Database of the Month House of Commons Parliamentary Papers

Posted on 4 June 2013 by iholowaty

The House of Commons Parlimentary Papers (HCPP) database includes a wealth of full text primary resources on the UK and its relations with colonies and other foreign countries from the early 18th Century to 21st century.

Both Houses of Parliament, the Commons and the Lords, produce parliamentary papers which include sessional papers, command papers, bills, reports and accounts from the 18th to the 21st century. For the period 1805 to 2005, HCPP also includes the full-text searchable Hansard, the verbatim record of parliamentary debates.

While in itself HCPP provides sources on the history of governance and admininstration of the UK and its colonies, it is also a key source for historians working on political, social, economic, legal & constitutional, military, diplomatic, cultural and religious history of the UK. It is also very useful for finding statistical reports and annual account, whether they relate to transport, supporting the arts, or trade.

The different collections listed below within the database can be cross-searched and browsed.

18th Century Parlimentary Papers
HCPP provides digitised full text version of the Commons and Lords Session Papers and Commons Reports and Accounts from 1715-1800 and details of private, local and personal bills. These can be browsed or searched by subject.

Case of the poor straw had makers

19th Century Parlimentary Papers
A subject catalogue has been constructed for the 19th century papers which allows browsing by social, political and economic topics. Examples of topics include slavery, education, poverty, Ireland and India, which can each be narrowed down into more detail.

Browsing by subject

Hansard 1803-2005
The Official Report of debates Parliament, known as Hansard, is an edited record of parliamentary debates and questions, including written ministerial statements and answers to parliamentary questions as well as the transcripts of debates. The Parliamentary Register, a precursor of Hansard which recorded debates from 1776-1805, is included in the Eighteenth Century Parliamentary Papers Collection.

Commons Sitting of Friday, August 7, 1807 – debate Irish Arms Bill

It contains a wealth of information and detail of individual speakers. Newspapers frequently reported on proceedings of Parliament and are a useful complementary source (cf Historical Newspapers blog post 2/4/13).

Hansard 1988- is freely available online.

Other similar databases and resources

Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) which includes reprints of Statutes of the Realm
Cobbett’s Parliamentary History
History of Parliament (CD-ROM)
Making of Modern Law: Legal treaties 1800-1926, The
HeinOnline (includes Selden Society publications and Statutes of the Realm)
Documents on British Policy Overseas
Cabinet Papers 1915-1978, The
Confidential Print: Africa, 1834-1966
Confidential Print: Middle East, 1839-1969
Confidential Print: North America 1824-1961
Macmillan Cabinet Papers 1957-63
Parliament UK

Ghosts in the Machine: (Re)Constructing the Bodleian’s Index of Literary Correspondence, 1927-1963

Posted on 29 May 2013 by iholowaty

[Selectively re-blogged from the Cultures of Knowledge blog, with permission from the authors.]

Early Modern Letters Online – or EMLO for short – is a growing union catalogue of sixteenth-, seventeenth-, and eighteenth-century correspondence. The project is based at the Faculty of History, Oxford. At the heart of EMLO is the The ‘Index of Literary Correspondence’.

The ‘Index of Literary Correspondence’ in the Bodleian Library is a card catalogue which occupies an imposing set of wooden filing drawers at the ‘Selden End’ of the Duke Humfrey’s Library.

It is a remarkable free-standing resource, describing a significant percentage of Bodleian’s rich holdings of sixteenth-, seventeenth-, and eighteenth-century correspondence, and had been accessible until recently only to those working on-site. Now you can read in Ghosts in the Machine: (Re)Constructing the Bodleian’s Index of Literary Correspondence, 1927-1963 about the history of its creation. The blog post documents a wonderful piece of Bodleian Library history and profiles the staff involved at the time.

As part of the EMLO project The Index of Literary Correspondence has been scanned and digitised, and now its 48,691 unique records can be searched and browsed online within EMLO, radically improving the discoverability and manipulability of the cards and the letters to which they refer.

Do you know something about the Index of Literary Correspondence? Get in touch with EMLO researchers. Email: cofk@humanities.ox.ac.uk.

Trial until 16 May: Early European Books

Posted on 2 May 2013 by iholowaty

Oxford readers are now invited to trial the complete Early European Books. Note that Early European Books 2 (Italian collection) is already held in Oxford.

Early European Books provides scholars with new ways of accessing and exploring the printed record of early modern Europe, drawing together a diverse array of printed sources from the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries. All works printed in Europe before 1701, regardless of language, fall within the scope of the project, together with all pre-1701 works in European languages printed further afield.

Early European Books builds upon and complements Early English Books Online (EEBO) and is largely concerned with non-Anglophone materials.

Let us know what you think!

Trial ends 16 May 2013. You can leave feedback on the History databases desiderata or email Isabel Holowaty.

New: ARTFL – French texts online

Posted on 12 March 2013 by iholowaty

Cherchez-vous les sources littéraires et historiques? Voici une solution.

Oxford users have access ARTFL is an indispensable collection of electronic resources for researchers in French Language and Literature, spanning medieval to 19th century, which are also useful for historians. It includes some Italian texts too.

Here is the content:

FRANTEXT: comprising 3,558 French texts from the 12th to the 20th centuries
French Women Writers, over 100 works by French women authors from the 16th to the 19th century.
Provençal Poetry, 38 collections of texts from the 12th and 13th centuries.
Textes de Français Ancien (TFA), 103 works from the 12th through 15th century.
The Journal de Trévoux, ou Mémoires pour l’Histoire des Sciences & des Beaux-Arts. 109 volumes, 1751-1758.
Pierre Bayle, Dictionnaire historique et critique (5th Edition, 1740).
Louis Moréri, Le Grand dictionnaire historique, ou le Mélange curieux de l’Histoire sacrée et profane, etc. (1759).
Opera del Vocabolario Italiano (OVI) Database, 1,960 vernacular texts dated prior to 1375, including Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio
many lesser-known texts

Searching is a little basic so do make use of the index search options. Access is via SOLO or OxLIP+.

Looking for more French texts online? Oxford users have access to the following:

Corpus de Littérature Médiévale des origines a la fin du 15e siècle

Dictionnaires des XVIe et XVIIe siècles

Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire Raisonné des Sciences, des Arts et des Métiers, L’

Géographies du Monde, Les

Textes de la Renaissance

Bibliothèque de la Renaissance

Oxford Bibliographical Society Lecture Mon 25 Feb

Posted on 21 February 2013 by iholowaty

Oxford Bibliographical Society Lectures

Monday, 25 February 2013
Taylor Institution, Seminar Room 3, 17:15

Paddy Bullard (University of Kent)
“Bare words not being sufficient…”
Tacit Knowledge and Early Modern Books

Dr Paddy Bullard is lecturer in eighteenth-century studies at the University of Kent, Canterbury. From January 2005 to December 2009 he was an AHRC Research Fellow attached to the Cambridge Edition of the Works of Jonathan Swift, and Rank Junior Research Fellow at St. Catherine’s College, Oxford. His monograph, Edmund Burke and the Art of Rhetoric, was published by Cambridge in 2011, and he has co-edited with James McLaverty a volume of essays, Jonathan Swift and the Eighteenth-Century Book (CUP, 2013). He is currently completing a new scholarly edition of Burke’s Philosophical Enquiry into the Sublime and Beautiful, and a book on the British enlightenment and the cognitive unconscious.

Related Links

Magdalen Library Talk Wed 27 Feb

Posted on 18 February 2013 by iholowaty

Title cover of 1563 edition

Magdalen Library Talk

Wednesday 27 February, 5.30pm

Dr Tom Freeman will talk about how one of the most influential publications ever, John Foxe’s “Actes and Monuments” or “Book of Martyrs,” came into being. There will be a chance to examine close up the three editions owned by Magdalen College: the first two editions (1563 and 1570), which were presented to the College by Foxe himself, as well as the copiously illustrated edition of 1631, which the College recently acquired.

The exhibition of early medical books continues in the Old Library too, and will be available for viewing.

Related Publications

Religion and the Book in Early Modern England by Elizabeth Evenden and Thomas Freeman (CUP, 2011)
Browse and compare the unabridged texts of the four editions of this massive work published in John Foxe’s lifetime (1563, 1570, 1576, 1583) online at The Acts and Monuments Online (johnfoxe.org)

History Database of the Month: State Papers Online

Posted on 4 February 2013 by iholowaty

Each month we will be highlighting an online database available to Oxford University historians here on our blog and on the noticeboard in the Upper Radcliffe Camera.

February’s database is State Papers Online I – IV: The Tudors, Stuarts & Commonwealth 1509-1714 (Foreign & Domestic).

What is State Papers Online?

State Papers Online (SPO) contains the Tudor and Stuart government ‘domestic’ and ‘foreign’ papers – the equivalent of today’s documents from the Home and Foreign Offices and the Royal Archives.

Research Tools area on SPO

These everyday working papers of the British royal government reveal Tudor and Stuart society and government, religion and politics in all its drama allowing scholars to trace the remarkable – and frequently violent – transformations of the 16th & 17th centuries. This major resource re-unites the Domestic, Foreign, Borders, Scotland, and Ireland State Papers of Britain with the Registers of the Privy Council and other State Papers now housed in the British Library.

The papers are accompanied by fully searchable calendars, and each calendar entry has been linked directly to its related state paper. As well as being able to search and browse through papers and calendars, there are additional research tools, including information about dates, money and maps, image galleries and essays by historians.

More information about the resources is available in the SPO online guided tour.

How can I access State Papers Online?

SPO can be accessed via OxLIP+ or SOLO by searching ‘State Papers Online’. Current student and staff members of Oxford University can access SPO off campus by signing into SOLO or OxLIP+ using their Single Sign-On (SSO).

Other useful databases covering the 17^th century

These databases are all available via OxLIP+

Database of the month in the Upper Camera

Easier access to CD-Roms in Upper Radcliffe Camera

Posted on 12 November 2012 by iholowaty

Our consultation space

Access to some key history CD-Roms has been added to the library PC in the consultation space in the Upper Radcliffe Camera, next to the Bodleian History Faculty Library Staff Office. Please contact us if you would like more information.

Luther’s Works
The Luther’s Works CD ROM (the 55 volume American edition of Luther’s Works, ed. by Jaroslav Pelikan and Helmut Lehmann) for SS Luther and the German Reformation has been loaded on to the PC in the consultation space, and by clicking on the icon “Libronix Digital Library System” readers can access it with no need to request the CD from the office or spending time installing it.

This CD-Rom makes available the entire 55-volume set of Luther’s Works, a magisterial translation project published jointly by Fortress Press and Concordia Publishing House in 1957. It includes the entire Luther corpus, the KJV Bible, and the Book of Concord (Tappert edition).

Enduring Vision
The Enduring Vision CD has been installed but readers still need to request the CD from the office before the programs can be used.

The CD is an electronic version of The Enduring Vision by Paul Boyer, et al., a history textbook of the American people. In addition to the text and appendixes in the printed textbook, this interactive edition also contains audio, video, maps, charts, and software tools to explore the text and data.

Gandhi
The Gandhi CD CD has also been installed but readers still need to request the CD from the office before the programs can be used.

The CD offers four multimedia presentations: Introducing Gandhiji, Landmark events, Gandhian concepts, and the electronic book, containing the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi in chronological order.

Related Links
SOLO | Undergraduate collections

New: State Papers Online III-IV: The Stuarts & Commonwealth 1509-1714

Posted on 28 September 2012 by iholowaty

Oxford users now have access to State Papers Online III and IV which covers the Stuart and Commonwealth Domestic and Foreign papers 1603-1714.

State Papers Online contains the Tudor and Stuart governments “domestic” and “foreign” papers – the equivalent of today’s documents from the Home and Foreign Offices and the Royal Archives. These everyday working papers of the British royal government reveal Tudor and Stuart society and government, religion and politics in all its drama allowing scholars to trace the remarkable – and frequently violent – transformations of the 16th & 17th centuries. This major resource re-unites the Domestic, Foreign, Borders, Scotland, and Ireland State Papers of Britain with the Registers of the Privy Council and other State Papers now housed in the Cotton, Harley and Lansdowne collections in the British Library.

The papers are digitised images and are accompanied by the Calendars. The Calendars State Papers are fully searchable, and each Calendar entry has been linked directly to its related State Paper. Among the Calendars included are the HMC Calendars and the Haynes/Murdin transcriptions of the Cecil Papers in Hatfield House.

SPO is relevant to those studying Early Modern British and European history: diplomatic, political, social, cultural, local, legal, religious, kingship and queenship, exploration, travel and trade and early empire; Early Modern literature; Renaissance and Reformation Studies; Tudor & Stuart history.

Full details of the content, useful history of the archives, introductory essays to the Stuart period and supportive tools , are on SPO.

Access is now via SOLO and OxLIP+.

Other useful databases covering the 17th Century:
Early English Books Online – Early European Books Online (Italian Collection) – Colonial State Papers – 17th-18th Century Burney Newspapers – Electronic Enlightenment – Proceedings of the Old Bailey, London, 1674-1913

New to Oxford users: Dictionnaires des XVIe et XVIIe siècles

Posted on 17 August 2012 by iholowaty

Following a successful trial in May, access to Dictionnaires des XVIe et XVIIe siècles has now been secured and available via OxLIP+.

It is a database of ten historical French dictionaries of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It allows you to search these dictionaries all at the same time. They include:

Dictionnaire françois-latin de Robert Estienne, Paris, 1549
Thresor de la langue françoyse, tant ancienne que moderne de Jean Nicot, Paris, 1606
A Dictionarie of the french and english tongues de Randle Cotgrave, London, 1611
Les Origines de la langue françoise de Gilles Ménage, Paris, 1650
Dictionnaire françois de Pierre Richelet, Genève, 1680
Essai d’un dictionaire universel d’Antoine Furetière, Amsterdam, 1687
Dictionaire universel d’Antoine Furetière, La Haye et Rotterdam, 1690
Dictionnaire étymologique ou Origines de la langue françoise de Gilles Ménage, Paris, 1694
Le Dictionnaire de l’Académie françoise dedié au Roy, Paris, 1694
Le Dictionnaire des Arts et des Sciences de Thomas Corneille, Paris, 1694

Lacking a French ‘OED’, it is the closest thing there is to a historical French dictionary. It is likely to be of interest to historians, social scientists as well as to linguists and literary scholars.

Related resource:

Portail lexicale – Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales

A meta search engine for French historical dictionaries:

– Le Dictionnaire du Moyen Français
– Le Dictionnaire Électronique de Chrétien de Troyes
– La troisième édition (1552) du Dictionarium latinogallicum de Robert Estienne
– Le Thresor de la langue françoyse, tant ancienne que moderne de Jean Nicot (Paris, David Douceur, 1606)
– Le Dictionaire historique et critique de Bayle (fac-similé de la version de 1740)
– Le Dictionaire de Trévoux (imprimé à Nancy en 1740 chez Pierre Antoine)
– Le Dictionaire critique de la langue française Jean-François Féraud (1787-1788)
– Le dictionnaire de l’Académie française (var. eds)
– L’Encyclopédie de Diderot et d’Alembert

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Tag Archives: early modern history