Pocket Library of Lilliputian Folio Books. 1801.
The Pocket Library of Lilliputian Folio Books consists of eleven tiny volumes, each less that two inches high and about an inch wide. All of them fit snugly, in two layers, into a neat box designed to resemble a larger book.
There was something of a craze for miniature books in the early 19th century but The Pocket Library of Lilliputian Folio Books, published by R. Snagg are unusual for several reasons. First, the tiny dimensions of the books set them apart from the other miniature books. They are the smallest of any of the [miniature] books, except for those in a [another collection from c.1819] Doll’s Casket. Second, the set is unique in that it is stored in a box made to appear like a larger book. It was far more usual for the box to take the form of a small book-case. Third, Snagg apparently pirated and abridged existing texts for his books, rather than commissioning new ones. Thus, classics like Gulliver’s Travels or Perrault’s fairy tales appear. So determined was Snagg to cram the whole of existing texts into his miniature volumes that he adopted a system of abbreviation which is detailed on the opening pages of each volume. In his prefatory address he boasted that his abbreviation system meant that his books ‘may have more reading than such diminutive books would be thought to contain.’
[MORE - each miniature book has all of its pages scanned]
(via my-ear-trumpet)
