King's Library

The King's Library was one of the most important collections of books and pamphlets of the Age of Enlightenment. Assembled by George III, this scholarly library of over 65,000 volumes was subsequently given to the British nation by George IV. It was housed in a specially built gallery in the British Museum from 1827 to 1997 and now forms part of the British Library. The term 'King's Library' was until recently also used to refer to the gallery in the British Museum built for the collection, which is now called the "Enlightenment Gallery" and displays a wide range of objects relating to the Enlightenment.

When George III became king in 1760 he did not inherit a library of any size, as George II had given the Old Royal Library, including today's Royal manuscripts, to the British Museum three years earlier. As a learned man, George III had a genuine regard for learning, developed under the influence of his tutor the Earl of Bute. On becoming king he quickly began assembling a new collection of mainly scholarly works, the project beginning in earnest in 1762-3 with the purchase of the library of Joseph Smith. Smith had been collecting in Venice for several decades, acquiring books from a range of sources in north Italy and also buying through the international book trade. The collection was notable for its 260 incunabula, including many early Venetian and north Italian volumes with fine illumination and bindings. In total the king bought 6,000 volumes from Smith. These were not kept together in George III's library, but nevertheless can be identified by the word "Smith" marked in each volume by the king's librarian.

There do not seem to have been any further large purchases before 1766, perhaps because the library's staff were occupied with organising the books acquired from Smith. However, from 1766 onwards the king began to develop the collection significantly, spending an average of perhaps £1,500 per year on books for the rest of his reign. A particularly important period was 1768-71, when Frederick Augusta Barnard, one of the library staff, travelled extensively in Europe on the king's behalf, and made major purchases. Important acquisitions later came from the libraries of James West, Anthony Askew, Richard Farmer and Grimur Jonsson Thorkelin as each of these came on the market. Significant donations to the library included 27 incunabula given by Jacob Bryant in 1782.The acquisition of further titles continued in the last years of the king's reign, when due to his mental illness his affairs were managed by trustees.

...
Wikipedia