Oxford LibGuides: Manuscripts: Early Modern: Early Modern Papers

Online catalogues for early modern papers

Online catalogues of archives and manuscripts
Full descriptions of every collection catalogued since 2001 as well as brief descriptions of all the collections catalogued in the Summary and (New) Summary Catalogues and unpublished post-1975 modern catalogues.
Online catalogues of the Bodleian's John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera
Not yet comprehensive
Early Modern Letters Online
A union catalogue of sixteenth-, seventeenth-, and eighteenth-century correspondence.
Electronic Enlightenment
Online collection of edited correspondence of the early modern period, linking people across Europe, the Americas and Asia from the early 17th to the mid-19th century

Rediscovering Rycote

A Bodleian project to uncover the history of a lost Tudor mansion.

Rediscovering Rycote
Manuscripts, letters, accounts, maps and drawings from medieval and modern times charting the history of Rycote, an Oxfordshire Tudor mansion.

Early modern subject guides

An Early Modern Papers collections guide
A short online subject guide which includes links to the Bodleian's online catalogues.
The Bodleian Library: a Subject Guide to the Collections
ed. Gregory Walker, Mary Clapinson and Lesley Forbes (Bodleian Library, 2004), esp. 'Principal Special Collections', pp. 198-222.

Early modern papers, general finding aids

The Quarto catalogues
This links to digitized copies and guidance on the contents of the Western Manuscript Quarto catalogues. These catalogues cover the Ashmole, Canonici, Digby, Greek manuscript, Laud, Rawlinson and Tanner collections.
Summary Catalogue
This links to digitized copies as well as guidance on using the Falconer Madan Summary Catalogue. This catalogue covers all manuscripts acquired before 1915, except the Ashmole, Canonici, Digby, Greek manuscript, Laud, Rawlinson and Tanner collections (which are listed in the Quarto catalogues).
(New) Summary Catalogue
Provides brief descriptions of all post-medieval Western manuscripts acquired by the Library between 1916-1975. Now digitized and available at the link above.
Accessions card index [link temporarily down]
Card index listing archives and manuscripts acquired 1975-2004 [stored in the Rare Books and Manuscripts Reading Room, digitised version temporarily down].
Commonwealth & African card index [link temporarily down]
Card index of catalogued Commonwealth and African collections up to July 2014. They are arranged by name (A – Z) of the person or organisation which created the collection and by region of the world/country. The shelfmark can be found at the top right of each card. ‘Handlist’ indicates that a more detailed hardcopy catalogue is available, some of which can now also be found online.
First-line Index of English Poetry 1500-1800 in Manuscripts of the Bodleian Library Oxford, 2 vols.
by M.C. Crum, (Oxford, 1969)
A student's guide to the manuscripts relating to English history in the seventeenth century in the Bodleian library
Digitized copy of a guide by Godfrey Davies, published in 1922.

Early modern, named collections

MSS. Add. D. 109-112: four volumes of English State Papers of the time of Elizabeth I and James I, given to the Bodleian by G.M. Fortescue
Find here: order to the Rare Books and Manuscripts Reading Room.
MSS Add. D. 109-112: calendared in Historical Manuscripts Commission, 2nd report, Appendix (1871), pp. 49-63 and in Camden Society, new series 1 (1871).
Find the Historical Manuscripts Commission calendar here: Rare Books and Manuscripts Reading Room.
MSS. Bankes: an unpublished calendar, with a partial index, of the official papers of Sir John Bankes (1589-1644) as attorney general from 1634 to 1640.
Find here: Rare Books and Manuscripts Reading Room.
MSS. Carte: manuscript calendar in 75 volumes by Edward Edwards of the papers on English and Irish history of the 16th and 17th centuries collected by Thomas Carte.
Find here: Electronic version of volumes 30-61 (1660-1687 AD) at link above. For the originals, find at the Rare Books and Manuscripts Reading Room - readers should please ask for date required.
MSS. Clarendon: the State Papers of Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon (1609-74) are calendared in O. Ogle, W.H. Bliss et al., Calendar of the Clarendon State Papers preserved in the Bodleian Library, 5 vols. (Oxford, 1869-1970).
Electronic copy of the MSS. Clarendon calendar
An electronic copy of the calendar of the Clarendon state papers, available via the Internet Archive.
Index to MSS. Dodsworth 1-35
Find here: Rare Books and Manuscripts Reading Room.
MSS. Hearne's diaries: the diaries of the antiquary Thomas Hearne (1678-1735) are edited in Oxford Historical Society, vols. 2, 7, 13, 34, 42, 43, 48, 50, 65, 67, 72 (1885-1918).
Herrick papers: manuscript calendar of the orders and receipts of the Exchequer during the tellership of Sir William Herrick, 1617-23, by Joseph Burtt, 1859.
Find here: the manuscript calender is in the Rare Books and Manuscripts Reading Room. The originals are at MSS. Eng. hist. c. 1292-1307 and should be ordered and read in the Rare Books and Manuscripts Reading Room.
Herrick papers: an unpublished calendar and index of the papers of the Herrick family of Leicestershire
Find here: [shelfmark] MSS. Eng. hist. b. 216, c. 474-84, ordered and read in the Rare Books and Manuscripts Reading Room.
MSS. Lib. recs (Bodleian Library Records)
A short guide to the Early Modern-period records in the Bodleian's own institutional archive. Compiled by Will Poole.
MSS. Nalson: 17th-century state papers collected by John Nalson (1638?-1686)
Find here: [MSS. Nalson 1-23 are consulted in the Rare Books and Manuscripts Reading Room]. MSS. Nelson is calendared in Historical Manuscripts Commission, 13th report, Appendix, parts I (1891) and II (index, 1893), copies are available in the Rare Books and Manuscripts Reading Room.
MSS. North: an unpublished calendar, with index, of the family and estate papers of the North family of Wroxton, Oxfordshire
Find here: Rare Books and Manuscripts Reading Room.
Index of MS.Twyne 23
Find here: Rare Books and Manuscripts Reading Room.
Index to MSS. Willis
Find here: Rare Books and Manuscripts Reading Room.
MSS. Wood: diaries and other papers of the antiquary Anthony Wood (1632-95)
Find here: The original manuscripts should be ordered to and consulted in the Rare Books and Manuscripts Reading Room] MSS. Wood is edited by A. Clark as The Life and Times of Anthony Wood (Oxford Historical Society, vols. 19, 21, 26, 30, 40 (indexes), 1891-1900).

Subject Guide

Mike Webb