Portrait of an Obsession

Abstract

Bibliomania, “book madness”, swept the English aristocracy at the beginning of the nineteenth century and vast sums of money were spent on books from the dawn of printing. By the end of the century most of the collections assembled had been sold or donated and come to rest in libraries across the UK and America, forming the groundwork on which subsequent collections of early printed books in the Anglophone world have been built. But where did these books come from? Who bought them and how? Portrait of an Obsession recovers this forgotten story. Focusing on the collecting of George John Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer (1758–1834), it explores how he combed a Europe torn apart by the Napoleonic Wars for rare books, using agents to intimidate librarians, ransack monastic collections, and deal in stolen and looted goods to form his great library at Spencer House. The catastrophes of war allowed for unparalleled opportunities, if one had the resources and drive to make the most of them. This book is not, however, a simplistic condemnation of acquisition at all costs. Instead, it explores the psychology of Spencer’s collecting as well as its history, attempting to unpick what made one man assemble perhaps the greatest private library ever formed in Great Britain. That library has survived, largely intact, and is now part of the John Rylands Research Institute and Library in Manchester, and this volume roots itself in the author’s own experiences of handling some of the rarest books in the world.