Charles Spencer, third Earl of Sunderland, was an early eighteenth-century statesman and bibliophile, and in both of these fields the keenest rival of Sir Robert Harley. Perhaps more than in the case of Harley, the love of classical literature reflected in Sunderland's library was mirrored in his political agenda. During a life of constant political intrigue, he managed to amass one of the finest collections of printed books of the age, which was to form the foundation of two important book collections of the succeeding century.

Sunderland was the second son of the second earl of Sunderland, Robert Spencer, and his wife, Anne Digby, a daughter of the second earl of Bristol. The first earl of Sunderland, Henry Lord Spencer, was raised to the earldom in June 1643, probably because of a loan he made to the embattled King Charles I. The following September, the first earl was killed...