John Cropper d.ca.1693?

John CROPPER d.ca.1693?

Biographical Note

An untraced individual, of London, described on the titlepage of the sale catalogue as ‘Doct. V. D. Johan. Cropperi’, and noted in the preface for his learning, but not found in the university lists.

Books

Cropper’s library was auctioned in London, beginning 19 June 1693. It was not a large one (440 lots); according to Millington’s preface ‘he was extream curious of buying the best editions and as earnestly desirous of the fairest copies; hence you have many significant books of the large paper, and most of them extraordinary well bound’. However, ‘his learning [led to] ... the proper use not the show of them, and [he] was more conversant in the insides, than delighted with the outsides of them; which appears in the collections and transcripts out of them, left under his own hand’. The sale was divided into Latin miscellaneous books (259 lots), French, Italian, etc (17), English books (116), and 48 lots of illustrated numismatic/architectural/sculptural books (‘libri numismatum et figurarum).

Sources

• Bibliotheca Cropperiana, London, 1693, (ESTC r171618).
• Alston, R. C. Inventory of sale catalogues 1676-1800. St Philip, 2010.