The Blogof Comellas Rare Books2026-02-21T18:18:50+02:00Copyright 2004-2005Ublog Reload 1.0.5LAMBERT (J. H.)<![CDATA[It can argued, convincingly I think, that antiquarian manuscripts provoke a reasonable desire to keep them where they were made, where they were used. Consider, ...]]>https://www.livres-rares.com/english/blog/blog_comment.asp?bi=79#802025-09-07T05:05:24+02:002025-09-07T05:05:24+02:002025-09-07T05:05:24+02:00 But I don’t think such a case can be made, except in very rare cases, for printed books. My purchase of a 16th century science book, printed in Milan, was cancelled due to the denial of an export license. The Italian government could locate no copy in an Italian library, so it was thought necessary to sequester the book somewhere in Italy. “Italy” didn’t exist in the 16th century. Why the modern state of Italy should hold on to such a thing escaped me.
The very nature of “the book” demands that it be looked upon by as many eye as possible. Books are printed to be sold, to disperse, to wander, to change hands, to change minds. At the heart of this issue (and I mean ‘issue’ not ‘problem’) is the difference between “book as object” and “book as instrument”. Unusual perhaps, my attraction to books as a collector has always been to them as instruments. As Denys Hay wrote at the end of his wonderful essay that introduces Printing and the Mind of Man: “The printed page illuminates the mind of man and defies, in so far as anything sublunary can, the corrosive hand of Time.” ]]>CAMUS (A.)<![CDATA[I love that picture!]]>https://www.livres-rares.com/english/blog/blog_comment.asp?bi=79#792025-09-05T17:08:03+02:002025-09-05T17:08:03+02:002025-09-05T17:08:03+02:00