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The Library of the Sidneys of Penshurst Place circa 1665

The Library of the Sidneys of Penshurst Place circa 1665

Germaine Warkentin
Joseph L. Black
William R. Bowen
Copyright Date: 2013
Published by: University of Toronto Press
Pages: 420
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3138/j.ctt5hjwsq
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  • Book Info
    The Library of the Sidneys of Penshurst Place circa 1665
    Book Description:

    Comprised of nearly 5000 entries, the catalogue is presented with a full introduction describing the Sidneys' intellectual world and life, their reading and collecting, the women collectors of the family, and the dispersal of the library in 1743.

    eISBN: 978-1-4426-6738-9
    Subjects: Language & Literature

Table of Contents

  1. Front Matter
    (pp. i-iv)
  2. Table of Contents
    (pp. v-vi)
  3. Preface and Acknowledgments
    (pp. vii-x)
  4. Illustrations
    (pp. xi-xii)
  5. Abbreviations
    (pp. xiii-2)
  6. Introduction
    (pp. 3-42)

    Late in 1586 Edmund Molyneux, secretary to the recently deceased Sir Henry Sidney (1529–86), composed a memoir of his master for insertion in the enlarged version of Holinshed’sChronicles of England, Scotland and Irelandjust then on the press. In it he praised Sir Henry’s custodianship as Queen Elizabeth’s Lord Justice in Ireland and later her Lord Deputy. Sidney had “found hir majesties records laid as it were in an open place, whither anie man … might come that would, not defended, but subject to wind, raine and all kind of weather.” Sidney, “with great care and diligence,” caused...

  7. Textual Introduction
    (pp. 43-48)

    The catalogue of the library at Penshurst Place is a substantial bound manuscript on deposit with the archive of the Sidney family papers in the Kent History and Library Centre (formerly the Centre for Kentish Studies), Maidstone (shelfmark CKS U1475 z45/2). The volume is a folio of 271 leaves (originally 282: see collation below), with a text block measuring 32.5 × 20.5 cm and binding dimensions of 33 × 21 cm. The paper is uniformly watermarked throughout, showing a shield with suspended post horn, the shield containing three fleur-de-lis surmounted by what is termed in heraldry a “label” or bar...

  8. The Library of the Sidneys of Penshurst Place circa 1665

  9. Appendix: Additional Extant Books Associated with the Early Library at Penshurst
    (pp. 369-374)
  10. References
    (pp. 375-380)
  11. Index
    (pp. 381-406)