Rare Books: Researching library history

Bodleian library history and collections

• Clapinson, M, A Brief History of the Bodleian Library (Oxford : Bodleian Library, 2015)
• Macray, W.D., Annals of the Bodleian Library Oxford, 2^nd edition (Oxford, 1890)
• Craster, E., History of the Bodleian Library 1845-1945 (Oxford, 1952, reprinted 1981)
• Philip, I.G., The Bodleian Library in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth centuries (Oxford, 1983)
• Walker, G , et. al. (eds.), The Bodleian Library : a subject guide to the collections (Oxford : Bodleian Library, 2004)
• Morgan, P, Oxford libraries outside the Bodleian : a guide, 2nd edition (Oxford : Bodleian Library, 1980) includes both college and faculty libraries
• The history of the University of Oxford (Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1984-2000) 8 volumes; each volume contains a chapter on library provision during the period
• Attar, K, A directory of rare book and special collections in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, 3rd edition (London : Facet, 2016), pages 312-355 cover libraries in Oxford

Library buildings

• Barber, G, Arks for learning : a short history of Oxford library buildings (Oxford : Oxford Bibliographical Society, 1995)
• Tyack, G, The historic heart of Oxford University (Oxford : Bodleian Library, 2021)
• De la Mare, A.C., Duke Humfrey's Library & the Divinity School 1488-1988 (Oxford : Bodleian Library, 1988) [exhibition catalogue]
• Gillam, S, The Divinity School and Duke Humfrey's Library at Oxford (Oxford : Clarendon Press in association with the Bodleian Library, 1988)
• Clapinson, M, Beetles, beams & buttresses : 500 years of maintaining the Old Library (Oxford : Bodleian Library, 1998)
• Sturdy, D, ‘Bodley’s Bookcases: “This goodly Magazine of witte”’ John Donne journal, V (1986), pp 267-290
• Hebron, S, Dr Radcliffe's Library : the story of the Radcliffe Camera in Oxford (Oxford : Bodleian Library, 2014)
• Bird, R, Celebrating 50 years of the Bodleian Law Library : 1964-2014 (Oxford : Bodleian Law Library, 2014)
• New Bodleian : making the Weston Library (Oxford : Bodleian Library in association with WilkinsonEyre and Mace, 2016)

Bodleian treasures

• Rogers, D, The Bodleian Library and its treasures , 1320-1700 (Henley on Thames : Ellis, 1991)
• Wonderful things from 400 years of collecting : the Bodleian Library 1602-2002 (Oxford : Bodleian library, 2002)
• Hebron, S, Marks of genius : masterpieces from the collections of the Bodleian Libraries (Oxford : Bodleian Library 2014.)
• Vaisey, D, Bodleian library treasures (Oxford : The Bodleian Library, 2015)

Miscellanea

• Aylmer, U, Most noble Bodley! : a Bodleian Library anthology (Oxford : Bodleian Library, 2002)
• Garlick, K, Catalogue of portraits in the Bodleian Library (Oxford : Bodleian Library, 2004)
• A cabinet of curiosities : unusual items in the Bodleian Library (Oxford : Bodleian Library, 1998)
• Clennell, W, ‘The Bodleian declaration : a history’, Bodleian Library Record, vol. 20, nos 1-2, 2007, pp 47-60.

The Library's early catalogues of printed books are available online, either as scans of library copies or via Early English Books Online (login required).

• 1605: Thomas James, Catalogus librorum bibliothecæ publicæ ​​​​​(Facsimile available in Rare Books & MSS reading room at shelfmark: R.Ref.371)
• 1620: Thomas James, Catalogus vniuersalis librorum in Bibliotheca Bodleiana 
• 1635: Appendix ad catalogum librorum in Bibliotheca Bodleiana 
• 1674: Thomas Hyde, Catalogus impressorum librorum bibliothecæ Bodlejanæ
• 1738: [R. Fysher], Catalogus impressorum librorum bibliothecæ Bodleianæ volume 1 ; volume 2
• 1843-51:Catalogus librorum impressorum Bibliothecae Bodleianae in Academia Oxoniensi volume 1 ; volume 2 ; volume 3 ; volume 4

• 1604 Bodleian Benefactors’ Register (Munificentissimis atque optimis…) 
• 1780-1861 During this period purchase lists were published annually with titles in the format: A catalogue of books purchased for the Bodleian Library in 1780 [etc.]. Electronic versions of most of the 18th-century lists are available via ECCO and can be found through SOLO.

The Library preserves a large quantity of its own administrative records from 1602 to the present. They reflect the various aspects of the work of the Library over four centuries (though few series are complete for the whole period), including: Curators' minutes and reports; accounts and bills; papers concerning the construction and repair of buildings; correspondence with donors, depositors and enquirers; papers about the acquisition and cataloguing of collections, records of readers' admission and book orders; material about exhibitions; and the records of modern departments and dependent libraries.

There is no published catalogue of this material, but draft finding aids can be made available on request in the Rare Books and Manuscripts Reading Room.

Access to certain records less than 80 years old is restricted.

Please see Finding Aids - Early Modern & Modern Manuscripts at the Bodleian Library for more information.