Living during the late 1600s and the early 1700s, two brothers, Thomas and Richard Rawlinson, collected books, manuscripts, art objects, and other collectibles on a virtually unrivaled scale for their time. The collection of Thomas, the elder brother, was scattered after he became a victim of poor fiscal administration and unchecked bibliomania. Richard's collection, which grew in size to eclipse his brother's magnificent assemblage, is preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, where it continues to be a valuable resource for scholars. Indeed, the 1986 Oxford edition of Shakespeare's works includes a previously unattributed, anonymous poem that was found in Richard Rawlinson's collection. Cataloguing the collection took more than 150 years. The brothers' activities inspired admiration, respect, envy, and animosity. Thomas Rawlinson was the inspiration for Joseph Addison's "Tom Folio" character in The Tatler: "a learned idiot--an universal scholar so far as the title-pages of all authors; who thinks he...