Sotheby and Son; Kloss, Georg Franz Burkhard [Bearb.]: Catalogue of the library of Dr. Kloss: including many original and unpublished manuscripts, and printed books with ms. annotations, by Philip Melancthon (London [u.a.]: Sotheby & Son, 1835)

ADVERTISEMENT.

Dr. Kloss, the proprietor of this extraordinary collection
of books, devoted, from an early period of his life, all his hours
of relaxation from the duties of his profession to the study of
Early Bibliography, with the view of publishing a Series of
Supplements to Panzer’s Typographical Annals. In so doing,
he was not content with obtaining information in his pursuit
from the various works that had been published on the subject,
but he united the pleasure of collecting the books themselves
with that of writing upon their contents; and the oppor-
tunities afforded him, from being a native and resident of
Germany, enabled him oftentimes to become the purchaser of
libraries, on occasions where, perhaps, the overtures of
foreigners had been rejected.
Dr. Kloss finding that, with the great increase of his
library, his leisure time for continuing additions to the work
of Panzer diminished, abandoned his original intention, and
confined all his attention to the formation of the present
collection, which he limited, with, comparatively speaking,
few exceptions, to works printed within the year 1536; that
being the period to which Panzer carried down his work.
In thus altering his views, he devoted himself especially to
the acquisition of obscure and imperfectly described works,
to the exclusion of those which would have added to the
number without increasing the value of his library.
His long and arduous bibliographical studies, aided by the
possession of so extensive a collection, enabled him oftentimes,
by comparison, to ascribe more correctly than had heretofore
been done, the names of the printers, the places of printing,
and the periods of the publication of works which were
without any indication ; in which cases he has, as far as his