ABSTRACT
A rare book's provenance is the history of its ownership, often elaborating its associations with libraries, private owners, or collections. A significant aspect of book collecting and the history of the printed record of cultural heritage, provenance concerns not only the initial origins of a book but also the ongoing connections to collectors and collections. Research and documentation of provenance deal with two categories of evidence that reveal the histories of individual books. Internal evidence including marks, inscriptions, bookplates, and bindings, focuses on the physical components of volumes. External evidence such as catalogs issued by publishers and booksellers, as well as those compiled by libraries, dealers, and auction houses, documents the places and conditions of manufacture, subsequent sales, owners, and collections that held the volumes. Provenance research concerns primarily the authenticity and integrity of rare books, however in recent decades its data can also be used to develop and write innovative histories of books' circulation, collecting, their uses, and reading.
