Catalogue of the Law Society's Mendham Collection : lent to the University of Kent at Canterbury and housed in Canterbury Cathedral Library

Law Society, London, first edition, 1994. Cloth, silver cover-title within gilt border, large 8vo,. cliv, 500 pp, plates. The catalogue of a historically important collection (especially rich in Catholicism and Anti-Catholicism) which was controversially broken up in the last few years: auction sales took place at Sotheby's on 5 June 2013 and at B loomsbury Auctions on 20 March 2014. Contents include: Introduction, by Sheila Hingley; Joseph Mendham: collector and controversialist, by Grayson M. Ditchfield; The Mendham Collection: the contents and their historical context, by Jacqueline Eales; Bindings in the Mendham Collection, by Sheila Hingley; Mendham's collection of manuscripts, by Nigel Ramsay; Reference works referred to in the catalogue; Abbreviations used in the catalogue; Catalogue, by Sheila Hingley and David J. Shaw; Printers Index; Provenance Index. From the introduction: "The Mendham Collection is a splendid collection of Roman Catholic and anti-Roman Catholic literature, ranging from medieval manuscripts to books and pamphlets published in the mid-nineteenth century. Amongst its contents are 80 incunables, 785 books printed in the sixteenth century, and 1,646 in the seventeenth century, a small group of fine bindings, and some rare examples of Continental and English ephemeral printing. The nature of the Collection, and the lives and interests of the members of the Mendham family connected with the Collection, are discussed in detail in the introductory essays by Dr Jacqueline Eales and Dr Grayson Ditchfield. This will be a brief introduction to the making of the catalogue and an account of how the Collection came to be in its present location. Near Fine.