Libraries for the studious, professional, and wealthy

Abstract

Describes in more detail the kinds of libraries typically formed by academic or professional people, or by members of the gentry and aristocracy; these constitute about 90 per cent of the evidence base of documented book owners of the seventeenth century. Trends in size over time, and in the kinds of books typically found in these kinds of libraries, are explored, based on a number of case studies. The wider European context is considered. A broad spread of subjects is commonly found in seventeenth-century libraries of any size, with a gradual increase in the proportion of British-published material as time progresses. It is very common to find significant proportions of theological or devotional books, most obviously in clerical and academic libraries, but also (if in smaller proportions) in the houses of the landed classes.