English and Scottish Scholars at the Global Library: From Aleppo to Massachusetts (1500-1700)

In Spring, 1606, Samuel Slade arrived at Paris, where he had been sent by his mentor, Sir Henry Savile, to scour the libraries of Europe and the Middle East for manuscript works in Greek. From Paris, he travelled to the libraries of Augsburg, and from Augsburg to the collections of Munich and Vienna. In 1608, having hastily copied manuscripts at Venice, he ventured further still, seeking out the collections of Istanbul, the island of Halki, and even the monastery libraries of Mount Athos. Slade's remarkable journey was just one of many undertaken by English and Scottish poets, scientists, and antiquaries throughout the early-modern period to the libraries of mainland Europe, the Middle East, and North America. From the royal collections of the Escorial in Spain to the private libraries of New England, these scholars left their mark on the collections they visited, annotating manuscripts, trading texts, and even making contributions of their very own. By reconstructing the journeys and activities of these scholars, this project will re-examine the early-modern library not merely as a repository of books, but as a vibrant meeting point of people, languages, and cultures, through which Anglo-Scots scholars exerted a substantial influence on the cultural and intellectual fabric of their host nations.
The project has four key areas of focus: (1) Scholarship Across Borders examines the texts, ideas, and scientific discoveries which English and Scottish scholars developed and shared at libraries abroad, from collaborative translations of Greek astronomy to the first Scottish engagements with Arabic literature, as well as the original works which these visiting scholars composed as a thank-you to their international hosts. This stage of the project also reveals how these interactions encouraged the learning of English abroad, a rare phenomenon in a period when English was a small fish in a very large linguistic pond. (2) Library Access examines how Anglo-Scots scholars experienced the social dimensions of the early-modern library, revealing what was achieved through in-person exchanges that could not be replicated through written correspondence. From the women who, unable to access university education, turned to private collections to pursue their scholarship, to Scottish visitors who came to see their international hosts as father figures, Library Access explores the importance of community to the early-modern library. (3) The Library in Motion revises the idea of the library as something fixed, stable, and unchanging. In fact, movement was at the heart of the early-modern library, from the Catholic exiles who found sanctuary at the libraries of Italy and Spain, to the collections that crossed the Atlantic with the early colonists. (4) The Library and Refuge examines the project's central themes - community, movement, and cross-cultural encounters - in relation to the library today, exploring how public libraries can encourage and support social integration and mental well-being among asylum seekers. Through a series of interviews and workshops with refugees and librarians, this stage asks what might be gained for libraries today by looking to collections of the past.
When we talk about the Renaissance in relation to England and Scotland, these countries are generally understood as receptacles for cultural and scientific advances from abroad: they imported and reworked traditions, from alchemy to the Petrarchan sonnet. This project reveals the influence that the English and Scots exerted through their presence in the libraries of Europe, North America, and the Middle East, paving the way for wider transnational inter-connectivity in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. By building on my award-winning research on the private libraries of Italy and by embracing a broad range of untouched archival material, this project offers a radically new perspective on the Global Library and the Anglo-Scots visitors it attracted.