TURNBULL, EDWARD. Bibliography of German incunabula from unidentified collection [typescript], 1900-1924
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Edward Turnbull: Bibliography of German Incunabula from an Unidentified Collection, ca. 1900-1924


RLIN ID No.
NYGG01-A58

Main Entry
Turnbull, Edward, 1861-1924, compiler.

Title
Bibliography of German Incunabula from an Unidentified Collection [typescript and album], [ca. 1900-1924].

Physical Description
1 box (.5 linear ft.)
1 typescript (ca. 250 leaves)
1 album ; 30 cm.

Historical/Biographical Note
Edward Turnbull came to the New York City as a young man and eventually became head of the catalog department of the Anderson Company/Anderson Auction Galleries (1900-1908). While at Anderson, Turnbull developed cataloging for the auction room into distinctive profession. Over the years he became an authority on incunabula, early English literature, and Americana, eventually acquiring a reading knowledge of several European and Eastern languages. He established his own business under the name of Walpole Galleries, and from 1915 he was associated in it with his wife, Lenore Young Turnbull. Four years after his death Lenore Turnbull sold his reference library and other collections at auction at the gallery and announced that the sale would mark the closing of the galleries. However, Walpole Galleries continued to issue catalogs and hold sales until 1931.

Scope and Contents Note
Typescript of a bibliography of books issued by German printers from the era of Gutenberg to 1501. The work is arranged alphabetically by German towns and cities and then by printer. A few of the printers were active in Switzerland. The work appears to be based on an unidentified collection Turnbull had in hand. He gives individual titles with their corresponding numbers in Friedrich Hain’s Repertorium Bibliographicum (1826-38), noting when an item in hand is not in Hain or when the Turnbull copy is a variant. The work gives extensive bibliographical and binding descriptions, with background material on the printers and on the introduction of printing into the various cities of Germany. The work is clearly in an unfinished state and lacks an introduction or other prefatory material. Facsimiles of types used by these early printers, some with annotations by Turnbull, are inserted into the accompanying album.

General Note
Title devised by cataloger.

General Note
Grolier Club has Walpole Galleries auction catalogs, some with Turnbull’s annotations, from 1919 July 29 (no. 126) to 1931 Jan. 28 (no. 490), including no. 478, “The Reference Library of Edward Turnbull.”

Names
Turnbull, Lenore Young.
Walpole Galleries (New York, N.Y.)

Subjects
Incunabula. Germany. Catalogs.
Type and typefounding. Germany. 15th century.

Genres
Albums.

Occupation (as reflected in collection)
Bibliographers. New York (State). New York. 20th century.

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

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