The Genealogy of a Book Collection: An Early History of the Cavendish Family's Book Collection

This article analyses the early modern book collecting activities of the Devonshire branch of the Cavendish family as an example of elite cultural capital accumulation across multiple generations. The detailed records of seventeenth-century book collection by the first, second and third Earls of Devonshire and their librarian-tutor Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679), demonstrate the development of the collection at Hardwick Hall as a resource for investment information, political news, scholarly activity and children’s education. The family tradition was continued by the first Duke of Devonshire (1640–1707) who shifted the base of collection to Chatsworth House, and the bibliophile second Duke (1673–1729) who expended vast amounts on works using an array of London booksellers; as did the third Earl of Burlington (1694–1753), and the Duchess Georgiana Cavendish (1757–1806) thereafter. These collections were amalgamated at Chatsworth by the sixth Duke of Devonshire at the start of the nineteenth century, where this account concludes.