DWL/RB/2

subfonds

Richard Baxter Correspondence

17th Century

Six volumes of Baxter letters (621 separate items). Includes letters written between 1638 and 1691, revelaing both the range both of Baxter's network and of the contribution he made to the intellectual and religious life of seventeenth-century Britain, Europe and North America. Of Baxter's correspondence Dr Alan Argent writes that 'the volume of his correspondence is matched by that of his many other writings which demonstrate a consistent engagement with current affairs, with movements in theology and with the vicissitudes of everyday life. Dr Williams’s Library contains the great majority of the extant manuscripts which relate to Baxter, among which are numerous letters, the subject of Keeble and Nuttall’s two volumed Calendar of the Correspondence of Richard Baxter (1991).'

Not expected

Chronological

The DWL Conservator's notes discovered with the volumes describe the conservation treatment process undertaken. Dr Williams's Library has since adopted a less interventive conservation practices. "Volume 5. Conservation treatment: Taken down, dry cleaned and washed until all impurities removed, de-acidified and resized where required. Repaired with Heatset Tissue (Crompton) and Tonosawa Japanese paper. Rebound into File Boards on guards of acid and lignin free paper, covered with brown Library Buckram and lettered across the spine with real gold. All materials and techniques being completely reversalble. Date returned: 20 July 1987."