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

1606年春，塞缪尔·斯莱德被他的导师亨利·萨维尔爵士派到巴黎，在欧洲和中东的图书馆搜寻希腊语手稿。从巴黎到奥格斯堡的图书馆，从奥格斯堡到慕尼黑和维也纳的藏品。1608年，在威尼斯匆忙复制了手稿后，他更进一步，寻找伊斯坦布尔、哈尔基岛，甚至阿托斯山的修道院图书馆的藏品。斯莱德非凡的旅程只是英国和苏格兰诗人、科学家和古物学者在整个早期现代时期前往欧洲大陆、中东和北美的图书馆的众多旅程之一。从西班牙的皇家收藏品到新英格兰的私人图书馆，这些学者在他们参观的收藏品上留下了自己的印记，为手稿做注释，交易文本，甚至做出了自己的贡献。通过重建这些学者的旅程和活动，这个项目将重新审视早期现代图书馆，不仅是作为书籍的储存库，而且是作为一个充满活力的人、语言和文化的汇合点，通过这个点，盎格鲁-苏格兰学者对东道国的文化和智力结构产生了实质性的影响。该项目有四个重点领域：(1)跨国界奖学金研究英国和苏格兰学者在海外图书馆开发和分享的文本、思想和科学发现，从合作翻译的希腊天文学到苏格兰与阿拉伯文学的首次接触，以及这些访问学者为感谢国际东道主而撰写的原著。该项目的这一阶段还揭示了这些互动如何鼓励在国外学习英语，这在英语还是一个巨大的语言池塘中的小鱼的时代是一种罕见的现象。(2)《图书馆访问》考察了盎格鲁-苏格兰学者如何体验早期现代图书馆的社会层面，揭示了通过面对面的交流取得了什么，而这些交流是通过书面通信无法复制的。从无法接受大学教育的女性转向私人藏品寻求奖学金，到将国际东道主视为父亲人物的苏格兰游客，图书馆访问探索了社区对早期现代图书馆的重要性。(3)动态图书馆修订了图书馆的概念，认为图书馆是固定、稳定和不变的。事实上，运动是早期现代图书馆的核心，从在意大利和西班牙图书馆找到庇护所的天主教流亡者，到与早期殖民者一起跨越大西洋的藏品。(4)图书馆和避难所研究了该项目的中心主题--社区、运动和跨文化接触--与今天的图书馆有关，探索公共图书馆如何鼓励和支持寻求庇护者的社会融合和心理健康。通过对难民和图书馆管理员的一系列采访和研讨会，这一阶段提出的问题是，通过查阅过去的藏书，今天的图书馆可能会获得什么。当我们谈论文艺复兴与英格兰和苏格兰的关系时，这些国家通常被理解为外国文化和科学进步的接受者：从炼金术到彼得拉罕十四行诗，它们进口并改造了传统。该项目揭示了英格兰人和苏格兰人通过他们在欧洲、北美和中东图书馆的存在而产生的影响，为17世纪末和18世纪更广泛的跨国互联铺平了道路。这个项目以我对意大利私人图书馆的获奖研究为基础，通过拥抱广泛的未接触的档案材料，为全球图书馆及其吸引的盎格鲁-苏格兰游客提供了一个全新的视角。

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.