What the article fails to recognize is the sheer difficulty and expense involved in acquiring information in those days. You not only needed lots of money; you also needed status and political friends who could connect you through their networks to people who know things about your subject of interest. Even getting a peek into a book was an arduous affair, sometimes taking years. There's a reason why the gentry were so fond of collecting books.

So yes, anyone politically, socially, and economically powerful enough, with an ounce of curiosity, would have a list such as this. I do the same for anything I can't get within a month.