In The Philoblon, a book by the mediaeval bibliophile Richard de Bury, chapter 15 speaks of the advatages of the love of books.
In this chapter, de Bury again argues that the love of wisdom and the love of books are one and the same. "In books we climb mountains and scan the deepest gulfs of the abyss"
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Philobiblon)
When shopping for used/ rare books, one sometimes comes across a usually old book with small yellow brown spots or blotches on the book's paper.
The Victorial and Albert Museum of art and design offers considerations on the ownership of a foxed book:
The cost of neglect and poor quality repairs is high. Because books are not usually decorative objects in their own right, and thus not displayed, there is often a resistance to the cost of professional conservation.
Damp conditions in your home library would encourage mold growth, and will cause iron contaminants to rust.
(http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/c/caring-for-your-books-and-papers/)
Merriam Webster's Unabridged Dictionary defines collection, which includes (for book collecting purposes):
col·lec·tion noun, often attributive \ kə-ˈlek-shən \
inflected form(s): plural -s
2 : a number of objects or persons or a quantity of a substance that has been collected or has collected often according to some unifying principle or orderly arrangement: such as
a : an assembly of objects or specimens for the purposes of education, research, or interest
<the magnificent collection of trees — Edmund Wilson>
Origin of COLLECTION
Middle English collectioun, from Middle French collection, from Latin collection-, collectio, from collectus (past participle of colligere to collect, amass) + -ion-, -io -ion — more at COLLECT
“collection,” Merriam-Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, https://unabridged.merriam-webster.com/unabridged/collection. Accessed 2/26/2021.
(https://unabridged.merriam-webster.com/) $
Incunabula are the earliest printed books; they roughly cover the period 1450-1500.
Abebooks, a large search engine, has a dedicated webpage about what they are to the book collector:
The term Incunabula (also incunable or incunabulum) refers to a book, pamphlet or other document that was printed, and not handwritten, before the start of the 16th century in Europe. The first recorded usage of the term incunabula came in 1639 when the noted bibliophile Bernhard von Mallinckrodt issued a pamphlet to mark the bicentenary of the advent of printing by movable type titled De ortu et progressu artis typographicae (“Of the rise and progress of the typographic art”).
It was within this pamphlet he used the phrase prima typographicae incunabula, “the first infancy of printing” to describe books printed before the date 1500.
(https://www.abebooks.com/books/rarebooks/gutenberg-printing-press-incunable/incunabula.shtml)
Generally speaking, a hardback book's dust jacket is an asset when shopping; the price for a book is higher if it has a book jacket in fine condition. A tear or other problem on the jacket lowers the price of the book; many used books sell with no jacket, which reduce a book's value significantly.
According to Bibio,
Once intended to be temporary and disposable protection for beautifully bound books, dust jackets have become–in some ways–more valuable than the books they protect.
Biblio, a book search engine, also has helpful articles on book collecting.
(https://www.biblio.com/blog/2015/04/a-brief-history-of-the-dust-jacket/)
(https://www.biblio.com/blog/2020/10/how-do-i-find-a-specific-book-cover/)
Wikipedia is often an early starting place for me for reading all things books and libraries. If you are a beginning book collector, or want to start researching a narrow books topic, their Book Collecting page is very concise and informative.
Book collecting is the collecting of books, including seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining whatever books are of interest to a given collector.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_collecting)
The Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America (ABAA) has a blog titled The New Antiquarian; a category of it is "book collecting". Blog posts on the topic have been once every few weeks, although there is now a weekly post.
(https://www.abaa.org/blog/category/on-collecting-books)
