Memory s Library

Jennifer Summit

ISBN 10: 0226781704 / ISBN 13: 9780226781709

Published by The University of Chicago Press

About this Item

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, this book revises the history of the modern library by focusing on its origins in medieval and early modern England. Num Pages: 336 pages, 8 halftones. BIC Classification: 1DBKE; DSBB. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 229 x 152 x 20. Weight in Grams: 476. . 2011. Reprint. Paperback. . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland.

Seller Inventory # V9780226781709

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Memory s Library
• Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
• ISBN 10: 0226781704
• ISBN 13: 9780226781709
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

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.

About the Author

Jennifer Summit is interim provost and vice president for academic affairs at San Francisco State University and the author of Memory’s Library: Medieval Books in Early Modern England and Lost Property: The Woman Writer and English Literary History, 1380–1589.