This chapter introduces the early merchant libraries that have been found. It begins with Lewes Roberts, a Welsh Levant merchant who became famous for books published after his time in the Levant, such as the Merchants Mappe of commerce (1638). A very experienced Levant merchant and husband of the Levant Company, his books later became standard reading for generations of Levant merchants. Between 1624 and 1629, when he was still in Constantinople, he donated some books to the Fellows’ Library of Jesus College, Oxford: This is the only case in which some books and three manuscripts of a Levantine merchant’s library may still exist. However, a close analysis of the Fellows’ Library shows how difficult this can be almost 400 years later: Some items are obviously identical to those that were donated, for others it is unclear. For many books, however, the acquisition can be plausibly linked to a stage of Roberts’ travels, and thus the very particular composition appears to be his. Next, a number of merchant libraries are analyzed that can be found for the period around 1700, first thanks to a group of catalogs preserved in the chancery records of the Constantinople factory (Lancelot Hobson, William Lateward, Thomas Savage, Wolley & Cope, George Norbury). Their analysis reveals a fairly wide range of religious beliefs among the merchants, from simple devotional books that might indicate an otherwise religiously disinterested man, to nonconformist Calvinism, to Episcopal Anglicanism. Most importantly, even at this early date, the libraries show a rather small proportion of religious books. Books specialized in their profession (lex mercatoria, dictionaries, arithmetic) were numerous, as well as some on natural philosophy (alchemy, Paracelsus as well as Francis Bacon) and many for leisure. The tastes here were very diverse, ranging from polite Francophile and English poetry to plays from the commedia dell’arte tradition. Records of book auctions held in Constantinople suggest that only about 25 to 40 percent of the libraries of this generation that must have existed in Constantinople are actually known from the archival records, since the buyers must have had a library of their own. On the French side, one library from around 1700 and its auction in Sidon provide insight into the merchants as a reading community; there must have been another dozen libraries unknown to us, according to the auction records. There are several catalogs from the Tunis factory and one from Patras, owned by merchants, doctors, and ship captains. A polite taste of history, poetry, and theater from the era of Louis XIV is present next to books on commerce, philosophy, travel accounts. The doctor Hugues in Tunis had a library very specialized in his profession, updated with the latest academic and Parisian medicine. Surprisingly, religious books were even less common than among the British merchants of the Levant. Of the early East India Company, a few libraries are recorded between 1618 and about 1680: in Surat there was a selection of books very comparable to that of some of the Levant merchants, and a physician with an interestingly focused Cartesian medical library.

Merchant Libraries

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发表日期：

2026年

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Cornel Zwierlein

摘要

This chapter introduces the early merchant libraries that have been found. It begins with Lewes Roberts, a Welsh Levant merchant who became famous for books published after his time in the Levant, such as the Merchants Mappe of commerce (1638). A very experienced Levant merchant and husband of the Levant Company, his books later became standard reading for generations of Levant merchants. Between 1624 and 1629, when he was still in Constantinople, he donated some books to the Fellows’ Library of Jesus College, Oxford: This is the only case in which some books and three manuscripts of a Levantine merchant’s library may still exist. However, a close analysis of the Fellows’ Library shows how difficult this can be almost 400 years later: Some items are obviously identical to those that were donated, for others it is unclear. For many books, however, the acquisition can be plausibly linked to a stage of Roberts’ travels, and thus the very particular composition appears to be his. Next, a number of merchant libraries are analyzed that can be found for the period around 1700, first thanks to a group of catalogs preserved in the chancery records of the Constantinople factory (Lancelot Hobson, William Lateward, Thomas Savage, Wolley & Cope, George Norbury). Their analysis reveals a fairly wide range of religious beliefs among the merchants, from simple devotional books that might indicate an otherwise religiously disinterested man, to nonconformist Calvinism, to Episcopal Anglicanism. Most importantly, even at this early date, the libraries show a rather small proportion of religious books. Books specialized in their profession (lex mercatoria, dictionaries, arithmetic) were numerous, as well as some on natural philosophy (alchemy, Paracelsus as well as Francis Bacon) and many for leisure. The tastes here were very diverse, ranging from polite Francophile and English poetry to plays from the commedia dell’arte tradition. Records of book auctions held in Constantinople suggest that only about 25 to 40 percent of the libraries of this generation that must have existed in Constantinople are actually known from the archival records, since the buyers must have had a library of their own. On the French side, one library from around 1700 and its auction in Sidon provide insight into the merchants as a reading community; there must have been another dozen libraries unknown to us, according to the auction records. There are several catalogs from the Tunis factory and one from Patras, owned by merchants, doctors, and ship captains. A polite taste of history, poetry, and theater from the era of Louis XIV is present next to books on commerce, philosophy, travel accounts. The doctor Hugues in Tunis had a library very specialized in his profession, updated with the latest academic and Parisian medicine. Surprisingly, religious books were even less common than among the British merchants of the Levant. Of the early East India Company, a few libraries are recorded between 1618 and about 1680: in Surat there was a selection of books very comparable to that of some of the Levant merchants, and a physician with an interestingly focused Cartesian medical library.