The Carl H. Pforzheimer Library : English Literature, 1475-1700. [ 3 volumes, complete set ]

Privately printed, New York, first edition, 1940. Limited edition of 150 copies, printed at the Morrill Press. 3 vols, leather spine-labels, 4to, 31 cm,. xli, 377, [2] + v, 379-791, [2] + 793-1303, [2] pp, lx leaves of plates, frontispiece signed by Carl H. Pforzheimer. 1105 entries for books; plus manuscript entries numbered 1a-169. The splendid first edition of the catalogue of the Carl H. Pforzheimer Library of English Literature, 1475- 1700. The Collection -acquired in 1986 by the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center - is "principally one of ‘classical' English books from the beginning of printing to 1700; that is, of major literature between Henry VII and William and Mary. It contains most of the great monuments of Renaissance poetry and prose, from Caxton, Chaucer, Spenser and Shakespeare to Bacon, Donne, Milton, the English Bible, Elizabethan, Jacobean and Restoration drama, and the earliest translations of major foreign authors. The heart of it is set out fully in the famous three-volume catalogue, The Carl H. Pforzheimer Library, English Literature, 1475-1700 (New York, 1940), begun by Emma Va. Unger, directly supervised by the collector, and upon her retirement completed by W. A. Jackson. The Catalogue remains the standard bibliographical reference work for its period - owing very largely to the excellence of the library it describes. It enumerates over eleven hundred English books (including a very few duplicates), some 675 of which are STC, i.e., printed before 1641, and 450 ‘Wing', i.e., printed between 1641 and 1701; there are also above 250 manuscripts or coherent groups of manuscripts of the same period." - from Quaritch's brochure offering th Library for sale. Only 150 copies of the catalogue were printed and it remains very scarce in the market, although later reprints are readily available. The 1940 catalogue was designed by Frederic Warde but completed after his death by Bruce Rogers: it is a most attractive production with sparing use of a brick-red contrast colour for headings etc. Breslauer and Folter commented: "The descriptions of the 1,105 printed books and 169 autographs and manuscripts are the chef d'oeuvre of William A. Jackson and the non plus ultra of 'critical' bibliography as postulated by Sir Walter Greg. Miss Unger had been the librarian of the Pforzheimer Library since 1920. The catalogue is a model of its kind.." Includes indexes of I Anonymous Books; II Provenance; III Bibliographica. Set No. 34. Minor finger-soiling and one small mark to boards otherwise a Fine set. Without the slipcase.