The start of the 20th season of the York Bibliographical Society is a milestone we cannot allow to pass by without a modest celebration, hence this booklet which contains a series of personal reflections on the early years of the Society.
Bibliography is defined as the 'study, description or knowledge of books in regard to their outward form, their authors, subjects, editions and history', and from the outset the Society has been concerned to embrace all these aspects of the book. It was conceived with two linked aims: first to provide a forum where those with an interest in books - professional, amateur, intellectual or recreational - could meet for education, conversation and the enjoyment of books; and second to provide a platform for the dissemination of learning and scholarship. Friends' groups generally exist to augment the appreciation and understanding of their collections or special subjects, as do a bewildering array of other clubs and societies catering to their aficionados' passions, be these photography, philately, or foreign finches. The York Bibliographical Society is no exception to this pattern.
Bibliographical societies are a relatively modern concept, the first to be established in the UK was in Edinburgh in 1890, followed shortly by the 'The Bibliographical Society' of London in 1892. Thereafter similar organisations grew up in Oxford, Cambridge, Glasgow, and also Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and Aberystwyth. A notable feature of some of these societies has been the publication of a journal containing scholarly articles, which have contributed to the better understanding of the principles and practices of book production.
York and the trading of books has been an integral partnership for centuries beginning with Alcuin in the late 8th century. Subsequent developments of significance included the setting up of the Royalist press in St William's College during the Civil War, and the establishment of the University of York at Heslington in 1963. This latter intellectual input to the cultural life of the city, complemented by a diverse spread of bookshops such as The Barbican, Godfrey's, and Spelmans, to name but a few, suggested a wind of change in York that might create a climate in which a bibliographical society would thrive.
An attempt to create a 'Friends of York Minster Library' had been mooted in the 1940's under the inspirational lead of Dean Eric Milner White, and supported by the Minster Librarian Canon Frederick Harrison. The scheme foundered partly due to antipathy towards such an esoteric notion in a Britain ravaged by war and austerity measures. The mid-1980's was by contrast far more favourable and the initiative to draw together elements leading to a society for, and run by, book lovers was seized by Peter Miller who had succeeded Ken Spelman at the bookshop in Micklegate.
Support, encouragement, and offers of practical help came from near and wide: fellow booksellers (Jan Janiurek, Janette Ray, Colin Stillwell); bibliographers and librarians (Bernard Barr, Lois Gordon, Kenneth Monkman); academics (Professor Jacques Berthoud, Dr Graham Parry, Maurice Kirk); and other diverse backgrounds, for example Methodism (Revd Dr Oliver Beckerlegge), printing (Michael Sessions), railway (Chris Weston), the law (Margaret Rogers and Jeremy Taylor).
An informal meeting attended by eleven interested parties was held at the Black Swan Inn, Peasholme Green on 10th June 1986, and a public meeting was called for 15th July. Chaired by Bernard Barr, with some forty persons present, the York Bibliographical Society was formally founded that evening. Eschewing the formality of a presidential and vice-presidential hierarchy, the Society agreed to a rotational executive committee of seven people, plus two ex-officio members - an honorary Secretary (Chris Weston), and an honorary Treasurer (Dr Peter Lee). A programme of six lectures between October and March (the one in December to be in the nature of a festive after-supper entertainment), followed by visits to a couple of notable libraries in late spring/early summer would be offered for a modest annual subscription.
Elsewhere in this commemorative booklet can be seen the full list of lectures given and visits undertaken in our first twenty years. Engagement of speakers by members of the committee has been almost without exception on the basis of personal recommendation, a method that has ensured lectures of commitment, passion, and an enviable standard of effective communication. Calls at the founding meeting for a broadly-based society have been honoured to the extent that bio-bibliographical treatments of single authors and illustrators have been juxtaposed with general surveys of book genres (e.g. alphabet books, children's illustrated books, music selling and publishing) and accounts of individual collections. Intermingled further are booksellers' and auctioneers' reminiscences, studies of book-bindings, and excursions into further byways of bibliography such as literary forgery, letters and diary writing, annotation, and book provenance.
Annual visits have been made to an impressive number of private, institutional, ecclesiastical and public libraries. Inevitably access has been governed by concerns over the physical fragility of the collections and other conservation needs. These visits have been valuable not only for offering a sight of books of great rarity and value, but because the custodian's introductory talk has usually set the collection in an intellectual and social context. In some instances the formal library visit has also led to the chance discovery of material that repaid subsequent private research.
A society concerned with the study of the principal historical means of information transmission should have its own archive and consequently the Secretary is the unofficial custodian of such records. Minutes of meetings, both in committee and at year endings, plus correspondence arising out of the deliberations are illustrative of the continuous functioning of the society. All publicity brochures, flyers for visits, and the preparatory artwork from which they are printed have been retained. To keep abreast of the activities of other bibliographical societies and to be kept aware of new trends and developments in the realms of scholarly publication, the Society has subscribed to the Newsletter of the Library Association (Rare Books Group). These sixty-page, thrice-yearly bulletins, containing diaries of events, movements of staff, reports of conferences, and reviews of new publications, offer invaluable information on broader trends in the book world. In their quite different ways both Quarto, the newsletter of the National Library of Scotland, and Document Supply News from the British Library at Boston Spa, highlight the on-going work at each institution.
Relationships with allied organisations are valuable for the generation of goodwill and cross-fertilization of ideas. The Library Association in its reincarnation with the Institute of Information Scientists as the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, and the Wordsworth Trust at Grasmere, both arrange residential seminars. The former focuses professionally on themes as diverse as 'Books for Children' and 'Libraries in Danger', while the latter arranges largely recreational book-collector weekends.
But what of the future? Current educational policy appears to have discounted the value of learning for its own sake; however, in a contemporary world of bewildering change and uncertainty books, precisely because of their content and their physical make-up, continue to offer a calming therapy to all who embrace them. The electronic age we live in offers the stimulating prospect of almost limitless systems of information retrieval. These will undoubtedly take their place alongside the printed book, and by making use of this new technology bibliographical societies will gain an extra dimension thoroughly consonant with their broad-based interest in all aspects of the book. Bibliography resurgam!
This page was prepared by Peter M Lee, e-mail math16@york.ac.uk
Revised 24 November 2006