Shelfmark: K.1-10
The Upper Reading Room in the Old Bodleian Library holds the principle open shelf source materials for British and Western European History. It also houses a monograph collection for History of Science, Technology and Medicine.
The open-shelf History collections (Class K) consist largely of source materials and some major bibliographical and reference works relating to the History of the British Isles and Europe, from the fall of the Roman Empire to 1945 and beyond.
Selected recent acquisitions from both the legal deposit intake and from a wide range of foreign accessions, are displayed at a New Books Display near the URR Reserve.
Racks containing the current issues of c 100 history journals are located on window sills. Back runs of journals can be found on the open shelves in the lower level of the Gladstone Link (Shelfmark PER HUMS). Please note that some journal titles may be received under electronic Legal Deposit, i.e. won't be on display.
Please search SOLO for specific titles. If you have any comments or enquiries about this collection, please contact the History Librarian.
Selected recent acquisitions of graduate and research materials relating to History and to English, from both the legal deposit intake (British and Irish materials) and from a wide range of foreign accessions, are displayed on freestanding shelves in the photocopying area with the shelfmark K.Tray.
Racks containing the current issues of journals are located on windowsills in the northern wing of the room. Current issues of a number of journals whose main runs are kept in the bookstack are also displayed on this rack. Back runs of journals can be found on the open shelves in the lower level of the Gladstone Link (Shelfmark PER HIST). Many are also available online via OU e-Journals.
- See more at: http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/bodley/using-this-library/rooms/urr#sthash.MVHud3xS.dpufThe Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts was established in 1869 to survey and report on privately owned and privately held archival records of general historial interest. Its brief was "to make inquiry as to the places in which such Manuscripts and Papers were deposited", and to report on their contents. These reports are very useful source materials. The series has a useful index to persons and places. > Online list of HMC Reports (pdf).
Selected HMC Reports are digitised and available in British History Online.
Examples:
The manuscripts of the House of Lords
The manuscripts of His Grace the Duke of Portland
The manuscripts of J. B. Fortescue
K.5.41* - Letters and papers, foreign and domestic, of the reign of Henry VIII - available online via State Papers Online or British History Online > State Papers.
K.5.44- Calendar of the charter rolls
K.5.42-48 - Calendar of state papers, domestic series & foreign series, colonial - available online via State Papers Online or British History Online > State Papers
Other calendars (selectively available online via British History Online > Guides and Calendars and Medieval & Early Modern Sources Online (MEMSO).
K.5.54 - Calendar of Treasury books - check MEMSO
K.5.56 - Calendar of the state papers relating to Scotland - available online via State Papers Online or British History Online > State Papers.
K.5.57 - Calendar of the state papers relating to Ireland - available online via State Papers Online or British History Online > State Papers.
K.5.58 - Calendar of the Carew manuscripts - in MEMSO
K.5.59 - Calendar of letters, despatches, and state papers, relating to the negotiations between England and Spain
K.5.65 - Acts of the Privy Council of England - in MEMSO
K.5.68 - The register of the Privy Council of Scotland - in MEMSO
K.5.71 - Rotuli scaccarii regum Scotorum. The exchequer rolls of Scotland - in MEMSO
K.5.73 - Calendar of the state papers relating to Scotland and Mary, Queen of Scots, 1547-1603 - available online via State Papers Online or British History Online > State Papers.
K.5.77 - Calendar of Assize records
K.5.81 - Acts and ordinances of the Interregnum, 1642-1660 - in MEMSO
K.5.175 - Calendar of the patent rolls - in MEMSO
K.5.128 - Publications of the Pipe Roll Society - selections in MEMSO (more about Pipe Rolls)
K.5.139 - Rotuli curiæ regis : Rolls and records of the court held before the King's justiciars or justices - in MEMSO
K.5.141 - Curia regis rolls - in MEMSO
K.5.152* - Calendar of the fine rolls of the reign of Henry III - check Fine Rolls Henry project
K.5.153 - Calendar of the fine rolls - in MEMSO
K.5.155 - Inquisitions and assessments relating to feudal aids - in MEMSO
K.5.160 - Close rolls of the reign of Henry III - in MEMSO
K.5.160* - Calendar of the close rolls - in MEMSO
K.5.165 - Calendar of the liberate rolls
K.5.185 - Liber feodorum : the book of fees
K.5.200 - A descriptive catalogue of ancient deeds in the Public Record Office - in MEMSO
K.5.205 - Calendar of inquisitions post mortem and other analogous documents - in MEMSO
K.5.478-479 - PRO List & Indexes [please note that these volumes will be moved to Duke Humfrey's Library, shelfmark L&I]
Oversize section
K.5.322 - Rotuli parliamentorum; ut et petitiones et placita in parliament. 6 vols. (1767-77) - in ECCO
K.5.323 - The statutes of the realm (from Magna Charta to the end of the reign of Queen Anne) - in ECCO. Selections available in MEMSO.
K.5.344 - Valor ecclesiasticus Henry VIII - in MEMSO
K.5.355-399 - Monumenta Germania Historica - online in Brepolis or at dMGH
K.6.1 - Camden Society Publications - selections available in British History Online
K.6.2 - Publications of the Scottish History Society - partly available online.
K.6.3 - Catholic Record Society publications - an index is available online
K.6.5 - Publications of Selden Society - available online via HeinOnline
K.6.11 - English Episcopal Acta - online list of volumes (.pdf)
K.7.32 - Rerum Britannicarum medii aevi scriptores (known as the Rolls Series) - selected in MEMSO.
K.7.180-184 - Regest Imperii - selections freely available online.
See also many resources in K.5 (above) and Duke Humfrey's Library collections.
For electronic copies of publications in these series, it's worth checking Oxford Google Books in SOLO or Internet Archive.
K.8.1 - Chronique belges
K.8.11 - Collection de documents inédits sur l'histoire de France. Série in-8o
K.8.12 - Chartes et diplômes relatifs à l'histoire de France
K.8.14 - Société de l'histoire de France
K.8.23 - Bibliothèque des écoles françaises d'Athènes et de Rome (incomplete)
K.8.60 - The French Revolution research collection
K.8.80 - Documents diplomatiques français 1871- 1939
For electronic copies of publications in these series, it's worth checking Oxford Google Books in SOLO or Internet Archive.
K.9.2 - Publicationen aus den königlich-preussischen Staatsarchiven
K.9.5 - Fontes rerum Austriacarum
K.9.8 - Akten zur deutschen auswärtigen Politik / Documents on German Foreign Policy 1918-1945
K.9.11 - Rerum italicarum scriptores
K.9.13a - Fonti per la storia dell'Italia medievale. Antiquitates
K.9.13b- Fonti per la storia dell'Italia medievale. Rerum italicarum scriptores
K.9.14 - Fonti per la storia d'Italia pubblicate dall'Istituto storico italiano per l'età moderna e contemporanea
K.9.30 - Cavour: Epistolario
K.9.35 - De Gasperi: Scritti e discorsi politici
K.9.105 - Cortes de los antiguos reinos de Leon y de Castilla
K.9.140 - Documentos sobre relaciones internacionales de los Reyes Catolicos
K.9.145 - Archivio Documental Espanol - Negociaciones con Francia (1559-1560)
K.10.1 - Mullins: Texts and calendars : an analytical guide to serial publications
K.10.49 - House of Commons, 1386-1832
K.10.100 - The Lisle Letters
K.10.106 - Life and letters of Thomas Cromwell
K.10.130 - Proceedings in the Parliaments of Elizabeth I
K.10.139 & 140 - Tudor Royal Proclamations; Stuart royal proclamations
K.10.146 - Commons debates, 1621
K.10.148 - Proceedings in Parliament 1625
K.10. 150 - Commons debates, 1628
K.10.170 - The Grenville papers : being the correspondence of Richard Grenville
K.10.172 & 172a - The correspondence of King George the Third from 1760 to December 1783; The later correspondence of George III;
K.10.174 - Correspondence of William Pitt
K.10.182 - The dispatches of Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington
K.10.185 - Dod's Parliamentary Companion
K.10.191 - The speeches of the late Right Honourable Sir Robert Peel
K.10.200 - British documents on the origins of the war, 1898-1914; Documents on British Foreign Policy Overseas, 1919- Also available online as Documents on British Policy Overseas
K.10.220 & 221 & 222 - Winston S. Churchill; The Churchill war papers; Winston S. Churchill: his complete speeches, 1897-1963.
K.10.305 - History of the Irish parliament 1692-1800 : commons, constituencies and statutes
K.10.307 - Proceedings of the Irish House of Lords, 1771-1800
K.10.310 - The correspondence of Daniel O'Connell
K.10.320 - Documents on Irish foreign policy 1919-1948
All Upper Reading Room books are
CONFINED
to the library.
You can use them anywhere in the Old Library, Gladstone Link, and Radcliffe Camera.
If you are studying local history, then check out the guide to Duke Humfrey's Library collections.
