For the summer field trip of 2006, the project team embarked on its most ambitious programme of library visits yet. This year, the last of focussed field work, the project team split into four different groups to maximise its coverage of high priority libraries.
Project Manager Dr Alexander Wilkinson led a four week visit to Belgium. Working first with Philip John and then with Dr Matthew Hall, he worked extensively in the important collections of Brussels and Liège. He and Philip John completed work on the remaining rare items in Ghent University Library and visited for the first time the Abbey of Maredsous. In the last week of the trip the focus shifted to Antwerp, when Dr Wilkinson and Dr Hall worked in three important collections: the Museum Plantin-Moretus, the Stadsbibliothek and the Ruusbroec collection in the University Library.
This trip fundamentally advanced our coverage of French language pamphlet literature published in the Low Countries, which will be a especially valuable part of the project when published.
Meanwhile Project Research Fellow Sara Barker led a two week trip to Grenoble. She was accompanied by research students Graeme Kemp and Marianne Stewart, both making their first contribution to field work. In two weeks they saw over 350 items in this important collection.
Graeme Kemp and Marianne Stewart then joined Philip John for a further week of work in the libraries of Normandy. These are collections we have visited before, and they were able to see all the remaining high priority items in Caen, Valognes, Cherbourg and Bayeux. Philip John then joined Sara Barker for a further week of work in Le Mans, another important collection that we have visited on two previous occasions.
Professor Andrew Pettegree and Dr Malcolm Walsby, the Project Manager for France, worked for four weeks in the south west of France. This trip was centred on Bordeaux, an important collection visited in the early stages of the project. They were able both to increase substantially the known works in this collection, and see several hundred high priority items. In addition they travelled south, to take in collections at Pau, Carcassonne, Toulouse and Perpignan, and north, to collections at Angoulême, Limoges¸ Périgueux, Libourne, and Cognac. They also worked several days in La Rochelle, to see the remainder of books in this collection left unseen on a previous visit.
In total we inspected over 4500 books in some thirty different libraries.
This was the last of ten successive summer field trips undertaken by the project team in June and July. During the course of these trips we have visited over 150 libraries in France, and surveyed through correspondence at least another 50 smaller collections. They will be a fundamental part of the new work presented by the completion of the project.
For a full itinerary of libraries visited during field work see the field trip diary