James Cummins Bookseller

London: W. Clarke, 1819.

First edition. Frontispiece, 11 plates. [iii]-xlviii 672, [2], [xxxvi] pp. Printed by J.F. Dove. Introductory note on “A Dialogue in the Shades” and “A Doings at Roxburghe Hall” initialled “W.W.”. 8vo (9-3/4 x 6 in.). Polished tan calf a.e.g., by Bedford. Joints cracked, hinges re-inforced. Bookplates of Samuel Putnam Avery & Herschel V. Jones Item #262118

A history of British libraries, with chapters on the British Museum, Bodleian, Cambridge, and other public libraries, and chapters on private libraries and libraries sold at auction. Beckford helped in the making of this volume, and “A Dialogue in the Shades” (bound in at the end), is attributed to him. "A good book about library catalogues … The unique feature that commends the Repertorium to me is the 'Index of Books' (pp. 603-673). Accounts of collectors and collections do not usually offer the reader the assistance of such an index" (Taylor, Book Catalogues, p. 39-41).
[Bound with:] William Wynken's A Dialogue in the Shades, between William Caxton, Fodius, a Bibliomanic, and William Wynken, Clerk. London, 1817. 8 pp.; A Doings at Roxburghe Hall, a Ballad. London, n.d. 8 pp.; The Diary of Roger Payne, [Preface by T.S.S.], 1821. 10 pp.

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