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  • 9 - Private ownership of printed books

  • from COLLECTIONS AND OWNERSHIP
  • Edited by Lotte Hellinga, J. B. Trapp
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    09 December 1999, pp 203-228

  • Summary

    This chapter is based on a sample of over 4,300 printed books which bear clear evidence of having been in private ownership in Britain before 1557. It examines who owned books, what books they owned and what factors influenced that ownership. Apart from availability, the primary factors influencing book ownership were need and means. Several features of book ownership overall emerge from the sample, in Scotland as well as in England. On a basic level, people owned books which they needed: books were professional tools. For lay owners, such as the gentry and merchants, social networks influenced their ownership of books. In addition to demonstrating by the sheer quantity of certain texts that need determines book ownership, the books by and on Aristotle highlight the features of book ownership in England. Students in the higher faculty of theology would have needed texts of systematic theology, but students of all levels needed more humble texts of pastoral theology.