Rare Book School
Preliminary Reading List

Provenance: Tracing Owners & Collections

David Pearson

Preliminary Advices

I will assume that students are familiar with the essentials of historical bibliography and with handling early printed books – that there is no need to include Philip Gaskell’s New introduction to bibliography here.  Detailed bibliographies will be distributed during the course, dealing with the various areas we will cover, but I will assume that students have the background knowledge that is acquired by reading, or at least being familiar with, the following:

1. D. Pearson: Provenance research in book history: a handbook.  London and New Castle (British Library/Oak Knoll), 1994, reprinted, with a new introduction, 1998.
2. D. Pearson: Books as history.  London (British Library/Oak Knoll), 2008.
3. D. Finkelstein and A. McCleery: An introduction to book history. London and New York (Routledge), 2005.

4. S. A. Baron: The reader revealed.  Seattle and London (University of Washington Press), 2001.
5. W. Sherman: Used books.  Philadelphia (University of Pennsylvania Press), 2008.
6. R. Stoddard: Marks in books.  Cambridge (Houghton Library, Harvard University), 1985.
7. R. Stoddard: “Looking at marks in books.”  Gazette of the Grolier Club ns 51 (2000), 27-47.
8. Brian North Lee: British bookplates: a pictorial history.  Newton Abbot (David and Charles), 1979.
9. A. Taylor: Book catalogues: their varieties and uses.  2nd edn, rev. W. Barlow.  Winchester (St Paul’s Bibliographies), 1986.