The Reverend Thomas Plume is remembered for the establishment of the library that bears his name in the small Essex town of Maldon. He bequeathed his substantial personal library to his native town and made many generous benefactions for the education and well-being of the townspeople. His library still exists, a lasting memorial to its pious benefactor, as well as a monument to the town of his birth. He is further known for his endowment of the Plumian professorship of astronomy at the University of Cambridge. Little is known of his life other than the bare dates of his education and official appointments. No correspondence or diaries survive. Although the Plume Library contains many of his papers, these are mostly manuscript sermons and commonplace books that reveal virtually no personal information. Many of the sermons and papers belonged to others, chiefly his mentor, Bishop John Hacket. Plume seems...