(AUCTION CATALOGUE: HULTHEM, Charles Joseph Emmanuel van). Bibliotheca Hulthemiana ou Catalogue Méthodique de la riche et précieuse Collection de Livres et des Manuscrits délaissés par M. Ch. van Hulthem.
[Compiled by A. Voisin]. Frontis. port. of Hulthem in Vol. I. Six vols. 8vo, attractive modern marbled boards (some foxing), uncut. Ghent: J. Poelman, 1836-37. The very rare auction catalogue of the enormous library of von Hulthem. "Van Hulthem (1764-1832) shared a passionate love for books with his close friends and fellow bachelors Richard Heber and P.P.C. Lammens (1762-1836), librarian of the University of Ghent. For fifteen years or longer the three bibliophiles attended every important sale in the Low Countries and then dined together in the evening when the sale had been concluded...The Van Hulthem library...included 31,865 books and 1016 manuscripts. It contained choice editions of the classics (especially the editions printed in series), the most complete collection of books from the Plantin press that had been assembled up to that time, a very large number of early books printed in the Low Countries (Voisin has catalogued these with special care), many books on art and numismatics (including many eighteenth-century catalogues of sales of objects of art), and a superb collection of materials for the study of the political and literary history of the Low Countries which fills the whole of Volume IV. Since Voisin has arranged the books in eight hundred classes and sub-classes, the catalogue is both very large and easily consulted. Voisin prints many bibliographical and critical notes made by Van Hulthem. These notes are not, as is usually the case, lifted from obvious and readily available sources...The catalogues of private libraries (nos. 21519-21799) are divided according to countries and are accompanied by some useful notes. The Belgian (Nos. 22521-22668) and Dutch (nos. 22669-22778) catalogues are listed in the fourth volume which is devoted to the history and literature of the Low Countries."Taylor, Book Catalogues, pp. 246-47. Very good set. Rare on the market.
$US4000
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