Unlucky vol. 13

Purchased from the Gerrans Fund in 1929 -- a rather splendid set of the works of Descartes, published in thirteen volumes in Paris, 1897-1913. We have twelve quarto volumes handsomely bound in marbled paper-covered boards with leather spines -- but no vol. 13, containing the index.

Gerrans Fund, then and now

The Works of Immanuel Kant in eleven volumes. In German (but not black letter). Purchased from the Gerrans Fund, 1930. These days, we tend to spend the Gerrans Fund on books on art, architecture, bibliography, and women's studies. The rubric states that the Fund is for the purchase of 'luxury' items, outside the normal subject allocation. Has there been a 'dumbing down' of our idea of luxury? Or has the cost of books risen less, relatively, than our purchasing power, so that we can now afford to buy Kant from the subject allocation for Philosophy, and genuinely luxuriously-produced items from the Gerrans Fund?

Fraktur - that's rather how I feel myself!

I've reached nineteenth-century German philosophy, all in black letter. Not ideal when you're feeling all bunged up with the tail-end of a cold!