When Europe’s monastic libraries were looted, Britain’s richest book collectors went hunting

English booksellers and book collectors used agents on the ground in France, Germany and Italy to buy books from threatened libraries, coerce their owners into sale, or, if everything else failed, simply steal the desired items. They did so secure in the knowledge that the homes of these books would soon be broken up anyhow. The moment popularised the term “bibliomania”, as some of the richest men and women in England competed against each other to pay eye-watering prices for Europe’s oldest and rarest books.

Read the story at theconversation.com

October 12, 2026 by Blake Books

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