The Leipzig Book Fair

GROSSE, Henning.

Catalogus novus Omnium Librorum, qui nundinis Vernalibus Francofurti ad Moenum et Lipsiae anno XCVIII. celebratis, noviter impressi venales expositi fuerunt, Ex tribus Catalogis diversis Francofurti editu, concinnatus.

Large publisher’s device on title. [30] leaves. Small 4to, attractive antique calf-backed marbled boards. Eisleben: H. Grosse, 1598.

The spring 1598 catalogue of the Leipzig and Frankfurt book fairs issued by Grosse; WorldCat locates no copy in North America. These fair catalogues created a revolution for the book trade. They were the best and, indeed, only source from which scholars and booksellers could discover when and by whom any particular book had been published.

The “catalogues represent the first international bibliographies of a periodic character, attempting to list every six months all new publications issued in Europe, and they can be considered the prototype of today’s Books in Print. The books are arranged by subject; for the first time, place, publisher, and date are always mentioned.”–Grolier Club, Bibliography, 24.

Imitating the Frankfurt Book Fair lists, the Leipzig bookseller Henning Grosse began to issue fair catalogues for his hometown in the autumn of 1594, continuing until the autumn of 1599. The Leipzig Fair served the northern German market. Our copy has the rare “Appendix” of four leaves.

Fine copy. Paper lightly browned.

❧ Graham Pollard, The Distribution of Books by Catalogue (1965), Chapter III.

Price: $3,500.00

Item ID: 7437