ILLY, W.

CONTENTS

PAGE

WHAT IS A GOOD EDITION? 1

WHAT IS A FINE COPY? 5

BOOK VALUES 9

ON THE CARE OF BOOKS 15

THE ART OF READING 25

COMMON-PLACE BOOKS 38

REFERENCE BOOKS 42

BOUDOIR LIBRARIES 46

BOOKBINDING 52

BOOK HOBBIES 65

OLD COUNTRY LIBRARIES 68

WEEDING OUT 80

THE CATALOGUE 81

CLASSIFICATION OF BOOKS 87

BOOKCASES 94

MISCELLANEOUS APPLIANCES 103

THE LIBRARY ANNEXE 106

A LIBRARIAN 115

THE LIBRARY ARCHITECTURALLY 119

MUNIFICENT BOOK-BUYING 133

THE MEDICI AND THEIR FRIENDS 137

THE DUKES OF URBINO 144

PIERESC 149

MR. RUSKIN'S ADVICE 150

INDEX 153

THE PRIVATE LIBRARY.

_What is a Good Edition?_

A good edition should be a complete edition, ungarbled and unabridged.
If the author is a classic, the _format_ of the copy chosen should in
some way represent the style of the author. _Gibbon_, for instance,
should be in large octavo or quarto, with print of a size to correspond.
This is not always possible, for English editions of books often aim at
mere cheapness, and of many great authors there exist no good editions.
Thus there is no suitable edition of the classics printed in England, as
there is and for long has been in France. A good edition is not
necessarily an expensive edition, nor is it necessarily noble and
generous in print and margin. The editions known as the 'Globe'
editions of Pope and others are good editions because (1) They are
complete; (2) Each one has been taken in hand and superintended by the
most competent scholar and has notes sufficient but not pedantic; (3)
Because they are well printed on paper of fair quality by printers who
give wages liberally to careful press readers; (4) Because each work
being a work of the first or classic order, it is bound in a simple and
unaffected style, witho