Early English Books Online (EEBO) is the definitive online collection of early printed works in English, and works printed in England, making digital copies of over 146,000 titles from before 1700 discoverable through an interface tailored for early modern scholars.
No other resource for early modern scholarship is as comprehensive as Early English Books Online. Users can explore complete, digitized images of all the works listed in these key bibliographic records of English literature: The Short-Title Catalogue (Pollard & Redgrave, 1475-1640); The Short-Title Catalogue II (Wing, 1641-1700); The Thomason Tracts; and the Early English Books Tract Supplements, as well as original almanacs, pamphlets, musical scores, prayer books and other intriguing primary sources.
To accompany the page images, the transcribed texts from both phases of the Text Creation Partnership have been integrated alongside the images, helping researchers of all levels to discover more from within the EEBO corpus.
Content Types: almanacs, ballads, books, broadsides, historical periodicals, pamphlets, plays, poems, sermons, and more.
Subjects: etiquette and conduct, education, France, government, history, hunting, Ireland, Latin, law, medicine, politics, science, Scotland, Spain, theology, trade, travel, and more.
Keyword Search Examples: alchemy, America, anatomy, astronomy, botany, Charles II, chemistry, Civil War, East India Company, medicine, new world, Ottoman Empire, Popish Plot, Protestant Reformation, Spanish Armada, witchcraft
This collection contains nearly all the 26,000 titles listed in A.W. Pollard and G.R. Redgrave’s Short-Title Catalogue and its revised edition. Offering works in the areas of English literature, history, philosophy, linguistics and the fine arts, the collection comprehensively documents the English Renaissance – an era that witnessed the rebirth of classical humanism, the broadening of the known world, and the rapid spread of printing and improved education. The writings of revered authors like Spenser, Bacon, More and Shakespeare provide unique windows onto the landscape of English history and culture during this period. Examples from the collection below provide only a cursory glance at the scope of materials in the thousands of titles included.
With this collection, scholars and students of literature can examine the earliest print editions of such classics as Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and Malory’s Morte d’Arthur. They may also compare variations in the early quarto editions of Shakespeare’s plays with the renowned First Folio edition of 1623, and the great Renaissance authors can be studied in the light of lesser-known literature from the era.
Original printings of royal statutes and proclamations, military, religious, legal, parliamentary and other public documents are reproduced in this collection. Insight into the lives of ordinary people can also be gained through almanacs and calendars, broadsides and romances, as well as popular pamphlets like The Trail of Witchcraft, showing the true and righte method of discovery (1616).
Scholars will find a host of sermons, homilies, hagiographies, liturgies and the Book of Common Prayer (1549). The King James Bible (1611) can be studied in relation to earlier English translations, while Latin, Greek and Welsh translations invite comparative analysis across languages.
Other areas of study for:
Spanning the tumultuous years of the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration, STC II continues STC I's mission to preserve valuable research materials on microfilm. With the two combined, libraries can access an unrivalled repository, essential for centers of research supporting strong graduate studies programs.
While the purpose and features of this collection align with those of its predecessor, STC II contains further, more extensive lists of titles in subject areas such as the arts, the sciences, popular culture and women’s studies. An era that saw the rise of a mercantile class, the first English settlements in North America, and the development of secular philosophy and empirical science provides rich possibilities in research.
Students of the arts can access critical discourses on art and literature, such as:
For those interested in the history of science, the collection includes books by Newton, Boyle and Galileo, as well as popular scientific tracts such as Nicholas Culpeper's The English Physician (1652). Meanwhile, students of women's studies can find early editions of Aphra Behn, Anne Killigrew and Margaret Cavendish.
The scope and caliber of these two collections are without rival, providing as they do the materials for scholars in English literature, history, religion, arts, music, physical science, and women's studies the creative latitude required for important research opportunities.
'… a collection of Pamphletts and other writeings and papers bounde up with them of severall volumes gathered by me in the tyme of the late warres and beginning the third day of November A.D. 1640 and continued until the happie returne and coronacion of his most gracious Maiestie King Charles the second, upon which I put a very high esteeme in regard that it is soe intire a work and not to be pararelled and also in respect of the long and greete paynes, industry and charge that hath bin taken and expended in and about the collection of them.'
- from the will of George Thomason (d.1666)
The year 1640 in England marked the beginning of a period of tumult and change. Both the practical and the philosophical bases of the British monarchy were being challenged by determined and powerful enemies, while those who defended the king shared an absolute conviction in his divine right to rule. The differences between these factions led to a bitter civil war and a series of experimental governments that kept England in turmoil until 1660.
This exceptional collection brings together for scholars of English history, politics, and religion nearly everything that was published in England and on the Continent during this critical period. Students and researchers today owe a debt to London publisher and bookseller George Thomason for this material. Thomason knew he was living through important times and set about methodically collecting copies of virtually everything that was being published - from single broadsides to substantial dissertations.
The Thomason Tracts include more than 22,000 individual items representing about 80 percent of what was published during these two decades. The collection includes almost 400 periodicals, most of them unavailable from other sources.
These items complement the titles held in the Wing collection of Early English Books (STC II), and when used in conjunction with that collection provide the research scholar with the most comprehensive resources available. Inevitably, the collection contains a great deal of political material and features:
Thomason took great care to record the date of each paper on the same day it came out, and his neat notations still appear clearly on the title pages of many documents. In addition, he often made marginal notes disputing or ridiculing the opinions of writers he thought in error.
Especially valuable are circa 97 previously unpublished manuscripts, most written in Thomason's own hand, which were considered too dangerous to be circulated in their own time. In fact, Thomason was required to move the growing collection several times during these years to ensure its safety hiding these important records in the homes of friends or concealing them under false tops in library tables.
The collection Thomason left remained intact for a century, largely through luck. In 1761, King George III bought it from Thomason's descendants and presented it to the new British Museum. Thomason tracts have been used by scholars of mid-17th century England for generations and represent an almost inexhaustible supply of material for studying military, constitutional, political, literary, and social life in England during this volatile period in world history.
The Early English Books Tract Supplement provides an exceptional perspective on many aspects of 16th- and 17th-century British life. Over the course of many years, small items such as broadsides and pamphlets were often collected into "scrapbooks," or tract volumes, classified by various criteria such as dates or topics. These tract volumes, primarily from the British Library, allow readers to see the material in the same order as they would when leafing through the original volume.
EEBO provides comprehensive coverage of Unit 1 of the Tract Supplement. Coverage of Unit 2, the final part of this collection, is also now substantially complete in EEBO. Facsimile Document Images showing the few outstanding items from Unit 2 will be added to EEBO as part of future updates of the service.
Scholars and researchers in history, religion, literature, music, poetry, gender studies, and other fields will benefit from the unique perspective provided by this collection. Documents in the collection include:
Brochures
Essays and Resource Guides