Exploring humanist networks of knowledge and reading in Queens’ College Old Library, Cambridge: the library of Sir Thomas Smith (1513-1577)

Thesis

Sir Thomas Smith (1513-77) was prolific annotator of books, using a complex series of interconnected and intertextual symbols that allowed him to navigate texts within his library. In this thesis I will argue that Smith’s reading was not isolated to specific political concerns but was broadly indicative of the nature of humanist learning in England during the mid-sixteenth century. There are two unhelpful paradigms introduced by past scholarship on English sixteenth-century humanism: firstly, that English humanism was subordinate or inferior to Continental humanism; secondly, that humanist scholarship was predicated on the fragmentary reading of the classics, resulting in shallow learning. Smith, I will argue, was a deep and involved reader, whose library is evidence of a broadly conceived intellectual project, the aim of which was the comparison of English common law with Roman civil law. Smith’s reading directly influenced his most famous work, De Republica Anglorum (1583), which was a “chorographical” depiction of the English system of common law in the early Elizabethan period. I will argue that Smith read his books chorographically, i.e. with a strong interest in place and in legal jurisdiction. Furthermore, the highly spatial and visual nature of Smith’s annotations allowed him to navigate texts both intra- and inter-textually within his library. The evidence for such a coherent intellectual project will be Smith’s books at Queens’ College, Cambridge, which he bequeathed to the college library in 1577. I will argue that Smith’s written works, especially DRA, can only be fully understood through close consideration of the evidence of Smith’s reading and marginalia contained in his books. Furthermore, Smith’s reading is evidence of a “middle period” of sixteenth-century English humanist learning – connecting the Greek learning of figures like Thomas More and the mathematical and antiquarian pursuits of figures like Savile and Camden – that has been overlooked.

Authors: Laar, A

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-exxezyyro
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: intellectual history; Sir Thomas Smith (1513-1577); history of reading; marginalia; history of political thought; De Republica Anglorum; history of the book
• Subjects: History; English; Law