Gabriel Harvey 1552/3-1631
From Book Owners Online
Gabriel HARVEY 1552/3-1631
Biographical Note
Writer, scholar, and (briefly) barrister in the Court of Arches.
Books
Harvey has long been celebrated and studied as a book owner for his voluminous annotations, usually in a clear and distinctive hand. He acquired books throughout his life - he was buying books in the 1570s, and in the 1620s - but we do not have an inventory, or any certain knowledge of the size of his library; it is usually thought to have been over 1000 volumes, possibly as many as 3000. It was dispersed soon after his death and examples are now widely scattered around the world; it covered a wide range of subjects, as would be expected, embracing science, mathematics and medicine as well as theology, history, geography, classics literature and law.
Sources
- Jardine, L. & A. Grafton, “Studied for action”; how Gabriel Harvey read his Livy, Past and present 129 (1990), 30-78.
- Scott-Warren, Jason. "Harvey, Gabriel (1552/3–1631), scholar and writer." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
- Shaddy, R. Gabriel Harvey in W. Baker (ed), Pre-19th century British book collectors, 1999, 131-46.
- Stern, V. Gabriel Harvey: his life, marginalia and library, 1979.