Nailya Shamgunova (University of East Anglia, United Kingdom)
This paper introduces the concept and some of the initial findings of the UKRI-funded Future Leaders research project at the University of East Anglia – English and Scottish Scholars at the Global Library, c. 1500-1700. The wider project combines research into early modern English and Scottish encounters with libraries abroad and the significance of libraries to refugee, migrant and transient communities today. This paper explores the role of libraries as objects of sightseeing for English and Scottish visitors on the continent. It examines their place in the development of patterns of tourism in the seventeenth century. From Fynes Moryson and Thomas Coryat in the 1610s to the more established patterns of the early Grant Tour from the 1650s onwards, seventeenth century English and Scottish travellers noted their library visits in letters, travel journals and published travel accounts. Certain libraries, such as the Vatican library, developed a set of items to demonstrate to their visitors, whereas others provided settings for natural philosophy lectures, inter-confessional discussions and display of collections of curiosities. English and Scottish travellers visited public libraries, libraries of religious institutions such as Jesuit colleges, princely libraries and private libraries of notable scholars. Visitors paid special attention to the wealth of books, the aesthetic qualities of the building, the functionality of the facilities, the conditions of access and the presence of curiosities beyond printed books and manuscripts. The existence of famed libraries could make or break the reputation of a particular place or serve as a benchmark for comments on the general levels of culture in a particular society. Edward Browne was amazed to find a library ‘upon the extreme Borders of the Learned part of Europe’ in 1668-69. Where was the library? At the court of the Holy Roman Emperor, one of the most powerful monarchs of the early modern world. Cultural prejudices also determined whether a library was to be labelled as such in the first place – despite a rush to procure Arabic, Turkish and Greek manuscripts in the Ottoman Empire at any cost during this period, very few visitors labelled the opulent collections of reading matter they encountered in Muslim lands as ‘libraries’, and even fewer left positive impressions of the libraries they visited.