2024/04/27 by David McInnis · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · #Art #Cultural History and Identity Formation #Cultural Identity and Representation #Financial Crisis of the 21st Century #History
paper · doi:10.1093/library/fpae021
openalex publication_date 2024/04/27 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Abstract A number of seventeenth-century books-almost exclusively Restoration playbooks-bear the ownership inscription ‘Ed: Agberowe’ on their title pages (and often a second signature on a subsequent page). This article provides an overview of the books known to have been in Agberowe’s collection and supplies a brief biographical sketch, revealing some impressive literary connections to Butler, Milton, and Marvell. Recovery of Agberowe’s life and library has intrinsic interest in terms of his colourful biography and his literary tastes, which, it is suggested, may have developed in relation to his employment throughout the 1660s and via the family of his wife, Theophila Cornewall. Perhaps more significant, though, is that the recovery of Agberowe’s story provides a new example of a seventeenth-century book-collector who seems to have been interested primarily in acquiring playbooks.