Title: The Acquisition of Books by Chetham's Library, 1655-1700. By MATTHEW YEO.
Abstract:Chetham's library was founded through the generous 1653 bequest of Humphrey Chetham, and from then until the end of the seventeenth century it acquired c. 3000 books, maps, and instruments, making it ...Chetham's library was founded through the generous 1653 bequest of Humphrey Chetham, and from then until the end of the seventeenth century it acquired c. 3000 books, maps, and instruments, making it not only the first public library in Britain but one of the finest institutional libraries of the period. Matthew Yeo's study focuses precisely on the processes by which Chetham's holdings were acquired and what those tell us about the world of the book in later seventeenth-century England. Successive chapters discuss the Library's foundation, the activity of the trustees in selecting its texts, Robert Littlebury (the Library's chief, London-based supplier), and three categories of work that the Library acquired: theology; classics, history, and law; and natural philosophy. Yeo's material is fascinating and he draws from it a number of important lessons for historians of the book. In particular the fact that Littlebury was not a member of the Stationers' Company, but a Haberdasher who procured books from the Continent and by participating in the thriving second-hand trade and publishing works himself, reminds us of the dangers of paying attention exclusively to the Stationers' and their limited monopoly. Yeo repeatedly reveals how the Library's suppliers sought to use the institution as a way of ridding themselves of slow-moving stock, but he also shows that the Trustees, far from being dupes, sought out particular works and often refused to accept the volumes they were offered. The evolving contents of the Library thus reflected a number of trends and concerns of the later seventeenth century: the desire to develop a reference library for Manchester's divines and professionals, containing volumes that could counteract the phenomenon of ‘information overload’; the changing politics of Anglican theology and identity; continuing respect for sixteenth and early seventeenth-century editions of works in a range of genres; a gradual shift in emphasis from Continental to British scholarship; and a wish to heal (through avoidance) the damaging factionalism of the recent Civil Wars.Read More
Publication Year: 2012
Publication Date: 2012-06-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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