Books by Jennifer Summit

It is truly an ancient debate: Is it better to be active or contemplative? With Action vs. Contemplation, Jennifer Summit and Blakey Vermeule address the question in a refreshingly unexpected way: by refusing to take sides.

Considering the two-hundred-year period between 1431, which saw the foundation of Duke Humfrey's famous library, and 1631, when the great antiquarian Sir Robert Cotton died, this book revises the history of the modern library by focusing on its origins in medieval and early modern England.