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Nicolas Barker

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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 and was editor of The Book Collector from 1965-2016.[4]


He was elected to the Roxburghe Club in 1970. 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.[5] [6] It was printed in red and black by Susan Shaw at the Merrion Press. Sir Paul Getty commissioned the reproduction.[7]


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 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.[8][9]

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.[10]

Selected works[edit]

  • Barker, Nicolas (1972). Stanley Morison. London: Macmillan.
  • 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 (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, 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 (2003). Form and Meaning in the History of the Book. Selected Essays by Nicolas Barker. London: British Library.
  • 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 (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[edit]

  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. ^ Robert. “Thomas Trevilian’s ‘Great Book’: ‘Historicall, Propheticall and Evangelicall.’” The British Art Journal 1, no. 2 (2000): 22–23.
  6. ^ 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.
  7. ^ The Great Book of Thomas Trevilian. A Facsimile from the manuscript in the Wormsley Library.
  8. ^ "Barker, Nicolas John", Who's Who (online edition, Oxford University Press, December 2017). Retrieved 18 March 2018.
  9. ^ "Mr Nicolas Barker", British Academy. Retrieved 18 March 2018.
  10. ^ 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.

External links[edit]

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