Blog 8: Francis Trigge Chained Library

This was a library that came into existence in 1598. The Francis Triggee Chained Library was established by the Rector of Welbourne. The library was intended for use by the genera public and the clergy who resided in the local area.  The library had sometimes been called the first public library in Britain; however access was restricted to the public as approval was required before entrance.

The libraries collection at the time where mainly sourced from Cambridge. Monographs were usually in poor condition and needed to be repaired, work on the collection was done between 1893 to 1984. However conservation did not receive much funding from the library.

The name of the library came from the practice that the library held which was to chain books, as books were expensive to purchase in the past, in many instances books would have torn out pages or go missing from the collection if this procedure was not followed.  The World War saw many items destroyed however a minuscule portion of the collection was recovered with the assistance of professional conservators.

                            **courtesy of The Friends of St. Wulfram’s Church

The collections include two volumes of the church, medical works published from 1528, Cambridge Platonist, Cartesian Henry More Peter Lombards four books of Sentences, Duns Scotos commentary on the Sentences with much discussion and analysis of theology.  Many texts are useful for those pursuing to study religious beliefs.

Reflection on bloging experience

There was not much content available in stark contrast to other libraries that had been researched in the past. However despite feeling disappointed I was able to uncover the key points in regards to the libraries history.

References

Francis Trigge Chained Library 2010, Francis Trigge Chained Library, Wikimedia Foundation, viewed 12 October 2010, < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Trigge_Chained_Library>