Claire’s Library Video

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1. 

   D November 8, 2014 at 1:40 am

   Thanks for that it was very interesting seeing all those wonderful books, there has been a few times I have paused your chat videos so I could see the titles, then saying I’ve got that one, and that one, ooh but not THAT one there..that looks interesting, lol.
   I know old books can be a bit ‘whiffy’ got a few myself, not all on tudor times though, but they are extra special because I often think about who has held and read them before me, where they ‘lived’ etc. I think the oldest one I have is a small size copy of Shakespeare’s King Henry VIII dated 1895, it has the Shakespeare’s coat of arms inside with his motto.. non sans Droict ‘Not Without Right’ a little engraving of Whitehall. I think it has had a name plate inside at one as you can see where it had been fixed in place. A lovely little thing to have. A wonderful library you have there Claire, I’m envious… 🙂

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2. 

   L November 10, 2014 at 11:55 pm

   I enjoyed having a look at your book case it’s very impressive. I have some books on Tudor England my favourites are The Tudor Housewife by Alison Sim and Richard Rich by Eilizabeth Engberetson. has anyone read either one ? I would like to know what Tudor books do members like the most ?

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3. 

   B November 11, 2014 at 4:25 am

   This video is absolutely amazing! I think I could spend at least a month in your library Claire and not get through all the wonderful primary sources you have at your fingertips. This is one major challenge for people living outside of the United Kingdom, and knowing you are in Spain, I wondered how you were accessing them. Wow! I just have two questions. Regarding the three volume set on the House of Commons, do the two other volumes cover years beyond the first volume? Do the volumes include actually Parliamentary Acts, or are they primarily biographies of all the members?

   Although I do not mind e-books and will use them for reviews, there is nothing better than a hard copy. I generally purchase my secondary sources used, because I write all over them in the margins. I personally own no primary source books. Your collection of the primary sources you use was exceptionally fascinating. Thank you for sharing!

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   1. 

      C - Post AuthorNovember 14, 2014 at 1:04 pm

      Hi Beth,
      I’m glad you enjoyed the tour of my bookcases. I do have a lot of primary sources in book form – bought from ebay, abe.com etc. – but I also use archive.org, Project Gutenberg and Google books for primary sources, and then British History Online too. One recommendation I will pass on (from historian John Guy) is Memso (Medieval and Early Modern Sources Online) from TannerRitchie – http://www.tannerritchie.com/memso.php. They have ebooks of stacks of primary sources and they’re not abridged like some others are. You can subscribe and a 90 day subscription, which costs $360 CAD, allows you to download 75 complete ebooks, so I downloaded all of Letters & Papers, Calendar of State Papers etc. so that I have letters in full. A wonderful resource.

      Regarding the 3 volume set “The House of Commons 1509-1558” by S T Bindoff, the first volume starts with a section of Appendices – dates of Parliaments, speakers, seats available, sources for names of members, parliamentary lists, constituencies etc etc. and then it moves on to biographies of members. It does not go into acts of Parliament.

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4. 

   B November 15, 2014 at 3:44 am

   Thank you for the wonderful information Claire! It is much appreciated. The only primary sources I do use, now that I think about it, is of course Thomas Cranmer’s own words. I do have the 1549 and 1562 Books of Common Prayer and a collection of his collects, letters, writings, etc. I also use George Cavendish’s Wolsey bio and Thomas More letters, articles, etc. I use those so often, I didn’t even think of them as primary source material..lolol. I do rely far too heavily on secondary sources, albeit I am picky who I rely on. Thank you so much for the assistance. I would love to see those bios of the members. I wrote a blog post about nine months ago about Thomas Cromwell — the grandson who was a parliamentary diarist, not “the man”. I am guessing the info I did grab came from there from the secondary source I used, but I am not sure. Again, I loved the video! Thanks for sharing.

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5. 

   O November 15, 2014 at 6:22 am

   You didn’t bore us at all 🙂 Thanks for sharing all of your wonderful books with us!
   Which volume of Strickland do you have Claire, did you buy a full set?

   In regards to your smelly book is the leather decaying? You might want to use some leather preserver on it. You can remove the smell but it does take some time. Fill the bottom of a cardboard box with bicarb soda – I have also heard of American booksellers using charcoal – put the book on a baking rack above the soda and seal it. You can out a bit of newspaper in as well to help but don’t let it mark the book or touch the page edges. Change the soda every week for about a month and the odour should have reduced quite a bit. I have done this successfully several times. You can also put the soda directly on the pages and seal it in a plastic bag but it is a pain to clean afterwards and I don’t like doing that on older books.

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   1. 

      C - Post AuthorNovember 15, 2014 at 10:25 am

      Thanks, Olga, I’ll have to have a good look at them but I don’t think it’s the covers, I think it’s just a musty smell from the pages. That’s a great tip about the bicarb, I’ll try that. I do love antique books and this set of Cassell’s Illustrated Histories was a bargain on Ebay – just couldn’t help myself!

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      1. 

         O November 16, 2014 at 5:00 pm

         I don’t blame you, I love antique books myself.

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6. 

   C July 19, 2016 at 12:15 am

   For whatever reason this won’t load now :/ tried downloading it too and no luck

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   1. 

      C - Post AuthorJuly 22, 2016 at 12:49 pm

      Hi Charlie,
      I just checked it and I can’t get it to go wrong, perhaps it was a temporary glitch. Do you want to try again? Let me know if you have further problems.

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