Maldon's Thomas Plume's Library recently hosted a group of PhD candidates for a day of learning.

The visit was part of a research project on early modern books, where students would be spending time in libraries across Essex.

The event began with the Library of Archbishop Samuel Harsnett (1561-1631), originally left to the town of Colchester and now housed at the Albert Sloman Library at the University of Essex, before students headed to Maldon.

Dr Thomas Plume (1630-1704) intended his lending library to be a repository of knowledge for eighteenth-century readers in Maldon and the surrounding parishes. These days, scholars come to the Library from all over the country to study the sixteenth and seventeenth-century books, manuscripts and pamphlets, to discover their unique features as historical artefacts, housed in their original context.

The students used the visit to supplement their research, with topics ranging from: manuscript fragments contained in book bindings; information about people's eating habits; representations of the environment and the body; material culture; and music, to border spaces in poetry.

Students were also shown examples of various binding and printing styles in the collection. Students described the experience as "insightful and refreshing".

"I enjoyed the opportunity to reflect on, handle, and learn about different kinds of books," student Alice said.

" I liked that we saw them in a variety of institutions and storage solutions. Helen and David were both generous with their time and knowledge."

"The academics leading it were hugely knowledgeable on the subject, and full of enthusiasm for the libraries and the books," another student, Harriet, added.

"It was a delight to all find our own pile of books at the Thomas Plume library! It was a real pleasure to be talking about the wider context of books, book-production and book-reading, and putting that emphasis on the material context of books." 

In the afternoon the students travelled to Chelmsford to see the John Knightbridge Library (established after his death in 1677), located in the South Porch of Chelmsford Cathedral. Staff at the Albert Sloman Library and Chelmsford Cathedral produced some excellent examples from their collections for the students to handle. We also enjoyed informative tours of the library spaces and the Cathedral building.

The Bookscapes Essex Libraries event was funded by The Consortium for the Humanities & the Arts South-East England AHRC Doctoral Training Partnership and organised by Dr David Rundle (University of Kent) and Dr Helen Kemp (Thomas Plume's Library and University of Essex).

Thomas Plume's Library opens to the public on four days each week and can be visited free of charge. Full details are on the website here.