On book lending in the Golden Age of Spain

Abstract

One of the least investigated aspects of access to literature in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spain is the phenomenon of lending and renting books. This is a complex problem not only due to the necessity of co-occurrence of at least two sides of the procedure and the diversity of their motivation, but also the controversy of the act, around which fierce discussions were taking place then. Some of the humanists casted doubt on the purpose of collecting books in libraries if they were not being used to spread knowledge. At the same time, books, although they were still valuable goods, were no longer considered luxurious objects. The act of borrowing (and not paying for them) was seen as a diminution of their value, a testimony of bad reading, which in addition affected the activities of entities related to the book market. Some booksellers tried to adapt to that reality by offering the possibility of renting books for a fee. The documentation of the phenomenon that we have today is rather fragmentary, and the testaments of people who borrowed the book or awaited its return prove to be the richest source of information. In addition, an important source should be the literature of the period, which not only described the phenomenon of borrowing books, but also participated in discussions related to it.