Selling the silver: country house libraries and the history of science.

Country houses have long acted as scholarly research centres, and the contents and organization of their libraries reveal how knowledge was created and transmitted through scientific networks: they provide material evidence of intellectual and social cultures. Manuscripts are particularly appreciated in this regard because they are unique, but individual books also differ and copies of the same book are not always identical -- they might be annotated by authors and readers, and the printed text can vary as well -- so they also carry invaluable historical information. When libraries are broken up, access to the past is permanently blocked.