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| What is the oldest book on your shelf? |
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| 12th Sep 2020, 7:24 PM | #1 REPORT | |
 | 23skidoo Member since Jul 2014 4061 Points | (Apologies if this topic has already been done, though I couldn't find a thread). There are some very eclectic collections being indexed here. I'm curious to find out: what is the oldest book you own? I mean in terms of physical printing - especially if it's one you haven't yet indexed, or are scared to because you don't want to damage it. (Which is fair enough.) For me, the record is held by a book-length poem titled The Complaint: Or, Night-Thoughts On Life, Death, And Immortality that I found in, of all places, a "leave a book/take a book for 50 cents" charity rack in a Calgary grocery store about 15 years ago. It was printed in 1792 and I've had it verified. It's not in 100% condition - the cover has detached - but the pages are surprisingly supple for something that is nearly 230 years old. No other books in my collection come close (I have a book that I just indexed called Domestic Life that may date from the original publication run in 1841, but it's not dated and given the pedigree of the copy I have, mine was more likely reprinted in the 1890s.). |
| 12th Sep 2020, 8:49 PM | #2 REPORT | |
 | Juke Jules SUBS Tell me he's lazy, tell me he's slow Member since Jan 2011 4135 Points Moderator | An unlikely and venerable find! Why don't you now add the original print from 1743 - details can be found on Wikipedia ;-) |
| 13th Sep 2020, 8:42 AM | #3 REPORT | |
 | OldMod67 "..all the cats, you know who they are.. " Member since Nov 2010 946 Points | I have a lot of old books, but none really OLD. Just cast an eye on the smaller 'mixed' bookcase and although my wife has mostly non fiction (history/military) she does have a James Nisbet 1899 edition of Jane Eyre. I don't think I can beat that... |
| 13th Sep 2020, 6:49 PM | #4 REPORT | |
| scrough ● No picture 'cos I'm not into 45rpm :( Member since Jan 2013 3379 Points Moderator | "Oldest" can mean more than one thing if we include reprints, later editions etc, so for instance I have a 20th Century version of a book first published in 1651, which is still being published in other editions. I have quite a few Victorian period books (~1850-1900) not yet added, but the earliest I added during moderator test of Books World was Popular Music Of The Olden Time, issued in parts during 1855-6 and also bought at a trivial price. |
| 15th Sep 2020, 8:40 PM | #5 REPORT | |
| 23skidoo Member since Jul 2014 4061 Points |
Juke Jules wrote:
An unlikely and venerable find! Why don't you now add the original print from 1743 - details can be found on Wikipedia ;-)
It was first published over 9 volumes between 1742 and 1745. The edition I have appears to be first consolidated printing of all 9 parts together. I see no reference to 1743 in the Wikipedia article. The work certainly would not yet have been complete. |
| 15th Sep 2020, 8:43 PM | #6 REPORT | |
| 23skidoo Member since Jul 2014 4061 Points |
scrough wrote:
"Oldest" can mean more than one thing if we include reprints, later editions etc, so for instance I have a 20th Century version of a book first published in 1651, which is still being published in other editions.
I have quite a few Victorian period books (~1850-1900) not yet added, but the earliest I added during moderator test of Books World was Popular Music Of The Olden Time, issued in parts during 1855-6 and also bought at a trivial price. Nice! I'd be specifically talking about the age of the actual object, so the Popular Music book definitely qualifies! Oldest book I've ever encountered outside of a museum was a late 17th-century book (I think it was a Bible) that an antique dealer in Calgary had about 20 years ago. He wanted a small fortune for it and I think he got it. |
| 15th Sep 2020, 9:39 PM | #7 REPORT | |
 | getalife So many questions, so few answers Member since Nov 2010 876 Points Moderator | I have a Parragon 2002 The Beatles unseen archives, and The Rolling Stones in the beginning, Octopus Publishing 2006. I can’t remember ever reading a book cover to cover in all my life, even the two books mentioned have only flicked through, a newspaper or magazine is about my limit and then not the whole thing.  |
| 16th Sep 2020, 3:49 AM | #8 REPORT | |
| JLC135 Member since Aug 2014 2715 Points Moderator | I don't really like reading books, that much, either. But, old books are interesting. The Landscape Annual for 1833 is the oldest I have. |
| 16th Sep 2020, 8:25 AM | #9 REPORT | |
 | carryonsidney a happy disposition is an omnious sign.... Member since Feb 2010 1704 Points Moderator | I recently picked a Prayer Book, dating from 1737 (thereabouts) remind me to add it the site. |
| 25th Sep 2020, 6:36 AM | #10 REPORT | |
 | xiphophilos Member since Dec 2013 3338 Points Moderator | My oldest book, a present from a dear friend, is a leather-bound pocket book (octavo) edition of Quintus Curtius Rufus' "De rebus gestis Alexandri Magni" ("About the Deeds of Alexander the Great") from 1650. The text was edited by famous Dutch scholar Daniel Heinsius (1580-1655). It is only the less impressive (no map) and far less expensive edition of this book (the first edition was from 1633), and the leather covers are quite worn, but I imagine it to be the kind of book a gentleman might have carried along in his vest pocket while traveling. Edited by xiphophilos on 25th Sep 2020, 6:44 AM |
| 20th Nov 2020, 3:56 PM | #11 REPORT | |
| 23skidoo Member since Jul 2014 4061 Points |
xiphophilos wrote:
... I imagine it to be the kind of book a gentleman might have carried along in his vest pocket while traveling.
That's what I love about old books - even if you don't know what it is, they still have a history, just by virtue of having survived this long. My Night-Thoughts book had to have travelled from the UK to Canada at some point - but it was printed nearly three quarters of a century before Canada became a formal country, and it was printed at a time when books were still considered luxury items for the upper class. So was my copy owned initially by some Lord or Lady such-and-such? If only books could talk. Even if it sat on a bookshelf for 150 years, a lot of stuff would have happened in front of that bookshelf. |
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