Investigating the origins and development of the Cotton Collection at the British Library

由罗伯特·科顿爵士（1571-1631）和他的后代建立的图书馆曾被描述为“英国有史以来最重要的私人手稿收藏”。它收藏了1，400多份中世纪和近代早期的手稿以及1，500多份宪章、卷轴和印章，其中包括具有国际遗产意义的物品，如林迪斯芳福音书、贝奥武夫和两份1215年的大宪章。这些收藏品也许是保存宗教改革前文本文化的最重要的单一手段：它成为记忆的宝库和建国的场所。它也是推动17世纪古文物研究的引擎，支撑了无数的项目--社论，叙事，论战。有两条主要的研究途径需要探索。第一个是继续、扩展和深化科林·泰特对科顿图书馆早期用户的调查，展示其手稿是如何支撑17世纪史学、文本编辑和宗教政治辩论的演变的，以及该图书馆是如何被认为是一个“国家”收藏的。第二条途径在监督小组看来更具开创性。这将是调查棉花的图书馆本身的起源。他是在哪里、何时、如何获得手稿的？科顿收藏的目的和动机是什么？与坎特伯雷大主教马修·帕克（1504- 1575）等其他主要手稿收藏家相比，他是一个什么样的收藏家？科顿的收藏是如何受到他工作的政治背景的启发和塑造的，以及威廉·卡姆登（William Camden）等导师的建议（他自己的不列颠尼亚与科顿图书馆的发展同步出现）？科顿是一个什么样的图书制造者和组装者？他收集的其他东西--硬币、石头、印刷书籍--是如何补充他的手稿的？科顿在多大程度上已经将他的收藏概念化为某种意义上的“国家”图书馆（这是一个及时的问题，因为我们今天集中反映了“英国性”的本质）？在他的收藏中，哪些方面是棉花最独特、最具创新性和最有影响力的？这个项目将在早期现代文化的更广泛的背景下研究棉花的收藏：古物，政治，学习，收藏，阅读和书籍制作的历史。关键的研究问题可能包括：-棉花图书馆在多大程度上是独特的，与其他图书馆在欧洲组装在同一时间，它与类似的当代收藏共享的特点是什么？- 图书馆在国家的学术、文化和政治生活中扮演了什么样的角色？棉花收藏品的早期使用者包括弗朗西斯培根、伊尼戈·琼斯和阿尔马主教詹姆斯·乌舍尔等关键人物。罗伯特·科顿爵士（Sir Robert Cotton）是国会议员，也是国王詹姆斯一世的顾问，他的图书馆经常是国会审查的焦点，因为它包含了国家文件和其他具有国家意义的物品。- 什么时候，如何，从谁棉花家庭获得他们的手稿？- 科顿的收藏原则是什么？哪些工种没有被列入，哪些工种被列入的人数高于平均数？- 有没有证据表明妇女可以进入棉花图书馆或向其捐款？

The library put together by Sir Robert Cotton (1571-1631) and his descendants was once described as 'the most important collection of manuscripts ever assembled in Britain by a private individual'. It contains more than 1,400 medieval and early modern manuscripts and over 1,500 charters, rolls and seals, among them items of international heritage significance, such as the Lindisfarne Gospels, Beowulf and two copies of the 1215 Magna Carta. This collection was perhaps the most important single means by which pre-Reformation textual culture was preserved: it became a repository of memory and a site of nation-making. It was also the engine which powered seventeenth-century antiquarianism, underpinning a myriad of projects -- editorial, narrative, polemical. There are two chief avenues of research to explore. The first would be to continue, extend and deepen the investigations of Colin Tite into the early users of the Cotton Library, showing how its manuscripts came to underpin the evolution of historiography, textual editing, and religio-political debate in the seventeenth century, and how the library came to be considered a 'national' collection. The second avenue seems to the supervisory team more groundbreaking still. This would be to investigate the origins of Cotton's library itself. Where, when, and how did he acquire his manuscripts? What were the aims and motivations of Cotton's collecting? What kind of a collector was he, in comparison to other leading manuscript collectors such as Matthew Parker (1504- 1575), Archbishop of Canterbury? How was Cotton's collecting inspired and shaped by the political contexts within which he worked, and by the advice of mentors such as William Camden (whose own Britannia emerged in concert with the growth of Cotton's library)? What kind of a maker and assembler of books was Cotton? How did the other things he collected -- coins, stones, printed books -- complement his manuscripts? How far did Cotton already conceptualise his collection as in some sense a 'national' library (a timely question as we reflect intensively today on the nature of 'Britishness')? And in what aspects of his collecting was Cotton most unique, innovative, and influential? This project will situate Cotton's collecting within the wider contexts of early modern culture: the histories of antiquarianism, politics, learning, collecting, reading, and book-making. Key research questions are likely to include: - To what extent is the Cotton library distinctive, compared to other libraries assembled in Europe at the same time, and what characteristics does it share with similar contemporary collections? - What role did the library play in the scholarly, cultural and political life of the nation? Early users of the Cotton collection included key figures such as Francis Bacon, Inigo Jones, and James Ussher, bishop of Armagh. Sir Robert Cotton was an MP and advisor to King James I, and his library was often the focus of parliamentarian scrutiny, since it contained state papers and other items of national significance. - When, how, and from whom did the Cotton family acquire their manuscripts? - What were Cotton's collecting principles? Which types of work are not represented and which were included in larger than average numbers? - Is there any evidence that women had access to the Cotton library or made donations to it?