Download or read book The Invention of Rare Books written by David McKitterick and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-07-12 with total page 463 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores how the idea of rare books was shaped by collectors, traders and libraries from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. Using examples from across Europe, David McKitterick looks at how rare books developed from being desirable objects of largely private interest to become public and even national concerns.