A British Book Collector

A British Book Collector celebrates one of the finest collections of manuscripts and rare books in the north west of England. From the turn of the twentieth century through the Second World War, Robert Edward Hart, a ropemaker of Blackburn, Lancashire, quietly amassed a phenomenal collection of medieval manuscripts and early printed books.

In this volume, leading scholars from the fields of the history of art, and the history of the book, examine anew the internationally important manuscripts and rare printed books in Hart’s collection, and the practice of collecting itself in the context of the waning of the industrial revolution. Copiously illustrated with colour prints, this volume marks R.E. Hart’s achievement as a collector who collected for himself, and for his community for posterity.

Introduction / Cynthia Johnston

The Loyalties of a Collector / David McKitterick

The Blackburn Psalter and the William of Devon Group / Nigel Morgan

Rome and Florence at the beginning of the fifteenth century: the different models in the illuminations of the Pancerra Missal (Blackburn) and a new hypothesis on penflourishing in the Acciaiuoli Missal (Cambridge) / Francesca Manzari

Contextualising the art and innovations of the Master of Edward IV in the Blackburn Hours (Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery, Hart MS 20884) / Scot McKendrick

Fragments of Early Mainz Printing in the R.E. Hart Collection / Eric Marshall White

Journey in the Mind's Eye: the virtue and value of virtual pilgrimage / Cleo Cantone

Book collecting in context: Hart and his contemporaries / Cynthia Johnston

The value of the past: heritage between local, global and national / Rebecca Darley

Published as a sturdy, 200-page paperback (a pleasant surprise for this reader) and fully illustrated with color prints, A British Book Collector is both an ode to a devoted bibliophile and a robust argument for the importance these primary treasures serve as beacons for understanding world cultures.