Books and Borrowing: Agents, Access and Accountability, c. 1600-1850

Abstract

First paragraph: This is the first of a pair of special issues of this journal, both deriving from a conference on reading and book circulation, organised by the AHRC-funded project Books and Borrowing 1750-1830: An Analysis of Scottish Borrowers’ Registers (Books and Borrowing 1750-1830 (stir.ac.uk); AH/T003960/1) and held at the University of Stirling in April 2023. The two special issues have slightly different remits, this one dealing primarily with books, readers, and agents of different kinds, and the second with libraries, books, and borrowers, although there is inevitably a great deal of overlap between the two. The key themes that emerge across both special issues are the importance of books as forms of capital, both symbolic and actual, and the importance of place and space in our understanding of book circulation.