the book collector
In Painta’s allegorical carvings in the Sala Capitolare of the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, for example, we see between Fury and Curiosity, five shelves of exquisitely-carved books, 64 volumes in total, described by the artist as ‘The library whereof the librarian is deceit’. From the early fifteenth century studioli decorated with intarsio were increasingly a staple feature of Italian Renaissance palaces, retreats where owners could study, entertain and show o V their cabinets and places of pilgrimage for Grand Tourists. Their example influenced generations of library owners and architects. The choice of titles selected for the false spines has long been noted as a source of entertainment, and false spines abound with in-jokes and humorous puns. Perhaps the most famous examples are those executed c.1820 covering a cupboard door in the library at Killerton Park, designed for Sir Thomas Dyke Acland. 19 The quirky selection was being commented on by as early as 1832, 20 and has been a reg- ular staple ever since. Killerton’s library contains essential reading such as Hobble on Corns , Wig without Brains , Heavisides on Muscular Compression , Hard Nuts to Crack and Sermons on Hard Subjects . Near the hinges we find Squeak on Openings , Bang on Shutting and Hinge’s Orations . Writing in 1831 in response to a request from the Duke of Devonshire, Thomas Hood produced a list of suggestions for slightly more subtle puns for the entrance of a library staircase at Chatsworth. It includes Johnson’s Contradictionary , Cursory Remarks on Swearing , Shelley’s Conchologist and the truly awful Percy Vere. In 40 volumes . 21 Even Charles Dickens succumbed to the fashion for false books. On his move to Tavistock Square in 1851 he com- missioned the bookbinder Thomas Robert Eeles to produce false books to fill two recesses, specifying exactly what he wanted on 19 . Although the library presses (and hence the false spines) were moved from else- where in the house into what was then the Drawing Room in 1900, they date from c.1820. 20 . T. Allom, W.H. Bartlett, J. Britton and E.W. Brayley, Devonshire & Cornwall Illustrated (London: H. Fisher, R. Fisher and P. Jackson, 1832), p. 35. 21 . T. Hood, Memorials of Thomas Hood (Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1860), vol. 1, pp. 29–32. Occasionally, Hood’s references were so cryptic as to need explanation: ‘others appear to be such Bonâ fide works that one does not always catch the hidden meaning … ‘The Life of Zimmerman (the author of Solitude) By Himself’’ (p.30).
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