Revolution and the Antiquarian Book: Reshaping the Past, 1780–1815
Cambridge University Press
Edition: Illustrated, 1/6/2011
EAN 9781107000513, ISBN10: 1107000513
Hardcover, 330 pages, 24.4 x 17 x 1.9 cm
Language: English
At the end of the eighteenth century, noblemen and revolutionaries spent extravagant sums of money or precious military resources competing to acquire old books, which until then had often been regarded as worthless. These books, called incunabula, achieved cultural and political importance as luxury commodities and as tools for mastering a controversial past. Men of different classes met in a new, shared marketplace, creating a competition for social authority, as books were no longer seen merely as sources of textual information but as a way of controlling the past in the service of contemporary concerns. The old books themselves were often changed to meet new expectations of what important historic objects should be. Focusing on Paris and London, but taking a resolutely pan-European view, this book examines the emergence of this commodity and of a new historical discipline created by traders and craftsmen.
Introduction
1. Enlightenment ideas and revolutionary practice
incunabula and freedom
2. Aristocratic aspirations and the war-time market
competing for the past and the future
3. An object-based discipline emerges
old books, new luxury
4. Competing for authority. 'The insolence of English wealth'
5. Commemorating and obliterating the past
'old books, very displeasing to the eye'
6. Conclusion.