The final catalogue sent by Frederick Guillaume to the Melbourne Public Library in 1859 contains approximately 1500 volumes and is one of the larger collections sent by Guillaume. Arranged alphabetically by author and title it contains detailed bibliographic information including the year, place and format of publication.
This catalogue features numerous publisher series like the Colonial and Home Library (37 volumes) and The Foreign Theological Library (55 volumes), and series by text publication societies, such as the Abbotsford Club (29 volumes), the Percy Society (34 volumes), the Shakespeare Society (25) and the Spalding Club (25 volumes). Covering a wide range of genres, these series make up almost a fifth of the collection. Literature, history, theology and travel dominate the collection, with each genre represented fairly equally across the catalogue. Notable literary authors include Benjamin Disraeli (26 volumes), Maria Edgeworth (10 volumes), Hannah More (11 volumes), Edward Bulwer-Lytton (20 volume) and Douglas Jerrold (6). Poetry is also well-represented with works by E. B. Browning, Coleridge, Montgomery James, Keats, and Wordsworth. In addition to the theological library, the catalogue contains 25 volumes by Thomas Chalmers. The travel and ethnographic titles contain several concerning Australia, such as Ellen Clacy’s A lady’s visit to the gold diggings of Australia, in 1852-53, Robert Dawson’s The present state of Australia and Barron Field’s Geographical memoirs of New South Wales. Other works of interest are: 55 volumes of the Acta Sanctorum published in Antwerp from 1643-1845, 17 volumes of catalogues from the British Museum, many as folio editions, and several titles by the popular ethnologists Robert Gordon Latham and James Prichard.
SC
