Following the dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530s and the dispersal of their libraries, a number of British collectors set to work to recover as much as possible. Of their second generation, Sir Robert Cotton (1571-1631) was an outstanding member, also acquiring a wide range of other material. Indeed, so important was his library that it became one of the foundation collections of the British Museum in 1753. Significant records - never previously studied as a whole - survive from the early years of Cotton's library and this book edits and analyses these, throwing important new light on Sir Robert, his son and grandson as collectors, and providing much fresh evidence on the history of their collection and its development.