A Rare Book: Its Essential Qualifications

INA S MUCH as none of the manifold attempts to define “a rare book” has yet obtained such unanimity of approval as to be reckoned entirely satisfactory or final, investigation into this question still remains fair game, is still in the public domain. The phrase-“a rare book”-can mean any one of three different things depending on the sense in which it is used. Two of these meaningsthose used in a narrow, conditional sense to indicate merely that a particular volume is either not plentiful, or that it possesses some quality distinguishing it as being unusually excellent or meritoriouscan be banished at once from consideration. Neither of these restricted meanings can be properly conveyed by our phrase, unless one or the other is expressly stipulated for or inferentially suggested by context. They are both well outside our province. The concern here is exclusively with the third and quite different meaning of this phrase; its meaning, unconditioned by any qualification, expressed or implied; its meaning when used in the sense in which it is understood today in common parlance; the meaning, in short, by which a book described as “rare” identifies it as one belonging to the highest of the three several grades into which books of more-than-ordinary monetary value have long been conveniently divided: those called “uncommon,” those called “scarce” and those called “rare.” Division into grades of such books is no new practice. Born of convenience, it probably evolved at an early period in the development of the traffic in printed books. The idea of grades, as well as the nomenclature adopted to designate them, have proven of vast utility, an example of bastard trade-jargon legitimatized by long usage. Both will be helpful in solving the present problem; in fact, the solution will primarily hinge upon them. This will be shown later when the three grades are examined separately in order to establish reason-