What we learn most from this story of conflict, confrontation and purposeful construction was that the people of Europe recognised books for the incendiary objects they were: beacons of faith or pollutants of the body politic. Yet we also learn, from the eager appropriation of Jesuit books for Protestant libraries, and vice versa, how much of the cultural capital of the era was held in common. Intellectuals of all faiths valued the classics, the Church Fathers, the grammars and dictionaries that supplied the most substantial tomes in any collection. That was why the victors would rather work their way round the shelves of a conquered library than pick through the ashes.

Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile Hist…, loc. 403