Additions to the Library of William Dowsing (1596-1668): A Reformation Tract Volume Reassembled

摘要

This article identifies several volumes from the library of the seventeenth-century puritan William Dowsing (1596-1668). Dowsing is primarily known for the campaign of iconoclasm which he conducted in East Anglia between late 1643 and 1644 and for the journal in which he kept a detailed record of these activities. This aspect of his life has been a long-standing object of scholarly interest. More recently, the work of John Morrill has revealed that Dowsing owned a sizeable collection of books and annotated many of them. We find, amongst surviving volumes, evidence of the thoroughness of his reading and the strength of his religious convictions.