Project update 8 - Moore College Library

This Wednesday I went to Moore College Library. The Senior Librarian, Kim Robinson, talked about the collection and showed me some of his recent acquisitions and favourite pieces.
One of the reasons I wanted to see the college library was an intriguing line on their website -

The Library has a continuous history of book collection since 1856. With its Bray collection, originally given to the Port Jackson Lending Library in 1809, the Library holds some of the first public library books to come to Australia.

Hold on - what is the Port Jackson Lending Library and what about our claim to be the earliest library open to the "public" in 1826! When Reverend Samuel Marsden returned to England in 1807 he posted a notice in a London Newspaper asking for books for a public lending Library. The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge sent over a collection of books. Each of the items had a standard printed book plate with "Port Jackson" hand written on the blank line before the title "Lending Library". Apparently they sent collections of books to locations around Great Britain and overseas so it wasn't so much an official title of the Library but a geographic location. The collection became part of the Diocese Library which was presented to Moore College in the 1950s.

One of the items Kim showed was Liber Epistolarum Sancti Hieronymi printed by Nicolaus Kesler in 1497. The Epistoles of Saint Jerome contains a famous woodcut by Albrecht Durer which depicts St. Jerome removing a thorn from the foot of a lion. On my return I checked our catalogues for the same publication. According to the card entry, LQ2/J was purchased in 1941 from a Miss Beale. It isn't in the best condition. The original stamped leather binding on wooden boards needs repair. Durer's woodcut is there on the verso of the first leaf. Our woodcut has a rough red wash to highlight the figure of St. Jerome.