The Library of the Sidneys of Penshurst Place circa 1665

"The Library of the Sidneys of Penshurst Place circa 1665 is a major piece of scholarship that has been eagerly awaited, and it will be used and cited for many years. An admirably researched edition, it includes an elegant introduction that presents the history of the manuscript catalogue and intellectual biographies of the owners of the books, in particular the second Earl of Leicester, about whom relatively little is otherwise known. Until recently, much of the scholarly speculation about early modern reading has been based more on academic instinct than fact, but this book should change that." -- F.J. Levy, Department of History, University of Washington "An important research tool and a serious advance in state-of-the-art research, The Library of the Sidneys of Penshurst Place circa 1665 offers a comprehensive account of the books of one of England's most important literary families. This catalogue is the work of over twenty-five years of sustained exploration by a team that could scarcely be better qualified, and the expertise they have developed is evident everywhere throughout this volume. The editors have combined their knowledge with a real effort to keep the reader in mind, making for a lucid, helpful introduction that tells the collection's moving story." -- Andrew Taylor, Department of English, University of Ottawa

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.

For two centuries (1540-1740) the Sidney family of Penshurt Place, Kent, produced poets, courtiers, collectors, and at least one revolutionary. Increasingly aware of the cultural ideal of the learned nobleman and of libraries as representations of that ideal, the Sidneys amassed one of the largest gentry libraries in England of their period. This edition of their library catalogue provides a vivid portrait of the birth, growth, and eventual demise of the distinguished family’s library collection.

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. The editors employ all the resources of contemporary bibliography, print and digital, to identify the titles in the catalogue, and where possible to locate the Sidneys’ own copies still extant, as well as architectural analysis to identify and describe the library room at Penshurst, now lost to nineteenth-century renovations.