Bibliotheca Hookiana is the catalogue of the auction conducted by Edward Millington on 29th April 1703, after Robert Hooke's death. It lists more than 3000 items, of which 2240 lots, representing about 2500 titles, had belonged to Hooke (an appendix being a list of the books of an unrelated collector, Stuart Bickerstaffe). This was still a large library for that time (Feisenberger 1975, p.5), but it understates the true size of his personal collection, "some books having been given away, lent, stolen or lost" (Rostenberg 1989, p.xvi). The surviving fragment of an earlier catalogue compiled by Hooke himself in or around 1675 lists 474 books and more than a quarter of those did not survive through to the final sale in 1703 (Poole 2015, Part I.2, p.4 & Part I.4, p.14).

Maintaining such a large collection must have presented a challenge. The auction catalogue confirms that Hooke owned some essential texts on the operation of a library, including:

• Instructions concerning erecting of a library by Gabriel Naudé, first published in Paris in 1627 and translated into English in 1661 by Hooke's Royal Society colleague and fellow bibliophile John Evelyn, and
• The reformed library keeper by John Dury, said to be the first English book on library management. It consists of "two copies of letters concerning the place and office of a librarie-keeper" written by Dury, keeper of the royal library during the Interregnum, to Samuel Hartlib and published by him in 1650. Hooke knew them both: on 9th October 1673 he "Gave Sir W. Pettys book to Hartlib", whilst on 20th November 1675 he was "with Mr Montacue and Mr Durie" (Robinson 1935).

Cataloguing and arrangement

Hooke was constantly tending the collection. According to his diary, on 12th December 1672 he stayed in his lodgings in Gresham College and "rangd and catalogued Library" (all diary entries in this section are from Robinson 1935). On 5th August 1674 he "made a catalogue of my books", perhaps the document written "in or around 1675" which is now bound into Sloane MS 949 in the British Library (Poole 2015, Part I.2, p.4). On the 10th and 11th of March 1676/77 he "Catalogued folios".

Arrangement by size was typical for the time. His own catalogue of 1675 lists the books in size order, as does Bibliotheca Hookiana, and a similar practice may have been followed for the books themselves, necessitating frequent rearrangement and tidying: on 1st January 1676/77 he "Setled books and numberd them", and the following day he "Mended shelves and Ranged books ... Ranged books and shelves".

Shelving

The inventory of Hooke's belongings contained in his lodgings at the time of his death briefly describes the contents of a room it calls the Library, including "One old table, [and] One old chest of drawers", but does not mention shelving (Hunter 1989, pp.292-4). However, his diary suggests that this room may have commenced its new function on Thursday 29th January 1679/80, when Hooke decided to remove "the Presse" from his parlour (Robinson 1935). This may simply have been a cupboard, but was probably his sole bookcase: "press" was the term used by Hooke's friend and another bibliophile, Samuel Pepys.

• Time to make a "cupboard for books"

Title page of Instructions concerning erecting of a library by Gabriel Naudé (1661) (Image 1)

After that there are frequent references to the purchase of additional presses, or later what he called "boxes". Some of these were for named clients or friends of Hooke, but others were probably for himself. As with "press", the meaning of "box" is not precise, but at least some of these pieces of furniture were certainly for book storage, because he says so.

On Friday 24th June 1681, he "paid Dauys in full for 4 presses 28sh & all other things": Roger Davys was a master joiner (Henderson 2007, pp.149 and 158). On 6th March 1688/89 he "Paid Kettle for book box 4s" (Kettle was another joiner) and on 22nd April 1689, "I paid Mr Kettle for 2 more book boxes 8s, & bespoke 2 more". As late as 27th July 1693, Hooke "Bespoke two boxes of Kettle" but goes on to specify dimensions, "13. 19. 27 inches within", which suggest that this order, at least, was for a conventional box rather than a bookcase. (The latter diary entries are from Gunther 1935.)

We cannot know what Hooke’s bookcases looked like, but we can see those in the Busby Library of Westminster School, which was "executed largely under Hooke’s supervision" in 1679. The library interior was badly damaged by wartime bombing in the 1940s, but the original shelving was still in place until then, and even the reconstructed post-war bookcases "are scarcely different from the originals of the seventeenth century" (Smith 2016, p.228).

Binding

"Hooke acquired books firsthand and second-hand" (Poole 2015, Part I.2, p.4). It was common in his time for new books to be bought as loose or lightly sown sheets, then to be trimmed and bound to the customer's requirements. This may have been the case on 4th April 1673, when Hooke records in his diary that he "paid Stevens for Hevelius, St Vincent and Italian tracts. Binding 8 shillings", and on 25th March 1675, when he "paid Oldenburg for Vitruvius 34sh., binding 5sh., carriage 1sh., Marot's book 17s. binding 1s. 6d, in all 58½sh". (All diary entries in this section are from Robinson 1935.)

However, Hooke also seems to have done some binding himself at home, and taught his niece Grace to help. On 1st April 1676 he "Sticht Gregorys books together", whilst on 24th January 1676/77 he "Set frame in order for Grace to bind books" and on 10th August 1678 "Grace bound Bocconi and Oughtred".

The Busby Library of Westminster School, c.1840 (Image 2)

Busby Library shelving in the 1930s

 
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