Re: Book finding [was Re: Obscure languages]

Drooling

Adam


>From: "Thomas R. Wier" <trwier@...>
>Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2001 13:27:12 -0500
>
>Quoting Adam Walker <dreamertwo@...>:
>
> > >From: "Thomas R. Wier" <trwier@...>
> > >(I collect antique books, so these naturally interested me.  My most
> > >recent acquisition was a nearly perfect condition, 1873 edition of
> > >the Song of Roland in Old French with notes in German -- for 50
> > >cents! I don't know *what* the Seminary library was thinking when
> > >they got rid of that book.)
> >
> > You have GOT to be kidding!!!!!!
>
>No, I'm not! And that's not the most spectacular story along these
>lines that I have to tell.  When I was a freshman undergrad at UT,
>my friend heard that the UT library system was having one of their
>quintennial booksales, at which thousands of books are sold, $0.50 for
>paperbacks, $1.00 for hardbacks.  I was browsing through the Classical
>lit section, when I happened upon a beautiful copy of the Roman poet
>Horace's _Odes_, quite richly engraved by the publisher Iohannes Pine
>(London).  It wasn't in very good condition (part of the binding of
>the second volume was entirely separated from the book), but it was
>two dollars and I just *had* to have it. (I also got a 1930s copy of
>Leibniz's _Discourse on Metaphysics_, but that wasn't as impressive.)
>Well, I hadn't even thought of looking at how old it was.  When I got
>back to Houston and showed my father my new find, he looked at the date
>in Roman Numerals, and asked me: "Is that *19*37, or *17*37?" (I think
>he was shocked and wanted to be sure). Of course, it was the latter.
>What's more, its companion, Volume I,  was from 17*33*.  So I got two
>books that were each over 260 years old for two dollars! (I hope I
>don't sound  like I'm boasting, but it was such a wonderful and
>serendipitous experience for me, I like retelling it.)
>
>That was, in fact, what got me started on antique books.  My collection
>also now includes a 1753 edition of _Paradise Regained_ by Milton; an
>1806 volume entitled _Politisches Gleichgewicht in Europa_ written in
>Fraktur -- naturally interesting if only because there *was* no political
>equilibrium in Europe at that time; an 1890's photocopy of Thomas
>Jefferson's quadrilingual (English, French, Latin, Greek) Comparative
>Bible with the table of contents in his own handwriting; an 1810
>Student's copy of the Iliad in Greek; and volumes 2-6 of the works
>of Moliere in a 1926 publication -- too bad I can't read French; but now
>at least I have another reason (in addition to gradschool) to get me
>to learn it.  Anyways, most of them are not worth all that much, but I
>love them all the same.
>
>When buying old books, I really try for literature if possible. I mean,
>the corpus of the laws of the State of Illinois from the 1850s (which,
>incidentally, is available at Powell's) might be interesting for a
>historian of 19th century America since Abraham Lincoln probably helped
>write them, but it's not for me.  I'm thinking my next buys, if I can
>afford it, will be either (1) that bilingual copy of Longinus, (2) that
>bilingual copy of Marcus Aurelius, or (3) a first-edition copy of J. R. R.
>Tolkien's _Simarillion_, also available at Powell's.  Or maybe the 18th
>century copy of the Code of Justian. I don't know! There's so much beauty
>there, it boggles the mind.
>
>==============================
>Thomas Wier <trwier@...>
>
>"If a man demands justice, not merely as an abstract concept,
>but in setting up the life of a society, and if he holds, further,
>that within that society (however defined) all men have equal rights,
>then the odds are that his views, sooner rather than later, are going
>to set something or someone on fire." Peter Green, in _From Alexander
>to Actium_, on Spartan king Cleomenes III

_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp