Book Collector
Friedlaender took up book collecting in 1970, with a focus on rare books, including medieval illuminated manuscripts and incunabula (books printed before 1501), with his first purchase being a 15th-century manuscript of the Book of hours. Other items of interest were rare editions of works by Goethe, Heinrich Heine, Franz Kafka and Alexander Pushkin, authors who were among his favorites.
In an auction held by Christie's in April 2001, most of the collection Friedlaender had built up over the previous 30 years was put up for sale, totaling 559 lots. Among the items sold were Cicero's De Officiis, printed in 1465 and one of the first classical works ever printed, sold for $666,000. An illuminated manuscript from Bohemia of St. Gregory's Moralia in Job from the 14th century that retained its original doeskin binding, sold for $248,000.
After the auction was held, Friedlaender would repurchase some of the items on the open market. The managing director of the London bookshop Bernard Quaritch said that Friedlaender would look at these items as lost children and say "I’m going to take them back and give them a proper home" before repurchasing them.
In addition to his membership in the Grolier Club, Friedlaender helped fund libraries and book projects, including his efforts to finance a 3,000-page catalog of the incunabula at the University of Oxford's Bodleian Library, for which he was awarded its Bodley Medal in 2005.
Read more about this topic: Helmut Friedlaender
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