This invaluable study sets out the evidence for the nature and holdings of libraries in Anglo-Saxon England. It is furnished with appendices that include editions of all surviving Anglo-Saxon book inventories and a catalogue of all classical and patristic works cited by Anglo-Saxon authors.

Michael Lapidge was Elrington and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon in the University of Cambridge (1991-8) and Notre Dame Professor of English at the University of Notre Dame (1999-2004); he is now Fellow Emeritus of Clare College, Cambridge. He has published widely on the literature of the Anglo-Saxons (both Old English and Latin). His most recent book was The Cult of St Swithun (OUP, 2003). He is a Fellow of the British Academy, and Corresponding Fellow of the Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften and of the Accademia dei Lincei (Rome).

• 1: Introduction


• 2: Vanished Libraries of Classical Antiquity


• 3: Vanished Libraries of Anglo-Saxon England


• 4: Reconstructing Anglo-Saxon Libraries (I): The Evidence of Inventories


• 5: Reconstructing Anglo-Saxon Libraries (II): The Evidence of Manuscripts


• 6: Reconstructing Anglo-Saxon Libraries (III): The Evidence of Citations


• 7: Conclusions


• Appendix A: Six Inventories of Latin Books from Anglo-Saxon Libraries (Excluding Biblical and Liturgical Books)


• Appendix B: Eighth-Century Inventories of Books from the Areas of the Anglo-Saxon Mission in Germany


• Appendix C: Surviving Eighth-Century Manuscripts from the Area of the Anglo-Saxon Mission in Germany


• Appendix D: Ninth-Century Manuscripts of Continental Origin Having Pre-Conquest English Provenance


• Appendix E: Books Cited by the Principal Anglo-Saxon Authors


• Catalogue of Classical and Patristic Authors and Works Composed before AD 700 and Known in Anglo-Saxon England


• Index of Manuscripts


• General Index