Abstract: Focused on the transmission of books from one generation to another, this study explores the connection between gender and book ownership by attempting to discover whether the ‘reading lists’ inadvertently compiled by testators for their offspring were informed by gender stereotypes and by specific perceptions of masculinity and femininity. By carefully considering the nature and content of these bequests, this study will try to identify the stereotypes attached to men and women’s relation to books and, ultimately, to knowledge and consequently explore the place of books in their lives within the boundaries set by their gender in terms of social roles, access to education and involvement in the public sphere. By analysing the dynamics of bequests involving books, this study aims to explore the complex motives that impacted on testators’ decisions, including concern for tradition and heritage. By looking at men and women as both donors and recipients of books, this article would like to identify emergent and possibly gendered reading cultures. Finally, by closely examining the intricacies of bequests recorded in probate inventories, this essay aims to highlight interaction within the family, vertically between generations and horizontally within them.

Keywords: books, bequests, gender, generations, reading cultures, social roles, stereotypes.