This volume examines private libraries and book ownership in seventeenth-century England, with particular focus on how libraries developed over this period and the social impact that they had.

David Pearson retired in 2017 as Director of Culture, Heritage & Libraries for the City of London Corporation. He combined a successful professional career in libraries with an academic profile as a book historian, and his books on provenance and bookbinding history have become standard reference works. He is a Past President of the Bibliographical Society, and teaches regularly on Rare Book Schools around the world. He was Lyell Reader in Bibliography at Oxford, 2017-18, and will be Sandars Reader in Bibliography at Cambridge in 2023.

• Preface


• 1: Introduction: private libraries in Stuart England


• 2: Libraries for the studious, professional and wealthy


• 3: Women and books in the seventeenth century


• 4: Books for the common man: books outside professional, academic and wealthy circles


• 5: Physical spaces and book formats


• 6: Books for use and books for show


• 7: Cultures of collecting


• Appendix: A classified list of book owners, 1610-1715