Libraries within the Library. The Origins of the British Library's Printed Collections

Abstract

Digital technologies may be changing the way that information is accessed, may even be changing the way that buildings full of books are perceived, and yet the utility of a great research library should never be in question, however much its customary shape may be reconceived. At the same moment, scholarly focus has passed from enumerative and textual bibliography to the history of the book, a developing field of study which interests itself in how the physical book can speak to patterns of ownership, readership, and acquisition; of this, the history of the formation of collections is a key component. This excellent volume of essays, superbly produced, exemplifies the new research approach, illustrating the formation of the principal private collections which were absorbed by the British Museum, dating from the sixteenth century to the mid nineteenth. The British Library has for some time offered summary guidance for provenance research via its website. This volume provides along the way the intellectual commentary to that digital hand-guide.