Book possession and mindscape. The reconstruction of 17th-18th centuries personal libraries

Abstract

The article presents methodological proposition of using auction lists and inventories of an estate to the reconstruction of 17th-18th centuries’ home libraries. Author proposes the scheme of methodological proceeding relied on source materials unknown to Polish book studies’ scholars and stemmed from the archives of the cantons of Bern, Vaud, Jura, Neuchâtel and Solothurn Stoutt. These archives contain information on private book collections existing in discussed period, both in protestant and catholic retomgions of German- and French language parts of Switzerland, in the rural areas and in the cities, where the owners represented differentiated social milieus, social classes and occupations. Author stresses that reconstruction of personal (or private) libraries, their typology, numeral amount, their thematic, language, functional structure as well as topicality (seen as the balance between older books and newer ones) should lead to defi ning function of the book and reading in everyday life of libraries’ owners. Such a libraries’ reconstruction should also make possible diagnosing their owners’ mindscape, specifi cally persons, who did not belong to intellectual elite of the times. These kind of research enables also to seizing the trends in intellectual and cultural development of the past societies.