Table of Contents

Foreword by Richard Ovenden vii
Preface by James Willoughby x
List of Illustrations xviii
Abbreviations xix
1 Medieval Libraries of Great Britain 1
2 English Medieval Library Catalogues 25
3 Library Books and Personal Books 59
4 Turnover in Libraries 78
5 Growth, Competition, Stability, Loss, Renewal 96
6 Decay and Closure of Libraries 115
Notes 133
Select Bibliography 155
Index of Manuscripts 166
General Index 167

About the Author

Richard Sharpe (1954 2020) was Professor of Diplomatic in the University of Oxford and Fellow of Wadham College. As well as being one of the country's leading experts on medieval books and libraries, he was also a foremost critic and editor of medieval Latin texts and charters. For thirty years he had the oversight of a monumental series, the Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, which aims to gather, print and interpret the scattered documentary evidence for book ownership in the middle ages. James Willoughby is Research Fellow in Medieval History at New College, Oxford.