But, as far as we know, the first real circulating library was the one established at Edinburgh, in 1725, by Allan Ramsay, a well-known bookseller who was also a distinguished poet. By the middle of the eighteenth century there were similar libraries in London and in many of the larger provincial towns.

When did circulating libraries start?

Developing out of informal arrangements for renting books by a handful of booksellers during the later seventeenth century, these businesses flourished from the 1740s (when the term “circulating library” and trade practices became standard) into the mid-twentieth century.

Who invented circulating library?

Growth of the rental market for books

In the early 1720s there were a few booksellers who also advertised books-for-hire in London. Loomis (1994; p. 609), indicates that the first circulating library specifically created for rental was started by the bookseller Allan Ramsay in Edinburgh in 1725.