Introduction

pp 1-10

The physical setting

1a - The medieval library (to c. 1450)

pp 13-50

1b - The early modern library (to c. 1640)

pp 51-66

Part One - The medieval library

2 - Celtic Britain and Ireland in the early middle ages

pp 69-90

3 - Anglo-Saxon England

pp 91-108

4 - Monastic and cathedral book collections in the late eleventh and twelfth centuries

pp 109-125

5 - The libraries of religious houses in the late middle ages

pp 126-151

6 - College and university book collections and libraries

pp 152-177

7 - Bishops and kings: private book collections in medieval England

pp 178-217

8 - The medieval librarian

pp 218-241

9 - Borrowing and reference: access to libraries in the late middle ages

pp 242-262

Part Two - Reformation, dissolution, new learning

10 - The dispersal of the monastic libraries and the salvaging of the spoils

pp 265-291

11 - Extending the frontiers: scholar collectors

pp 292-321

12 - Matthew Parker’s manuscripts: an Elizabethan library and its use

pp 322-342

Part Three - Tools of the trade

13 - Universities and colleges

pp 345-362

14 - Major ecclesiastical libraries: from Reformation to Civil War

pp 363-399

15 - Clerical and parish libraries

pp 400-419

16 - Schools and schoolmasters (to c. 1550)

pp 420-434

17 - School libraries (c. 1540 to 1640)

pp 435-447

18 - Common lawyers and the Inns of Court

pp 448-460

19 - Medical libraries

pp 461-471

20 - Heralds’ libraries

pp 472-486

Part Four - Libraries for leisure

21 - ‘The profession of a gentleman’: books for the gentry and the nobility (c. 1560 to 1640)

pp 489-519

22 - Libraries of the ‘common sort’

pp 520-526