Photographs of the Roxburghe Club, 1892

The Roxburge Club was founded by a group of wealthy English bookcollectors in 1812. One of the expectations of membership became that of underwriting the cost of publishing the facsimile of an important manuscript or a significant bibliography. These editions, extraordinarily sound in scholarship and lavish in production, were printed in just sufficient numbers so that each current member of the Club received one copy. Never were more than 100 copies printed.

Despite their scholarly importance, therefore, the books have always been rare, and a large collection of them is very uncommon. The University of Iowa Libraries holds one of the very few nearly complete collections in the United States. An article on the collection by Valerie Lagorio appeared in issue 35 of Books at Iowa.

Since this article was written, we have, from time to time, had opportunity to add a "missing" Roxburghe volume. Most recently we have added a volume of photographs of the members in 1892 which the Club authorized in 1891. Members at the time included Arthur James Balfour, Alfred Henry Huth, Andrew Lang, James Russell Lowell, and Simon Watson Taylor. The Marquess of Salisbury was President. The Iowa copy was that of Thomas Tudor Loveday.