The Roxburghe Club

Welcome To The Roxburghe Club

AIMS

The Roxburghe Club was founded in 1812 and is the oldest society of bibliophiles in the world. Its membership is limited to 40, chosen from among those with distinguished libraries or collections, or with a scholarly interest in books. It has also been distinguished, among the many publishing societies that have done so much in this country for history, letters, antiquity and other branches of literature and art, for the quality of its publications.

These fall into two categories, both available to the public:

• Members’ books: each member is expected to produce a book at his or her own expense for presentation to the other members. The subject of such books lies entirely at the discretion of the individual member, providing that it lies within the normal scope of the Club’s publications.
• Club books: these are books produced by the Club itself for presentation to the members; they are also made generally available.

All books of both kinds are handsomely produced and bound in ‘Roxburghe style’. Each presentation copy has the name of the member to whom it is presented in red on the list of members that usually appears at the beginning of each book.

Since its foundation, almost 300 volumes have been published on a wide range of subjects and scholarship. Copies of some of the more recent volumes are available for purchase. These are listed in the section ‘Books available for purchase’.

The Club owns a complete set of both Club and Members’ publications which are housed in the Society of Antiquaries in Burlington House.