Thomas Phillipps' Bookcases

​Origin
Sir Thomas Phillipps, 1st Baronet (2 July 1792 – 6 February 1872) was an English antiquary and book collector who amassed the largest collection of manuscript material in the 19th century. He was an illegitimate son of a textile manufacturer and inherited a substantial estate, which he spent almost entirely on vellum manuscripts and, when out of funds, borrowed heavily to buy manuscripts, thereby putting his family deep into debt. Phillipps recorded in an early catalogue that his collection was instigated by reading various accounts of the destruction of valuable manuscripts. Such was his devotion that he acquired some 40,000 printed books and 60,000 manuscripts, arguably the largest collection a single individual has created, and coined the term "vello-maniac" to describe his obsession, which is more commonly termed bibliomania. In 1798, when Phillipps was 6 years old, he already owned 110 books, and is recorded to have said that he wanted to own one of every book in the world. Phillipps would go into book shops and purchase the entire stock; he would receive dealers catalogues and buy all the listings; his agents bought entire lots of books at auction, outbidding his rival the British Library. His collection of manuscripts was valued at £74,779 17s 0d and took over 100 years to sell.

​Effects
Whenever a new book is published, one bookcase will produce its own copy of that book in an edition it deems the most "special", typically choosing from vellum, blackletter, 1st edition, etc (though typically it settles on either 1st editions or vellum). If the same book is published multiple times it will usually keep the first version it produced, unless a significant alteration has been made to the publication, at which point it will create a copy of that as well. If a shelf is filled, it will create another identical bookshelf next to itself and repeat the process. However, if other bookcases are near it, it will instead transfer the books to them and a new bookcase will not be created.

Reading a book created by the bookcases will have a high chance of instilling the reader with intense bibliomania, compelling them to spend inordinate amounts of money to gain rarer and rarer copies of books until they result in crime or financial ruin.

​Storage
These shelves are intersperced throughout the Library section and surrounded by other normal bookshelves so as to prevent new shelves from being created and disrupting other sections.

​Artifact Math
The bookcases are used in conjunction with Melvil Dewey's Filing Cabinet, St. Wiborada's Book Binding Thread, and Harrison D. McFaddin's Emeralite Lamps to minimalize downsides and keep the Library functioning and orderly.