Bertram Rota was one of three booksellers widely credited with making the collecting of modern first editions respectable during the 1920s and 1930s; the others were A. T. Miller of the Frank Hollings firm and Percy Muir. Rota played his part by setting high standards of bibliographical description and adhering to them unswervingly; by describing the physical condition of his books fully and with complete honesty; by always being ready to share his knowledge with his customers instead of attempting to use it to take advantage of them; and, above all, by pricing his books fairly on the basis of what he believed to be their intrinsic worth and comparative scarcity: he refused to give way to the wilder flights of fashion.

Cyril Bertram Rota was born on 22 June 1903 in the north London suburb of Hornsey, the younger son of Carlo and Evelyn Rota. His half-Italian father was...