English Medieval Books The Reading Abbey Collections from Foundation to Dispersal

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 use ways in which books were used, and about the intellectual life of a medieval monastery. By continuing the story beyond the Dissolution, and charting the initial stages of the dispersal of the Abbeys books (many into the large institutional collections which are their homes today), Alan Coates makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of the fate of monastic books and book-collecting in the post-Dissolution period.

Brief History of Reading and its Abbey; The Fingall Cartulary Book List; Appendix A: Book Lists in the Fingall Cartulary; A Comparison between the Twelfth-Century Collections and those of other Houses; The Palaeography of the Twelfth-Century Manuscripts; The Book Collections from c. 1200 to the Dissolution; Appendix B: List of Books Copied by Brother W. de. Wicumbe; Appendix C: The Letter of Alured the Sacrist; Appendix D: Lists in Oxford, St Johns College, MS 11; Study at University; Appendix E: The Study of Greek; The Acqusition, Housing, and Management of the Book Collections; The Dispersal of the Books at the Dissolution; Plan of Reading Abbey; Appendix F: Principal Contents of Surviving Manuscripts and Printed Books; Bibliography, Notes to the Plates, Index