Patterns of Book Ownership in Late Seventeenth-Century England

A detailed comparative analysis of five late 17^th-century English book auction catalogues was undertaken, by entering their contents (title by title) into a database. The collections were roughly similar in size but their owners had varying professional backgrounds, including establishment and nonconformist clergy, academic, and gentry. The 6900 lots represented ca.4200 individual works by ca.2700 authors. By creating lists of titles and authors found in multiple catalogues, it was possible to draw inferences about the works which were commonly, and less commonly, held in private libraries of this period. The books most often found in these collections are not necessarily the ones which we value today as the most significant works of the early modern period. This approach helps us to gain a deeper and more accurate understanding of the contents of a typical scholarly library of this time.