This is an amazing study. Starting with the reconstructed library of Christoph Mötzing (ca. 1557–1632) and the geographic center of Mainz, Christina Schmitz casts an ever wider net exploring book ownership and the movement of books among learned burghers and members of the lower and middle clerical ranks and religious orders, specifically the Jesuits. Instead of archival sources, she identifies and investigates books of forty-eight book owners, who kept 1,341 books in 733 volumes. On the basis of this corpus she is able to reconstruct private libraries and the biographies of their owners which otherwise would have remained anonymous or unknown. She pursues the path of books from acquisition to ownership to gifting to individuals or institutions either by presenting a book directly to a sponsor or by including such book or books dedicated to a special recipient in an estate.

Starting with the “Stand der Forschung,” which is a tour de force through an amazing wealth of scholarship, Schmitz offers a detailed survey meant to encourage the reader to put aside any hesitation of following her path (“Berührungsängste”) as she identifies book ownership and reconstructs collections, private and institutional ownership, as well as the hematic organization and specialization of collections. She asks how specific volumes ended up in certain collections and why. Special attention is paid to the role of Jesuits, whose collection activities dovetailed neatly with their educational mission. Also very important in the context of owning and exchanging books are noble women who are increasingly coming into focus as owners and users of libraries in the urban and courtly environment. Alongside the opulent collections of princely patrons, we increasingly find scholars and members of the high and lower clergy collecting and exchanging books, as well as employing them as presents to wealthy patrons.

Schmitz differentiates roughly three approaches to her investigatory challenge. There is first the reconstruction established on the basis of book ownership. Second is the investigation of secondary materials such as library catalogues, catalogues of book sales, as well as lists of estate holdings, diary entries, and correspondences. Finally, she explores collections that can be reconstructed on the basis of book holdings and other secondary information. After gathering data about ownership and collecting habits, Schmitz explores in significant detail the content of books read and, not surprisingly, finds that, alongside theology, religion, and medicine, law books represent the most common content of book ownership. This leads to a detailed investigation into reading habits, since the purchase of a volume does not yet say much about who read it and why. Since collective reading aloud was common, it can be assumed, says Schmitz, that at least twenty recipients used any one volume, possibly even more. All this leads her to establish (with the help of digital methodologies) networks of owners and readers, which reach far beyond the individual book ownership.

Within a few pages of reading this book, it becomes clear that Schmitz is completely committed to interdisciplinary research, on which she builds this amazingly deep and widely researched volume. Alongside the traditional knowledge apparatus of library science and history, she points to and employs, to great effect, anthropology, sociology, cultural geography, as well as culture and gender studies. Contextualizing her work even further, she turns to the relatively new field of material studies to explore the book as a material object in the historical context around 1600.

Aside from reviewing Jesuit collection practices in great and immensely informative detail, Schmitz reviews work on collections by other orders and associations such the Franciscans, Dominicans, Carmelites, as well as cathedral, university, and monastery libraries. Beyond the interest of learned and literate individuals and associations, she also affords us a quick glance at books as booty and as objects of military and occupational strategies. We read that, shortly before the Mainz occupation by the Swedish army in 1632, the Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus ordered all collections to be reviewed for selected volumes that would be transferred to Sweden. Field Marshall Wrangel's printed booty still forms a significant part of the contemporary holdings of Skokloster Castle in the vicinity of Uppsala. Books were also plundered from private homes along with furniture and other movable items. To this day, 450 books in the Uppsala University library can be identified as having been acquired in this way.

The study closes with a review of the movement of books in the seventeenth century, specifically the exchange of books among private book owners. We read about specific books, and the persons who gave and who received them. This leads us to the last important topic in this amazing study, namely the significance of books and book movements among the educated Mainzer elite. A final page is devoted to a brief outline for future studies on the basis of the material explored here. The inspiration for such work is obvious for anyone who engages with this learned and well-written exploration of books in the lives of the citizens and associations of early modern Mainz. Schmitz ends her study with an extensive book list. Regrettably, the book is missing an index.