George Hibbert was born at Manchester in the year 1757. His father was Robert Hibbert, a West India merchant. Destined from his boyhood to a commercial life, he was educated at a private school, and on leaving Lancashire he joined a London firm engaged in the West India trade, in which, first as a junior partner, and afterwards as the head of the firm, he remained nearly half a century. In 1798 Mr. Hibbert was elected an alderman, but resigned his gown in 1803, and in 1806 he entered Parliament as one of the members for Seaford, Sussex, and sat for that borough until 1812. He was also chairman of the West India merchants, and agent for Jamaica. The construction of the West India Docks was largely owing to his exertions, and as one of the original members of the committee of the London Institution, he took a prominent part in its foundation and management, and for many years he filled the office of president. Mr. Hibbert was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1811, and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in the following year. He was also a Fellow of the LinnÆan Society, and formed at his residence at Clapham a large collection of exotic plants, many of which were first introduced into this country by the agents he employed in almost every part of the globe. He married Elizabeth Margaret, daughter of Mr. Philip Fonnereau, by whom he had a large family. Mr. Hibbert died on the 8th of October 1837, at Munden House, near Watford, Hertfordshire, and was buried in the churchyard of Aldenham, in the same county.

Mr. Hibbert, who was the 'Honorio' of Dibdin's Bibliographical Decameron, was a patron of art, and an enthusiastic collector of books, pictures, and prints and drawings. He formed a splendid library at his houses at Clapham, and in Portland Place, London, which is believed to have cost him at least thirty-five thousand pounds. It contained a large number of early printed Bibles, and was particularly rich in rare editions of the French Romances, and of English and Italian Poetry. No fewer than eighty of the books were printed on vellum. The collection also comprised twenty-five manuscripts.

When, in 1829, Mr. Hibbert retired to his estate of Munden, which had been bequeathed to him by Mr. Roger Parker, an uncle of his wife, he found that the size of his new residence rendered it necessary that he should dispose of the greater part of his collections, and his library was sold by auction by Mr. Evans at 93 Pall Mall in three divisions. The sales occupied altogether forty-two days. The first commenced on the 16th of March, and the last on the 25th of May 1829. There were eight thousand seven hundred and ninety-four lots, representing about twenty thousand volumes; and the total amount realised was twenty-one thousand seven hundred and fifty-three pounds, nine shillings. The books sold for comparatively small sums. A copy of the sale catalogue, with the prices obtained for the books and the names of the purchasers, is preserved in the library of the British Museum.

The following are a few of the principal books in this magnificent collection, together with the prices they fetched at the sale:—

The Gutenberg Bible, two hundred and fifteen pounds.

The Mentz Psalter of 1459, ninety pounds, six shillings.

The Latin Bible printed by Fust and Schoeffer at Mentz in 1462, one hundred and twenty-eight pounds, two shillings.

The Latin Bible, printed at Paris in 1476, thirty-two pounds, eleven shillings.

The Latin Bible, printed by Jenson at Venice in 1479. A very fine copy, which formerly belonged to Pope Sixtus IV., ninety-eight pounds, fourteen shillings.

The Complutensian Polyglot Bible, said to have been Cardinal Ximenes's own copy, for which Mr. Hibbert gave sixteen thousand one hundred francs at the sale, five hundred and twenty-five pounds.

Luther's own copy of the first edition of his translation of the Bible after his final revision. This volume, which is now in the British Museum, contains his autograph, and also the autographs of Bugenhagen, Melanchthon, and G. Major, two hundred and sixty-seven pounds.

The first and second editions of Cicero's Officia, printed by Fust and Schoeffer at Mentz in 1465 and 1466, eighty-two pounds, ten shillings; and fifty-nine pounds.

Cicero's EpistolÆ ad Familiares, printed by Joannes de Spira at Venice in 1469, eighty pounds.

Petrarch's Sonetti, Canzoni e Trionfi, printed by Jenson at Venice in 1473; the only copy known on vellum, eighty pounds, seventeen shillings.

A presentation copy to Cardinal Sforza of the Sforziada, printed at Milan in 1490; in the original velvet binding, with silver knops, one hundred and sixty-eight pounds. The last two volumes are now preserved in the Grenville Library in the British Museum.

Poliphili Hypnerotomachia, printed by Aldus at Venice in 1499, eighty-two pounds, nineteen shillings.

Missale Vallisumbrose, printed by Lucantonio di Giunta at Venice in 1503, sixty-four pounds, one shilling.

All the above books are printed on vellum. The library also contained several fine block-books: the first edition of the Speculum HumanÆ Salvationis, the Apocalypsis, and the first edition of Ars Memorandi, which sold respectively for eighty pounds; thirty-one pounds, ten shillings; and twenty-six pounds, ten shillings. The Catholicon of Joannes Balbus de Janua, printed at Mentz in 1460, and five Caxtons: the first edition of the Dictes or Sayings of the Philosophers, Fayts of Arms, the second edition of the Mirrour of the World, the Recuyell of the Histories of Troye, and the Royal Book, were to be found in the collection. Thirty-six pounds, four shillings and sixpence was obtained for the Catholicon, and three hundred and thirty-nine pounds, thirteen shillings and sixpence for the Caxtons. Of these the Recuyell fetched the highest price—one hundred and fifty-seven pounds, ten shillings. Some other notable books in this marvellous library were the Dante, printed at Florence in 1481, which realised forty pounds, nineteen shillings; the first edition of the Teseide of Boccaccio, which was disposed of for one hundred and sixty pounds; a very fine copy of Smith's Historie of Virginia, which sold for thirteen guineas; and the first four folio Shakespeares. The prices obtained for these were eighty-five pounds, one shilling; thirteen pounds; twenty-four pounds; and three pounds, nine shillings.

The more important manuscripts were PrÆparatio ad Missam, written and illuminated for Pope Leo X., which fetched ninety-nine pounds, fifteen shillings; Droits d'Armes et de Noblesse, ninety-four pounds, ten shillings; Roman de la Rose, eighty-four pounds; Missale Romanum, sixty-one pounds, nineteen shillings; and Romant des Trois Pelerinages, thirty-one pounds, ten shillings. These were all written on vellum.

In 1819 Mr. Hibbert printed for the Roxburghe Club, from a manuscript preserved in the Pepysian Library at Magdalen College, Cambridge, Six Bookes of Metamorphoseos by Ovyde, translated from the French by Caxton, together with some prefatory remarks by himself.