“Some people think that collecting old books is a kind of mild insanity. The collector, on his side, smiles upon the ignorant who cannot understand the enjoyment of collecting. The philosopher says: Ne quid nimis, go not too far. But all of the adages this one is the most difficult to follow. The bibliophile is the master of his books, the bibliomaniac their slave.
New College Library has rich and distinct Bible collections. This Geneva Bible, printed in 1599 with an illustrated frontispiece is just one example. Called a Geneva Bible because it was produced by a group of Protestant scholars who fled to Geneva during the time of Queen Mary I of England (1553 – 1558), it was innovative in being a mass-produced Bible which came with a variety of scriptural study guides and aids.
The Lyell readership in bibliography at Oxford University is endowed by a bequest from James Patrick Ronaldson Lyell (1871–1948), a solicitor, book collector and bibliographer. Each year since 1952, a distinguished scholar has been elected to deliver the lectures, usually six in number, on any topic of bibliography, broadly conceived.
Lyell Lectures 2012
Lukas Erne, University of Geneva
"Shakespeare and the Book Trade"
