Images from over 2,500 medieval manuscripts from the Bodleian and Oxford colleges, with 500 fully digitized items.

The Bodleian’s collection of medieval manuscripts originates with the first books that the University of Oxford acquired. Some were lost with the destruction of Duke Humfrey’s Library in the 16th century, but Sir Thomas Bodley's re-establishment of the university library in 1602 brought in more manuscripts from around the world than the medieval university itself possessed. Many manuscripts originated from the dissolved monasteries of Great Britain.

The collection was further enhanced by donations through the 17th and 18th centuries, such as those of William Laud, Sir Kenelm Digby, and Elias Ashmole. The 19th and early 20th centuries brought further opportunities for acquisitions, notably of books belonging to Francis Douce and Matteo Luigi Canonici. The priorities and interests of such collectors have determined the manuscripts surviving in the Bodleian as much as their medieval creators.

Digitized items include MS. Ashmole 1511, “the Ashmole bestiary”, a richly decorated early 13th century English bestiary; MS. Junius 1, “the Orrmulum”, a 12th century book of verse written in phonetic Middle English, and Exeter College’s MS 47, a psalter owned by both Elizabeth of York and Katherine of Aragon.

Western manuscripts and archives from the years 1500 to 1800.

The Bodleian holds one of the world’s largest and most wide-ranging collections of archives and manuscripts. Strengths of the early modern holdings include major antiquarian and topographical collections from the 17th century onwards, which provide essential sources for 17th-18th century British and Irish history; Britain's relationship with European states; Britain's imperial and colonial history; and British literature.

A small number of these have been digitized to date, including 'Tradescants' Orchard’, a set of 17th century watercolours of garden fruits; both volumes of John Aubrey's Monumenta Britannica; and Jane Austen's Volume the First.

Digital Bodleian also includes early modern manuscripts from Oxford college libraries, among them a transcript of David Gregory's Notes on Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica held by Christ Church; and John Prideaux's teaching notes from Exeter College.

Manuscripts and archives from the year 1801 to the present day.

The Bodleian holds one of the world’s largest and most wide-ranging collections of archives and manuscripts. The modern holdings (1801-) provide excellent sources for British political, diplomatic, social and economic history; the politics, economics and social development of African and Commonwealth countries during the colonial and post-colonial period; international development and international relations; British literature; science and medicine; and art history and visual culture.

Around 100 modern manuscripts and archives from the Bodleian have been digitized to date, including Mary Shelley's Frankenstein drafts; 30 volumes of William Godwin's diary; an important album of photography by Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879); and T.E. Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom.

Digital Bodleian also includes the Ashmolean Museum’s Arthur Evans Papers, and post-1800 manuscripts from Oxford college libraries, including Christ Church's Lewis Carroll collection.

Charters were among the first objects that came into the University of Oxford’s possession. Many remain in the University Archives. The earliest charter naming the university is WPβ/P/12/1, granted on 20 June 1214 – sometimes considered Oxford’s foundation charter. Many other charters from the university’s medieval archives are available on Digital Bodleian. These include three of the Bodleian's four surviving pre-1300 ‘engrossments’ of Magna Carta: MS. Ch. Oxon. Oseney 142b (1217), MS. Ch. Oxon. Oseney 142c (1217), MS. Ch. Gloucs. 8 (1217).

The wax seals attached to the Bodleian’s charters were mostly detached during the nineteenth century and now form a separate collection. A few of these are available on Digital Bodleian, such as an example of the second great seal of Henry II (king of England from 1154 to 1189), MS. Ch. Yorks. 1*.

This collection also includes eight 5th century BCE clay seals of the Persian prince and satrap Arshama.

A small number of fragments of Greek and Latin texts on papyrus.

The Bodleian holds classical papyri from the Hellenistic to Byzantine periods, mostly written in Greek with a few in Latin. The Bodleian’s first papyri were a group of four carbonized rolls excavated at Herculaneum in 1752, given to the university by the Prince of Wales in 1810.

The digitized fragments available in Digital Bodleian include a second-century fragment of the lyric poet Sappho (MS. Gr. class. c. 76 (P)); two second- and third-century rolls of Homer’s Iliad (MSS. Gr. class. a. 1 (P) and a. 8 (P)); and a single leaf from a papyrus codex of the third century (MS. Gr. th. e. 7 (P)) containing the Sayings of Jesus, which was later identified from a parallel Coptic version as part of the Gospel of Thomas.

Further images of papyri are available online through the Imaging Papyri Project.

Nahuatl and Mixtec manuscripts depicting religious rituals and the history of the Aztec kings.

Images from graduals, psalters and other manuscripts featuring musical notation.

The Bodleian has many medieval liturgical books, sacred and secular music fragments within other volumes, and treatises on music. Among the library’s earliest musical liturgical manuscripts are the ‘Leofric Missal’ (MS. Bodl. 579), a ninth-century French Sacramentary with additions from tenth-century England; and the eleventh-century Winchester Troper (MS. Bodl. 775).

The medieval polyphony includes the famous source of fifteenth-century music by Dufay and others in MS. Canon. Misc. 213, and an anthology of fifteenth-century English carols, including the ‘Agincourt Song’ (MS. Arch. Selden B. 26). Outside the Western church tradition, there are also important sources of Byzantine chant of the eleventh to nineteenth centuries.

The Bodleian has numerous sources of both ancient Greek and medieval Latin theory, as well as important sources for Hebrew, Arabic, and Persian writings on music. For example, MS. Bodl. 842 is a collection of treatises on music from fifteenth-century England; MS. Canon. Class. Lat. 273 is a copy of Boethius’s De institutione musica likely from fifteenth-century Bologna.

Over 500 fully-digitized books printed in Europe before 1501.

The Bodleian Library houses the largest collection of western incunabula - books printed with movable metal type up to the end of 1500 - in a university library, amounting to more than 5,600 editions in 6,755 copies.

The books themselves are in the classical and vernacular languages, and cover all subjects and disciplines. They range from a copy of the Gutenberg Bible purchased in 1793, and the sumptuous ‘Strozzi copy’ of Pliny’s Natural History in Italian from the bequest of Francis Douce (one of the Library’s principal donors), and both of which have been digitized, to smaller and much-used copies of medieval devotional works and school-texts.

In addition, the Bodleian’s collections also contain several blockbooks (printed from wooden blocks, on to which the texts and illustrations have been cut). All of the blockbooks, containing biblical and grammatical texts, have now been fully digitized.

Rare printed books produced after the 15th century, including Shakespeare's First Folio.

The rare books holdings of the Bodleian Library reflect its history as the library of the University of Oxford since 1602, with particular strengths in theology, law, the classical tradition, mathematics, life sciences, literature and early children’s books, although almost all subjects and genres are represented.

This collection of digital images includes a very small sample of some of our great printed treasures, including works by William Shakespeare and William Blake; the Bay Psalm Book (the first book printed in British North America); and examples of less well known titles. Also available are a small number of items from Christ Church, Exeter College and Magdalen College.

Over 800 games, playbills, posters, writing blanks and more from the John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera.

The John Johnson Collection is one of the largest collections of printed ephemera in the world. It offers a fresh view of British history through primary, uninterpreted printed documents which, produced for short-term use, have survived by chance, including advertisements, handbills, playbills and programmes, menus, greetings cards, posters, postcards. The Collection is strongest in the 18th to early 20th centuries but also contains earlier material.

The digitized material includes writing blanks and board games, and 18th century entertainment ephemera.

Early modern partbooks, 19th-century piano sheet music and other printed music.

Images from 80 important Arabic manuscripts and maps.

When the Bodleian Library opened in 1602, the library already held a manuscript copy of the Qur’an. Substantial additions of Arabic material were soon made with the collections of scholars such as Archbishop William Laud, Edward Pococke and Robert Huntington. In 1714 the largest single, named collection of Arabic manuscripts, that of Archbishop Narcissus Marsh, was bequeathed to the Library.

Several manuscripts from these collections have been digitized, including MS. Pococke 400, a 14th-century copy of Kalīlah wa-Dimnah (the Arabic version of the Fables of Bidpai); MS. Pococke 375, a copy of al-Sharīf al-Idrīsī’s Book of Roger; and MS. Huntington 212, a fine 12th-century illustrated copy of al-Ṣūfī’s Book of Fixed Stars.

Other digitized material includes MS. Bodl. Or. 793, a glorious Safavid era copy of the Qur’an (which once belonged to Tīpū Sulṭān of Mysore); MS. Bodl. Or. 133, the extraordinary 15th-century astrological compilation made in Jalāyirid Baghdad known as Kitāb al-Bulhān; and MS. Arab. c. 90, the remarkable cosmographical treatise known as the Book of Curiosities.

There are currently 140 Armenian manuscripts in the Bodleian Libraries. The earliest manuscript dates back to the 11th century, whilst the most recent one was composed in the early 20th century. Interest in Armenian culture and manuscripts goes back to the times of the foundation of the Bodleian Libraries with the first Armenian manuscripts entering the collection through the benefaction from Archbishop Laud (1573-1645). Throughout the centuries numerous manuscripts have been donated to or acquired by the library with a significant number of acquisitions dating to the late 19th century.

The digitized collection includes images from 79 Armenian manuscripts, including palaeographic samples digitized for the Digital Manuscripts Toolkit.

In 2021/22 the Carnegie Corporation generously funded full photography of several important manuscripts from the collection. Digitized items include MS. Arm. d. 11, the earliest Armenian volume preserved in the library, and MS. Arm. d. 13, a copy of the four Gospels illuminated by Mesrop of Xizan, one of the last important representatives of the Armenian school of miniaturists in New Julfa in the first half of the 17th century.

Magical prayer scrolls and Ge'ez translations of Christian texts.

Select important Georgian texts spanning 900 years, from an 11th-century menologion to the 1907 Memorandum of the people of Georgia.

The Bodleian’s Georgian manuscripts and archives collection holds manuscripts and archival materials from all subject areas from the 7th to the 20th century CE. The nucleus of the Bodleian Library's rich holdings of Georgian books and manuscripts is the Wardrop Collection, formed by Sir Oliver Wardrop, the first British Chief Commissioner of the Transcaucasus, and his sister Marjory Wardrop. After Marjory's early death in 1909, the Marjory Wardrop Fund was founded for the encouragement of Georgian studies and from 1910, through this fund, the Bodleian became the beneficiary of all Marjory Wardrop's papers, books and manuscripts .They were supplemented by further donations from Sir Oliver until his death in 1948 and two more recent donations from Sir Oliver's descendants in 2017 and 2018.

Digitized items include MS. Georg. b. 1, an 11th century autograph manuscript by Giorgi Prokhore, the founder of the Holy Cross Monastery in Jerusalem, which contains important hagiographic texts and other significant ecclesiastical texts; and MS. Wardrop d. 17 and MS. Wardrop d. 27, two 17th century copies of the ‘The Knight in the Panther's Skin’, Vepʿxistqaosani (ვეფხისტყაოსანი), that are listed in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register.

Important Persian manuscripts, including richly decorated works by Jāmī, Firdawsī and ‘Umar Khayyām.

The Bodleian acquired its first Persian manuscripts in 1602, the year it opened. The collections of Laud and Pococke contained a small number of Persian items, but it was with the collections of John and Thomas Greaves that the first Persian manuscripts of note entered the Library. MS. Greaves 1 (binding digitized only), a copy of Jāmī’s poem Yūsuf and Zulaykhā is prized for its beautiful lacquered binding and illustrations. John Greaves also made use of his copy of the Star Tables of Ulugh Beg – MS. Greaves 5 (sample only) – to publish his own astronomical and geographical observations.

Around 50 Persian items entered the Library in 1714 with the collections of Narcissus Marsh, but it was with the acquisition of the collections of Sir William and Sir Gore Ouseley that the Persian collections reached their zenith. Notable items which have been digitized include MS. Ouseley Add. 176, the Shāhnāmah (Book of Kings), completed in about 1435 in Shirāz for Ibrāhīm Sulṭan, one of the grandsons of Timur; MS. Ouseley Add. 175, a sumptuous edition of the works of 3 poets including Hāfiẓ of Shīrāz; and three further decorated manuscript copies of works by the poet Jāmī’: MS. Hyde 10, MS. Ouseley Add. 23 and MS. Elliott 254.

Three Chagatai and Ottoman manuscripts, including decorated volumes of the poetry of Alisher Navāʼī'.

The manuscript collections in Turkic languages are smaller than those in Arabic and Persian, numbering as they do fewer than 500 items. Works in Ottoman Turkish make up the bulk of these collections, but there are a number of examples of works in Chagatai (Eastern Turkish), in particular some of the poetical works of Mīr ʿAlī Shīr Navāʾī, which were composed towards the end of the Timurid period in Herat (modern-day Afghanistan).

MS. Elliott 287 is the first volume in a 5-volume set of Navaʾī’s Khamsah or Quintet made in 1485 for the last ruler of Herat Badīʿ al-Zamān Bahadūr Khan. One of the greatest treasures of the Library, it boasts a magnificent introductory shamsah or sunburst containing a dedication to Badīʿ al-Zamān, as well as a glorious carpet page and gold-speckled paper throughout. It also contains a number of exquisite miniature paintings from the school of Bihzād, one of which has been attributed to the Master Bihzād himself. Two volumes from a further copy of the same work made in Bukhārā (modern-day Uzbekistan) in 1553 have also been digitized, MS. Elliott 318, and MS. Elliott 340.

Nearly 800 fully-digitized Hebrew manuscripts and printed books from the medieval and early modern periods.

The Bodleian holds a large collection of Hebrew manuscripts, as well as early Hebrew and Yiddish printed books. The Library’s founder, Thomas Bodley, took a personal interest in Hebrew manuscripts, and after his death, the Library continued to enrich the Hebrew collections. In 1692 it purchased the collections of Dr Robert Huntington and Professor Edward Pococke. The Huntington collection includes the Mishneh Torah of Maimonides (1155-1204) with the author’s signature.

The acquisition in 1817 of the collection of Matteo Luigi Canonici represented the largest single purchase ever made by the Library. In 1829 the Bodleian bought the Oppenheim Library, thought to be the most important and magnificent Hebraica collection ever accumulated.

The digitized items include MS. Kennicott 1, ‘the Kennicott bible’ a magnificently decorated 15th century Hebrew bible donated to the library by Benjamin Kennicott; and MS. Kennicott 3, a rare example of a dated and lavishly illustrated Ashkenazi Pentateuch.

19th-century paintings from Burma and India.

The Indonesian manuscript collection at the Bodleian Library dates from 1627, when Andrew James, a brother of the Bodleian's first librarian, Thomas James, donated two manuscripts "brought from some part of the East Indies", one in Old Sundanese and the other in Old Javanese. The Old Sundanese manuscript, James's gift of 1627 - Bujangga Manik, MS. Jav. b. 3 (R), appears here on Digital Bodleian. The Old Javanese manuscript given by James, MS. Jav. b. 1 (R), is a treatise on Hindu-Buddhist doctrines.

A manuscript in archaic Modern Javanese was donated two years later in 1629 by the 3rd Earl of Pembroke, containing the story of the legendary exploits of Amir Hamzah (MS Jav. b. 2 (R)). Another early donor was Archbishop Laud. Among his gifts to the Bodleian was a single Balinese palmleaf, seemingly a record of an IOU, given to the library in 1635 (MS. Laud Or. Rolls a.1).

From these beginnings, the Indonesian collection has gone on to include manuscripts in Balinese, Batak, Makasarese and Sasak and totals 30 entries in Ricklefs, M. N., and Voorhoeve, P. (1977), Indonesian manuscripts in Great Britain, the standard catalogue. Another excellent introduction to Indonesian and Malay manuscripts in the United Kingdom can be found in Gallop (1991), Golden letters: writing traditions of Indonesia.

Two manuscripts from the Bodleian's Malay collections.

The first Malay manuscript entered the Bodleian Library in 1633 via Archbishop Laud, and by 1910, when a catalogue was produced by Greentree and Nicholson, there were exactly 12 items in the Malay collections. These include a number of romances, a work on geomancy, several letters, and some lexicographical material.

Two of the letters are available on Digital Bodleian: The first, MS. Douce Or. e. 4, is an original trading permit in the form of a letter dated 1602 from the Sultan of Acheh allowing a merchant, one Harry Middleton, to conduct business along the coasts of Acheh. Middleton is said to have returned to England with a cargo of pepper. The second, MS. Laud Or. Rolls b. 1, also an original letter in scroll format, is from the Sultan Perkāsa ʿĀlam Jūhan to King James I and dated 1615, recommending that trade be carried out with Acheh rather than other provinces. This letter was donated by Archbishop Laud, who may have been presented with it by the King himself.

A small number of Sanskrit manuscripts and albums of Mughal paintings and calligraphy, from the Bodleian's extensive South Asian collection.

Consisting of approximately 9,000 manuscripts, the Bodleian Libraries house the largest known collection of Sanskrit and Prakrit manuscripts outside of the Indian sub-continent. This collection has been developing since the 17th century, when the first South Asian books were donated to the Library by Archbishop William Laud in 1635-40. By the mid-nineteenth century, the Bodleian’s Sanskrit manuscript holdings were described by Professor Friedrich Max Müller as the second best in Europe, surpassed only by those of the East India Company.

Thanks to two nineteenth-century benefactors, the Bodleian also hosts one of the most important collections of Mughal paintings in the world. The first collection of Mughal paintings came as part of the bequest of the antiquary and bibliophile Francis Douce in 1834. The Library’s holdings were augmented a few years later by paintings from the manuscript collection of the diplomat Sir Gore Ouseley, when in 1859 Mr J.B. Elliot, a Bengal civil servant who had purchased them after the diplomat’s death in 1844, presented to the Bodleian Mughal paintings and other fine manuscripts from Ouseley’s library.

An illuminated samut khoi from the Bodleian's small but important collection of Thai manuscripts.

Over 1,000 items from the Bodleian’s Chinese maps, manuscripts and printed books collections, acquired since the 17th century.

The Bodleian Library's Chinese collections date back to the earliest period of the Library’s history. Sir Thomas Bodley himself was instrumental in building up the collection, and during the following century the Library acquired other Chinese works from several bequests. The Bodleian now holds as many as a quarter of all the extant Chinese books that arrived in Europe in the 17th century.

Towards the end of the 19th century the Library acquired two large collections of missionary publications. These works have an interest which goes beyond their value as expositions of Christian doctrine: some are written in local dialects, others provide glimpses of the popular Chinese religious and social customs which the missionaries encountered in the course of their work; all illustrate the process whereby traditional Chinese block-printing was gradually replaced by Western typography.

Digitized items include MS.Chin.c.15 and MS.Chin.c.37, two painted albums depicting the manners and customs of the peoples inhabiting mountainous regions of Yunnan, Guizhou and southwest China; and the Selden Map of China, one of the first Chinese maps to reach Europe.

Painted handscrolls and trade charters, and rare printed books.

Two 18th century Korean maps.

Antiquarian Korean materials arrived at the Bodleian Libraries in the latter part of the 19th century, relatively late compared to other East Asian materials. The late arrival is probably due to the fact that Choson, known in the West as Corea or Korea, was opened to Western visitors only from 1882. The Bodleian collection includes rare and important antiquarian printed books, manuscripts, imperial publications, fine portrait albums, maps, a painted scroll and official orders by King Kojong.

Of these items, two important donations have been digitized: an unusual 18th century atlas Sahara chibang sunggae ci do chon with many maps not seen in any other atlases (Corean.d.2); and a rare example of an 18th century world map with gores Yonggo yanggye Yodong chondo - MS B1 (510).

Manuscripts copies of Tibetan pillar inscriptions.

Drawings and prints of designs by Wren, Hawksmoor and others, from the libraries of All Souls College and The Queen's College.

A small selection of historic book bindings from across the Bodleian Libraries special collections dating from the medieval period to the 20th century. Includes embroidered, jewelled and modern fine bindings.

From the Western collections the images include examples of the work of known binders and embroiderers such as Paul Bonet, Elizabeth I, the Little Gidding Community and Katharine Adams, together with bindings made for owners such as Jean Grolier, George Villiers, Thomas Maioli and Cardinal Thomas Wolsey.

The Bodleian's mid-20th-century collection of 35mm slide and filmstrip reproductions, featuring manuscript illumination, maps, bindings and other objects of visual interest.

Images from nearly 500 maps and atlases, spanning the medieval period to the 20th century, including Western, Arabic, Chinese and Korean mapmaking traditions.

The Bodleian map collection holds 1,500,000 sheet maps and 20,000 atlases from all parts of the globe, with topographic and thematic maps dating from medieval times to the present day. The result of almost four centuries of building the collections is a veritable treasure trove of cartographic materials.

The antiquarian collection is considerable, and includes the ca. 1390 “Gough Map” – the oldest surviving geographically-recognisable map of Britain. There are also manuscript portolan charts, designed for safe passage at sea; and numerous English estate plans, including the Laxton Map of 1635, showing the open field system of this Nottinghamshire village, made all the more remarkable by the fact that the Bodleian holds the accompanying terrier describing each of the thousands of individual plots marked on the map, and that the Laxton landscape remains largely unchanged into the twenty-first century.

Digitized highlights include MS. Marsh 294, a copy of a 16th century Arabic portolan chart, and the Drink map of Oxford, an 1883 map created by the Temperance Union for Oxfordshire, which showed it was possible to buy a drink in every 22nd building in Oxford.

Photographs ranging from early William Henry Fox Talbot and Julia Margaret Cameron prints to 20th century images capturing modern British society.

The Bodleian boasts an extraordinary selection of photographic materials across its extensive archives and printed book collections. The holdings range from the experiments of early photographers in the 19th century to the negatives and prints of contemporary artists in the 20th and 21st centuries.

In Digital Bodleian are prints of William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877), pioneer and inventor of modern photography; the Henry Taylor album, comprising a selection of prints by Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879); and Prints from the Hyman Collection of British Photographs, including portraits and landscapes, as well as photographs of natural, industrial and social documentary subjects. Also available are items from other Oxford organisations, including a series of images taken by Arnold Fairbairns to illustrate a history of Lincoln College by Stephen A. Warner (1880-1948).

Over 500 portraits, including easel paintings, sculptured works, drawings, photographs, and prints.

The first portrait in the Library, the polychromed bust of Sir Thomas Bodley by an unknown artist, arrived in 1605. In successive centuries many more portraits arrived, by gift, by bequest, and, rarely, by purchase.

In 2010-11, the Public Catalogue Foundation made it possible for all Bodleian portraits in oils to be photographed in colour and digitized. These images first became accessible online in 2012 via the BBC’s Your Paintings website, which in 2016 became Art UK. A further 200 items have since been digitized, and all have had their descriptions updated thanks to a a generous grant from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.

The digitized portraits include a series of 19 portraits of Oxford College founders executed c.1670; the sculpted head-stops which decorate the Old Schools Quadrangle of the library; and an early "grand tour" portrait recently attributed to Pompeo Batoni.

1,300 posters from the Conservative Party Archive and the Oxfam Archive.

The Bodleian Libraries' collections contain thousands of posters. These usually form part of much larger archives, and they are especially common in the archives of organisations. Here you will find over a thousand images of posters drawn from two of the Bodleian’s largest archives.

Posters from the archive of Oxfam GB date from the 1960s. These are important records of the charity's campaigns, as well as evidence of how Oxfam GB has developed its communications with the public over time.

Political posters of the Conservative Party, which form part of the party's archive, provide an important visual record of British politics in the 20th and 21st centuries.