Acknowledgements
This volume originated with the symposium, ‘Seventeenth-Century Libraries: Problems and Perspectives’, held at University College London in June 2019, organized by Robyn Adams and Jacqueline Glomski with the financial support of the Centre for Editing Lives and Letters (CELL). The purpose of the symposium was to amalgamate, and thus advance, research on seventeenth- century libraries, British, Irish, and Continental, by bringing together academics and librarians with an interest in the topic. The range of papers was broad, and covered seventeenth-century libraries and collections found not only in England and Ireland, but in France, Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands. While such themes as classification and arrangement, and collections in London were addressed, attention was also given to the libraries of women, of Protestant ministers, and of artists. We heartily thank the symposium speakers, panel chairs, and audience for two days of stimulating discussion, and we are grateful to our CELL director Alexander Samson, our administrator Lucy Stagg, our MA and PhD student assistants, and David Vickery and Lorne Whiteway for their contributions to the planning and hosting of the symposium.
We furthermore owe thanks to the scholars who stayed on with the project, and to those who joined it at a later date, for contributing chapters to this book, especially during a difficult time when access to libraries was limited, to the editorial staff at Brill for shepherding the book through the publication process, as well as to our colleague Matthew Symonds for technical assistance. Without hard work, enthusiasm, and eagerness for collective endeavour, this book would have never come about.
We are certain that the substantial essays presented here will make a definite contribution to synthesizing research on seventeenth-century libraries so that scholars can begin to establish the patterns of book acquisition, collection formation, and library administration for this crucial period. A volume of case studies can never cover its subject completely, and so, in considering problems, we also hope to leave our readers with perspectives, that is, the encouragement to continue collaborative research efforts.