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Two themes uniting the essays in this collection are the provenance and history of medieval manuscripts during the Middle Ages, and the fates that befell them in England in the period after the invention of printing and the 16th-century dissolution of the religious houses and visitations of the universities. The section 'Libraries and collectors' includes papers on seven major English collectors of the 16th and 17th centuries, and the section 'Manuscripts' concerns the fates of five manuscripts or groups of manuscripts from England, Belgium and Italy. Of the other chapters one is concerned with the post-medieval history of the library of All Souls College, Oxford, and another with the provenance of hundreds of manuscripts in the Harleian collection in the British Library. For this volume Andrew Watson has provided extensive additional notes and indexes.
The essays that make up this collection examine 4 main themes in the history of the book over 5 centuries: monastic books and mediaeval learning, humanism and incunabula, the dispersal of monastic libraries and post-monastic collections.
John Dee (1527-1609) has emerged as one of the most influential figures in the intellectual history of Tudor England. Though best known in his own time as a mathematician, he had a host of other interests (including navigation, astrology and astronomy, cabbala, alchemy, paracelsian medicine, and Welsh history) and was one of the first scholars to advocate collecting manuscripts from the dissolved monastic libraries. Indeed his own library was perhaps the largest assembled in England by one man before 1600. This study, which includes a facsimile of the detailed catalogue of 1583, recounts for the first time the growth of Dee's library, the raid made upon it during his absence in Poland, and its dispersal after his death. The book also describes the location of his surviving books and manuscripts.
Two themes uniting the essays in this collection are the provenance and history of medieval manuscripts during the Middle Ages, and the fates that befell them in England in the period after the invention of printing and the 16th-century dissolution of the religious houses and visitations of the universities. The section 'Libraries and collectors' includes papers on seven major English collectors of the 16th and 17th centuries, and the section 'Manuscripts' concerns the fates of five manuscripts or groups of manuscripts from England, Belgium and Italy. Of the other chapters one is concerned with the post-medieval history of the library of All Souls College, Oxford, and another with the provenance of hundreds of manuscripts in the Harleian collection in the British Library. For this volume Andrew Watson has provided extensive additional notes and indexes.
First published in 1998. Medieval Scholarship: Biographical Studies on the Formation of a Discipline: Volume 2: Literature and Philology is the second volume of three that present Biographies of scholars whose work influenced the study of the Middle Ages and transformed it into the discipline known as Medieval Studies. Volume 2 provides thirty~two accounts of men and women from the sixteenth century to the twentieth who developed medieval philology and literature into a profession. Their subject deals with the languages and literatures of greater Europe from about the seventh century through the fifteenth and includes Celtic, Scandinavian, Germanic, and Romance nations.
The son of a Scottish plantation owner and a free woman of color, Andrew Watson was provided for by his wealthy father. Receiving a first-class education in English public schools, he would later reject university to become a footballer in Glasgow. Schooled by the most advanced practitioners of the game at that time, he became one of the best footballers in Glasgow and captained Scotland's invincible national team. He played for the greatest clubs of the day on both sides of the border and as a 'Scottish professor', brought his talent to England and shared his knowledge with the Southern amateurs, helping the game evolve from a public-school pastime to a national obsession. He played alongside and educated many who would represent the English national team, changing the game forever. But the record of his achievements faded as the game he helped change took over the world, leaving his memory in the shadows. Over 100 years later, he was rediscovered in an old photograph, and after years of research, his achievements were finally recognized.
A compelling study of a "best-seller" from the Middle Ages
In Jennifer Summit’s account, libraries are more than inert storehouses of written tradition; they are volatile spaces that actively shape the meanings and uses of books, reading, and the past. Considering the two-hundred-year period between 1431, which saw the foundation of Duke Humfrey’s famous library, and 1631, when the great antiquarian Sir Robert Cotton died, Memory’s Library revises the history of the modern library by focusing on its origins in medieval and early modern England. Summit argues that the medieval sources that survive in English collections are the product of a Reformation and post-Reformation struggle to redefine the past by redefining the cultural place, function, and identity of libraries. By establishing the intellectual dynamism of English libraries during this crucial period of their development, Memory’s Library demonstrates how much current discussions about the future of libraries can gain by reexamining their past.