Bibliotheca Polynesiana. A catalogue of some of the books in the Polynesiana collection formed by the late Bjarne Kroepelien and now in the Oslo University Library

Privately published, Oslo, first edition, 1969. Limited to 800 copies, of which 500 were for sale. Cloth, large 8vo,. lxviii, 455 pp. 1,368 entries. Built up over half a century, the aim of this great collection was "to bring together as many editions, impressions, issues and states as possible of each book or pamphlet in any way relating to, or printed in, French Polynesia.....The Kroepelien collection is to a Pacific student what, for example, the Waller collection in Uppsala is to a student of the history of medicine."- Introduction. The catalogue selects approximately one-third of the collection (aiming for completeness in certain areas, including bibliography, narratives of certain voyages, and pre-1835 Polynesian imprints) and annotates, often extensively, the items described with full bibliographic information. From a contemporary review: " This sumptuous volume, beautifully printed and bound.. lists alphabetically 1,368 works arranged by author, as well as numerous other references, generally to authors mentioned elsewhere in the text... The catalogue is focused on French Polynesia, but as Kroepelien's interests were considerably wider than this there is also a good deal of material included from elsewhere in the region...there is extensive coverage of works of exploration (especially German and Scandinavian publications), as well as of books by Adams, Kroepelien, Rutter, Heyerdahl, and Danielsson. There is also a very valuable section on the superb collection of Polynesian imprints dated before 1835. Printed presentation slip loosely laid in. Edges of textblock slightly marked, otherwise Very Good.