Syon Abbey Library Collection
The Syon Abbey Library Collection contains over 1,000 printed books from the library of the Bridgettine community of Syon Abbey, dating from the early sixteenth century to the late twentieth century. The collection contains many Catholic hagiographic, devotional, polemical, and historical works. As well as containing numerous individual titles of interest, the collection as a whole is a rich source of study for ecclesiastical history, for the history of libraries and reading habits, and for its significance to researchers interested in the history of women's learning and reading.
Many books in the collection contain manuscript inscriptions, some with several pages of manuscript prayers and notes bound in with the text. Other books contain letters about their provenance. Some volumes in the Syon Abbey Library Collection predate the monastery's dissolution, but many of these early sixteenth-century titles will have been purchased at a later date and added to the collection.
The collection is fully catalogued and the books are briefly described at item level on the library's OPAC online catalogue under the classmark Syon.