Penny University Library
Penny University
Back in the 17th and 18th centuries, the gentry of England gathered in coffee houses to discuss books, science, arts, and politics. These places were known as Penny Universities because, for the price of a penny, you could purchase a cup of coffee and enjoy an intellectual conversation! But don't worry, for you, it's free!
Our Library offers a digitized collection of works – from essays and books to audio recordings – that have been painstakingly compiled and digitized for your benefit. With our Library, you can discover the conversations of the past, search for copies of works, and even listen to them on the side. With us, you can explore this period in history like never before and immerse yourself in its culture. Unlock history today with Penny University Library!
Penny University
Back in the 17th and 18th centuries, the gentry of England gathered in coffee houses to discuss books, science, arts, and politics. These places were known as Penny Universities because, for the price of a penny, you could purchase a cup of coffee and enjoy an intellectual conversation! But don't worry, for you, it's free!
Our Library offers a digitized collection of works – from essays and books to audio recordings – that have been painstakingly compiled and digitized for your benefit. With our Library, you can discover the conversations of the past, search for copies of works, and even listen to them on the side. With us, you can explore this period in history like never before and immerse yourself in its culture. Unlock history today with Penny University Library!
Creator
Christian Murray is a MA student in the Department of History at the University of Mississippi and a Library Graduate Assistant in Metadata and Digital Initiatives. He is also a Student Fellow at American Institute of Philosophical and Cultural Thought. He received a BA in Communication Studies at Southern Illinois University Carbondale (2021.) During the first few years of his undergrad, and from his own energies, he created the Founders Club. This digital project studies the ideas and events surrounding the framing of the American republic in order to create short video essays for public education.
While attending the University of Mississippi, Christian created the Penny University Library, providing the public with digitized copies of works read and debated during the Age of Enlightenment, along with information pertaining to these works and their authors. Christian’s research interests include Intellectual History in the Trans-Atlantic Enlightenment, and Digital Humanities.
Methodology
Programs Used
Information and Data
The Books used to digitize our library have exceeded their copyright (over 100 years old) and can be found in the public domain on World Cat and Internet Archive. Information about each author and their works has been extrapolated from numerous sources that have been cited below each author's page.
The data used for Penny University Library's maps have either been compiled on World Cat or by historian Gary Kates and his team of undergraduate student researchers at Pomona College which contain 250+ book titles and 8000 records. This data tracks all of the editions through the eighteenth century when reading culture began to expand into the public sphere.
Editions are important for understanding the spread of ideas within the Age of Enlightenment. As Kates writes in his Books that Made the Enlightenment, "The book was the Enlightenment's key building block, and the making of an edition its central event. Every book is the result of three fundamentally different activities: an author produces a manuscript, a printer/publisher converts the manuscript into a book and makes it available for sale in a marketplace, and finally, readers encounter the book." This is more so true during the eighteenth century than the seventeenth century due to the expansion of the book markets. These markets showed a real need for these books, their popularity during this time, and where the books were published.