“Belonging to ye Publick Library of New York": From the earliest NYC Library.

[Colonial Library] / [New York] / [Binding] / [Pierre Alix]. Belonging to ye Publick Library of New York [binding]. The book of Psalms, with the argument of each Psalm, and a Preface Giving Some General Rules for the Interpretation of this sacred Book. London: Printed, and are to be sold by John Taylor at the Ship in St. Paul’s Church-Yard, 1701. 8vo [19.3 x 11.7 cm], xxxi pp., [1] p., 230 pp. Bound in contemporary blind-tooled paneled calf, upper cover gold stamped “Belonging to ye Publick Library of New York.” Very crudely rebacked with buckram strip which obscures a few letters of cover text, call number on spine, corners rounded, much edge wear, much chipping and flaking, various labels and stamps from the General Theological Society of New York, check-out card inside lower cover. Occasional internal toning a staining.
 
 
The gold-stamped inscription on the front cover—“Belonging to ye Publick Library of New York”—indicates that this 1701 volume once formed part of the earliest public library in New York City, a precursor to the New York Society Library (founded 1754) and “probably the earliest lending library in America” (G. W. Cole, p. 4).
 
“A brief sketch of these pioneers in the library field may prove interesting. First, in the order of their foundation comes the New York Society Library, founded in 1754. In that year an association of 140 gentlemen was formed under the name of the ‘New York, or City Library.’ More than half a century before, in 1700, one had been founded, known as ‘The Public Library’ of New York. It prospered for some time and received by bequest in 1729 the books of the Rev. Dr. Millington, of Newington, England. This library was placed in the City Hall and was in charge of the Corporation of the City. At this time it numbered 1,642 volumes. It was the intention that it should be a lending library, from which the clergymen and gentlemen of the governments of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut might borrow books. This was probably the earliest lending library in America; the Library Company of Philadelphia, founded by Franklin and characterized by him as the ‘Mother of all the North American subscription libraries,’ not having been organized until 1731, more than thirty years later” (G. W. Cole, p. 4).
 
In 1927 Cole reported a record of a volume “with the inscription ‘Ye Publick Library of New York, 1711,’ stamped on its side” (p 5.), but it was no longer to be found in the New York Society Library at that time. Several volumes from the early ‘Publick Library’ do survive in the New York Society Library.
 
 
* ESTC t123186; George Watson Cole, Early Library Development in New York State 1800-1900, vol. 1 (1927); Alphabetical and Analytical Catalogue of the New-York Society Library By New York Society Library (1838), p. vii; Tom Glynn, Reading Publics: New York City’s Public Libraries, 1754-1911.