Scottish Enlightenment
In his book, Reading the Scottish Enlightenment: Books and Their Readers in Provincial Scotland, author Mark R.M. Towsey set out to discover the history of reading and how popular books by the likes of David Hume and William Robertson were received in 18th century Scotland. Towsey delves into historical library catalogues in hopes to uncover the impact that certain books had on readers lives and personal beliefs in order to gain perspective on how readers from different social classes used their personal reading experience as a means to experience the Enlightenment. At the time of the 18th century, Scotland was still considered to be deeply religious and the ideas of Enlightenment challenged their religious beliefs. As …show more content…
They were found in both traditional country towns and industrial towns that were beginning to become a dominant feature of the Scottish urban landscape. Subscription libraries reflected a growing fashion that sought to institutionalize the informal circulation of books, but they were not “public.” Subscription Libraries were private clubs where members paid an entry fee; they were essentially a book club and defined by the active association of its members. Surviving catalogues suggest that readers in Scotland identified themselves with important elements of the Scottish Enlightenment and such registers from the Selkirk Subscription Library found that Scottish Enlightenment books were frequently borrowed by a healthy mix of urban professionals and tenant farmers. These libraries offered their members an opportunity to debate the relative quality or a book and to engage in broad questions relating to knowledge of society. Subscription Libraries represented a venue for polite sociability in towns and villages throughout provincial …show more content…
Diaries allowed for the buildup of a picture of the place of a particular book in the compilers lives and give insight into historical reading practices. Diaries helped to contextualize historical reading and provide evidence of reading habits provided by catalogues and borrowing records. Heather Jackson, a pioneer in the history of reading, says that marginalia are “a contested goldmine.” They offer direct access to the readers mind and thoughts are usually noted spontaneously. These annotations show that the reader is actively engaging in the book. Deriving from the marginalia, a commonplace book was essentially a blank book where a reader would record their thoughts, remarks, and occurrences. Commonplace books existed primarily to record the owners reading, they acted as a filing system on their reading experiences and served to enhance the reader’s concentration on a book by sharpening the focus of their reading
In his book, Reading the Scottish Enlightenment: Books and Their Readers in Provincial Scotland, author Mark R.M. Towsey set out to discover the history of reading and how popular books by the likes of David Hume and William Robertson were received in 18th century Scotland. Towsey delves into historical library catalogues in hopes to uncover the impact that certain books had on readers lives and personal beliefs in order to gain perspective on how readers from different social classes used their personal reading experience as a means to experience the Enlightenment. At the time of the 18th century, Scotland was still considered to be deeply religious and the ideas of Enlightenment challenged their religious beliefs. As …show more content…
They were found in both traditional country towns and industrial towns that were beginning to become a dominant feature of the Scottish urban landscape. Subscription libraries reflected a growing fashion that sought to institutionalize the informal circulation of books, but they were not “public.” Subscription Libraries were private clubs where members paid an entry fee; they were essentially a book club and defined by the active association of its members. Surviving catalogues suggest that readers in Scotland identified themselves with important elements of the Scottish Enlightenment and such registers from the Selkirk Subscription Library found that Scottish Enlightenment books were frequently borrowed by a healthy mix of urban professionals and tenant farmers. These libraries offered their members an opportunity to debate the relative quality or a book and to engage in broad questions relating to knowledge of society. Subscription Libraries represented a venue for polite sociability in towns and villages throughout provincial …show more content…
Diaries allowed for the buildup of a picture of the place of a particular book in the compilers lives and give insight into historical reading practices. Diaries helped to contextualize historical reading and provide evidence of reading habits provided by catalogues and borrowing records. Heather Jackson, a pioneer in the history of reading, says that marginalia are “a contested goldmine.” They offer direct access to the readers mind and thoughts are usually noted spontaneously. These annotations show that the reader is actively engaging in the book. Deriving from the marginalia, a commonplace book was essentially a blank book where a reader would record their thoughts, remarks, and occurrences. Commonplace books existed primarily to record the owners reading, they acted as a filing system on their reading experiences and served to enhance the reader’s concentration on a book by sharpening the focus of their reading