Research Catalog

Title

Merton College Library : an illustrated history / Julia C. Walworth.

Author

Walworth, Julia Caroline

Publication

• Oxford : Bodleian Library : in association with Merton College, 2020.
• ©2020

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

144 pages : color illustrations; 22 cm.

Summary

The Merton library is rightly known for its antiquity, its beautiful medieval and early modern architecture and fittings and for its remarkable and important collection of manuscripts and rare books, yet a nineteenth-century plan to tear the medieval library down and replace it was only narrowly frustrated. This brief history of Europe's oldest academic library traces its origins in the thirteenth century, when a new type of community of scholars was first being set up, through to the present day and its multiple functions as a working college library, a unique resource for researchers and a delight for curious visitors. Drawing on the remarkable wealth of documentation in the college's archives, this is the first history of the library to explore collections, buildings, readers and staff across more than 700 years. The story is told in part through stunning colour images that depict not only exceptional treasures but also the library furnishings and decorations, and which show manuscripts, books, bindings and artefacts of different periods in their changing contexts.

Series Statement

Merton College guides, past, present, and future

Subject

• Merton College. Library > History
• Merton College. Library
• Academic libraries > England > Oxford > History
• Academic libraries > Collection development > History. > England > Oxford
• Academic librarians > England > Oxford > History
• Library architecture > England > Oxford > History
• Library users > England > Oxford > History
• Library users
• Library architecture
• Academic libraries > Collection development
• Academic librarians
• Academic libraries
• England > Oxford

Genre/Form

History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Machine generated contents note: 1. The beginnings of a library -- 2. Fourteenth and fifteenth centuries: the new library -- 3. Sixteenth century: a reimagined library for a new era -- 4. Seventeenth century: librarians and trophy books -- 5. Eighteenth century: an òld ruinous place'? -- 6. Nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: a library for undergraduates and a historic monument -- 7. Twentieth century and beyond: heritage collections.

Call Number

JFD 21-590

ISBN

• 9781851245390
• 1851245391

OCLC

1198599408

Author

Walworth, Julia Caroline, author.

Title

Merton College Library : an illustrated history / Julia C. Walworth.

Publisher

Oxford : Bodleian Library : in association with Merton College, 2020.

Copyright Date

©2020

Type of Content

text

still image

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

Merton College guides, past, present, and future

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Research Call Number

JFD 21-590