The Minute Book of the Bristol Library Society, 1771–1801, by Max Skjönsberg and Mark Towsey (eds.)

Abstract

First paragraph: This edited transcription of the minutes of the Bristol Library Society is published to mark the 250th anniversary of the Library Society’s founding, providing a fresh view into the administration and proceedings of a British subscription library and the bibliographical and literary culture of a British city in the later eighteenth century. An introductory essay ably introduces the minutes, providing a history of the library in the eighteenth century, its inception and administrative proceedings, and establishes the library’s links to Bristol’s political and literary society in this period. Skjönsberg’s and Towsey’s careful editing, together with regular biographical and contextual footnotes, produces a valuable source to those interested in books, reading, and society in an eighteenth-century city.