Bibliotheca Brookeriana

$25 million anticipated at auction

A rare and extensive library of Renaissance-era books amassed by T. Kimball Brooker—Bibliotheca Brookeriana— one of the world’s most significant collections of rare books, will see its 1,600 titles sold by Sotheby's in the next two years, as announced by the auction house on August 10, 2023.¹ Brooker, a Chicago collector of early printed works and president of Barbara Oil Co., is expected to achieve more than US$25 million through a series of Sotheby’s sales beginning in October.²

Described by the auction house as “one of the most significant” collections of its kind, it consists of more than 1,300 French and Italian books printed in the 16th century in their original bindings.³ 

Over 1,000 Aldines

Aldus Manutius. From ceiling of the Great Hall of the Library of Congress.

The Aldine Press was the printing office started by Aldus Manutius in 1494 in Venice, from which were issued the celebrated Aldine editions of the classics (Latin and Greek masterpieces, plus a few more modern works). The first book that was dated and printed under his name appeared in 1495.⁴

Referred to as Aldines, after Aldus, these works are highly prized not only for their detail and craftsmanship but were also central to disseminating the ideals of Renaissance Humanism, as Aldus published a variety of Greek and Latin classics, helping to revive interest in these cultures on a mass scale and playing a critical role in how the concept of the Renaissance would be known for centuries.

Brooker’s collection features around 1,000 Aldines that were published between the 1490s and the 1590s. “One Aldine highlight is Baldassarre Castiglione’s 1528 Il libro del cortegiano del conte (Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano), which is expected to sell for between US$180,000 to US$250,000.”

T. Kimball Brooker

T. Kimball Brooker is a scholar who has collected early printed books for more than six decades. He is former managing director at Morgan Stanley and president of the Chicago-based Barbara Oil Company, Brooker earned a bachelor’s degree in French literature from Yale, an MBA at Harvard Business School, a master’s degree in art history at the University of Chicago, where he later established a prize encouraging book collecting among students. His doctoral dissertation at the University of Chicago was titled "Upright Works: The Emergence of the Vertical Library in the Sixteenth Century".

He is a Trustee of the Morgan Library and Museum in New York and the Newberry Library in Chicago and has served as a Governor of the John Carter Brown Library in Providence.⁵

See 3 minute video promoting the auction: https://www.sothebys.com/en/videos/bibliotheca-brookeriana-the-t-kimball-brooker-library

1. Bibliotheca Brookeriana: The T. Kimball Brooker Library of Renaissance Books and Bindings | Art Auction & Sales | Sotheby's (sothebys.com); ‘Treasure Trove’ of Rare Books Expected to Sell For More Than $25M | Observer.

2. Thanks, FS, for the alert.

3. Renaissance-Era Book Collection Set to Fetch $25 Million at Sotheby's

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• Barolini, Helen. Aldus and His Dream Book: An Illustrated Essay. New York: Italica Press, 1992.

5. More on Brooker: Thomas Kimball Brooker, PhD, Presented with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award by Marquis Who's Who (24-7pressrelease.com) In addition, he serves as a member of the Visiting Committee of the University of Chicago Library and a similar committee at the Yale University Library as well as previously the head of the Scholarly Committee of the Bibliotheca Wittockiana in Brussels. He served as Vice Chairman and then Chairman of the Trustees of the Yale Library Association, the name of the Yale University Library's Visiting Committee, as well as Chairman of the Committee of the Library for the President of Yale's Council. He has written numerous articles on similar subjects published in scholarly journals or volumes, edited four scholarly texts dealing with bibliophilic matters, and written a book titled "Index of the Best Books" dealing with the list of books that the librarian of Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle, an important prelate and diplomat, prepared for him in 1547 to assist in the creation of Granvelle's library, one of the largest in Europe at the time. (A list of his publications :

BOOKS
T. Kimball Brooker, Index of Best Authors by Subject Classification Compiled in 1547 by Antoine Morillon for Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle. Including a Selection of Greek Manuscripts in the Library of Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, New York, Jerry Kelly, 2014.

T. Kimball Brooker & Carol Z. Rothkopf, eds., Association Internationale de Bibliophilie, Actes et Communications / International Association of Bibliophiles, Transactions XXVth Congress, New York City & Post-Congress, Chicago, 2007, New York, Jerry Kelly, 2011.

T. Kimball Brooker & Carol Z. Rothkopf, eds., Association Internationale de Bibliophilie, Actes et Communications/International Association of Bibliophiles, Transactions, XXVIth Congress, Austria, 2009, New York, Jerry Kelly, 2017.

T. Kimball Brooker, ed., Association Internationale de Bibliophilie, Actes et Communications/International Association of Bibliophiles, Transactions, Poland. XXVIlth Congress, Krakow & Warsaw & Post-Congress, Toruń, Peplin & Gdansk, 2011, New York, Jerry Kelly, 2017.

T. Kimball Brooker, ed., Association Internationale de Bibliophilie, Actes et Communications/InternationalAssociation of Bibliophiles, Transactions, XXVlIIth Congress, Munich, Regensburg, Augsburg, Eichstätt, & Neuberg and Post-Congress, Nuremberg, Bamberg, Pommersfelden & Erlangen, 2013, New York, Jerry Kelly. 2019.

ARTICLES
T. Kimball Brooker, "Paolo Manutio's Use of Fore-edge Titles for Presentation Copies (1540-1541)," The Book Collector, Spring 1997, pp. 27-68 and Summer 1997, pp. 193-209.

T. Kimball Brooker, "Bindings Commissioned for Francis I's 'Italian Library' with Horizontal Spine Titles Dating from the Late 1530s to 1540," Bulletin du Bibliophile. 1997, pp. 33-91.

T. Kimball Brooker, "Who Was L.T.?," The Book Collector, Winter 1998, pp. 508-519 and Spring 1999, pp. 32-53.
T. Kimball Brooker, "Giorgio Uzielli, 5 June 1905 -28 November 1984," Grolier 2000: A Further Grolier Club Biographical Retrospective in Celebration of the Millennium 2000, New York, The Grolier Club, 2000, pp. 383-386.

T. Kimball Brooker, "Bernard H. Breslauer (July 1, 1918 -August 14, 2004)," Bulletin du Bibliophile, 2006, pp. 144-152.

T. Kimball Brooker, "Identifying Books by Colors," Bibliophilies et reliures: Mélanges offerts à Michel Wittock, Brussels, 2006, pp. 65-107.

T. Kimball Brooker, "Bindings Commissioned for Francis I's 'Italian Library' with Horizontal Spine Titles Dating from the Late 1530s to 1540. A Supplement," Comites Latentes, per gli otlanta anni di Francesco Malaguzzi, Torino, 2010, pp. 35-41.

T. Kimball Brooker, "Student Book Collecting Contests Sponsored by American Colleges and Universities," Bulletin du Bibliophile, 2012, pp. 217-227.

T. Kimball Brooker, "The Institut de France and the Bibliothèque Mazarine: Seventeenth-Century Cultural Treasures," The Grolier Club: Iter Gallico-Helveticum: A Bibliophilic Tour of Paris & Alsace & Geneva, New York, The Grolier Club, 2013, pp. 35-41.

T. Kimball Brooker, "The Library of Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle," Bulletin du Bibliophile, 20l5. pp.23-72.

T. Kimball Brooker. "André Jammes and Aldine Press Bibliographies, Published and Unpublished," Le Livre, La Photographie, L 'Image & La Lettre: Essays in Honor of André Jammes, eds., Sandra Hindman, Isabelle Jammes, Bruno Jammes & Hans P. Kraus Jr., Paris, Editions des Cendres. 2015, pp. 107-122.

T. Kimball Brooker, "Bernard M. Rosenthal (May 5, 1920 - January 14, 2017)", Bulletin du Bibliophile, 2018

T. Kimball Brooker, "Aldine Editions Were Seen as Very Special throughout Five Centuries", Gazette of the Grolier Club, [Forthcoming] See video: Lecture by T. Kimball Booker. Here is link: T. Kimball Brooker, “Aldine Editions Were Seen as Very Special Throughout Five Centuries” on Vimeo