Pumfrey, Stephen wrote:
> 
> Dear List members,
> 
> This is my first posting.  I would like some bibliographical advice, given my
> ignorance of library history.  I have been assigned the supervision of an MA
> dissertation dealing with the substantial library of a local aristocratic
> family (mainly C18 and C19 English and French works).  The postgraduate hopes
> to make inferences about the family's historical interests from the nature of
> the collection and what little is known about acquisition and the individual
> family members.
> 
> I imagine that this is a relatively well-worked area of library history
> studies, but my bibliographical assistance has so far borne little fruit.

I should be very glad to be proved wrong, but my impression is that
there have been  fewer full-scale studies of private libraries than one
would expect (especially from the point of view you mention), though a
number of straightforward descriptions are written at article length.
There are many of these, for example, in "The Book Collector", and it is
possible that an enquiry in that journal's "notes & queries" section
would be a useful source of information. Looking in bibliographies under
headings like "book-collecting" should throw up several of these; don't
forget the "British Library History: bibliography" edited by Denis
Keeling, which covers publications of 1962-1988 in 6 volumes. If she is
still in the library at Lancaster, Mrs Lindsay Newman will be able to
help you on this.

I am at present working on the library at Belton House, a National Trust
house in Lincolnshire, principally cataloguing the collection into the
NT libraries database. Inevitably I have become embroiled in the history
of the family and the illumination of its doings provided by the
material in the library. This contains about 15000 volumes, of the
16-17-18-19 century with at least one incunabulum and a certain amount
of 20c. material, and with strong holdings of European printing, notably
Italian. It was collected by successive members of the owning families
(Brownlows and Custs) over 300 years, from about 1620 to 1920, and is
pretty complete, except for about 1000 volumes in a sale at Sotheby's in
the 1970s. Acquisition was partly of contemporary publications
(identifiable from the mid-17th century onwards) and partly antiquarian
- two of the Earls Brownlow were noted bibliophiles and members of the
Roxburghe Club. As a result one can tell quite a bit about the interests
of individuals that is not available in other ways (whether these were
genuine interests or theoretical or social posturing is another matter;
but archival evidence from such things as booksellers' correspondence
gives an idea of how systematically the collection was built up -
certainly not all "bought by the yard"). Unfortunately I am not at
present in a position to write the history that is much desired!

One point that may be helpful to you and your student is that much of
the evidence that has come to light has done so only through *detailed*
cataloguing, including provenance notes (ownership marks such as
signatures and bookplates, binding stamps etc.): if that work has not
already been done the task will be less straightforward.  Any available
archives will certainly be important too. Architectural or
archaeological evidence may also be significant - how much care was
taken over decoration and why; when new accommodation was needed for the
expanding collections; whether the collection was all in one place or
spread around and perhaps used by different people.

I hope this preliminary posting may stimulate others to respond with
more detailed information, comparative projects etc. - it would be good
to see these posted to lis-libhist.

Regards

Peter Hoare
_____________________________________________________________________
Peter Hoare, 21 Oundle Drive, Wollaton Park, Nottingham NG8 1BN
Tel/fax 0115 978 5297		E-mail  [log in to unmask]
______________________________________________________________________



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