Nicolas Barker

Not to be confused with Nicholas Barker.
Nicolas Barker preparing to give the Beatrice Warde Memorial Lecture, November 2022[1]

Nicolas John Barker OBE FBA FSA (born 1932) is a British historian of printing and books.[2][3] He was Head of Conservation at the British Library from 1976 to 1992.

Barker was editor of The Book Collector from 1965-2016[4] and edited The Pleasures of Bibliophily: Fifty Years of the Book Collector, an Anthology. [5]

He was elected to the Roxburghe Club in 1970.[6] In 2000 The Great Book of Thomas Trevilian. A Facsimile from the manuscript in the Wormsley Library. With a Study by Nicolas Barker was published for presentation to his fellow members of the Roxburghe Club.[7] [8] It was printed in red and black by Susan Shaw at the Merrion Press. Sir Paul Getty commissioned the reproduction.[9]

He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1998, and is also a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. He held the Sandars Readership in Bibliography in 1999-2000 and lectured on "Type and type-founding in Britain 1485–1720."

In 2002, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.[10][11]

Barker gave the 2002 Panizzi Lecture at the British Library and was the A.S.W. Rosenbach Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania in 2002.

A bibliography of his work was published to mark his 80th birthday in 2012.[12]

Selected works

  • Barker, Nicolas. 1964. The Publications of the Roxburghe Club, 1814-1962. an Essay with a Bibliographical Table. Cambridge: Printed for presentation to members of the Roxburghe Club.
  • Barker, Nicolas. 1968. "The Book as Artefact." The Book Collector 17 (no 2) Summer: 143-150.
  • Barker, Nicolas (1972). Stanley Morison. London: Macmillan.
  • Barker, Nicolas, 1976. "Caxton's Quincentenary: Retrospect." The Book Collector 25 (no 4) Winter: 455-480.
  • Barker, Nicolas (1978). Bibliotheca Lindesiana: the Lives and Collections of Alexander William, 25th Earl of Crawford and 8th Earl of Balcarres, and James Ludovic, 26th Earl of Crawford and 9th Earl of Balcarres. London: for Presentation to the Roxburghe Club, and published by Bernard Quaritch
  • Barker, Nicolas (1978).The Oxford University Press and the Spread of Learning, 1478-1978: An Illustrated History. Oxford England: Clarendon Press.
  • Barker, Nicolas. (1985). "Libraries and the National Heritage: Two Views from Europe. " The Book Collector 34 (no 2): Summer: 145-172.
  • Barker, Nicolas (1987). The Butterfly Books. An Enquiry into the Nature of Certain Twentieth Century Pamphlets. London: Bertram Rota.
  • Barker, Nicolas (1988). Two East Anglian Picture Books.
  • Barker, Nicolas (1989) Treasures of the British Library; compiled by Nicolas Barker and the curatorial staff of the British Library. New York: Harry N. Abrams ISBN 0-8109-1653-3
  • Barker, Nicholas. (1992). "The Author as Editor." The Book Collector 41 (no 1) Spring: 9-27.
  • Barker, Nicolas, and British Library. (1993). A Potencie of Life : Books in Society : The Clark Lectures 1986-1987. London: British Library.
  • Barker, Nicolas, and Basilius Besler. 1994. Hortus Eystettensis : The Bishop’s Garden and Besler’s Magnificent Book. New York: H.N. Abrams.
  • Barker, Nicolas. Grolier Club, Royal Oak Foundation, and Stinehour Press. (1999). Treasures from the Libraries of National Trust Country Houses. New York: Royal Oak Foundation & The Grolier Club.
  • Barker, Nicolas (2000). The Great Book of Thomas Trevilian: A Facsimile of the Manuscript in the Wormsley Library. London: Published by Susan Shaw for presentation to the members of the Roxburghe Club.
  • Barker, Nicolas Barker (2002). "Fifty Years On." (fifty years of The Book Collector). The Book Collector 51 (no 4): Winter: 481-489.
  • Barker, Nicolas (2003). Form and Meaning in the History of the Book. Selected Essays by Nicolas Barker. London: British Library.
  • Barker, Nicolas (2003). The Pleasures of Bibliophily: Fifty Years of the Book Collector, an Anthology. Edited by Nicolas J. Barker. London: British Library; New Castle, Del.: Oak Knoll Press, 2003.
  • John Carter; Nicolas Barker (2004). ABC for Book Collectors (8th ed.). Oak Knoll Press. ISBN 1584561122. Free access icon
  • Barker, Nicolas, and British Library. (2005). Treasures of the British Library. London: British Library.
  • Barker, Nicolas, "Introduction" in Cronenwett, Philip N., Kevin Osborn, and Samuel Allen Streit. 2007. Celebrating Research : Rare and Special Collections from the Membership of the Association of Research Libraries. Washington, DC: Association of Research Libraries.
  • Barker, Nicolas. "Preface" in Wendorf, Richard. 2007. America’s Membership Libraries. 1st ed. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press.
  • Barker, Nicolas (2012). The Roxburghe Club: a bicentenary history. Cambridge: Roxburghe Club.
  • Barker, Nicolas (2016). Visible Voices : Translating Verse into Script & Print, 3000 Bc-Ad 2000. 2016. Manchester: Carcanet.
  • Barker, Nicolas. (2019) At First, All Went Well ...: And Other Brief Lives. London: Bernard Quaritch.
  • Barker, Nicolas. (2019). The Pirie Library: A Short-Title Catalogue of the Collection of Robert S. Pirie: With Indexes of Provenances, Sources, Bindings, Armorials and Devices & a List of Prices. London: Bernard Quaritch.
  • Barker, Nicolas (2020). Reginald Heber: A Letter from India.

References

  1. ^ "The Beatrice Warde Memorial Lecture". St Bride Foundation. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
  2. ^ "Nicolas Barker at Wells College". Wells Book Arts Center. 14 October 2013. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
  3. ^ Johnston, Alastair (2011). "Nicolas Barker". Hanging Quotes: Talking Book Arts, Typography & Poetry. Cuneiform Press. pp. 10–27. ISBN 9780982792667.
  4. ^ "Author: Nicolas Barker". Carcanet. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
  5. ^ Barker, Nicolas (2003). The Pleasures of Bibliophily: Fifty Years of the Book Collector, an Anthology. Edited by Nicolas J. Barker. London: British Library; New Castle, Del.: Oak Knoll Press, 2003.
  6. ^ Roxburghe Club Members.Roxburghe Club.
  7. ^ Robert. “Thomas Trevilian’s ‘Great Book’: ‘Historicall, Propheticall and Evangelicall.’” The British Art Journal 1, no. 2 (2000): 22–23.
  8. ^ Jervis, Simon. “The Great Book of Thomas Trevilian. A Facsimile from the Manuscript in the Wormsley Library.” The Burlington Magazine. LONDON: The Burlington Magazine Publications, Ltd, 2004.
  9. ^ The Great Book of Thomas Trevilian. A Facsimile from the manuscript in the Wormsley Library.
  10. ^ "Barker, Nicolas John", Who's Who (online edition, Oxford University Press, December 2017). Retrieved 18 March 2018.
  11. ^ "Mr Nicolas Barker", British Academy. Retrieved 18 March 2018.
  12. ^ Edwards, A. S. G. (2013). Nicolas Barker at Eighty: a list of his publications to mark his 80th birthday in 2012. New Castle: Oak Knoll. ISBN 9781584563235. Retrieved 5 October 2017.