Collecting pre-1700 books on a budget

Hello all:
I really enjoy older books, but am on a tight budget for
book-buying. I can only buy a few titles a year at less than $500 each.
I'm asking for suggestions of underappreciated areas for collecting and
perhaps a few ideas on where to look that will get me the most bang for
my buck.

Thanks

wrote in message
oups.com...
Hello all:

I really enjoy older books, but am on a tight budget for
book-buying. I can only buy a few titles a year at less than $500 each.
I'm asking for suggestions of underappreciated areas for collecting and
perhaps a few ideas on where to look that will get me the most bang for
my buck.

Thanks


There's probably plenty of theology still out there, which would
maybe fit the bill pricewise, as they churned them out by their
thousands. More so, if you include titles in foreign languages.

As with many of these things, you'll probably find that prices
are directly proportional to the actual reading interest in the
works. Old almanacs, or well established works or historiaclly
significant works in English will be relatively expensive (on the
English speaking market at least) certainly as compared with obscure
Latin theology. Despite the latter being in their original bindings
and maybe featuring decorative woodcuts etc.


michael adams

....

wrote:
Hello all:
I really enjoy older books, but am on a tight budget for
book-buying. I can only buy a few titles a year at less than $500 each.
I'm asking for suggestions of underappreciated areas for collecting and
perhaps a few ideas on where to look that will get me the most bang for
my buck.

Thanks

I think you may have painted yourself into a corner here. To be useful,
I would need to know any other limitations you may have, As was pointed
out, there are religious tracts printed in this period. I think most
items of interest would be printed in either Latin or English. I only
say this because my languages are the afore mentioned. The more sought
after books are in these languages. BCPs and Missals are the more common
and perhaps collectible. Any other language will no doubt be available.

There certainly were instances of intellectual activity going on there.
There were significant events in the New World in that century. Any
books that featured the events would be of interest.

I really think you need to find an historian of that period. dust
him/her off and find influential works.

My guess is lacking a live historian [Trust me, finding a viable]
[vital] historian is no easy road, Check footnotes. If it shows up often
enough, It may be worth owning. And yes they never read it, they just
faithfully copied it.

If you find a seminal work, it may well be worth owning.

Eventual worth? BCPs will appreciate (slowly) If I were investment
bound, I'd go for a S&P index fund

However, if you like cool books, taking a flier on a quoted 17th century
book could be fun. And who knows, If Dan Brown chooses to feature your
treasure in his next book on the Battle of Fontainebleau, you may take
home a mint.

First edition of Principia? Go for it.

wrote:

I really enjoy older books, but am on a tight budget for
book-buying. I can only buy a few titles a year at less than
$500 each. I'm asking for suggestions of underappreciated
areas for collecting and perhaps a few ideas on where to
look that will get me the most bang for my buck.

My website's basically down at the moment, but when I get it up again
you might like to see my virtual 17th century collection, most of which
cost under your specified limit of $500.

Like most collectors, I kept things manageable by working within a topic
area. Broadly, the area is devotional works (though it shifts into
political/historical areas as well), but within that I decided to go for
books by and about those who suffered for their beliefs in the
post-Reformation period.

As I say, that'd make a lot more sense if you could actually see the
stuff; I hope to have it all back up and running in the next few days.

John
http://rarebooksinjapan.org

I wrote:

My website's basically down at the moment

I don't really know what's happening with my website. It seems to be up
again now, but I can't log into it (which I desperately want to, in case
it disappears again; I want to make sure I've got an up-to-date backup!).

Anyway, here's the link:

http://rarebooksinjapan.com/religious/index.html

John
http://rarebooksinjapan.org

"John R. Yamamoto-Wilson" wrote in message
...
I wrote:

My website's basically down at the moment

I don't really know what's happening with my website. It seems to be up
again now, but I can't log into it (which I desperately want to, in case
it disappears again; I want to make sure I've got an up-to-date backup!).

I was hoping someone else would reply to this first. As I can't quite
understand why your latest backup isn't on your computer at home
to start with.

I keep my small number of webpages in a folder imaginatively called
"FTP" on the computer at home. Each webpage has its own folder "Penguins"
"Pelicans" "Chronicle" etc. containing the HTML code jpg's and subfolders
these are transferred as folders using FTP to my site on the ISP's server
But all modifications are made and tried out in the home computer. And only
transferred afterwards.

I use two ISP's, UKonline for broadband and Onetel for pay as you go Dial Up
as this is still more reliable for use on eBay. However I can only transfer
pages to the Onetel server via FTP using dial-up. And vice versa.


michael adams







Anyway, here's the link:

http://rarebooksinjapan.com/religious/index.html

John
http://rarebooksinjapan.org

I wrote:

michael adams wrote:

I don't really know what's happening with my website. It seems to
be up again now, but I can't log into it (which I desperately want
to, in case it disappears again; I want to make sure I've got an
up-to-date backup!).

Michael replied:

I was hoping someone else would reply to this first. As I can't
quite understand why your latest backup isn't on your computer at
home to start with.

Macromedia Contribute 3. Lets you edit the online page and publish it
directly to your website, but doesn't save a copy to your hard disk.

I just checked it again and it's running normally now, so I guess I
should download all the files on it, while the going's good. The e-mail
address associated with the account isn't working; that went pear-shaped
a couple of weeks ago and I edited most of the e-mail links on the
website to the .org address.

Don't really know what's going on there, and have been a bit too busy to
put much effort into trying to find out. I did get through to one branch
of their support team, but they referred me to another branch and the
e-mail bounced.

Basically, I got hooked into a free hosting deal at a time when business
was slack and now business has picked up again they'd probably like to
be shot of me, but I'm hanging on as long as possible!

John
http://rarebooksinjapan.org

"John R. Yamamoto-Wilson" wrote in message
...
I wrote:

michael adams wrote:

I don't really know what's happening with my website. It seems to
be up again now, but I can't log into it (which I desperately want
to, in case it disappears again; I want to make sure I've got an
up-to-date backup!).

Michael replied:

I was hoping someone else would reply to this first. As I can't
quite understand why your latest backup isn't on your computer at
home to start with.

Macromedia Contribute 3. Lets you edit the online page and publish it
directly to your website, but doesn't save a copy to your hard disk.

I just checked it again and it's running normally now, so I guess I
should download all the files on it, while the going's good. The e-mail
address associated with the account isn't working; that went pear-shaped
a couple of weeks ago and I edited most of the e-mail links on the
website to the .org address.

Don't really know what's going on there, and have been a bit too busy to
put much effort into trying to find out. I did get through to one branch
of their support team, but they referred me to another branch and the
e-mail bounced.

Basically, I got hooked into a free hosting deal at a time when business
was slack and now business has picked up again they'd probably like to
be shot of me, but I'm hanging on as long as possible!

John
http://rarebooksinjapan.org


Both my ISP's, UKonline and Onetel offer free webhosting up to
a limit I haven't reached yet. Although maybe that's the point.
But still, the pages load far quicker than they did when I was paying
Lycos around £4 a month, for nothing else but webhosting. Most months
my Onetel bill doesn't even reach £1 - just the odd 10 minutes worth of
eBay sniping here and there, but they don't seem to mind. I use Core
FTP lite to transfer files back and forth and it seems to work o.k.


michael adams

....

wrote:

I really enjoy older books, but am on a tight budget for
book-buying. I can only buy a few titles a year at less than $500 each.
I'm asking for suggestions of underappreciated areas for collecting and
perhaps a few ideas on where to look that will get me the most bang for
my buck.


I would agree that theological and religious books pre-1700 would
provide fertile ground for a penurious collector. You need to narrow
your field down somewhat, though. You could pick a particular country
or city or printer. You could focus on Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican,
Reformed, Anabaptist, etc. works. Or you could limit yourself to the
works of members of a religious order like the Jesuits--they come with
a ready made bibliography, de Backer-Sommervogel. Such a collection
would have the advantage of spanning many different subject areas as
the Jesuits were, as a group, polymathic.

Alternatively, I think a single-book collection could be a very
fruitful approach. Among the more traditional subjects a the Bible,
the prayer book or missal, and the *Imitatio Christi*. I've applied
this approach in recent years to my collection of editions of St.
Augustine's *Confessions*, with which I've had excellent luck, finding
many 17/c and 18/c editions for under $100--I got a copy of the rare
second German printed edition of 1765 for $50--although I've noticed
prices picking up recently, e.g., on eBay. The titles just mentioned
have the advantage of cross-denominational appeal, they were translated
into many languages and reprinted constantly, therefore there are lots
of books to go after.

I'll suggest a similar title that, so far as I know, no one has ever
collected systematically. This is a premium nugget, but, in the spirit
of the holiday season, I'll make it freely available:

The Italian Theatine Lorenzo Scupoli (c.1530-1610)'s *Combattimento
spirituale* (first published anonymously, 1589; with Scupoli's name,
1610). That work--in English usually called *Spiritual Combat* or
*Spiritual Warfare*, sometimes more recently called *Unseen
Warfare*--has gone through many editions and translations--with
Catholic, Protestant, and Eastern Orthodox versions--probably as often
as not without Scupoli's name--and consequently with the name of the
editor, translator, or adapter being given added prominence (see, e.g.,
the famous Greek Orthodox edition by St. Nicodemus of the Holy
Mountain, *Aoratos Polemos* [Venice, 1796]). I think such a collection
could be a very interesting undertaking.

Good luck.

William M. Klimon
http://www.gateofbliss.com

Forgot to mention one important bibliographic tool for pre-1700 books
is now online free of charge at:

http://estc.bl.uk

Cheers,

William M. Klimon
http://www.gateofbliss.com