Catalogue of a Collection of Early German Books in the Library of C. Fairfax Murray. [ Complete set, 2 volumes ]

Holland Press, London, 1962 reprint of the 1913 first edition, which was limited to 100 copies. This reprint is limited to 250 sets. 2 vols, quarter-linen and boards, royal 4to,. xviii, 472, 465-817, lxii pp. 495 items are described. A splendid large-format work, this edition being published at 48 guineas in 1962. The collection covered works printed from about 1455 until 1680, and incuded items printed in Holland, Belgium, Switzerland and Austria-Hungary as well as Germany. Fairfax Murray's German books included items once owned by Thomas Howard, 2nd Earl of Arundel and Surrey, King George I, Jean Grolier, and William Morris, to whom the catalogue was dedicated. One of the most interesting parts of the collection was a complete set of the various editions of Bernhard von Breydenbach and his journey to the Holy Land 1483-4. Lavishly illustrated with full page plates of bindings, and reproductions of woodcuts, many full-size; exact collations, meticulous, often original, descriptions, and investigations are given for all the vast amount of material which is here assembled. "The two volumes are...bibliographical monuments of lasting importance" - Seymour de Ricci. "Owing to the extremely detailed bibliographical descriptions and critical notes by Davies, successively cataloguer and owner of the London bookselling firm of J. &J. Leighton, from whom many of the books were acquired, the catalogues of the Fairfax Murray Collection of ...German fifteenth- and sixteenth-century illustrated books (including a few of later date) may be considered selective bibliographies of their subject and belong indeed to the best reference works on it."- Breslauer and Folter. Most of the books described are 15th or 16th century; some later ones having Durer interest are also included. Top edges of textblocks slightly darkened, otherwise Fine.