding, Triphook, and Lepard, and J. Major, London, 1824. First edition, one volume issue. [100 large paper copies were issued in two volumes]. Windle & A50a. *Tipped-in after the upper free endpaper is an autograph letter from Dibdin, signed, and dated April 15, 1814, with an integral address leaf to W. Godwin, Bookseller, franked by Earl Spencer (in Bath). George John Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer (1758-1834) served as Home Secretary from 1806 to 1807. He was renowned for his vast and impressive book collection, and was the instigator and first President of the Roxburghe Club, the oldest society of bibliophiles in the world. Thomas Frognall Dibdin (1776-1847) was also a founding member of the Roxburghe Club. Earl Spencer was Dibdin's patron for many years, opening up the library at Althorp to Dibdin for cataloguing. The resulting Bibliotheca Spenceriana, a Descriptive Catalogue of the Books Printed in the Fifteenth Century and of Many Valuable First Editions in the Library of George John Earl Spencer is regarded as one of the most thorough and elaborate catalogues of a private library. In 1818, Spencer commissioned Dibdin to buy books for him on the continent, a trip described in Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany (1821). Dibdin also wrote Aedes Althorpianae, an account of Althorp, giving many details of the library. The letter to Godwin is Dibdin's response to a request for a copy of Bibliotheca Spenceriana: 'Sir, I understand you have solicited for a third copy of the B S as subscribed for last July - but am sorry to add, that such third copy never came to my knowledge and there must have been a mistake somewhere. It is wholly out of my power to furnish you with it. I am Sir Your [?undeciphered] T. F. Dibdin.' It is possible that the recipient could have been the writer and political philosopher William Godwin (1756-1836), widower of Mary Wollstonecraft (and father of Frankenstein author Mary Shelley). At the time of the letter (1814), Godwin was a bookseller and publisher, in partnership with his second wife, Mary Jane Clairmont. In 1805 Mary Jane and William Godwin opened a bookshop and publishing house, M. J. Godwin & Co. Among other popular titles, the firm published The Swiss Family Robinson and Charles & Mary Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare. The bookshop, also known as The Juvenile Library, specialised in literature for children. …