Book sales catalogues

Collection history: Every catalogue sent to the Koninklijke Bibliotheek is preserved; besides the collection added to by occasional antiquarian acquisitionand donations. Yearly increase circa 1,200.
Size: The collection comprises c. 48,000 titles.
Accessibility: The greater part of the books has not been recorded in the KB card catalogues, nor in the OPAC. They have been indexed in a separate database. They can only be consulted at the Special Collections Reading Room.
More information:
Paul van Capelleveen - 070-3140331
Marieke van Delft - 070-3140329

Description of the collection

The librarians of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek have always retained and filed the catalogues that were sent to them. In 1922 the then librarian, Molhuijsen, added to this the antiquarian bookseller's and publisher's catalogues; the register in book form was replaced by alphabetical card files on sellers and collectors, and in 1924 the books were placed together according to shelf-mark: Verz. Cat. + number. In the seventies the alphabetical catalogues were given a chronological index and in the nineties the indexing was transferred to a database. In the meantime, the last few stray catalogues have been added to the collection as well.
Among the older catalogues the collection numbers circa 580 17th and 18th century copies (among which circa 400 Dutch), and circa 3,000 19th century copies.

Literature

J.A. Gruys. 'De "Verzameling Catalogi" van de Koninklijke Bibliotheek'. In: Ne quid periret: 35 jaar boekhistorische artikelen. Den Haag: Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 2007, p. 1-8, ill. Previously published in: KB Centraal 14 (1985) 10, p. 3-10. (Also available online, see Bibliopolis).