Syon Abbey and its Books

Essays on the turbulent history of Syon Abbey, focussing on the role played by reading and writing in constructing its identity and experience.

Essays on the turbulent history of Syon Abbey, focussing on the role played by reading and writing in constructing its identity and experience.

Founded in 1415, the double monastery of Syon Abbey was the only English example of the order established by the fourteenth-century mystic St Bridget of Sweden. After its dispersal at the Dissolution, the community survived in exile and was briefly restored during the reign of Mary I; but with the accession of Elizabeth I, some of the nuns and brothers once again sought refuge on the Continent, first in the Netherlands and later in Lisbon.
This volumeof essays traces the fortunes of Syon Abbey and the Bridgettine order between 1400 and 1700, examining the various ways in which reading and writing shaped its identity and defined its experience, and exploring the interconnections between late medieval and post-Reformation monastic history and the rapidly evolving world of communication, learning, and books. They extend our understanding of religious culture and institutions on the eve of the Reformationand the impulses that inspired initiatives for early modern Catholic renewal, and also illuminate the spread of literacy and the gradual and uneven transition from manuscript to print between the fourteenth and the seventeenth centuries. In the process, the volume engages with larger questions about the origins and consequences of religious, intellectual and cultural change in late medieval and early modern England.

E.A. JONES is Senior Lecturerin English, University of Exeter; ALEXANDRA WALSHAM is Professor of Modern History and a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.

Contributors: E.A. Jones, Alexandra Walsham, Peter Cunich, Virginia Bainbridge, Vincent Gillespie, C. Annette Grise, Claire Walker, Caroline Bowden, Claes Gejrot, Ann Hutchison

Introduction Syon Abbey and its Books: Origins, Influences and Transitions - E.A. Jones and Alexandra M Walsham
The Brothers of Syon, 1420-1695 - Peter Cunich
Syon Abbey: Women and Learning c.1415-1600 - Virginia Bainbridge
Syon and the English Market for Continental Printed Books: The Incunable Phase - Vincent Gillespie
'Moche profitable unto religious persones, gathered by a brother of Syon': Syon Abbey and English Books - C. Annette Grise
Continuity and Isolation: The Bridgettines of Syon in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries - Claire Walker
Books and Reading at Syon Abbey, Lisbon, in the Seventeenth Century - Caroline Bowden
The Syon Martiloge - Claes Gejrot
Syon Abbey Preserved: Some Historians of Syon - Ann M. Hutchison
Appendix: Syon Abbey's books at the University of Exeter