My Antiquarian Numismatic Books

I was told quite a few years ago (by Pat Lawrence) that this set of Britannica was special because the later ones started eliminating material in this one to make room for new material. For those of us more interested in information on ancient Rome, that meant this edition was better because it did NOT have biographies of 1915 politicians and coverage of WWI. I never got a set but recall wanting one. There is an interesting piece in the Wikipedia article discussing its 'problems' regarding racism, sexism and antisemitism (all of which were considered differently in 1911 Britain). The highlight to me is that Marie Curie did not rate a biography but was mentioned in that of her husband. There is no reference that can be read and taken without critical thinking. History is interesting; the history of history is fascinating.

 

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As a non-native Brit, I always thought it a bit unfair that English beer is often the butt of jokes... Nothing beats a fine ale! Even the most accessible supermarket ones can be excellent, with Theakston's Old Peculier and Old Speckled Hen among my favourites. For more special occasions, I resort to Belgian monastic ales. Trappist Rochefort 10 is for me the top beer of the world (I have tried Westvleteren 12 but Rochefort is still my favourite). Lager doesn't excite me much, unless we are talking about black Bohemian lager from the tap (big Krusovice fan). I have been to Prague 5 times, and the main reasons were always the beer and the architecture.

My favourite London Antiquarian bookstore is Sotheran's Rare Books & Prints in Piccadilly. Great collection and it also has Japanese and European prints. The proprietor was very friendly every time I have been there and was happy to discuss books for a considerable amount of time. I usually browse for about an hour every time I visit.

To stay on topic, here are some pages from some books in my collection:

 

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Sotherans is great. Also love their mid-century travel posters. Quaritch which specialises in Antiquarian sometimes has surprisingly inexpensive on topic books. But my go to is Abebooks, especially French sellers who wish to sell rather than forever display books and whose wares are often dishevilled which I don't mind at all. "Reading Copy" are my favourite two words

 

Impressive and daunting! What a lucky person you are to be able to acquire so much history...I'm jealous but happy for you all at the same time!

 

In a sense, my set has "the best of both worlds": it has all the volumes of the 11th edition (published in 1910) -- effectively containing the sum total of Victorian and Edwardian knowledge of the world, from an Anglo-American perspective -- plus the supplemental volumes issued in 1922 and 1926, respectively comprising the 12th and 13th editions when taken together with the volumes of the 11th edition. So nothing was eliminated. The supplemental volumes, especially the ones issued in 1922, contain what may still be the most detailed day-by-day history of the battles of World War I in existence. If you ever want to know every detail of any obscure battle that took place in Serbia or elsewhere on the Eastern Front -- generally not as familiar as the Western Front to those of us in Western Europe and the USA, for obvious reasons -- these volumes are the place to go.

It was only with the 14th edition, published in 1929, that your friend's information about eliminating material becomes applicable. See https://www.britannica.com/topic/En...sh-language-reference-work/Fourteenth-edition:

"Space was found for many new articles on scientific and other subjects by cutting down the more ample style and learned detail of the 11th edition, from which a great deal of material was carried over in shortened form. Some articles suffered from this truncation, done for mechanical rather than editorial reasons. . . .

The adoption of a continuous revision policy meant that, after the 14th, there were to be no more “new editions.” The Great Depression of the 1930s made revision slow, and World War II curtailed effort in the 1940s. It was not until the mid-1950s that a sustained effort to remake the encyclopaedia began. By Encyclopædia Britannica’s 200th birthday in 1968 the task had been accomplished; the encyclopaedia had less old material in it, probably, than at any time in its history."

 

What a wonderful post with such beautiful books.

Here’s my oldest numismatic book in an old post of mine:

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/is-a-wig-necessary-to-be-a-good-numismatist.327466/#post-3242655

Numismatics is interesting to me only when you can put coins and medals in a social and historical context. These books help me do that.

Thank you, again, for this great thread.

 

Arbuthnot. Nice book, great informative post. You'll find Arbuthnot on my shelves illustrated above. Nice