The Roxburghe Club is a bibliophilic and publishing society based in the United Kingdom. The spur to the Club’s foundation was the sale of the enormous library of the Duke of Roxburghe, which took place over 46 days in May–July 1812. The auction was eagerly followed by bibliophiles, the high point being the sale on 17 June 1812 of the first dated edition of Boccaccio’s Decameron, sold to the Marquis of Blandford for £2,260, the highest price ever given for a book at that time. The Club has had a total of 350 members from its foundation to 2017. The circle has always been an exclusive one, with just one “black ball” (negative vote) being enough to exclude an applicant. Since 1839 the number of members at any one time has been limited to forty.
Roxburghe Club
