368 pages, 17 x 24 cm, hardbinding, dustjacket, 72 illustrations.

Essays in honour of ANTHONY HOBSON

From the FOREWORD

It is uncommon, to say the least, for the son of an expert in a certain discipline to follow in his father’s footsteps and to succeed with equal brilliance in the same discipline. His prowess has already been recognized by a special issue of The Book Collector compiled in his honour, and I would regard as essential to an appreciation of the man the introductory memoir by Anthony’s close friend and fellow biblio-scientist, Nicola Barker.

As the Bibliography demonstrates, Anthony ha reviewed most of the significant books on bookbinding produced in the past forty years. But his reviews and occasional articles have not been limited to his chosen subject; they range over contemporary authors, great houses of Europe, the city and cathedral of Salisbury, notable booksellers, and biographical sketches for the D.N.B. Which only goes to show that he is a humanist of his own century.

At the close of his review of Dr. Malaguzzi’s excellent study of eighteenth century binding activity in Piedmont, Anthony saluted the author of “this exemplary work with fellow feeling and admiration”. These words could express the sentiments of the contributors to this festschrift, so conscientiously and selflessly edited by Dennis Rhodes, to whom we are all grateful.
FREDERICK B. ADAMS

From the EDITOR’S PREFACE

I have tried to choose a title for the book which will emphasize that while the history of bookbinding is the principal branch of bibliography in which Anthony Hobson has specialized over the years, it is by no means in bookbinding alone that he is interested and on which he has written with authority. If the majority of the essays in this volume deal with aspects of bookbinding history, there are also some others which reflect Anthony’s deep concern for private book-collectors, the history of great libraries, and questions of provenance, as well as the identification of printers and publishers. In all these subjects he has made, and continues to make, many notable discoveries.

Anthony Hobson is a splendid example of the all-round bibliographer, well travelled and conversant with several languages. The editor is also particularly delighted that the volume has found as its publisher Mr Mardersteig, at Verona, which is at the same time one of the editor’s own favourite cities, and (more importantly) the city in which Anthony Hobson himself won the Felice Feliciano prize for his book Humanists and Bookbinders in 1991. I trust that this ‘spirit of international bibliophily’ (if I may call it so) is amply reflected in the diverse nationalities of the contributors to this volume as well as in the Tabula Gratulatoria which is printed at the end.
DENNIS E. RHODES

CONTENTS

About the Contents

For over forty years, Anthony Hobson has occupied a commanding position in the world of books. Succeeding his father, G. D. Hobson, the great historian of bookbinding, as head of Sotheby’s book department, he ran it for some twenty years with equal commercial skill and scholarly learning. Since then, he has established an independent reputation with a series of studies of bookbinding and the history of books generally in renaissance Italy.

On the occasion of his 70th birthday, a group of his friends decided to honour his achievements with a collection of essays, some published in 1991 in The Book Collector, but the major part in this book ‘Bookbindings and other Bibliophily’. Twelve contributors have provided essays, on bookbinding and the history of books. They number some of the most distinguished scholars now working in the field. Their subjects range from great collectors, Grolier, Mahieu, Anne de Montmorency, to the technique of bookbinding and the book-trade, form Peter Schoeffer at Mainz to 18th-century French bookbinding and Dutch bookbinding up to 1800. In geographical scope, there are essays on Ethiopic bookbinding, the Visconti Library at Milan, and book-collectors from Britain in Italy. This last topic is addressed by Dennis Rhodes, who has edited the volume and compiled a bibliography of Anthony Hobson’s writings.

These distinguished essays are themselves a notable contribution to the history of books, of bookbinding, and of the book-trade. They celebrate the achievements of a life devoted to these subjects. They add further laurels to the crown already bestowed on Anthony Hobson, with the award, in 1992, of the Premio Feliciano.
NICOLAS BARKER

About the Production

The text was set, paged and printed in the Stamperia Valdonega in Verona; the paper, Arcoprint Edizioni is acid-free and was made by Cartiere Fedrigoni. The hardcover binding has a dustjacket printed on fine laid paper. The type used is Janson VAL, based on the Linotype version, where VAL stands for Valdonega Aesthetic Line, an exclusive program in which the PostScript fonts, originally designed for letterpress printing, get a special quality treatment, based on a sophisticated system which controls in every size its correspondence to the original design, its correct blackness adapted to the kind of paper and the distance between letters. The result is a more faithful design of the alphabet, a better legibility and a more uniform inking of the pages where various type sizes appear.