Sixteenth-Century Readers, Fifteenth-Century Books: Continuities of Reading in the English Reformation

Description

This innovative study investigates the reception of medieval manuscripts over a long century, 1470–1585, spanning the reigns of Edward IV to Elizabeth I. Members of the Tudor gentry family who owned these manuscripts had properties in Willesden and professional affiliations in London. These men marked the leaves of their books with signs of use, allowing their engagement with the texts contained there to be reconstructed. Through detailed research, Margaret Connolly reveals the various uses of these old books: as a repository for family records; as a place to preserve other texts of a favourite or important nature; as a source of practical information for the household; and as a professional manual for the practising lawyer. Investigation of these family-owned books reveals an unexpectedly strong interest in works of the past, and the continuing intellectual and domestic importance of medieval manuscripts in an age of print. Dedication Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Note on Transcription Policy Introduction 1 Family Matters: The Roberts Family of Willesden 2 Private Faces in Public Places 3 Devotional Reading in the Reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII 4 Out of the Cloister, Out of the Family 5 Books and Their Uses 6 Devotional Reading in the Reigns of Mary Tudor and Elizabeth I Conclusion: Newly Reformed Readers? Postscript: After the Family: The Manuscripts’ Later Histories Appendices Appendix I: Timeline of Key Events during the Lifetimes of Thomas and Edmund Roberts Appendix II: Summary List of Contents of the Manuscripts Owned by the Roberts Family Appendix III: Manuscripts and Printed Books of Uncertain Association Appendix IV: Other Families Named Roberts Bibliography Index of Manuscripts and Early Printed Books General Index