This catalogue contains books sent to the Melbourne Public Library by their London supplier, Frederick Guillaume, in 1861 and forms the last catalogue in the bound collection held by the State Library of Victoria. As with previous Guillaume catalogues it is arranged alphabetically by author and title and includes detailed bibliographic information, such as the date, place and format of publication. Comprising approximately 1500 volumes, this catalogue is one of the larger collections sent by Guillaume.
Although the majority of the works included in the catalogue are in English and published in London, there are a variety of foreign-language titles present in the catalogue, including in French, German, Italian, Latin and Spanish. The catalogue comprises numerous genres, such as: theological works, technical books on mining and civil engineering, history and biographical works, and scientific works on botany, chemistry and geology. Philological, travel and ethnographic works form the best represented genres. The philological titles and grammars cover a significant range of languages and include: W. H. Medhurst’s vocabulary of English and Japanese, the Wesleyan missionary Henry Tindall’s work on the Khoekhoe language, and German philologist Max Müller’s work on Semitic, Arian and Turanian languages. Literary works are also well-represented in this catalogue with 29 volumes from Robert Bell’s collection of English poets, 30 volumes of the antiquarian Joseph Ritson’s works, E. B. Browning’s Aurora Leigh, and works by Coleridge, Dryden, Hemans, Kingsley and Spenser. The poetry is not limited to an interest in English poetry but includes a volume on Persian poetry by the Austrian orientalist, Aloy Sprenger. The catalogue also demonstrates the Library’s desire to stay current with their collections of periodicals and text publication series as the catalogue contains recent editions from numerous periodicals, such as the Edinburgh Review, the Quarterly Review, and publications from the Haklyut Society and Chetham Society. A notable title in the collection is Robert Parson’s Elizabethae Reginae Angliae edictum published in London in 1593.
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