Skip to Main Content

Manuscripts: Archives and Modern: Online & General Catalogues

A guide to the finding aids available for early modern and modern manuscripts and printed ephemera in the Bodleian Library.

Online finding aids for Bodleian Archives & Manuscripts

Archived lists of catalogue releases

For complete lists of newly available online catalogues (back to 2003) please see the:

General catalogues of post-1500 archives and manuscripts at the Bodleian

The Quarto catalogues

A series of catalogues for the Ashmole, Canonici, Digby, Greek Manuscript, Laud, Rawlinson and Tanner collections (16-18th century). Now digitised.

followed by

The Summary Catalogue

The Summary Catalogue is a multi-volume catalogue of Western Manuscripts received before 1915. Now digitised. Available in Bodleian Archives & Manuscripts.

continued in

The (New) Summary Catalogue

This picks up where the Summary Catalogue leaves off. The (new) Summary Catalogue provides brief descriptions of all post-medieval Western manuscripts acquired by the Library between 1916-1975. Now digitised. Available in Bodleian Archives & Manuscripts.

continued in

Post-1975 card index (the digitised version is temporarily down)

For all accessions between the publication of the New Summary Catalogue and the first online catalogues in 2001. As this card index references accessions and not just catalogued material, there is cross-over between the card index and the online catalogues. The physical card index is in the Rare Books and Manuscripts Reading Room reference area

and the

Post-1975 catalogues

These unpublished catalogues bridge the gap between the (New) Summary Catalogue and the Online Catalogues, which were instituted in 2001. A full set of these catalogues can be found in the Rare Books Manuscripts Reading Room. Brief (collection-level) descriptions of all these post-1975 catalogued collections can also now be found in the Bodleian Archives & Manuscripts.

followed by

Bodleian Archives & Manuscripts

Descriptions of archives and manuscript material created between c. 1500 and the 21st century. Material described is predominantly in manuscript form, but also includes photographic material, audiovisual items and born-digital content.

General printed finding aids and card indexes

General finding aids for non-Bodleian collections