Where are they now? New Testament text-critics’ libraries

Eb. Nestle’s library (photo credit)

Occasionally, one buys a book on Amazon or at a used book store and discovers with delight that it was owned by a famous scholar from times past. When I was at Tyndale I managed to get a copy formerly owned by F. F. Bruce, many of which float around the stacks there.

Much better than a one-off copy, however, is to discover a past scholar’s entire library. Aside from the insight this can give of a scholar’s interests and abilities (for example), there are often many hidden gems to be found either in correspondences, in the margins of the books, or simply in the books themselves if they are rare.

To further this benefit, I thought it might be worth trying to compile a list of New Testament textual critics’ libraries. Here is what I have come up with so far, with the help of a few of my fellow bloggers. I would like to add to this, so if you know of any corrections or additions, please let me know.

• Richard Bentley – Trinity College CB (per P. M. Head)
• J. J. Wettstein – scattered across Europe (see Jan Krans here)
• S. P. Tregelles ­– papers and correspondence at various British libraries (see here)
• C. von Tischendorf – University of Glasgow
• B. F. Westcott – Some at Westcott House (Cambridge), some with Bible Society in the CUL. A PDF catalogue from the British National Archives is here
• F. J. A. Hort – Sold at auction. See here. PMH mentions Hort’s books here. Stephen Neill (Interpretation, 66 n. 1) says that Hort’s copy of Mill ended up with Archdeacon Naylor of Montreal.
• Hermann Hoskier – some books at Duke Divinity School Library
• Caspar René Gregory – papers at Harvard Divinity School (see here)
• Eberhard Nestle – Sold to Cambridge after 1913, now with the Van Kampen collection at the Scriptorium; papers, letters, and other memorobilia of Eberhard and Erwin are at FTH Giessen (see here)
• Kirsopp and Silva Lake – ?
• J. Rendel Harris – Woodbrooke Study Center in Birmingham, UK (see PDF here) and some at University of Birmingham library
• E. C. Colwell – Library sold by his son (per Maurice Robinson)
• Eric Turner – University of Western Australia. See Hixson’s comment below.
• Kenneth W. Clark – Duke Divinity School Library, mixed among the main collection
• Kurt and Barbara Aland – First part (up to 1959) of Kurt’s is held at Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg (info) and the second part (1959–1994) is at the Archive of the University of Münster available now with the family’s permission and to the public starting in 2030. Barbara’s library is still being used.
• Neville Birdsall – University of Birmingham (info)
• Bruce M. Metzger – Sold on the internet if my memory is right
• Gordon Fee – New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (info)
• Jacob Geerlings – CSNTM (see here)
• Eldon J. Epp – Baylor University (see here)

Houston, Inside Roman Libraries

G.W. Houston, Inside Roman Libraries: Book Collections and Their Management in Antiquity (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2014) is an important resource.

Blurb:

Libraries of the ancient world have long held a place in the public imagination. Even in antiquity, the library at Alexandria was nearly legendary. Until now there has been relatively little research to discover what was inside these libraries, how the collections came into being and evolved, and who selected and maintained the holdings. In this engaging and meticulously researched study, George Houston examines a dozen specific book collections of Roman date in the first comprehensive attempt to answer these questions.

Through a careful analysis of the contents of the collections, Houston reveals the personalities and interests of their owners, shows how manuscripts were acquired, organized, and managed, and identifies the various purposes that libraries served. He takes up the life expectancy of manuscripts, the sizes of libraries, and dangers to books, as well as the physical objects within libraries from scribal equipment to works of art. The result is a clearer, more specific, and more detailed picture of ancient book collections and the elements of Roman libraries than has previously been possible.

Reviews: Scott G. Bruce (BMCR); Larry Hurtado blog.