Other Collections

Wren Drawings

After the death of Sir Christopher Wren's son, the College acquired almost half of the extant drawings, representing the full spectrum of Wren's career, including his work for the church, the crown, and the universities; many of the drawings show un-executed designs and preparatory sketches.

Before contacting the Library, those wishing to view drawings, or request images, are advised to consult:

 Anthony Geraghty, The Architectural Drawings of Sir Christopher Wren at All Souls College, Oxford: a Complete Catalogue (Aldershot: Lund Humphries, 2008).

An online version of this catalogue can be found on the Library website at https://library.asc.ox.ac.uk/wren/

Digitized versions of the drawings are available on Digital Bodleian, and these are linked from the appropriate entries in the online catalogue.

Images for private use may be downloaded from the Digital Bodleian site either as complete images (medium resolution), or for selected details, in higher resolution.

For complete images in high resolution, whether for private use or publication, please complete the Image Request Form.


All Souls College Estate Maps

The Hovenden Maps detail the College's estates, surveyed at the request of Warden Robert Hovenden, and were produced in the 1590s. These have recently been digitized and are an invaluable source for historians of land administration, husbandry, land usages, and the history of buildings; as well as for those interested in land ownership in the counties of Buckinghamshire, Norhamptonshire, and Middlesex.

A more detailed introduction to the collection and a complete searchable listing of the maps, with links to the individual digital images, is available at https://library.asc.ox.ac.uk/hovenden/

The digitized versions of the maps themselves are hosted on Digital Bodleian, where they are organized by portfolio.

Images for private use may be downloaded from the Digital Bodleian site either as complete images (medium resolution), or for selected details, in higher resolution.

For complete images in high resolution, whether for private use or publication, please complete the Image Request Form.


Vaughan Papers

The Library posesses the papers of Sir Charles Richard Vaughan (1774-1849). Vaughan was British emissary to Spain in 1808, and travelled widely in France, Spain, the Levant, Western Asia, and Russia. In 1825 he was appointed Envoy Extraordinary to the United States of America, until October 1835. There is a type-written catalogue of the entire collection available in the Library. All the papers have been microfilmed, and these may be viewed in the Library.


Fellows’ Pamphlets

The Library holds a collection of lectures, offprints, memorial addresses, and other articles written by Fellows of the College, which date mainly from 1900 to the present. A full listing is available in the Library.


The Bibliotheca Palatina collection of printed books (1462-1622)

The Library possesses the microfiche edition of the 11,303 volumes of the Bibliotheca Palatina, as well as the four volumes of indices in hard copy (Bibliotheca palatina: Druckschriften: Katalog zur Microfiche-Ausgabe, ed. Elmar Mittler, Munich: Saur 1999) which are available for open consultation (shelfmark: Ref:Cat.Bks.4).

The Palatine Library was founded in 1438, when Heidelberg University received 155 manuscripts donated by Louis III, elector Prince of the Palatinate (1378-1436). Later, the manuscript and bibliographic collection increased, thanks to the work of Count Ottheinrich (1502-1559), a great lover of books, who established criteria to ensure the future growth of the Library and opened it to the public. Among its most significant acquisitions was the private library of the famous banker Ulrich Fugger, who sold it to the University in 1567. In 1622, during the Thirty Years War, the Library was seized by the troops of Maximilian I of Bavaria, who offered it to Pope Gregory XV as war booty and sent it to Rome, where it has been ever since, forming the ‘Stampati Palatini’ collection of the Vatican Library. From 1989 to 1995, the printed books, excluding the manuscripts, were microfilmed by Saur and published in more than 21,000 microfiches. Among the areas of knowledge represented in the collection are law, medicine, current affairs, and theology, where the works of Protestant authors published in Germany and France have a special place. Many of these texts are not available in any other Oxford library.

One way of checking online whether a particular text is available in this collection is to go to the the Herzog-August-Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel, and follow the links to the "OPAC- WWW-Katalog der HAB" (from http://www.hab.de/en/home/library/catalogues-databases.html) in which all the microfiches of the Bibliotheca Palatina have the prefix Microfiche 1518:

The manuscripts have been digitized, and are to be found at http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/en/bpd/index.html