Access, restrictions and readership in early modern parish libraries
Abstract
This article explores the collections and accessibility of parish libraries in early modern England and the subjects in which their readers were most interested. The period covered begins with the 1558 accession of Elizabeth I, which preceded by only a few years the establishment of the first post-Reformation parish library, and ends with the Parochial Libraries Act of 1709, which ensured that libraries could not be dismantled and dispersed without permission from the appropriate authorities. This article argues that parish libraries were established in this period to provide people of gentry rank and below with a religious education and that, despite previous historians’ arguments to the contrary, the works in these collections were appropriate to the intended audience. It further contends that despite physical access restrictions imposed on these libraries by their founders, their books were read, and that readers’ interests focused on four themes that were central to early modern Protestantism.
Citation
Purdy , J G 2024 , ' Access, restrictions and readership in early modern parish libraries ' , Library & Information History , vol. 40 , no. 2 , pp. 86-100 . https://doi.org/10.3366/lih.2024.0172
Publication
Library & Information History
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
1758-3489Type
Journal article
Collections
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