[AUCTION CATALOGUES]. The Library of the Earls of Macclesfield, Removed from Shirburn Castle, Parts 1-12 (COMPLETE SET)

London: Sotheby's, 2004. First Edition. Very good. Together 12 vols., large 4to. Original blue cloth, very good condition (NOT ex-library), Some minor bumping and edge wear to extremities, some spines leaning a trifle. 4,299 lots described, and hundreds of illustrations. Lists of Price Realized for Parts 2, 4, 5, 6, and 7 loosely inserted. COMPLETE SET OF THE SALE CATALOGUES OF THE FAMED MACCLESFIELD LIBRARY, AN ASTONISHING COLLECTION OF GREAT RARITIES OF SCIENCE, "THE LAST GREAT LIBRARY TO HAVE REMAINED UNDIMINISHED AND UNTOUCHED BY TIME" ACCORDING TO THE BOOK COLLECTOR.

"The dispersal of the last great library, one equal in its day to those of the Earls of Sunderland, Pembroke and Oxford, to have remained (unlike those others) undiminished and untouched by time, without sophistication or alteration since the books were bought" (The Book Collector, Summer 2004, p. 253).

Offered in Part 1 was the so-called "Macclesfield Psalter" from from East Anglia, purchased for £1.5m by Jörn Günther on behalf of the J. Paul Getty Museum; it was subsequently declared to be of national interest and was bought back with public and private funds; it is now in The Fitzwilliam Museum. Nonetheless, the editors of the Book Collector declared that "The sale itself is perhaps the greatest single loss to the national heritage since the sale of the Lawrence drawings in 1830" (Spring 2006, p. 76).

The aggregate amount of the sales of the first six parts (only) realized more than GBP 14 million according to Sotheby's 2005 press release (this amount did not include the Macclesfield Psalter), representing "the highest total ever for any sale of scientific books and manuscripts." The additional parts of the library sold between 2006 and 2008 and realized much more; for instance, Part 8 alone ("Theology, Philosophy, Law, and Economics") realized GBP 1.3 million, and Part 12 ("Continental Books and Manuscripts") GBP 1.8 million.

Introducing each Part is a learned commentary by Paul Quarrie (of Maggs). According to Maggs' own website, Quarrie worked "from 1996 on the library of the earls of Macclesfield and masterminded the dispersal of this celebrated collection, beginning with the sale (1999/2000) to Cambridge University Library of scientific letters and papers of Newton, William Jones, and others, and encompassing 12 auction sales (2004-2008)." Quarrie's own account of the importance of the Scientific portion of the Library was published as "The Scientific Library of the Earls of Macclesfield" in: Notes and Records: The Royal Society Journal of the History of Science, 22 January 2006.

The dispersal of the Macclesfield Library was disparaged by many; see especially Roger Gaskell and P. Fara in "Selling the silver: country house libraries and the history of science" (Endeavour 29, no. 1, pp. 14-19).

CONTENTS OF THE COLLECTION:

Part 1: Natural History, 16 Mar 2004 (146 pp.); Part 2: Science, A-C, 10 Jun 2004 (355 pp.); Part 3: Western Manuscripts, 22 Jun 2004 (87 pp.); Part 4: Science, D-H, 4 Nov 2004; Part 5: Science, I-O, 14 Apr 2005 (339 pp.); Part 6: Science, P-Z, 25-26 Oct 2005; Part 7: Bibles, 1477-1739, 11 Apr 2006 (189 pp.); Part 8: Theology, Philosophy, Law and Economics, 25-26 Oct 2006 (411 pp.); Part 9: Voyages, Travel & Atlases, 15 Mar 2007 (301 pp.); Part 10: Applied Arts and Sciences, including Military & Naval Books, 30 Oct 2007 (404 pp.); Part 11: English Books & Manuscripts, 23 Mar 2008 (344 pp.); Part 12: Continental Books & Manuscripts, 2 Oct 2008 (412 pp.). Altogether 4,299 lots expertly described.

From the Krown and Spellman Reference Library (dispersed at Heritage Auctions, Dallas, in 2015).