David Pearson retired in 2017 as Director of Culture, Heritage & Libraries for the City of London Corporation. He combined a successful professional career in libraries with an academic profile as a book historian, and his books on provenance and bookbinding history have become standard reference works. He is a Past President of the Bibliographical Society, and teaches regularly on Rare Book Schools around the world. He was Lyell Reader in Bibliography at Oxford, 2017-18, and will be Sandars Reader in Bibliography at Cambridge in 2023.

This is a study all book historians will want to read.

• Preface 1: Introduction: private libraries in Stuart England 2: Libraries for the studious, professional and wealthy 3: Women and books in the seventeenth century 4: Books for the common man: books outside professional, academic and wealthy circles 5: Physical spaces and book formats 6: Books for use and books for show 7: Cultures of collecting Appendix: A classified list of book owners, 1610-1715

David Pearson retired in 2017 as Director of Culture, Heritage & Libraries for the City of London Corporation. He combined a successful professional career in libraries with an academic profile as a book historian, and his books on provenance and bookbinding history have become standard reference works. He is a Past President of the Bibliographical Society, and teaches regularly on Rare Book Schools around the world. He was Lyell Reader in Bibliography at Oxford, 2017-18, and will be Sandars Reader in Bibliography at Cambridge in 2023.

This is a study all book historians will want to read.

• Preface 1: Introduction: private libraries in Stuart England 2: Libraries for the studious, professional and wealthy 3: Women and books in the seventeenth century 4: Books for the common man: books outside professional, academic and wealthy circles 5: Physical spaces and book formats 6: Books for use and books for show 7: Cultures of collecting Appendix: A classified list of book owners, 1610-1715

David Pearson retired in 2017 as Director of Culture, Heritage & Libraries for the City of London Corporation. He combined a successful professional career in libraries with an academic profile as a book historian, and his books on provenance and bookbinding history have become standard reference works. He is a Past President of the Bibliographical Society, and teaches regularly on Rare Book Schools around the world. He was Lyell Reader in Bibliography at Oxford, 2017-18, and will be Sandars Reader in Bibliography at Cambridge in 2023.

This is a study all book historians will want to read.

• Preface 1: Introduction: private libraries in Stuart England 2: Libraries for the studious, professional and wealthy 3: Women and books in the seventeenth century 4: Books for the common man: books outside professional, academic and wealthy circles 5: Physical spaces and book formats 6: Books for use and books for show 7: Cultures of collecting Appendix: A classified list of book owners, 1610-1715