The Review of English Studies Advance Access first published online on September 16, 2009
This version published online on November 11, 2009
The Review of English Studies, doi:10.1093/res/hgp011
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press 2009; all rights reserved
Books and Sociability: The Case of Samuel Pepys's Library
University of Leicester
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Abstract |
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Samuel Pepys's library provides an excellent case study through which to investigate the many social uses of a ‘private’ library in the seventeenth century. Using Pepys's extensive records, this article explores changes in how his collection was housed and presented; the ways it was used to create and affirm relationships; and the role of his networks in shaping the collection's contents. From its beginnings in the 1660s, Pepys's book collection, initially kept in the intimate space of his closet, was a source of pride and came to serve as an index of his mental and social condition. As it grew over the decades the library took on new functions, becoming central to the hospitality Pepys offered groups of nobles and literati. The detailed records surviving from earlier periods of the collection give us a diachronic perspective often lacking with other libraries, allowing us better to judge the decisions behind the extant collection now kept at Magdalene College, Cambridge. Crucially, research into Pepys's library suggests avenues for interpreting those early modern library collections which survive today, especially in relation to our use of such collections as a means of understanding reading practices.