Norwich City Library, 1608-1737 (review)

In 1608, not long after the founding of Jamestown in the colony of Virginia, the first public library in England outside the city of London was founded in Norwich. While this in itself is sufficiently significant to warrant historical investigation, the Norwich City Library is also renowned for its wealth of detailed documents that allow for great depth in researching its past. The circumstances and cultural milieu of its founding can shed light on the history of libraries in colonial America such as the Harvard University Library, since Harvard was founded only a few decades later and its library served a very similar purpose and constituency.

The exact nature of the Norwich City Library's "first" is somewhat complex. Accordingly, a direct quotation from Clive Wilkin-Jones, whose forty-four-page historical account prefaces this volume, is warranted: "Norwich City Library was the first library to be established by a city administration in England outside London in a building that was corporately owned" (1). On the following pages Wilkin-Jones, who has also edited this collection, distinguishes Norwich's founding from other library "firsts." While at first glance this differentiation might seem picayune, the provision of a corporately owned building signified a level of support from the city administration that contributed to the longevity of the library, allowing it to survive many similar contemporary institutions.

A rare feature of the Norwich City Library is its collection of primary source documents related to its history. Three such documents are published in Norwich City Library. A compilation of minutes from meetings of the library's governing group from 1657 to 1733 provides insights into the daily workings of the library. Also in the collection is a detailed record of the donations of books to the library from 1608 to 1737; this has previously been published, as it is an important resource for rare book collections. A library catalog in book format dating from around 1707 provides a fascinating look at an early use of subject classifications and analytics and is an important source for research into the social history of that time and place. It also has been previously published, but no new edition has appeared since the middle of the nineteenth century.

This volume on the Norwich City Library, published by the Norfolk Record Society, is unique in that it brings together all three of these primary source documents—the minutes, donation book, and catalog—for the first time. Additionally, it marks the first publication of the book of minutes. Wilkin-Jones, whose doctoral dissertation focused on the Norwich City Library and the socio-cultural history surrounding it, has supplemented these important documents with extensive notes, especially concerning the people mentioned in the texts, as well as a chronological conspectus of the places of printing (invaluable for rare book collectors) and an exhaustive index. Wilkin-Jones's preface to the volume, which constitutes his second publication on Norwich history, is breathtaking in its attention to detail.

The introduction devotes much space to an analysis of the library's collection and the uses to which that collection was put. As might be imagined, the Bible was the central motif around which the collection was gathered. Polyglot Bibles were a main feature of the collection, as were texts that interpreted scripture. Secular classical texts and apologetics also were well represented. The main mission of the library was to raise the quality of sermons preached in the city, and the collection reflected this mission. Clergy, of course, constituted the majority of patrons. From the vantage point of the twenty-first century, the religious nature of a public library's mission might seem strange. However, at that time sermons served civic as well as religious purposes. Norwich City Library was established just a few years after the Gunpowder Plot by Catholics to assassinate the king and at a time of theological unrest within Protestantism, which compelled the Pilgrims to leave England and ultimately begin a new life...