This catalogue is the first of 4 catalogues accompanying the orders sent to the Melbourne Public Library by the library’s London supplier, the bookseller J. J. Guillaume, in 1857. This copy, held at the State Library of Victoria, is bound with 12 other catalogues sent by Guillaume and his son between 1857 and 1861. The catalogues provided a means for the Library to check the orders as they arrived and were unpacked. This catalogue consists of approximately 800 volumes arranged alphabetically by author and title and provides detailed information about the place, year and format of publication. The majority of the titles in this catalogue were published in London, although there are 12 volumes of Cervantes published in Madrid and 8 volumes of Machiavelli published in Florence.
The catalogue includes educational works, such as 29 volumes of the Penny Cyclopedia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. Travel and ethnographic works are well-represented with works by Edward John Eyre, Charles Fellows, Sir Robert Ker Porter, Claudius James Rich, and the Lieutenant-Governor of Victoria, Charles Joseph La Trobe. Science is also well-catered for, with works on entomology, conchology, the vegetable kingdom and 80 volumes of Weale’s Series of Rudimentary Works on Science and Art. Literary works include works by Christopher Marlowe, Susanna Centlivre, Edward Bulwer Lytton and poetry by Elizabeth Barret Browning, Thomas Campbell and Thomas Gray.
SC
