The Political Writings of John Locke John Locke

Manuscripts, books and treatises

Locke was an assiduous book collector and notetaker throughout his life. By his death in 1704, Locke had amassed a library of more than 3,000 books, a significant number in the seventeenth century.[94] Unlike some of his contemporaries, Locke took care to catalogue and preserve his library, and his will made specific provisions for how his library was to be distributed after his death. Locke's will offered Lady Masham the choice of "any four folios, eight quartos and twenty books of less volume, which she shall choose out of the books in my Library."[95] Locke also gave six titles to his "good friend" Anthony Collins, but Locke bequeathed the majority of his collection to his cousin Peter King (later Lord King) and to Lady Masham's son, Francis Cudworth Masham.[95]

Francis Masham was promised one "moiety" (half) of Locke's library when he reached "the age of one and twenty years."[95] The other "moiety" of Locke's books, along with his manuscripts, passed to his cousin King.[95] Over the next two centuries, the Masham portion of Locke's library was dispersed.[96] The manuscripts and books left to King, however, remained with King's descendants (later the Earls of Lovelace), until most of the collection was bought by the Bodleian Library, Oxford in 1947.[97] Another portion of the books Locke left to King was discovered by the collector and philanthropist Paul Mellon in 1951.[97] Mellon supplemented this discovery with books from Locke's library which he bought privately, and in 1978, he transferred his collection to the Bodleian.[97] The holdings in the Locke Room at the Bodleian have been a valuable resource for scholars interested in Locke, his philosophy, practices for information management, and the history of the book.

Many of the books still contain Locke's signature, which he often made on the pastedowns of his books. Many also include Locke's marginalia.

The printed books in Locke's library reflected his various intellectual interests as well as his movements at different stages of his life. Locke travelled extensively in France and the Netherlands during the 1670s and 1680s, and during this time he acquired many books from the continent. Only half of the books in Locke's library were printed in England, while close to 40% came from France and the Netherlands.[98] These books cover a wide range of subjects. According to John Harrison and Peter Laslett, the largest genres in Locke's library were theology (23.8% of books), medicine (11.1%), politics and law (10.7%), and classical literature (10.1%).[99] The Bodleian library currently holds more than 800 of the books from Locke's library.[97] These include Locke's copies of works by several of the most influential figures of the seventeenth century, including

• The Quaker William Penn: An address to Protestants of all perswasions (Bodleian Locke 7.69a)
• The explorer Francis Drake: The world encompassed by Sir Francis Drake (Bodleian Locke 8.37c)
• The scientist Robert Boyle: A discourse of things above reason (Bodleian Locke 7.272)
• The bishop and historian Thomas Sprat: The history of the Royal-Society of London (Bodleian Locke 9.10a)

In addition to books owned by Locke, the Bodleian also possesses more than 100 manuscripts related to Locke or written in his hand. Like the books in Locke's library, these manuscripts display a range of interests and provide different windows into Locke's activity and relationships. Several of the manuscripts include letters to and from acquaintances like Peter King (MS Locke b. 6) and Nicolas Toinard (MS Locke c. 45).[100] MS Locke f. 1–10 contain Locke's journals for most years between 1675 and 1704.[100] Some of the most significant manuscripts include early drafts of Locke's writings, such as his Essay Concerning Human Understanding (MS Locke f. 26).[100] The Bodleian also holds a copy of Robert Boyle's General History of the Air with corrections and notes Locke made while preparing Boyle's work for posthumous publication (MS Locke c. 37 ).[101] Other manuscripts contain unpublished works. Among others, MS. Locke e. 18 includes some of Locke's thoughts on the Glorious Revolution, which Locke sent to his friend Edward Clarke but never published.[102]

One of the largest categories of manuscript at the Bodleian comprises Locke's notebooks and commonplace books. The scholar Richard Yeo calls Locke a "Master Note-taker" and explains that "Locke's methodical note-taking pervaded most areas of his life."[103] In an unpublished essay "Of Study," Locke argued that a notebook should work like a "chest-of-drawers" for organizing information, which would be a "great help to the memory and means to avoid confusion in our thoughts."[104] Locke kept several notebooks and commonplace books, which he organized according to topic. MS Locke c. 43 includes Locke's notes on theology, while MS Locke f. 18–24 contain medical notes.[100] Other notebooks, such as MS c. 43, incorporate several topics in the same notebook, but separated into sections.[100]

These commonplace books were highly personal and were designed to be used by Locke himself rather than accessible to a wide audience.[105] Locke's notes are often abbreviated and are full of codes which he used to reference material across notebooks.[106] Another way Locke personalized his notebooks was by devising his own method of creating indexes using a grid system and Latin keywords.[107] Instead of recording entire words, his indexes shortened words to their first letter and vowel. Thus, the word "Epistle" would be classified as "Ei".[108] Locke published his method in French in 1686, and it was republished posthumously in English in 1706.

Some of the books in Locke's library at the Bodleian are a combination of manuscript and print. Locke had some of his books interleaved, meaning that they were bound with blank sheets in-between the printed pages to enable annotations. Locke interleaved and annotated his five volumes of the New Testament in French, Greek, and Latin (Bodleian Locke 9.103-107). Locke did the same with his copy of Thomas Hyde's Bodleian Library catalogue (Bodleian Locke 16.17), which Locke used to create a catalogue of his own library.[109]