Elze­virs, the col­lectible books print­ed by the Elze­vir fam­i­ly in the Nether­lands from the late 16th to ear­ly 18th cen­turies, hold a spe­cial place in the world of rare book col­lec­tors. The chap­ter opens with an anec­dote that high­lights the obses­sion with acquir­ing Elze­vir edi­tions, even lead­ing a coun­try­man to starve him­self to afford these rare vol­umes. His par­tic­u­lar fas­ci­na­tion was with edi­tions of poets print­ed by the Elze­virs, espe­cial­ly those with red let­ters and accu­rate dates. This devo­tion to col­lect­ing Elze­virs is pre­sent­ed as a reflec­tion of the intense desire to pos­sess these objects, with the focus pri­mar­i­ly on their exte­ri­or qual­i­ty, such as the paper and type, rather than the con­tent inside. The chap­ter goes on to present a cri­tique from a 1699 pub­li­ca­tion that chal­lenges the idea of valu­ing books sole­ly for their phys­i­cal attrib­ut­es, empha­siz­ing the super­fi­cial nature of such col­lect­ing habits.

Andrew Lang, in his explo­ration of Elze­vir col­lect­ing, delves into the his­tor­i­cal evo­lu­tion of this obses­sion. By the 17th cen­tu­ry, col­lec­tors were already deeply pas­sion­ate about obtain­ing spe­cif­ic edi­tions of Elze­vir books. Lang points out a com­mon mis­con­cep­tion among novice col­lec­tors, who often over­es­ti­mate the val­ue of any book with the Elze­vir sphere on the title page, mis­tak­en­ly assum­ing that any such book was auto­mat­i­cal­ly a gen­uine Elze­vir edi­tion. He pro­vides valu­able advice for iden­ti­fy­ing authen­tic Elze­virs, includ­ing the impor­tance of avoid­ing mis­lead­ing sym­bols used by oth­er pub­lish­ers and rec­og­niz­ing the par­tic­u­lar pseu­do­nyms and orna­ments that were trade­marks of the Elze­vir fam­i­ly. Lang’s insights pro­vide an impor­tant guide for any­one inter­est­ed in the Elze­vir phe­nom­e­non, show­ing how to dis­tin­guish between real and fake edi­tions, which is cru­cial for pre­serv­ing the integri­ty of the col­lect­ing com­mu­ni­ty.

The chap­ter then shifts to the his­to­ry of the Elze­vir fam­i­ly itself, explor­ing its ori­gins and the evo­lu­tion of its pub­lish­ing empire. Louis Elze­vir, who found­ed the family’s pub­lish­ing busi­ness in Ley­den in 1580, laid the ground­work for what would become one of the most respect­ed and influ­en­tial pub­lish­ing hous­es of the era. How­ev­er, it was Bonaven­ture and Abra­ham Elze­vir, who took over the busi­ness around 1626, that expand­ed the family’s reach and sig­nif­i­cant­ly con­tributed to the pop­u­lar­iza­tion of the petit for­mat for clas­si­cal texts. Lang dis­cuss­es the metic­u­lous nature of Elze­vir edi­tions and high­lights how col­lec­tors are often drawn to spe­cif­ic aspects, such as the height of the book and its orig­i­nal con­di­tion, as these fac­tors can great­ly impact the book’s val­ue. This atten­tion to detail and the care­ful preser­va­tion of books are essen­tial to under­stand­ing why cer­tain Elze­virs fetch such high prices among col­lec­tors.

The rar­i­ty and val­ue of cer­tain Elze­vir pub­li­ca­tions are also explored in detail, with Lang giv­ing exam­ples of how spe­cif­ic books have become almost myth­i­cal with­in the col­lect­ing com­mu­ni­ty. For instance, the book Le Pastissier François, despite being a cook­ery book, became one of the most high­ly sought-after Elze­vir edi­tions due to its extreme scarci­ty. Lang recounts anec­dotes of rare Elze­vir finds and the astro­nom­i­cal prices these edi­tions com­mand at auc­tions, show­cas­ing the irra­tional­i­ty of the collector’s fer­vor. Col­lec­tors often bid exces­sive­ly for these rare works, dri­ven by the rar­i­ty itself, rather than the con­tent or lit­er­ary val­ue of the books. This phe­nom­e­non, where the phys­i­cal rar­i­ty of a book becomes more impor­tant than its intel­lec­tu­al sub­stance, under­scores the eccen­tric­i­ties and emo­tion­al invest­ment involved in bib­lio­ma­nia.

In con­clu­sion, the chap­ter presents a vivid por­tray­al of the world of Elze­vir col­lect­ing, cap­tur­ing the obses­sive nature of bib­lio­philes and the lengths to which they go to acquire these rare edi­tions. It high­lights the irony of valu­ing books pri­mar­i­ly for their scarci­ty and phys­i­cal char­ac­ter­is­tics, rather than for the lit­er­ary con­tent they con­tain. Through the lens of Elze­virs, the chap­ter offers a fas­ci­nat­ing glimpse into the world of book col­lect­ing, where the pur­suit of a prized object often tran­scends the book’s inher­ent worth, reveal­ing the com­plex moti­va­tions and desires that dri­ve col­lec­tors. The Elze­vir edi­tions stand as sym­bols of both intel­lec­tu­al pur­suit and social pres­tige, with their place in the world of rare books for­ev­er cement­ed by the fer­vor of those who sought to pos­sess them.