Thomas Hearne's personal library of books and manuscripts is a remarkable achievement in itself, given the circumstances of his life. His chief claim to attention in the history of book collecting, though, is the central role that he played in creating a taste for early British literature at a time when many regarded writings in English as inferior to those in classical languages. Facts about Hearne's life and estimations of the value of his works are available from two main sources, his enemies and himself, neither of which can be considered impartial. The word applied to him by all parties alike, however, is indefatigable.

An antiquarian editor and nonjuror, Hearne was probably born in July 1678; in his own account of his life he records that he was born at Littlefield Green in the parish of White Waltham, Berkshire, and was baptized on 11 July of that year, although after...