Dutch municipal libraries prioritized prestige Latin works over vernacular books readers wanted

Evidence

For the same price of the Oceanus Juris, some 300 vernacular works could have been purchased for the library, which would certainly have appealed to a larger proportion of the community. Instead, the municipal libraries of the Netherlands remained sources of civic pride, unused but admired. — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 418

Categorization

• XREF: Foreshadows the later tension between prestige collections and actual patron need that recurs throughout library history into the modern era. — connects to: Dutch colonial libraries in Indonesia speeded literacy but undermined colonial rule — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 621; Dutch ministers averaged 1,144 books per library in the seventeenth century — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 298; Baroque monastic libraries prioritized spectacle over reading accommodation — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 958
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 418

Broader Connections

• Baroque monastic libraries prioritized spectacle over reading accommodation #exemplifies (0.60) — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 958