The Book Factory of Little Gidding

Abstract

This paper brings together for the first time the writings of four Little Gidding authors of the early seventeenth century. What they then saw as a merely auxiliary effort became in the nineteenth century a matter of international bibliographical concern. The three siblings, John and Nicholas Ferrar and their older sister Susanna, and John’s son Nicholas, created at least thirty-eight works, not all now extant. They included a commonplace book, translations, promotional works, memoranda of instruction, and—most famously—biblical concordances. Thirty years of study has extended, though not completed, their provenance.