Of Books
ANY listeners who heard a brief series of talks by John Barr, the City Librarian, on the "Treasure Room" of the Auckland Public Library must have been surprised to learn of the wealth of books the city possesses. Mr. Barr’s survey of the choicest items in the Grey and Shaw collections should diminish the tendency of Aucklanders to cast envious eyes on collections in the South. His enthusiastic description
of such works as the three Caxtons, the Wenssler De Civitate Dei, and the magnificent manuscript Biblia Sacra Latina Vulgata was made additionally interesting by his crisp introductions on manuscript styles and early printing methods. It was an oversimplication, perhaps, to claim that the development
of printing was a direct consequence of the demand for books created by the Renaissance. However, I consider it’ a special mark of good sense and proportion that Mr. Barr, at the conclusion of these talks in which he had stressed craftsmanship and rarity, should affirm the primacy of the spiritual value of books and state his librarian’s credo that "in their content lay their, true
worth,"
J.C.
R.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19490923.2.18.3
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 21, Issue 535, 23 September 1949, Page 10
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185Of Books New Zealand Listener, Volume 21, Issue 535, 23 September 1949, Page 10
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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