Memoirs of Libraries
Including a Handbook of Library Economy

Table of Contents

Part I. History of Libraries
Book I. The Libraries of the Ancients:
1. Introductory
2. General view of the libraries of the ancients
3. Passages from Greek writers relating to ancient libraries
4. Passages from Latin writers relating to ancient libraries
5. The destruction and dispersion of ancient libraries
and the researches after their fragments
Book II. The Libraries of the Middle Ages:
1. Foundation and growth of the monastic libraries
2. The libraries of the English Benedictines
3. The libraries of the German, Flemish, and Swiss Benedictines
4. The libraries of the Italian and French Benedictines
5. The libraries of the mendicant orders
6. The economy of the monastic libraries
7. Decline of learning in the monasteries
8. The dissolution of the monasteries and dispersion of their libraries
9. Royal, noble and plebeian collectors in the middle ages
Book III. The Modern Libraries of Great Britain and Ireland:
1. Formation and growth of the several collections which eventually became the library of the British Museum
2. Growth of the national library from the establishment of the British Museum to the acquisition of the library of King George III
3. Progress of the national library from the acquisition of the Arundelian MSS. to the bequest of the Grenville Library, in 1846
4. Further progress of the library of the British Museum, from the acquisition of the Syriac MSS. of St. Mary Deipara, to the opening of the central reading-room (1847-57)
5. Cursory view of the contents of the more important collections now included within the library of the British Museum
6. The origin and growth of the Bodleian Library of the University of Oxford
7. The state and prospects of the Bodleian Library
8. The minor university libraries, and the collegiate of Oxford
9. The public library of the University of Cambridge
10. The minor libraries of Cambridge
11. The public library of Humphrey Chetham in the city of Manchester
12. The cathedral libraries of England
13. The archiepiscopal library at Lambeth
14. The libraries of the English Inns of Court.

Look Inside

• Marketing Excerpt (425 KB)
• Front Matter (1036 KB)
• Table of Contents (581 KB)
• Copyright Information Page (99 KB)