PRIVATE LIBRARIES IN RENAISSANCE ENGLAND

Edited by Robert Fehrenbach & Elisabeth Leedham-Green
Volume 1: ISBN 1 85711 000 5

"PLRE is as much a project of wider scope as a series of published volumes.... In the future it will clearly be the greatest resource of its kind, making available hitherto unpublished records, merging book-lists from other sources, and building book-lists from extant books. Even though its greatest advantages lie in its being at heart a database, with all the flexibility that that medium offers, the published volumes are well-designed and user-friendly and provide a fascinating tour through private libraries of Renaissance England."
Margaret L Ford, Rare Books Newsletter

"... of major importance to historians of the Tudor period."
Sears Jayne

"An invaluable working tool."
Bibliothque d’Humanisme et Renaissance

A knowledge of its reading habits reveals much about a people and its culture. Intellectual history, literary history, historical bibliography and social history are just some of the fields of learning served by the study of book ownership.

The first volume describes 1,387 books in four libraries - those of Bishop Richard Cox , Sir Edward Stanhope, Sir Roger Townshend & Sir Edward Dering.

As with all volumes in the PLRE series, there is a brief biography of each library owner, a note concerning the source of information concerning the library, a reference list and a detailed inventory giving, where possible, the author, title, edition, date, printer, language and appraised value.

These detailed inventories are supported by a panoply of indices concerning: Authors and Works; Editors, Compilers, Illustrators; Translators; Stationers; Places of Publication and Dates of Publication.

Private Libraries in Renaissance England thus tells us much about individual libraries, book ownership, the proliferation of certain texts, and the nature of learning and reading in the Renaissance.

Table of Contents:

PLRE 1: An Inventory of Bishop Richard Cox’s Books at Downham and Fenstanton, Cambridgeshire, at His Death in 1581

PLRE 2: Sir Edward Stanhope’s Bequest of Books to Trinity College, Cambridge, 1608

PLRE 3: An Inventory of Books in the Possession of Sir Roger Townshend, ca 1625

PLRE 4: Books of Sir Edward Dering of Kent (1598-1644)

[Appendix A: Books Listed in the Pocket Book]

[Appendix B: Bibliothecae fraternae summa]