"Ex Bibliotheca Birkmannorum" : Robert Sidney Eyes Some Books

In 1579, the fifteen-year-old Robert Sidney (1563-1626) journeyed to the Continent to complete his education. His teachers were not the only ones with advice for him. Robert's father, his older brother Philip, and Philip's friend Hubert Languet all offered opinions on the books he should r...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sidney journal (Guelph) 2022-01, Vol.40 (1-2), p.173-192
Main Author: Black, Joseph L
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
16th century AD
Book fairs
Books and reading
Correspondence
Education
Education, Humanistic
History
Humanism
Intellectuals
Letters
Libraries
Mathematics
Medicine
Personal archives
Poetry
Provenance
Public speaking
Records and correspondence
Rhetoric
Sidney, Philip (1554-1586)
Sidney, Robert
Sidney, Robert (1563-1626)
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Summary:In 1579, the fifteen-year-old Robert Sidney (1563-1626) journeyed to the Continent to complete his education. His teachers were not the only ones with advice for him. Robert's father, his older brother Philip, and Philip's friend Hubert Languet all offered opinions on the books he should read and the studies he should pursue. This article sketches the humanist reading program the Sidney family urged upon the young Robert, then edits a manuscript catalogue (c.1579-80) that documents the kinds of books available to him as he sought to follow all this family advice. The manuscript is located among the Sidney family papers, and this article argues for the association with Robert, who likely acquired it during one of this three trips to the Frankfurt Book Fair in 1579-80. Compiled by the Birckmanns of Cologne and Antwerp, a major printer/bookseller dynasty, this manuscript booklist is edited and discussed here for the first time.
ISSN:1480-0926