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

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“英国私人收藏的最重要的手稿收藏”。它包含1400多份中世纪和早期现代手稿和1500多份宪章、卷轴和印章，其中包括具有国际遗产意义的物品，如林迪斯法恩福音、贝奥武夫和1215年大宪章的两份副本。这些收藏品可能是保存宗教改革前文本文化的最重要的单一手段：它成为了记忆的储存库和国家缔造的场所。它也是推动17世纪古物主义的引擎，支撑了无数的项目--编辑、叙事、争辩。有两个主要的研究途径需要探索。首先是继续、扩大和深化对科林·泰特对科顿图书馆早期用户的调查，展示其手稿如何支持17世纪历史学、文本编辑和宗教政治辩论的演变，以及图书馆如何被视为“国家”藏品。在监管团队看来，第二条道路似乎更具开创性。这将是为了调查科顿图书馆本身的起源。他是在哪里、什么时候以及如何获得手稿的？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(Matthew Parker，1504-1575)等其他主要手稿收藏家相比，他是什么样的收藏家？科顿的藏品是如何受到他工作所处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(他自己的不列颠是随着科顿图书馆的发展而出现的)？科顿是什么样的书籍制造者和装订者？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藏书概念化为某种意义上的“国家”图书馆(这是一个适时的问题，因为我们今天正在深入思考“英国人”的本质)？在他的收藏中，科顿在哪些方面最独特、最具创新性、最有影响力？这个项目将把科顿的收藏放在早期现代文化的更广泛的背景下：古物主义、政治、学习、收集、阅读和书籍制作的历史。关键的研究问题可能包括：-与欧洲同期聚集的其他图书馆相比，科顿图书馆有多大的独特之处？它与类似的当代藏书有什么共同之处？-图书馆在国家的学术、文化和政治生活中发挥了什么作用？科顿收藏的早期用户包括关键人物，如弗朗西斯·培根、伊尼戈·琼斯和阿尔马主教詹姆斯·乌舍。罗伯特·科顿爵士是国会议员和国王詹姆斯一世的顾问，他的图书馆经常是议会审查的重点，因为里面有国家文件和其他具有国家意义的物品。-科顿家族是何时、如何、从谁那里获得手稿的？-科顿的收集原则是什么？哪些类型的工作没有被代表，哪些工作被包括在超过平均数字的范围内？-有任何证据表明妇女可以使用科顿图书馆或对其进行捐赠？

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?