The Private Libraries of Seventeenth-Century Artists in Italy, Spain and the Netherlands

by Cryer, Emma

This paper investigates a selection of private libraries belonging to seventeenth-century artists living in Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. The contents of the inventories are recorded in inventories and artist biographies. This project elucidates the book-collecting practices of these artists, and how their libraries may have influenced their artistic production.

This paper is an analysis of literature in art history describing the book collections of specific artists. It relies upon the methodologies of collection practice, and the history of art bibliography. The seventeenth-century artists whose collections were surveyed were found to collect books with five primary goals in mind: elevation of social status, increase of intellectual status, increase of technical knowledge, compositional inspiration and assistance with subject matter and iconography. In general, book-collecting by artists was for professional reading, and there are few instances of books collected for recreational reading.