English Medieval Books The Reading Abbey Collections from Foundation to Dispersal

by Coates, Alan

• ISBN13: 9780198207566
• ISBN10: 0198207565
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-04-22
• Publisher: Clarendon Press

Summary

This history of the books of Reading Abbey covers the period from the abbey's foundation to its dissolution, and follows up the dispersal of the book collections to c .1610. It provides valuable material on the ways in which books were used, and about the intellectual life of medieval monastery. Alan Coates makes an important contribution to our understanding of the fate of monastic books and book-collecting in the post-Dissolution period.

Table of Contents

LIST OF PLATES	x
LIST OF FIGURES	ix	(4)
PRINCIPAL ABBREVIATIONS AND CONVENTIONS	xiii	(4)
NOTES ON THE PLATES	xvii
Introduction	1	(4)
1 Brief History of Reading and its Abbey	5	(14)
2 The Fingall Cartulary Book List	19	(18)
Appendix A Book Lists in the Fingall Cartulary	25	(12)
3 A Comparison between the Twelfth-century Collections and those of Other Houses	37	(9)
4 The Palaeography of the Twelfth-century Manuscripts	46	(15)
5 The Book Collections from c.1200 to the Dissolution	61	(26)
Appendix B List of Books Copied by Bro. W. de Wicumbe	81	(2)
Appendix C Letter of Alured the Sacrist	83	(1)
Appendix D Lists in Oxford, St John's Coll., MS 11	84	(3)
6 Study at University	87	(26)
Appendix E The Study of Greek	108	(5)
7 The Acquisition, Housing, and Management of the Book Collections	113	(9)
8 The Dispersal of the Books at the Dissolution	122	(49)
Appendix F The Surviving Manuscripts and Printed Books	143	(28)
Bibliography	171	(20)
Indexes	191