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History databases wishlist & trials: Early modern history wishlist

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Early Modern England Society, Culture & Everyday Life, 1500-1700

This resource offers access to rare and invaluable sources for examining the lived experience of people in England between 1500 and 1700.

From 'ordinary' people through to more prominent individuals and families, these documents show how everyday working, family, religious and administrative life was experienced across England. Rather than dealing specifically with the great political and religious upheavals of these years, the project aims to look at the everyday happenings of people in different parts of England.

These experiences are revealed through a wide range of materials including legal records, family correspondence, administrative records, wills, inventories and commonplace books among others. There is a strong material culture element to this project with the inclusion of images of everyday objects used in early modern households.

The different collections of documents enable a regional comparison, for example with court records from the South East, London, the West Midlands and the North West.

Trialled 31 March to 25 April 2023.

Humanisme et Renaissance

The Droz Humanisme et Renaissance collection offers a collection of sources and studies on Humanism (Politien, Ficin, Erasmus, Budé…), the French Reformation (Lefèvre d’Etaples, Calvin, Farel, Beza…) and the Renaissance (literary and artistic, Hieronymus Bosch or Rabelais, Ronsard or Primaticcio), as well as the medicine, science, philosophy, book history, and all forms of knowledge and human activity from the long sixteenth century, roughly from 1450 to the death of Henry IV in 1610, the threshold of the classical age.

Send feedback to isabel.holowaty@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

Trialled 20 April to 18 May 2020.

Calvin

This portal presents all the texts by or about John Calvin which have been published by the Librairie Droz from 1960 to 2012, with an initial focus on Geneva, Calvin, and the beginnings of the French evangelical movement with Lefèvre d’Etaples and Marguerite de Navarre.

Trialled 20 April to 18 May 2020.

Send feedback to isabel.holowaty@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

State Papers Online: Eighteenth Century, 1714-1782

State Papers Online: Eighteenth Century, 1714-1782 is a three part series that extends Gale’s widely acclaimed British State Papers Online programme into the eighteenth century giving researchers and students unprecedented access to British government records during the Age of Enlightenment.

State Papers Online: Eighteenth Century, 1714-1782 represents the final section of the State Papers series from the National Archives in the UK before the series was closed and replaced by the Home Office and Foreign Office series in 1782. Covering the reigns of the Hanover rulers George I (1714-1727), George II (1727-1760) and part of the reign of George III (up to 1782), the series provides unparalleled access to thousands of manuscripts that reveal the behind the scenes, day to day running of government  during the eighteenth century. As such State Papers Online: Eighteenth Century, 1714-1782 is vital to any understanding of the political, social and economic history of the period and an essential resource for any scholar or student studying the eighteenth century.

Part I: Domestic and Privy Council was publishing in late Spring 2013.

Parts II and III will cover the extensive ‘foreign’ government records that focus on Britain’s relations with its colonies, European neighbours and Russia.

Trialled 21 Aug until 20 Sept. 2019.

Trialled 7 Feb to 31 March 2023.

State Papers Online: The Stuart and Cumberland Papers

Digitised for the first time, the Stuart and Cumberland Papers from the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle are now available online in their entirety.

The Stuart Papers represent the correspondence and personal documents of the exiled members of the Stuart dynasty after 1688.

Available here alongside the Cumberland Papers of William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland and second surviving son of George II, they provide a unique window into the world of the Stuarts and their Jacobite followers, as well as to the incumbent Hanoverian monarchy during a time of continental wars, domestic conspiracies and rival claims to the Throne.

Trialled 21 Aug until 20 Sept. 2019.

Witchcraft in Europe and America (Archives Unbound) [Cengage]

Sourced from the Cornell University Library. Includes texts dating from the 15th century to the early 20th century.

The majority of the material concerns the “classic period” of the 16th to 18th centuries. In addition to these classic texts, the collection includes anti-persecution writings, works by penologists, legal and church documents, exposés of persecutions, philosophical writings and transcripts of trials and exorcisms.

Included are many rare and fragile manuscripts containing eyewitness accounts and court records of the trials of witches, including harrowing original manuscript depositions taken from the victims in the torture chamber.

Also enables researchers to trace the history and culture of European civilization during the Renaissance and Enlightenment.

The majority of texts are in Latin, English and German, although there are also selected items in French, Italian, Portuguese, Danish, Dutch and Spanish.

Trialled in July 2012.

Actes royaux français, 1256-1794 (Archives Unbound) [Cengage]

This database comprises around 16,000 documents from libraries and other collections in the United States which are pertinent to the history of France 1256-1794. Its focus is on French legislative and administrative history, but does not exclude other aspects of French social history. Nearly three-quarters of the documents concern the financial administration and policy of France.  The oldest documents are most often reprints of texts published during the Ancien Régime that deal with royal obligations to the populace. The purview of this database includes: fiscal affairs at the Chambre des Comptes; taxation and tariffs, mainly during the eighteenth century; fees for the passage through private property; documents including the names of landowners which may be of genealogical and historical interest; and disputes concerning tolls.

Trialled in July 2012.

Early Modern Pamphlets Online (Brill Primary Sources Online) [Brill]

This database aims to become the premier source for digital facsimiles of early modern pamphlets. Thus far, the archive includes over 47,000 Dutch and German pamphlets. Other series, including French pamphlets will be added in the future. Currently, the Dutch pamphlets run from 1486 to 1853, the German pamphlets from 1501 to 1600. Most of these digitisations are from microfiche; however, over 600 colour reproductions have also been included.

These pamphlets are a major primary source for scholars of early modern Europe, particularly those interested in political, religious, and social commentary.

Trialled in July 2012.

Reformation in Heidelberg (Brill Primary Sources Online) [Brill]

This collection has been gathered for the purpose of illuminating the intellectual and religious developments during the reigns of Ottheinrich (1556-1559) and Frederick III (1559-1576). This collection is likely to be only the first instalment of a larger project that will continue to track Palatine developments into the early seventeenth century. Primary goal has been to present the complete works of the major Heidelberg figures (Bouquin, Erastus, Olevianus, Ursinus, Zanchi) and samples of the works of secondary figures (Johannes Brunner, Jacob Curio, Klebitz, Johannes Lange, Peter Lotichius Secundus, Wilhelm Roding, Sylvan, Daniel Toussain, Tremellius, Johann Willing, Hermann Witekind, Wilhelm Xylander). Including translations or editions of works of Beze, Calvin, Andreas Dudith, and Melanchthon that were significant in the Heidelberg context. Favoured original editions to the extent that availability and microfilming considerations allow.

Secondarily, illuminating the theological development of the Palatinate including the origins and reception of the Heidelberg Catechism. Including attacks on the Palatine confession by Lutheran scholars (e.g., works by Heshusius, Matthaeus Flacius Illyricus, and Paul Einhorn). Endeavoured to include a wide range of scientific, philosophical and literary works whose variety attests to the intellectual vitality of Reformed Heidelberg.

Trialled in July 2012.

Italian Reformation Online I (Brill Primary Sources Online) [Brill]

A collection of 189 sources, mainly Italian and Latin, also English, French and German, on the Italian Reformation.

"The theological profile of the Italian reformation has not been researched in sufficient depth. Obviously, such an exploration will require specific knowledge of the primary texts. Critical editions, however, are very rarely available. This collection offers a synopsis of the diversity of the manifestations of the Italian Reformation and will therefore facilitate research in this fascinating, still largely fallow area." Brill.

Conrad Gessner's Private Library (Brill Primary Sources Online) [Brill]

The present collection presents the entire corpus of all public interventions by representatives in the National Convention during the trial from November 1792 to January 1793. A six-volume compilation of speeches and interventions during the trial constitutes the nucleus of the collection. It contains some 300 original writings which originally appeared separately.

Two other important items in the collection are contemporary source collections, published during and immediately after Louis's trial: the eight volumes of the Histoire impartiale du procès de Louis XVI by Jean-François Jauffret (Paris: C.-F. Perlet, 1792-1793), and the very rare seven volumes of Le Pour et le Contre. Recueil complet des opinions prononcées à l'Assemblée conventionelle dans le procès de Louis XVI (Paris: Buisson, Chaudé, 1793). Two important speeches in the king's defense, by Jacques Necker (1792) and Lally-Tolendal (Paris-London, 1793), make for a remarkable and representative compilation of contemporary documents on the king's trial.

Trialled in July 2012.

French Revolutionary Opinions (Brill Primary Sources Online) [Brill]

The present collection presents the entire corpus of all public interventions by representatives in the National Convention during the trial from November 1792 to January 1793. A six-volume compilation of speeches and interventions during the trial constitutes the nucleus of the collection. It contains some 300 original writings which originally appeared separately. Two other important items in the collection are contemporary source collections, published during and immediately after Louis's trial: the eight volumes of the Histoire impartiale du procès de Louis XVI by Jean-François Jauffret (Paris: C.-F. Perlet, 1792-1793), and the very rare seven volumes of Le Pour et le Contre. Recueil complet des opinions prononcées à l'Assemblée conventionelle dans le procès de Louis XVI (Paris: Buisson, Chaudé, 1793). Two important speeches in the king's defense, by Jacques Necker (1792) and Lally-Tolendal (Paris-London, 1793), make for a remarkable and representative compilation of contemporary documents on the king's trial.

Trialled in July 2012.

Global Commodities: Trade, Exploration and Cultural Exchange

Trial ended.

Includes wide-ranging sources:

  • Records of individual traders, showing patterns of consumption for a range of commodities over time.
  • Business Accounts and Records of both small and large companies from an early fur trapper to a major chocolate manufacturer.
  • Dock Accounts describing the development of a major port from 1755 to 1960.
  • Bills of Entry for major ports which show changing patterns of trade between 1820 and 1939.
  • 17th and 18th century Trade Returns and Prices Current for key markets.
  • Material on the discovery and exploitation of commodities in Asia, Africa and the Americas from 1492 to 2000.
  • Government records concerning taxation, economic development and colonial business schemes.
  • Exhibition Catalogues.
  • Statistical sources documenting world trade; and a vast range of visual material including advertising and packaging, photographs, paintings and prints.

For each commodity there is a vast array of historical material documenting their origins, transportation, consumption and impact on society. Also, each commodity is documented through a wide range of manuscript materials, maps, posters, paintings, photographs, ephemera, objects and rare books so that the student can explore the origins of the commodity, their first uses, the trade that developed and the ways in which these items were marketed.

Relevant for world history, economic and trade history, social history, discovery and exploration, history of consumption and life style, etc.

Covers early modern to 20th century.

Available in the British Library.

Prize Papers Online

"The Prize Papers archive, part of the archives of the High Court of Admiralty kept in The National Archives (TNA) Kew, is commonly regarded as one of the most valuable archives in the field of maritime history.

In the course of its many naval engagements the British Royal Navy seized numerous enemy ships. Documents pertaining to tens of thousands of these seized ships (“prizes”), Dutch and French, Spanish and Portuguese, but also Danish, Swedish, German, Italian and American have been preserved. Every ship's file contains at least one document in English: transcriptions of the interrogations by the Prize Courts of the captain and other crew members aboard ships taken as lawful prizes."

Available in the British Library.