Use and reuse of English books in Anglo-Spanish Collections: the Crux of Orthodoxy

Abstract

This essay studies the coexistence of Catholic and Protestant English books in Spain during the early modern period through a case study: a copy of a Protestantized version of Robert Person's "Christian Directory" extant in the Library of the Royal Monastery of El Escorial. The analysis of this profusely annotated and fully marked-up volume is a unique witness of the dissemination, use, annotation, and reuse of English books --both "orthodox" and "heterodox"-- in Spain by English recusants, and the history of their incorporation into Spanish libraries.