Chosen for the richness of their bindings or the sophistication of their illustrations, these works show the collector’s criteria when building his own personal library.

Ana Maria Campino, curator of European books and graphic documents, shares with us her most recent research, which focuses on these very criteria, which favoured works produced both during the Renaissance – a period of transition from the illuminated manuscript to the printed book – and in the eighteenth century, characterised by imagery of licentiousness and the fête galante.