Book Smart
If you love books, a library is a good place for you.
If you love libraries, the Mercantile Library is the best place for you. Part eclectic book collection, part Old Curiosity Shop, and all Cincinnati history, it’s a perfect spot to while away your book-obsessed hours.
To commemorate National Book Lovers Day on Monday, August 9, we checked in with Cedric Rose, librarian and collector at Mercantile Library since 2005. He shares details with us about just a few of the more than 80,000 books in the collection.
The oldest book in the collection:
Hieroglyphica, seu de sacris Ægyptiorum by the Italian Humanist Pierio Valeriano, and dedicated to Cosimo I de' Medici was published in 1614, based on an earlier work apocryphally attributed to the Egyptian priest Horapollo.
The latest book added to the collection:
Clark and Division by Naomi Hirahara, a Real Crime mystery set in 1944 Chicago, about a young woman searching for the truth about her revered older sister’s death after their release from a concentration camp.
(We add new books almost daily, but this is true as of this writing.)
Most checked out book during the Library's history:
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, librarian’s thumb for scale
Hard to say because we don’t have circulation records that are searchable going back to 1835. However, because we didn’t originally collect fiction, I’m going to guess the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin would be up there. A very well-worn pocket edition survives in our first catalog, the original collection that dates to our founding in 1835 . As one of the founders of the Library Company of Philadelphia, Franklin was a big part of the Membership Libraries movement, which was all about “self-improvement.”
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin just returned to the collection after the book was beautifully rebound by The Ohio Bookstore bindery. The work was paid for by a long-time supporter of the Mercantile Library as part of our adopt a book program.
In the last 16 years or so—that’s how long I’ve been here—it’s got to be Devil in the White City by Erik Larson, who was supposed to be our Niehoff Lecturer when COVID hit. We just keep wearing this book out.
Author most represented in the library:
Probably Shakespeare, because we have a “Shakespeare” collection that includes a sub-collection dedicated to the question of who Shakespeare really was. And many, many sets of the plays.
“Most popular” books, currently:
In order from most to fifth-most circulated within the past five years (ish):
City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert.
The Dutch House, A Novel by Ann Patchett.
The Searcher by Tana French.
Notre-Dame: A Short History of the Meaning of Cathedrals by Ken Follett
The Overstory, A Novel by Richard Powers.
With the recent announcement of its expansion to the 12th floor of its building, the Library will be doubling in size. So expect more authors, more programs, and yes, more books.
Find out more at mercantilelibrary.com.