The Building Accounts of Christ Church Library, 1716-1779 : A Transcription, with an Introduction and Indices of Donors and Craftsmen

Printed for presentation to the Roxburghe Club, Oxford, first edition, 1988. Red quarter morocco and cloth, gilt arms on front board, 4to, 33 cm,. 120 pp, [11] pp of plates. From the Preface: "The Library of Christ Church, Oxford, is one of the largest and most distinguished, both for its fabric and its contents, of the learned libraries in this country, and indeed in Europe. This volume is not concerned with the Library's contents, outstanding as they are in their range, quality, and variety of interest for scholars in many fields of literary, historical, and artistic learning. It is concerned rather with the background to the creation over a great part of the eighteenth century of a splendid building deliberately designed to rival, and indeed surpass, other great academic libraries of the age such as those of Trinity College, Dublin, Trinity College, Cambridge, and All Souls College here in Oxford. The Building Accounts of our library so carefully kept for the Dean and Chapter in the large folio volume here transcribed also throw much light on college life in Oxford in the eighteenth century. They illuminate not merely the progress of the building itself and the activities of members of the House, who did so much to finance it, but also the work of the craftsmen whose varied technical skills made its building and adornment such a triumphant achievement. These accounts thus preserve and present a varied and vivid picture of Oxford life both academic and civic at a time of great building activity in City and University alike. The copy of Christopher Dobson, sometime librarian of the House of Lords, with his name underlined in red in the list of Members. Fine.