This two-volume work covers the period 1570-1870, and is one of several written on book collections by Edward Edwards (1812-1886), whose three-volume Memoirs of Libraries is also reissued in this series. Volume 1 considers the gatherers of the 'foundation collections' of the British Museum. Among them were Henry, Prince of Wales, the son of James I, Sir Robert Cotton (1571-1631), and Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753), whose bequest of his collections to George II led directly to the foundation of the Museum by Act of Parliament in 1753. The administrators and early donors to the Museum - archaeologists, travellers and dilettanti such as Sir William Hamilton and the earl of Elgin - are also discussed.