Hooke’s Books Database

This database of 2,716 records contains a transcription of the Bibliotheca Hookiana (London, 1703)*, the auction catalogue prepared after Hooke’s death, as well as 38 other extant books not listed there. You may browse the database and view individual records in more detail, or perform a limited search.

 

SEARCH HOOKE’S BOOKS

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BIBLIOTHECA HOOKIANA (1703)

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BIBLIOTHECA HOOKIANA (1703) in FULL

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OTHER
EXTANT BOOKS

browse the other 36 books attributed to Hooke but not listed in the auction catalogue

EXTANT BOOKS ASSOCIATED WITH HOOKE

browse the extant books handled by or otherwise associated with Hooke

ALL
EXTANT BOOKS

browse the 100 + extant books (67 from the auction catalogue with one listed twice + 36 others + 2 associated)

*about the transcription

The transcription is based on the facsimile edition in H. A. Feisenberger (ed.), Sale Catalogues of Libraries of Eminent Persons. Volume II: Scientists. Elias Ashmole, Edmund Halley, Robert Hooke, John Ray, London: Mansell, with Sotheby Parke Bernet Publications, 1975, pp. 57-116, which is a copy of one of the extant volumes at the British Library (shelfmark S.C.389.(2-3.); ESTC no. T21590; Sloane no. R 841-2; identified as ‘Copy 2’ in the list of surviving copies of the Bibliotheca Hookiana (1703)) with manuscript interventions to make some numbers more legible. The price information annotated in the margins of this copy is assumed to have been noted by an observer who did not manage to record everything.

Please note that the transcription is not verbatim and that the author names and places of publication are modernized in the Hooke’s Books Database. For example the first entry in the auction catalogue is ‘Clement. Alexandr. Op. Gr. & Lat. a Frid. Sylburgio. Colon. 1687′, which is recorded in the database as ‘Clement of Alexandria, Op. Gr. & Lat. a Frid. Sylburgio, Cologne, 1687′. As they can be easily inferred and/or checked against online library catalogues, forms of titles were transcribed without emendation from the original catalogue; the editors aim to provide corrected titles under ‘Other Information’ should this prove necessary.

 

references

For more on the surviving copies of the auction catalogue, and the full bibliographical information on the sources used in an abbreviated form in the database, consult the references section.

 

types of information in the database
Users may expect to find the following information in the database when viewing an individual record; please note that not of all these are available in each record:

  • basic bibliographical details such as author, title, publication place and date: note that author names and publication places in the Bibliotheca Hookiana (1703) have been modernized and may not reflect the exact spelling used in the original publication (see the note above regarding the transcription);
  • in the Bibliotheca Hookiana (1703): size and language, page and lot numbers as indicated in the original publication, notes on the catalogue (e.g. titles braced together) and price fetched at the auction if available (see the note above regarding the transcription);
  • in the list of other extant books: size of the volume (folio, quarto, etc.);
  • if extant: provenance information and references, notes on the annotations if there are any, and current location with a hyperlink to the catalogue record if the book is held in a publicly accessible library;
  • research notes by the editors (especially if the book is extant, or is listed among Hooke’s desiderata or purchases from specific auctions);
  • database id; it may be helpful to note that books listed in the Bibliotheca Hookiana (1703) have numbers prefixed with ‘auct_BH’ (i.e. auct_BH_1256), the other extant books with ‘extra_BH’ (i.e. extra_BH_7), and the extant books handled by or otherwise associated with Hooke with ‘associated_BH’ (i.e. associated_BH_1).