EARLY ENGLISH BOOKS:

CATALOGS AND COLLECTIONS

 

I. THE CATALOGS

ESTC = "English Short-Title Catalogue" [1473-1800] Formerly the "Eighteenth-Century Short-Title Catalogue," the ESTC's name changed in 1995 when the eighteenth-century records were merged with those for Pollard and Redgrave's STC (books published 1475 to 1640) and Wing (books published 1641 to 1700); this catalog exists only in electronic form.

STC = "Short-Title Catalogue," also known as "Pollard and Redgrave" for the compilers of the bibliography which lists books published from 1473 to 1640 in the British Isles or British territory in any language or in English anywhere in the world.

Pollard and Redgrave = see STC

Wing = This short-title catalogue compiled by a bibliographer named Wing lists books published from 1641 to 1700 in the British Isles or British territory in any language or in English anywhere in the world. (N.B. Does not include broadsides, which were microfilmed separately as "The Thomason Tracts" and which are available electronically through EEBO (see below).)

Eighteenth-Century Short-Title Catalogue = no longer exists electronically as a separate entity (see ESTC above).

EEBO = "Early English Books Online" [1473-1700] (see below)

II. MICROFILM COLLECTIONS

"Early English Books, 1475-1640" =
A microfilm collection of the full texts of the items listed in the STC. MARC records have not been added to Aleph.

"Early English Books, 1641-1700" =
A microfilm collection of the full texts of the items listed in "Wing." MARC records are in Aleph.

"The Eighteenth-Century Collection" [1701-1800] =
A microfilm collection of the full texts of selected eighteenth-century items listed in the ESTC; the ESTC is NOT the catalog of the microfilm collection; microfilming followed the creation of the catalog, not the other way around. However, the ESTC does indicate if an item has been microfilmed by providing the reel number. MARC records have been purchased.

"The Goldsmiths'–Kress Library of Economic Literature."
A microfilm collection of the full texts of publications on economics, business, and sociology printed from the fifteenth to the early twentieth centuries and owned by the University of London, Harvard, Columbia, Yale, and the New York Public Library. Some 60,000 pre-1850 monographs and 466 pre-1906 serials. The eighteenth-century items in this collection may be cited in the ESTC.

"Early English Newspapers."
This microfilm collection is in the process of being purchased. See the Libraries' catalog for holdings.

III. ELECTRONIC RESOURCES

ESTC = English Short-Title Catalogue (see above)

EEBO = "Early English Books Online,"
A fulltext database that contains scanned images of texts listed in the STC, Thomason Tracts, and Wing (i.e., books published from 1473 to 1700); selected texts are also being encoded so as to be fully keyword searchable.

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IMPORTANT TIME DIVISIONS

1473 to 1640
(The beginning of English printing to just before the English Civil War)

1641 to 1700
(The last half of the seventeenth century, which includes the rash of pamphlets published during the English Civil War, a bibliographer's nightmare.)

1701 to 1800 (The eighteenth century)

 

 

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