Bernard Quaritch

This article is about Bernard Quaritch (died 1899). For his son Bernard Quaritch (died 1913), see Bernard Alfred Quaritch.
Bernard Quaritch.

Bernard Quaritch, full name Bernard Alexander Christian Quaritch, (April 23, 1819 – December 17, 1899) was a German-born British bookseller and collector.[1]

Early life

He was born at Worbis, Germany. After being apprenticed to a bookseller, he went to London in 1842, and was employed by Henry Bohn, the publisher.[2]

Work in London

In 1847 he started a bookseller's business off Leicester Square,[3] becoming naturalized as a British subject. In 1848 he started to issue a monthly Catalogue of Foreign and English Books. About 1858 he began to purchase rare books, one of the earliest of such purchases being a copy of the Mazarin Bible, and within a period of forty years he possessed six separate copies of this rare and valuable edition.

In 1860 he moved to Piccadilly. In 1873 he published the Bibliotheca Xylographica, Typographica et Palaeographica, a remarkable catalogue of early productions of the printing press of all countries. He became a regular buyer at all the principal book-sales of Europe and America, and from time to time published a variety of other catalogues of old books. Amongst these may be mentioned the Supplemental Catalogue (1877), and in 1880 an immense catalogue of considerably over 2,000 pages. The last complete catalogue of his stock was published in 1887-88 under the title General Catalogue of Old Books and Manuscripts, in seven volumes, increased with subsequent supplements to twelve. All these catalogues are of considerable bibliographical value. By this time Quaritch had developed the largest trade in old books in the world.

Among the books that he published was Edward Fitzgerald's translation of Omar Khayyám. He was also the agent for the publications of the British Museum and the Society of Antiquaries. He died at Hampstead, London, leaving his business to his son Bernard Alfred Quaritch (died 1913). The business survives to this day.[1]

Works and Publications

Notes

  1. 1 2  Tedder, Henry Richard (1901). "Quaritch, Bernard". In Sidney Lee. Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement​. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  2. ↑ Christopher Columbus; Bernard Quaritch; Michael Kerney; Martin Davies; Katherine Spears (2006). The Spanish Letter of Columbus: A Facsimile of the Original Edition Published by Bernard Quaritch in 1891. Quaritch. ISBN 978-0-9550852-2-2. For Bernard Quaritch (1819-1899), who came to London from Germany in 1842 and in 1847 founded the bookselling business that still bears his name, see Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . . . Volume 45 (Oxford, 2004), pp. 656-8 ...
  3. ↑ "London". Hodson's Booksellers, Publishers and Stationers' Directory. London: W.H. Hodson. 1855. p. 67.

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External links

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