The meaning of the underlined sentence
The passage below is from The Library: A Fragile History by Andrew Pettegree.
The Pilgrims brought with them an extraordinary quantity of books, stocks that were gradually replenished by relief ships and trading vessels over the following years. At the death of their owners the books were inventoried along with other possessions, so that they could be recycled to new owners in the community. Careful study of these documents reveals collections of quite startling
size.15 Chief among them was the library of William Brewster, one of the leaders of the community in Leiden and again in Plymouth. The 350 books listed on his death in 1644 included staples of Latin Protestant learning: Calvin, Beza and the Latin Bible of Tremellius and Junius. As remarkable is the large number of English pamphlets, many of them printed on the dissident presses in Amsterdam, Middelburg or Leiden, including Brewster’s own. Generally, such lists specified individually only the books with the largest value, the Bibles and books in large formats. The smaller books are dealt with in more summary fashion: ‘five small stitched books’, ‘smalle books unbound’, ‘five small books were in the kitchen’, ‘three and fifty small books’ and ‘divers other Dutch books’.17 The reason why the description of Brewster’s books is more detailed, listing every book separately, is most likely because he died at a point where the book stock of the colony was much smaller than it was twenty years later when the next large library, that of Ralph Partrich, came on the market.18 For this reason, Brewster’s smaller books would also have been likely to secure higher prices; his grateful fellow Pilgrims no doubt also welcomed a comforting reminder of his contribution to the settlement. In societies such as this, clinging to the edge, as they saw it, of the known world, books were valued for their totemic value as well as for their texts.
I have a few questions about the underlined sentence.
First, the meaning of ‘as’.
Does ‘as’ means ‘although’? (Am I right?)
So the sentence means that although the fact that after his death William Brewster’s library revealed ‘the large number of English pamphlets’ is ‘remarkable’, it is just as remarkable that many of them printed on the dissident presses in Amsterdam, Middelburg or Leiden, including Brewster’s own. (Am I right?)
Last, I have a final question on ‘Brewster’s own’. Does ‘Brewster’s own’ means ‘Brewster’s own press’? (Am I right?)
Thanks in advance.
New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.