1558–1603

Abstract

Abstract In keeping with the approaches of previous chapters, this chapter explores official policies that led to the destruction of manuscripts during the early modern period. Elizabeth’s 1559 injunction against service books and other ‘ornaments’ of Catholic liturgy led to the mass investigation, documentation, and confiscation of church inventories. Through an analysis of 150 of these church inventories, this chapter shows that this Elizabethan injunction led to the first truly large-scale and systematic destruction of service books in England. At the same time as antiquarians were seeking out ancient volumes for their collections, service books, many of which were relatively new at the time, were being destroyed in great numbers. The quantitative approach taken in this chapter highlights the vast disparity among survival rates of different types of manuscripts and points to the significant problems posed by relying on institutional book lists for calculating survival rates.

Authors 1

1. Krista A Milne corresponding Aachen

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Leiden University ,