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    Memory's Library: Medieval Books in Early Modern England
    Memory's Library: Medieval Books in Early Modern England
    Memory's Library: Medieval Books in Early Modern England
    Ebook341 pages9 hours

    Memory's Library: Medieval Books in Early Modern England

    By Jennifer Summit

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    About this ebook

    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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press
    Release dateNov 15, 2008
    ISBN9780226781723
    Memory's Library: Medieval Books in Early Modern England

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