Chapter 31 Elsevier and others (2)

In his bibliographical notes (a book rarely encountered today), Louis Elsevier was the first to note the difference between the consonant V and the vowel U, according to the learned William Davies. A distinction between people—a distinction that Ramis and other writers warned long ago, but never drew attention to.There are five Elseviers in total, namely: Louis, Bonaventure, Abraham, Louis Jr. and Daniel. One hundred years ago, a famous bibliophile commented: "The masterpieces printed by Elsevier in Leiden and Amsterdam have long been admired by people for their greatness and overall beauty, which is what they should be. and the price they were quoted for when they were sold publicly speaks volumes for the respect they are now commanding."

The reverence for these rare books still prevails, and we encounter it both with wonder in the backcountry and in the libraries where one naturally expects to find it.My young friend Owen Way (an avid rare book collector himself) told me that during a pilgrimage through Texas he met a gentleman who showed him in his modest home A collection of Elsevier editions--the largest collection of its kind he had ever looked at! Bookworms, how deep and vast is your kindness and generosity!No matter how far the distance is, no matter how bad the environment is, poverty and hardship, sorrow and sorrow, can't make you frightened and frightened, and stop you from moving forward. How beautiful and sweet it is.You are like that dreadful ghost we call Death, who knocks justly on the gates of palaces and the doors of cottages.You seem to be especially happy to bring friendship that sublimates humanity to the remote desert.

I sigh with a sigh of relief at the thought of so many Elsevier editions that end up in the libraries of the upstarts.These fellows would know no more, and care less, for such a rarity than some crude vanity.When Catherine the Great of Russia [Catherine the Great (1729-1796), the Russian Empress Catherine II, reigned from 1762-1796.Born in Germany, she married Tsar Peter III in 1745 and ascended to the throne in 1762 through a palace coup.She fought against Turkey twice, participated in the partition of Poland three times, merged the Crimean Khanate into Russia, opened the mouth of the Black Sea, and established a huge Russian Empire. ] Tired of Kollitz, he transferred her tenderness to a Guards officer named Jimsky Korsakov.Jimski was somewhat elated by this sudden favor and wealth.One of his first orders went to his bookseller.He said to the famous bookseller: "Fix me with a library handsome enough. A few books upstairs, and many downstairs."

It is said that there was a British warrior who brought back a whole library when he retired.He knew no more about books than a wild boar knows about choir harmonies, and he ordered the volumes to be lined up in this way: "Look at me," he said, "the elite troops ( folio) below, the main force (octavo) in the middle, and light infantry (dodecamo) above!" Samuel Johnson ingratiated himself with Lord Chesterfield almost as shamelessly as the historian Gibbon [Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) history". ] The demeanor when meeting the Duke of Cumberland.At that time, Gibbon brought the third volume of his "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" to the duke's palace.The history book was originally printed in quarto, and Gibbon carried the volume with the hope that it would please the duke when it was delivered.What did the duke say? "What?" he exclaimed. "Oh, in a different form—large format, eh?"

It has become fashionable to babble endlessly about the decline of the world, to insist that the taste of appreciation has degenerated and the ability to connoisseurs is dead.We don't seem to realize that this is a golden age for writers, if not a golden age for writing. Back in the good old days, writers were in fact a despised and neglected class.The Greeks put them to death because their sense of humor captured them.For a hundred years after Shakespeare's death, his compatriots almost did not know who he was, except for Suckling . ] and his mates: throughout his life, he was under full attack from his contemporaries; one detractor culminated in the claim that he was a jackdaw showing off his borrowed feathers.Milton was accused of plagiarism, and one of his critics devoted himself for many years to find passages in ancient writings that were similar to the blind poet's rhyme from various aspects, and compiled them into a volume.Even the satires of Samuel Johnson were convicted of plagiarism.

It seems that the so-called good old days were a time when critics could do whatever they wanted, and for books and writers, there were successes and failures.They killed Chatterton, just as they hastened Keats' death many years later.For a while, they were omnipotent.It wasn't until the end of the eighteenth century that these professional tyrants began to lose control, and when Byron raised his spear against them, their doom was practically sealed. In this decadent age, who cares about such trivial matters as what Dr. Warburton has to say about a book?It was this Warburton (Bishop of Gloucester) who commented on Granger's History of English Biography as a "strange book".This is the highest evaluation his old man can give a book--those books he doesn't like are called "bad books", while the books he prefers are called "weird books".

The fact seems to be this: through the spread of knowledge, and the abundance and cheapness of books, men have generally attained such heights of intellect that they feel justified in claiming that they are capable of making their own judgments.Therefore, the industry of critics, as in the past, the era of pointing out the country and stimulating the writing, is completely over. Going back to the cliché of bemoaning the old age of the human heart, I would say that there is nothing new in this fad.Look through the ancient records, and you will find a long series of the same chatter, chattering about the beauty of the past and the decay of the present.Herodotus, Sallust, Caesar, Cicero, and Pliny took turns to recite this bitter book with compassion.