Call for Papers: ‘Built with books: shaping the shelves of the early modern library’

How were libraries created, extended and compiled in the early modern period (1500-1800)? What was the animating force which created personal, institutional and other libraries and collections? How were these libraries filled with books, manuscripts and objects? How did libraries and library founders inspire donors to give money and books? What structures and rules were created to manage access to the library? Where can we locate marginalised groups in the library? What caused the destruction, dispersal, or integration of collections? And what was the bibliographical context for this activity?  

This 2-day symposium will explore the rich field of early modern library studies, inviting fresh, interdisciplinary perspectives and methodologies to open up existing narratives and bodies of evidence. We are keen to hear from the wide range of scholars who work on early modern libraries and collections, including information science and cultural heritage professionals and members of the book trade. We welcome proposals for 20-minute papers and presentations which address a broad range of themes relating to the formation of libraries in the early modern period.  Possible topics of interest include, but are not limited to: 

• donation & philanthropy 
• architecture & space 
• classification & organisation 
• innovation & tradition 
• economics & finance 
• access & exclusion 
• communities & networks 
• catalogues & records 
• bibliographical data & methods 
• creation & destruction 

We are particularly keen to receive proposals from PGR and early career scholars. A limited number of bursaries for these groups are available for those whose departments do not support travel, etc. 

This symposium forms part of the Shaping Scholarship: Early Donations to the Bodleian Library, 1600-1620 project funded by the AHRC. See the project website at https://ebdo.org.uk/

Using the overlooked and under-used records of one of England's principal research libraries, the team have been exploring the relationships between people, things and places, giving a broader sense of philanthropy, book-ownership, and social connectedness in Jacobean England. While many of the donors are well-known historical figures, a greater number have been omitted from the conventionally rehearsed narrative, and these include scholars, merchants, soldiers, women and diplomats. It is this corpus they have been examining, to reconstruct the landscape of gift-giving and exchange which had Bodley, and/or Oxford, as its philanthropical centre and focus.

Image: Bodleian Library, Oxford: bird’s eye view (detail), line engraving. Image credit: Wellcome Library, London.

This symposium is hosted by the Centre for Editing Lives and Letters (CELL): http://www.livesandletters.ac.uk/ CELL develops projects focused on making archives matter, concentrating on the years 1500 to 1800. CELL also directs the popular MA in Early Modern Studies, which reflects CELL’s ethos, marrying traditional archival skills with cutting edge technology.