Hospitals, Towns and the Professions

Hospitals and almshouses were among the most familiar institutions of medieval England, and Hospitals, Towns and the Professions looks specifically at what books and manuscripts were collected in these common places. 

While every hospital would have been equipped with books for divine service, some also possessed large collections of more general library books. A great array of information about medieval institutional libraries is gathered in this volume, which includes an exceptionally detailed inventory from the English hospital of St Thomas in Rome. Hospitals, Towns and the Professions also includes book lists for various professional and clerical libraries, including those of the College of Arms, the Inns of Court and the Court of Archives in London, town guilds, grammar schools, bridge chapels, and the public libraries of medieval England, of which the most famous was in London's Guildhall. Together these inventories provide surprising and revealing insights into the role of the institution and the place of the written work during the middle ages.