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Finding Aid for the John Bellingham Inglis collection of manuscript transcripts of rare books and tracts, and Latin and Greek
classics, 1780-1870
470
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Title: John Bellingham Inglis collection of manuscript transcripts of rare books and tracts, and Latin and Greek classics
Date (inclusive): 1780-1870
Collection number: 470
Creator:
John Bellingham Inglis
Extent:
1 box (0.75 linear ft.)
Abstract: John Bellingham Inglis (1780-1870) was a prominent scholar book collector in the 19th century European book trade. This is
a collection of his transcriptions and translations of various classical and early modern works in nineteen bound volumes.
Language: Finding aid is written in
English.
Repository:
University of California, Los Angeles. Library Special Collections.
Los Angeles, California 90095-1575
Physical location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact UCLA Library Special Collections
for paging information.
Open for research. STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact UCLA Library
Special Collections for paging information.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UC Regents. Literary rights, including copyright, are retained by the
creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright
owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Purchased from PM Hill booksellers.
Processed by Jesse Erickson in the Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT), with assistance from Megan Hahn Fraser,
July 2011. Additions processed by Jesse Erickson, March 2013.
[Identification of item], John Bellingham Inglis collection of manuscript transcripts of rare books and tracts, and Latin
and Greek classics (Collection 470). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.
UCLA Catalog Record ID:
4233194
John Bellingham Inglis (1780-1870) was born in London, the son of a British entrepreneur. His father was a partner in the
firm of Inglis, Ellice and Co., and held the positions of Director and Chairman of the East India Company. After his father
died, succumbing to financial bankruptcy in the market, Inglis retired from his independent venture in the wine trade and
relied upon the remnants of his father’s depleted wealth to live in retirement at his residence in St. John’s Wood, and later,
Hampstead Heath. Inglis died at 13 Albion Road, N.W. in the winter of 1870.
Inglis is most well-known for his book collecting. He began collecting at an early age and by the prime of his life he had
amassed an important collection of incunabula and early printed works. Included among these were the highly sought after first
edition of the
Speculum Humanæ Salvationis, the
Historia Sancti Johannis Evangelistæ ejusque Visiones Apocalypticæ, and a
Biblia Pauperum. He also collected fine copies of works from the presses of Caxton, Machlinia, Wynkyn de Worde, Pynson, Julyan Notary and
Verard of the incunable period. Moreover, Inglis owned a number of canonical early-modern works including a
Heures de Rome, with illustrations by Geoffroy Tory, as well as first edition Spenseriana, most notably, the
Faerie Queene.
The bulk of his collection was sold first in 1871, and then again 1900, but his books surfaced in the market via Sotheby’s
auction as early as June 9, 1826. As noted by other collectors and scholars of the book trade, Inglis had a unique habit of
pasting and otherwise inserting various annotations, page-cuttings and engravings in his books, a habit which has been called
his "peculiar mania." This practice reflected another somewhat unusual habit Inglis had as a book collector, that he, in fact,
read his fine books. In addition to being a distinguished book collector, Inglis was also a respected independent scholar
and translator in his own right. In 1832, he earned the distinction of being the first to translate the
Philobiblon of Richard de Bury from Latin into modern English; and he later had his translation published through his bookseller, Thomas
Rodd. Additionally, Inglis made a number of translations of various other medieval and early modern editions of classical,
humanist, and religious texts, that to date remain unpublished.
Collection is comprised of John Bellingham Inglis’s transcripts and translations of a wide-range of classical, humanist, and
religious texts. The manuscripts were written in fine semi-italic hand on ruled paper with gold-leaf edges and quarter bound
(8°) vellum in nineteen volumes. All spines have gilt backs with titles written on them, and some have their original green
morocco labels still attached. A number of the volumes in this collection have been decorated by Inglis with page-cutting
inserts, engravings, and hand-drawn, facsimile reproductions of printed illustrations.
The collection is arranged numerically according to volume number. Texts in the collection have, in general, been group by
their genre, period, and author.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Inglis, John Bellingham, 1780-1870 --Archives.
Book collectors --England --Archival resources.
Translations.