Gabriel Austin: Collection Relating to his

The Library of Jean Grolier: A Preliminary Catalogue, 1965-1995

RLIN ID No.

NYGG01-A73

Main Entry

Austin, Gabriel.

Title

Papers relating to the preparation of The Library of Jean Grolier: A Preliminary Catalogue, 1965-1995 (bulk 1965-1971).

Physical Description

4 boxes (1.8 linear ft.)

46 plates (illustrations)

17 photographs.

17 contact sheets.

Historical/Biographical Note

Gabriel Austin was curator of the Grolier Club (a society for bibliophiles in New York City) from 1963 to 1965 and librarian from 1965 to 1970. Jean Grolier was a French court official and bibliophile who served in various capacities under Louis XII, Francois I, Henry II and Charles IX. He was a patron of French and Italian scholarship and printing. Grolier’s extensive library may have numbered as many as 3,000 books, and he commissioned elaborate bindings for many of them. The collection was dispersed in 1676, but about 561 titles have been traced to their current owners. The Grolier Club published Austin’s The Library of Jean Grolier in 1971.

Scope and Contents Note

Austin’s work is a complete revision of Researches Concerning Jean Grolier, His Life and Library, published by the Grolier Club in 1907. This work was largely a translation with some additions of work by [Antoine Jean Victor] Le Roux de Lincy, published about 1868. The Austin collection includes: holograph notes and some photocopies; correspondence (mainly dealing with location and identification of books from Grolier’s library); and photographs and plates (illustrations) relating to the preparation of The Library of Jean Grolier. Also a preliminary draft with corrections and miscellaneous offprints. Correspondents include: Erwinna Brin, George Heilbrun, Anthony Hobson, A. N. L. Munby, Howard E. Nixon, and Arthur Rau.

Names

Austin, Garbriel. Library of Jean Grolier: A Preliminary Catalogue. 1971.

Austin, Gabriel. Correspondence.

Brin, E. (Erwinna). Correspondence.

Grolier, Jean, 1479-1565. Library.

Heilbrun, George. Correspondence.

Hobson, Anthony, 1944- Correspondence.

Le Roux de Lincy, 1806-1869.

Munby, A. N. L. (Alan Noel Latimer), 1913-1973. Correspondence.

Nixon, Howard M. Correspondence.

Rau, Arthur. Correspondence.

Shipman, Carolyn, trans. Researches Concerning Jean Grolier, His Life and Library. 1907.

Subjects

Bibliography. Rare Books. France. 16^th century.

Private libraries. France. 16^th century.

Added Entries

Grolier Club.

Genres

Photographs. 20^th century.

Plates (illustrations).

Contact sheets.

Location

Grolier Club, 47 East 60^th Street, New York, N.Y. 10022-1098.

Collection Inventory

Correspondence (Box 1)

Initial correspondence, 1965-1968 (bulk 1966). Carbons of initial letters of inquiry from G.A. to

Institutions, dealers and collectors with some responses. Correspondence to Institutions is partially

arranged alphabetically by country.

Correspondence with institutions (2 folders)

Correspondence with dealers (1 folder)

Correspondence with collectors (1 folder)

Miscellaneous correspondence, 1966-1968.

Correspondence accompanied with bibliographical notes, 1966-1971.

Correspondence, 1965-1969. [Apparently follow-up correspondence to that initiated earlier.]

Correspondence (Box 2)

Correspondence relating to additions and corrections to Preliminary Checklist, 1982-1985. [Includes 9

plates of photographs attached to various letters.]

Notes with Some Duplicated Material (Box 2)

Holograph notes on 22cm loose-leaf binder paper, arranged alphabetically by authors of books in Grolier’s

library. A black notebook contains entries approximately A-L and is accompanied by excess

leaves for other parts of the alphabet which have been placed in 3 envelopes.

“Brera Manuscript.” Reproduction of folios 128 to 168 which have entries pertaining to Grolier.

Holograph note indicates that manuscript is more fully identified in “Kristeller. Iter Ital. I, 385, a reference to: Paul Oskar Kristeller, Iter Italicum: A Finding List of Uncataloged or

Incompletely Cataloged Humanistic Manuscripts (London: Warburg Institute, 1963-).

Notes with Some Duplicated Material (Box 3)

Miscellaneous holograph notes with some attachments [no discernable arrangement] (5 folders)

Bibliotheque de M. le Comte F[ox]. Album, s.l., s.n. [Contains 16 plates of bindings.]

Typescripts (Box 3)

Corrected proof of copy of The Library of Jean Grolier, dated 1970.

Corrected typescript of preliminary matter and bibliography, dated 1968.

Articles Relating to Jean Grolier (Box 4)

12 articles on books and bindings from Grolier’s library, 1950-1966.

2 miscellaneous publications.

Photographs (Box 4)

17 contact sheets of photographs of bindings with strip negatives.

17 photographs [includes 9 plates of photographs with correspondence attached to correspondence in

Box 2].

21 plates of photographs taken from unidentified books and journals.