Information
The Library at All Souls College is, like all Oxford college libraries, an independent institution. Its modern collections are particularly strong in law and history, especially the history of Britain and early modern Europe, and military history. Philosophy, sociology, and the history of science are also well represented.
The Library welcomes applications for admission (supported by a recommendation from tutor or supervisor) by law and history undergraduates, and graduate students of the University of Oxford. Junior members in other faculties may also apply for admission. The Bodleian card is in itself not sufficient to secure entry to the Library.
The early collections, accessible by appointment to bona fide scholars, are rich in almost every subject, and supported by a growing collection of books on bibliography and book history.
The Library’s printed book collections are catalogued onto the University’s online catalogue, SOLO. This includes the early printed books, many of which are also available via EEBO, and an increasing number of digitized items are accessible via our digital resources website, here: Early Printed Books - The Library, All Souls College (ox.ac.uk).
The developing digital resources website (The Library, All Souls College: Digital Resources (ox.ac.uk)) also includes the fully digitized The Architectural Drawings of Sir Christopher Wren at All Souls College, Oxford: a complete catalogue, by Anthony Geraghty, which links to the high resolution images at Digital Bodleian; as well as digitized maunscripts, archives, and the Library’s blog, In Capitulis.
Books about the Library
- I. Maclean, All Souls Library 1438-2008: buildings, collections, donors (Oxford: All Souls College, 2008).*
Catalogues:
- A. Geraghty, The Architectural Drawings of Sir Christopher Wren at All Souls College, Oxford: a complete catalogue (Aldershot: Lund Humphries, 2007).*
- A. Watson, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Medieval Manuscripts of All Souls College, Oxford (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997).*
- C. Trice Martin, Catalogue of the Archives in the Muniment Rooms of All Souls College (London, 1877).
Other works:
- A. Gerbino and S. Jonston, Compass and Rule: Architecture as Mathematical Practice (Oxford: Museum of the History of Science, 2009).
- J. Bengtson, 'Benefaction Registers in Oxford Libraries' in Library History, 16 (2000), 143-52.
- A. Watson, 'The Post-Medieval Library' in Unarmed Soldiery: Studies in the Early History of All Souls College (Oxford: All Souls College, 1996).
Giles Barber, Arks for Learning: a Short History of Oxford Library Buildings (Oxford: Oxford Bibliographical Society, 1995). - H. Colvin, and J.S.G. Simmons, All Souls: An Oxford College and its Buildings (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989).*
- P. Morgan, Oxford Libraries outside the Bodleian (Oxford: Bodleian Library, 1980).
- E. Craster, The History of All Souls College Library, ed. E.F. Jacob (London: Faber, 1971).*
- N. Ker, Records of All Souls College Library, 1437-1600 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971).
- Fine Bindings from Oxford Libraries: catalogue of an exhibition (Oxford: Bodleian Library, 1968).
Books marked with an asterisk may be available for purchase; please direct any enquiries to library@all-souls.ox.ac.uk.
A list of books relating to All Souls College may be found on the Books about the College page.