An Important Books & Manuscripts Auction, including a selection from Șerban Cioculescu's art collection #505/2023

The reality around us, that of publishers, bookshops, public and private libraries, book fairs, shows us that the beauty of print is not entirely threatened by digital evolution. Important bibliophile collections, built up in the past, have come down to us and are passed on through specialised auctions. One of these collections belonged to the critic and literary historian Șerban Cioculescu, who discovered early on his vocation as a collector. Over time, the antique shops in Bucharest received him and offered him happy opportunities to discover rarities, such as the famous and special engraving of the ruler Mihai Viteazul made in 1601 in Vienna by the engraver of the court of Emperor Rudolf II, Egidius Sadeler, a piece that was part of another famous collection, that of the liberal politician Dimitrie A. Sturdza. Also, the old Romanian book was well represented in the collecting universe of the scholar who had the chance, in his capacity as director of the Romanian Academy Library, to take care as carefully of the preservation, restoration and valorisation in the interest of men of letters, of an extraordinary heritage, this time, public.