HFL Rare Books

Annotations from 1671 on Prynne title pageThe History Faculty Library holds a small collection of antiquarian books, with around 200 titles in over 500 volumes.  These books come from a variety of sources, including other Oxford libraries, stately homes, and historians’ private collections.  The majority of items date from the 18th and 19th centuries. There are also a dozen 16th- and 17th-century items, and some 20th-century books are included for special provenance interest.

The HFL Rare Books blog contains details of all the books in this collection.  You can browse by author, date, publisher and place of publication, or use the tags to find books of a particular provenance.  As most of these books are not in SOLO, we hope that the Rare Books blog will increase the use of this collection and make readers aware of some of the gems in the HFL.

The collection is especially strong in British and European history.  A large proportion is early modern British source material, including long runs of parliamentary papers and statutes.

The books are available for consultation by registered readers on request.  Please contact the library for further information.

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