Edward Wilson-Lee

Edward Wilson-Lee's The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books was one of the more interesting books of 2019. Part biography of Hernando Colón (Columbus) and an exploration of his bibliophilia (bibliomania?) it struck me on so many levels. But, it was also written for a popular (though bookish) audience. This, with coauthor José María Pérez Fernández, is the scholarly treatment of that same subject, published by Yale University Press. It is a much deeper and scholarly dive into the same subjects, with digressions on Colón's place in the intellectual society he moved in. There are thus discursive takes on cataloging, books, exploration, cartography, intellectualism, etc., that many who liked the first book may find a boring slog. I found it interesting and intriguing. several illustrations and tables; appendices of primary source documents (including Colón's cataloging system); nearly a hundred pages of discursive endnotes, an extensive bibliography, and index. Worth it if you liked The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books and are of an academic bent. I only wish an extensively illustrated, deluxe edition of The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books would come out. But, I wish too much.… (more)

I will never feel bad about buying a lot of books again.

Here's why:

"[Hernando Colón] had arrived back laden with purchases, as even though he had left his considerable Venetian spree behind for shipping home*, he continued to amass vast quantities of books on the return journey, beginning with seven hundred titles bought in Nuremberg during the month he spent there over Christmas . . . From Würzberg Hernando had passed through Cologne, buying two hundred more books in three days, and Mainz, where he bought a further thousand in a month."

In Venice, Hernando bought 1,637 books, and these were the ones lost in the shipwreck.

Aside from being a fascinating account of Hernando Colón's travels with his father, Christopher Columbus, it's the even more fascinating story of his efforts to create a library that would include everything ever printed.

Colón basically invented card catalogues, shelving books spine out, call numbers, AND the Internet (yes, and if you don't believe me, read the book).… (more)