Old English libraries

Handwritten books passed through many hands before they reached a medieval reader. Ernest Albert Savage follows their making, collection and circulation in this illustrated history, first published in 1911. His subjects range from early Irish monasteries and English religious houses to cathedral libraries and the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. The emphasis falls on the people and practices that gave books a place in everyday intellectual life.

The discussion of Greek learning brings that history into focus through copyists, travelling scholars and surviving manuscripts. William of Selling's purchases in Italy and the tracing of manuscripts associated with Emmanuel of Constantinople show how individual books can reveal wider exchanges of knowledge. Chapters on the book trade and appendices on prices and collections give readers further ways to understand the material cost of learning. This is a useful choice for anyone interested in how texts were produced, shared and preserved before print became widespread.