Special Collections


Early Printed Books | Manuscripts | Archives | Wren Drawings | Hovenden Maps | Fellows' Pamphlets | Vaughan Papers


Anyone wishing to use any of the special collections must apply in advance to the Librarian. Not all items are immediately available, and may need conservation treatment prior to consultation. Early printed books may not be photocopied under any circumstances, but obtaining other forms of reproduction may be possible depending on the condition of the book and the requirements of the reader. Photography (conventional, digital, or microfilm) takes time to arrange, and those requiring reproductions for study or publication are advised to discuss this with a member of the Library staff at the earliest possible opportunity.    

Appointments

Those needing to consult original materials should contact the Library well in advance to allow for provision of images in the first instance, and for necessary arrangements to be made around current staffing constraints.

Image requests

If the condition of the item allows, images can be requested for private research, as well as supplied either in lieu of a visit, or as a conservation measure to reduce the handling of fragile materials. For complete works, images will be uploaded to the Library’s website; specific pages may also be requested. For very large orders, it may be necessary to apply fees, but in most cases there is no charge for this service. Please give as much notice as possible if images are required by a specific date. Images may also be requested for publication; please contact the Library to discuss requirements. All images should be requested via the Image Request Form.


Early Printed Books

The pre-1800 collections at All Souls are rich in almost every subject. The original strength of the collection, as for many institutions founded before 1500, was in Roman and canon law, theology, and medical works. When the Library out-grew the Old Library (now used for lectures), and the building of the new Library was complete, the collection became much more diverse.

Many of the books came from bequests or donations from fellows. The largest was left by Christopher Codrington, known for his ownership of plantations in the Caribbean: the College is working on addressing and contextualizing this legacy. Other contributions, together with some judicious purchasing, created a rich collection including works on classics, science, travel, architecture, philosophy and literature.

A limited number of early printed books have been digitized and images can be viewed via the Library's digital resources site.

Cataloguing

All books printed before c.1850 have been fully catalogued onto SOLO (the University’s union catalogue of printed books). Each record includes both full bibliographical description (including references, pagination/foliation, subject headings and additional notes where required for clarity), and copy specific information (including notes relating to imperfections, binding descriptions, and provenance information).


Manuscripts

Until 1700, the College possessed only fifty manuscripts. The earliest given by the founders, and others presented or bequeathed by fellows of the College. Most of these are, as the Statutes required, listed in the Benefactors’ Register (MS 424), their previous ownership evident from the inscriptions in the books themselves.

In 1786 Luttrell Wynne gave over a hundred volumes of parliamentary journals, state and other papers; these came from collections amassed by Narcissus Luttrell and Owen Wynne; and in 1851 Lady Laura Buchan gave the Persian manuscripts collected and used by her father, Colonel Mark Wilks.

Since the publication of the printed catalogue in 1842, the college has acquired manuscripts by purchase, and donation, mostly relating to the College or its fellows.

A limited number of manuscripts have been digitized and images can be viewed via the Library's digital resources site.

Cataloguing

All the manuscripts up to MS 296 were described in the Library’s original “Coxe Catalogue”: Coxe, H.O., Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Library of All Souls College (Oxford, 1842).

This includes all manuscripts acquired prior to 1874 when the catalogue was published. This printed version can be searched via the digitized copy on the Internet Archive. The pre-1550 manuscripts have been fully catalogued in: Watson, Andrew G., A Descriptive Catalogue of the Medieval Manuscripts of All Souls College, Oxford. (Oxford, 1997).

This catalogue includes descriptions of content and structure, as well as history, bindings and provenance information. Manuscripts acquired since 1842 are currently only listed in an in-house, unpublished handlist, which may be consulted on application to the Library staff. An online catalogue comprising the Coxe catalogue and in-house handlist is in preparation; and the Watson catalogue will be made available online in due course.


Archives

Most of the College’s early archives relate to the estates: title deeds, leases, and associated letters and legal papers. There are also the charters and injunctions relating to the foundation and administration of the College; correspondence between the Wardens and the Visitors (the Archbishops of Canterbury), and other letters and documents relating to the internal running of the college, as well as the accounts and domestic records. The archives were arranged by Warden Hovenden in the late sixteenth century, and this order, maintained through the nineteenth century cataloguing, survives into the twentieth century.

The College holds almost no papers of, or relating to, individual fellows; and references to them in the archives are mostly as signatories to matters of college business.

Most of the College’s archives were transferred to the Bodleian in the late 1966, on the occasion of which Ernest Jacob, (Fellow Librarian 1960-1971) wrote All Souls College Archives, published in Oxoniensia.

The references that occur most often in secondary sources, relate to the Bodleian’s storage of the archives, and are in the form of “MS D.D. All Souls” followed by the number of the box into which the material had been put for the purpose of its removal from the original oak cupboards in College. In 2011 the archives were returned to new purpose-built shelving in the Library.

References to archival material should be made according to the “Trice Martin” catalogue: CTM, p.[#], no.[#]

Material generated after the catalogue was printed was, until the early twentieth century, listed by means of annotating the interleaved copy of the printed catalogue held in the Library. Since then accession to the Library’s collections has been less formal, and work is in progress to arrange and catalogue this material.

A limited amount of archival material has been digitized and images can be viewed via the Library's digital resources site.

Cataloguing

All the College’s archives up to 1877 are described in: Martin, C.T., Catalogue of the archives in the muniment rooms of All Souls' College (London, 1877).

This includes all manuscripts acquired prior to 1874 when the catalogue was published. This printed version can be searched via the digitized copy on the Internet Archive.


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