ORIGINAL ACTS OF PARLIAMENT AND THE UNKNOWN BIBLIOGRAPHER 上市 Deposited
The E-Sylum: Volume 5, Number 29, July 14, 2002, Article 14
ORIGINAL ACTS OF PARLIAMENT AND THE UNKNOWN BIBLIOGRAPHER
In their inventory listings, Broadfoot's Rare & Out-of-Print
Books of Wilmington, NC includes the following description
of original acts of the British parliament:"Original Acts of Parliament have long been valued and
collected, appearing frequently in auction records and dealers
catalogs. After an Act was passed by Parliament, it was printed
by the Crown printers in London. Only a few Acts, perhaps the
Acts for the week, were printed at one time, loosely sewn
together at the inner margin. For this first printing, each Act
had its own individual cover page. At the end of each year, all
of the Acts were reprinted and issued in book form; in this
annual compilation the Acts did not have individual title pages.It's not inappropriate to call the first printing of each account
the first edition, first issue and the yearly printing in book form
the first edition, second issue, explaining why some Acts have
separate printed cover sheets and others do not. Thus Acts we
describe as being "removed" have been taken out of a bound
volume and as such may have small holes, notches or bits of
glue in the inner margin where formerly sewn and glued.The Unknown English Bibliographer: Most of these Acts are
from the library of Harvard University as attested by the small
and faint blue exchanger stamp dated January 1, 1944 verso
the title pages. Many of the Acts are in protective cream
wrappers with the Act noted on the wrapper in black ink in a
fine and elegant hand, as handsome a penmanship as I have
ever seen.Furthermore, in many cases, the unknown English bibliographer
penned succinct comments, which place the Acts in historical
perspective and evaluated their importance. I'm indebted to
this person and thus let us raise a toast in thanks to him, "the
unknown English bibliographer."I doubt this person was head of the library and perhaps this
may be the greatest recognition he received for a job well
done. I can well envision someone during the war years deep
in the catacombs of London, sitting on the high stool a la Bob
Cratchitt, writing up endless stacks of Acts of Parliament by
a dim light. If any of you can perhaps determine who this
person might have been and if he still breathes, I should like to
send him best wishes and a bottle of the South's finest."[There are several compilations of U.S. laws relating to
numismatics - Dunbar 1891, 1897, a House of Representatives
document of 1904, a compilation of laws on commemorative
coinage by Lewis, GPO 1936, David Ganz' compilation and
Pete Smith's 1998 "Laws of the U.S. Congress Authorizing
Medals".Is anyone aware of an index or compilation of British Acts
of Parliament related to numismatics? Or the identity of the
"Unknown Bibliographer?" -Editor]- 2002-07-14
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