Blake and I were first brought together by a shared fondness for books. He was joint-owner of the now-defunct “Blake’s Books”, an online store specialising in used scholarly books. What is startling is that our relationship has lasted the best part of 9 years, and survived (on my part) several job changes, shifts in learning focus and reading interest. And three relocations. Nine years. It is difficult to imagine.
Beginning with a copy of Jay Bernstein’s The philosophy of the novel, he has fed my appetite for books with gems such as Charles Norris Cochrane’s Christianity and Classical culture, G. B. Ladner’s The idea of Reform, Harold Berman’s Law & Revolution, countless hard-bound Lowith and Weber books, commentaries on Machiavelli, medieval philosophy & history, and long neglected, if not forgotten, writings by Zumkeller, Momigliano and Duby.
Blake is now sole propreitor of The Montana Book Company (named after his daughter) and, although we sometimes inevitably view the industry from differing vantage points, we will still get carried away by books. Today arrived the latest gem unearthed from his regular mailing list: Brian Tierney’s Foundations of the Conciliar Theory: the contribution of the Medieval Canonists from Gratian to the Great Schism, a book I’ve been hunting down for the best part of 5 years – a mere nothing in the life of a book.
We’ve agreed to meet the next time I’m in his part of the world, for a cup of coffee and conversation. I look forward to that, even if it will be a lengthy millisecond in the future.
