The lost library of Lady Anne Clifford uncovered

THE University of Huddersfield’s Professor Jessica Malay is established as the leading contemporary authority on Lady Anne Clifford, one of the great women of the Tudor and Stuart age, the chatelaine of several castles in the North of England, and who died aged 86 in 1676 after a long and turbulent life.

Now Professor Malay, who has edited and published the diaries and other writings of Lady Anne, has gained fresh insights into the interests of this important historical figure.

During her research at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, as a Sassoon Visiting Fellow, she discovered a previously overlooked inventory of Lady Anne’s library at Appleby Castle.  This inventory of 109 books contains some books that we already know of from other sources, but also includes an additional 79 books which Lady Anne was not previously known to have owned.

Study English and History at Huddersfield

“When these are added to those books we already were aware she owned and kept in her Northern castles, her book collection grows to 168, a significant library for the time,” said Professor Malay.

“At this period, people were really beginning to expand their book collections.  Lady Anne had a wide correspondence and received newspapers from London, so she knew what books were being published and could order books from various sources as we know by her references to book buying in her accounts.”

Uncovering the lost inventory

Professor Malay was working on another project about Lady Anne at the Bodleian Library when she encountered this manuscript commissioned by Lady Anne’s grandson and heir Thomas Tufton in 1684 (MS Don c. 85) and realised that it included a list of books belonging to Anne Clifford at Appleby Castle.

The inventory has expanded our knowledge of Lady Anne’s interests and book buying strategies.  Books unique to this new list include William Harvey’s The Anatomical Exercises of Dr. William Harvey (1653) describing the principle of blood circulation.  It also includes books on law, unsurprising as Lady Anne was often embroiled in lawsuits with her tenants.  There is an edition of Serlio’s First Booke of Architecture (1611) – Lady Anne was a keen builder, rebuilding five castles – and two books by Francis Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum: or A naturall historie (1627) and The historie of the raigne of King Henry the seventh (1611).

“The majority of the books in this new inventory are theological, focusing on how to live a good Christian life,” said Professor Malay.  “And there are also a fair number of history books about the Tudors and Stuarts.  Lady Anne was a keen historian, and much of this history she also witnessed first-hand.  The scientific books and books on travel and geography that appear only in this inventory also expand our understanding of her interests.”

Against her wishes, the book collection was later dispersed

Currently, only 14 of Lady Anne’s books are known to still exist in libraries and private collections around the world.  Some are embossed with her wyvern crest and some are annotated in her distinctive handwriting, or by one of her secretaries.

Anne Clifford’s Will specified that her books should be kept in her castles, however, her collection was dispersed, so many people could own one of her books and not be aware of it, said Professor Malay.  Proof of ownership by Lady Anne would increase the value of a book enormously, she added. 

An article by Professor Malay, where she discusses this newly-discovered inventory and provides an annotated catalogue of all the books now known to have been owned by Anne Clifford, is to be published in 2021 in the Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America.

Meanwhile, Professor Malay continues to work on her new biography of Lady Anne, with the latest discoveries about her library and intellectual pursuits providing a valuable new dimension. 

Professor Malay’s previous publications include an edition of Anne Clifford’s monumental Great Books of Record, and the first complete edition of Lady Anne’s autobiographical writings.