Catalogue of library books [compiled by Thomas Hobbes]

This library catalogue was compiled by Thomas Hobbes in his role as secretary and librarian to the 2nd Earl of Devonshire in the 1620s. The catalogue divides the Cavendishes' library into books on religious subjects "Libri Theologici" and secular books. It includes numerous items by Calvin, works of Catholic and protestant controversial theology (especially ones relating to the political issues disputed by Bellarmine, Suárez, and King James), as well as works by Machiavelli, Guiccardini, Botero, Bodin, Charron, Grotius (his De jure belli ac pacis is a late addition), and Selden. Scientific writings are less well represented than later catalogues, but the list includes the works of the geometrician Clavius, Napier and Briggs on logarithms, and textbooks by Case and Keckermann on physics.

The books are arranged roughly alphabetically, usually by author but sometimes by title or subject. In some instances the titles are abbreviated, non-standard and quite far-removed from the modern references to the same books, making it difficult to interpret exactly which texts Hobbes has referenced. The size of the books is also usually recorded as either fol (folio), 4o (quarto) or 8o (octavo). Each book also has a pressmark (shelfmark) listed which is a code of three letters and numbers made up of the bay and shelf location and the position on the shelf of each book.

The catalogue is in Hobbes's hand and thought to have been completed by him before he briefly left the service of the Cavendishes after the 2nd Earl's death in 1628. Some later additions made by Hobbes were made on his return to the Cavendishes' employ in the 1630s as the 3rd Earl's tutor.

There are almost two thousand books listed in the catalogue, many of which are known - from references in the Hardwick account books (see GB 2495 HMS/1) - to have been purchased by the 1st and 2nd Earls. Some were bought perhaps in an endeavour to create a library befitting a great house. This catalogue illuminates the types of texts that were accessible to and possible influences on Hobbes and the Cavendish household during this period. It also provides evidence of connections between the Cavendish household, Hobbes and eminent persons of the day, such as Francis Bacon - as discussed by Timothy Raylor.

From the pressmarks in this catalogue it would be feasible to reconstruct the library holdings according to which books were positioned next to each other on the shelves.

Discussion of this item is covered thoroughly in Richard Talaska's "The Hardwick Library and Hobbes's Early Intellectual Development", CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1st edition (February 19, 2014).

This item is included in: Barker, Nicolas, "The Devonshire Inheritance: Five centuries of collecting at Chatsworth", (Alexandria, Virginia), 2003, p. 95.

Discussion of this item is also in: Hamilton, James Jay, 'Hobbes's Study and the Hardwick Library', "Journal of the History of Philosophy" 16, no. 4 (1978): 445-453. doi:10.1353/hph.2008.0058,

Raylor, Timothy, "Philosophy, Rhetoric and Thomas Hobbes" (Oxford University Press) 2018, p. 49.

• This item is referenced as library catalogue (i) by Peter Beal in CELM, see:
• https://celm-ms.org.uk/introductions/HobbesThomas.html
• It is not in the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts Report on the MSS and papers of Thomas Hobbes (1977). But it does have a brief entry in the Sotheby's catalogue of Chatsworth (2007).