Tobie Matthew

This chapter explores Matthew’s book collection, showing how the experience of developing libraries in Oxford and Bristol shaped his own book collecting. Rare Frankfurt book catalogues offer an invaluable insight into how Matthew purchased some of his books, while other sources point to a network of booksellers in York, London, and Oxford dealing in new and in second-hand books. This chapter also examines the guiding principles behind Matthew’s book collecting, seeing how these evolved over Matthew’s career. Matthew owned one of the largest private collections of books in early modern England, and this chapter explores contemporary ideas of what a library was and whether Matthew aspired to create one. The chapter concludes by examining the network of friends, colleagues, and patrons reflected in gifts to his library, asking how Matthew, and others, presented themselves through the marks of ownership they made in their books.