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Rare Books

Rare Book Division
Firestone Library
One Washington Road
Princeton, NJ 08540
609-258-3184
Curator of Rare Books
609-258-9942

In 1983, Mr. Robert H. Taylor gave to the Princeton University Library the major portion of the Richard Brinsley Sheridan Collection formed by Dudley Massey of the London booksellers, Pickering & Chatto. When purchased, the collection numbered more than 690 separate items. Accompanying the collection is a two volume catalogue prepared by Theodore Hofmann for the firm of Bernard Quaritch, who purchased the collection in 1980 and, in turn, sold it to Mr. Taylor. [Call number for the catalogue is (ExB) Z8816 .H63q.]

The greater portion of the collection is located within the Theatre Collection. Many of the high-spots of the collection, such as the first edition of The Rivals with the cancellandum leaf F2 (not hitherto recovered), are in the Robert H. Taylor Collection.

Further particulars regarding high-spots and manuscripts in the collection are found in the Preface to the Hofmann catalogue. Also see article by Bruce Redford describing parts of the collection published in the Princeton University Library Chronicle XLVI, 3 (Spring, 1985), pp. 249-268 [full text].