Sometimes we "acquire" a book simply by discovering it in our collections. Every week we receive dozens of catalogs and offers from rare book and manuscript dealers. We are pretty picky about what we buy. We need to know that a book or manuscript will get used--we are not really adherents of the "build it and they will come" model of collection development. We are more focused on what do people need now and how can we build the collections to support them. Anyway, we are frequently tempted by pricey books and wrack our brains to figure how the book can do enough work for us to justify the cost.
A couple of weeks ago, a catalog came to us and we were ogling a very cool book: George Bartisch's
Ophthalmodouleia, das ist Augendienst,
the first work on ophthalmology from 1583. We could envision a lot of
uses--we do a lot with the history of medicine--but the price was pretty
steep so we were hesitant. Would the book do THAT much work for us? As
we pondered, we checked the catalog, and, glory be, we already had a
copy! Not only that, but all of its flaps still work and it still has
its original metal clasps--so it is a dandy copy. Someone bought it for
the library back in 1938 for a tiny fraction of what it costs today. A
book unknown to us was sitting there all along just waiting to catch
someone's eye. You can bet we will be using it now, and that it will
find its way into Dartmouth classes.
Come feast your eyes on it by asking for Rare RE41 .B3.
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