Enfilade

The primary concerns of this Bodleian conference are neither art historical nor even visual, but there are lots of eighteenth-century offerings around a fascinating topic that is, I think, often understood exclusively as a problem for the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In addition to providing the following description, the conference website includes a full list of speakers and paper titles. -CH

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How the Secularization of Religious Houses Transformed the Libraries of Europe
St. Anne’s College, Oxford, 22-24 March 2012

The dissolution of religious houses transformed both the physical and intellectual spaces in which books and manuscripts were held. The process broke the Church’s earlier dominance in learning and libraries. All of Europe felt these changes between the 16th and 19th centuries, but the results were different in each country. In some cases libraries were scattered or destroyed; in other cases books were taken over as state property. This was an epochal change, affecting thousands of libraries and millions of books, and it transformed the shape of libraries and widened access to heritage books. It increased turnover in the book-market, opened a new interest in collecting books, and fostered the growth of public libraries.

This conference draws together international scholars to examine, for the first time in comparative perspective, the impact that the secularization of
libraries had on the intellectual patrimony of Europe. For registration
information and to see the full list of speakers and themes, visit the
conference website.