In Iceland books were passed down generations as family heirlooms, given away as precious presents or even sold. Two book enthusiasts were Sir Joseph Banks from England and Heinrich Erkes from Germany who laid the foundations to large collections of Icelandic books and manuscripts. We aim to learn more about their network of book sellers, as well as the previous owners of the books.
Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820) was a British botanist. He was the president of the Royal Society for decades and ensured the collection of plants for the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, but is perhaps most famous for taking part in Captain James Cook’s first Pacific expedition to South America, New Zealand and Australia in 1768-1771. As Banks’ participation in Cook’s second voyage did not work out, he instead explored the Isle of Wright, some western Scottish islands, and – most important for us – Iceland. Today, there are eight manuscripts and some forty books from Iceland in the British Library that Banks had collected.
Heinrich Erkes (1864-1932) was a German merchant-turned-librarian. Fascinated by Iceland, he learned Icelandic, undertook several excursions to Iceland and collected everything printed concerning Iceland that he could get hold of. His impressive collection is now part of the Cologne University Library.
In this part of our project “Paper Trails” we will focus on the object history, or object biography, of the books from Banks’ and Erkes’ collections. Our aim is to explore the whole “life” of the books from production and previous ownership(s) to their current repositories: how did the two collectors come into the possession of their collectibles, who sold the books or arranged the selling, who were the previous owners or users. The various marks of ownership, marginalia and fragments inserted into the books at a later stage, as well as archival material, such as auction catalogues, will hopefully shed some light on these research questions. A particularly important source of origin and ownership are the bindings of the books. In pre-modern Europe, books were usually sold unbound, or bound only provisionally in thin cardboard – as the publications of Editiones Arnamagnæanæ are still sold today – and the actual binding was done or ordered by the purchasers. Books were often rearranged and rebound at a later stage, and all these bindings and binding material give clues about the “life” of the books.
We hope that you enjoyed this short introduction to the book-history-part of “Paper Trails” and that you continue to follow our blog. Stay tuned for updates and check our twitter account, too!
Further reading:
Anna Agnarsdóttir, ed. Sir Joseph Banks, Iceland and the North Atlantic 1772-1820: Journals, Letters and Documents. London: Routledge, 2016.
Jucknies, Regina. Heinrich Erkes (1864-1932): Kölner Kaufmann, Kenner Islands und kluger Bibliothekar. Vorträge in der Universitäts- und Stadtbibliothek Köln 1. Cologne: Universitäts- und Stadtbibliothek, 2010.
Meier, Thomas, et al., ed. Materiale Textkulturen: Konzepte – Materialien – Praktiken. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2015.
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