CEBEME: Continental European Books in Early Modern England, 1500-1640

253.5 MB of datasets, diagrams, and documentation from the AHRC-funded CEBEME project. Fred Schurink's project harmonizes five source datasets into Linked Open Data to create the largest dataset on foreign books in England between 1500 and 1640. It addresses research questions about the availability, popularity, and circulation of imported and translated books.

Use Cases

• Analyze the popularity of subjects, authors, and works based on the harmonized bibliographic records.
• Study the circulation of imported books based on location and social background of readers mentioned in the description.
• Map the translation and importation of foreign-language books based on the project's harmonized datasets.
• Investigate the sales and ownership patterns of books printed in Continental Europe based on the integrated Plantin sales data.

Strengths

• Harmonizes five distinct historical source datasets into a unified Linked Open Data format.
• Focuses on a specific 140-year period (1500-1640) and geographic context (England).
• Project documentation and data model diagrams are included alongside the datasets.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect temporal and source bias inherent to the five specific historical datasets.

Provenance

Source

Fred Schurink, AHRC-funded project 'Continental European Books in Early Modern England, 1500-1640: A New Approach Using Bibliographic Data Science'.

Collection Method

Harmonization of five source datasets as Linked Open Data: Renaissance Cultural Crossroads Catalogue, Private Libraries in Renaissance England, Provincial Booksellers, Plantin Sales (ZvL), and Plantin Sales (CEBEME).

Time Range

1500-1640

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-27 11:10:56; freshness should be verified.

Geography

England