Monday 20 October 2014

First kind of Kindle? Researchers at University of Leeds find what is thought to be first travel-sized library

  • The Jacobean miniature travelling library was the only way avid literature fans could carry a large number of books
  • Miniature library was contained in a wooden case, bound in brown turkey leather, disguising it as a large folio volume
  • When opened it reveals a collection of 50 small and bound in limp vellum covers with coloured fabric ties
  • In 17th Century England only four families were lucky enough to be able to have one
  • Library reportedly commissioned by William Hakewill MP for a friend. Within five years he ordered three more libraries to be made
  • Library expected to be housed in University of Leeds's Parkinson Building in Woodhouse Lane