British Literary Manuscripts Online

Representing the largest text-to-digital project of its kind, British Literary Manuscripts Online consists of two collections, British Literary Manuscripts Online, c.1660-1900 and British Literary Manuscripts Online: Medieval and Renaissance. Together, these priceless collections — once available only on microfilm or to those with access to the source libraries — enable researchers to view manuscripts page-by-page or preview and apprehend the entire work via the thumbnail view in a way that would never have been possible with the physical copy.

Contact Your Rep

Collections

British Literary Manuscripts Online: c. 1660-1900

The first installment in this series provides intimate glimpses into the lives and works of famous and lesser-known British authors from a significant two hundred-year literary period. It includes thousands of pages of poems, plays, essays, novels, diaries, journals, correspondence, and other manuscripts from the Restoration through the Victorian era.

British Literary Manuscripts Online: Medieval and Renaissance

The second part of British Literary Manuscripts Online series, British Literary Manuscripts Online: Medieval and Renaissance offers students and researchers unprecedented online access to nearly 400,000 pages of rare manuscripts from the Medieval and Early Modern periods, c.1100 to 1660. Researchers and students can explore a rich tapestry of letters, poems, stories, plays, chronicles, religious writings, and commonplace books through searchable online catalog records. Scholars will find important cultural and historical sources, like the 1488 manuscripts of Barbour's Life and Acts of Robert the Bruce.

Platform Features & Tools

Term Frequency

Researchers can see the frequency of search terms within sets of content to begin identifying central themes and assessing how individuals, events, and ideas interact and develop over time.

Topic Finder

By grouping commonly occurring themes, this tool reveals hidden connections within search terms—helping to shape research by integrating diverse content with relevant information.

Cross-Search Capability

Search across the content of complementary primary source products in one intuitive environment, enabling innovative new research connections.

Learn more about the Gale Primary Sources Platform » »

Related Products

Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Burney Newspapers Collection

The largest single collection of English news media from these two centuries, Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Burney Newspapers Collection provides rare and often unique content for scholarly research into a wide range of political, educational, economic, or journalistic study.

Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Nichols Newspapers Collection

Through a partnership with the Bodleian Library, Gale has digitally scanned each page of this collection, and with Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Nichols Newspapers Collection brings these rare documents to scholars around the world in an easy-to-use, full-text searchable digital format.

Eighteenth Century Collections Online: Part II

Expanding Eighteenth Century Collections Online, the titles in Part II have an emphasis on literature, social science, and religion. This second edition includes nearly fifty thousand titles and seven million pages from the library holdings of the British Library, the Bodleian Library, University of Cambridge, the National Library of Scotland, and the Ransom Center at the University of Texas.

Nineteenth Century Collections Online: European Literature, the Corvey Collection, 1790–1840

This unique collection of monographs includes a wide range of Romantic literature published in English, French, and German. Sourced from Castle Corvey in North Rhine - Westphalia, Germany, the Corvey Collection is one of the most-important surviving collections of works from the period. With a special focus on these rare works, especially difficult-to-find works by lesser-known women writers, more than 9,500 titles are included.

State Papers Online, 1509-1714: Part I: The Tudors, Henry VIII to Elizabeth I, 1509-1603: State Papers Domestic

This collection delivers access to the official records of the secretaries of state serving the ruling monarch of the day, encompassing every facet of early modern government, including social and economic affairs, law and order, religious policy, crown possessions, and intelligence. Part I delivers the complete series of State Papers Domestic for the Tudor era.

State Papers Online, 1509-1714: Part II: The Tudors: Henry VIII to Elizabeth I, 1509-1603: State Papers Foreign: Ireland, Scotland, Borders and Registers of the Privy Council

This collection contains State Papers Foreign, Scotland, Borders, and Ireland together with the Registers (Minutes) of the Privy Council for the sixteenth century. These documents record the relationship between England and the rest of Europe, as well as the relationships among the European states, both Catholic and Protestant.

State Papers Online, 1509-1714: Part III: The Stuarts and Commonwealth, James I – Anne, 1603-1714: State Papers Domestic

State Papers Domestic for the Stuart era (1603-1714) is the richest primary source archive of its kind to cover national affairs in England the seventeenth century. The manuscripts and accompanying calendars are vital to any scholar's understanding of this turbulent century of civil strife, revolution, and regicide. Users can explore the nature of monarchy, the details of religious conflict, and the emergence of party politics.

State Papers Online, 1509-1714: Part IV: The Stuarts and Commonwealth, James – Anne, 1603-1714: State Papers Foreign: Ireland, Scotland and Registers of Privy Council

Part IV completes the State Papers of the Stuart period and contains volumes of documents from, to, and about all the countries of Europe. Many of these countries have lost their own collections from this period, increasing the rarity and value of these British State Papers. All the great international themes of the seventeenth century play out in document after document, making them an essential resource for not only British but European history: marriage alliances, revolutions, wars and treaties, trade and commerce, and religion.