Scope

Drawing upon the collections of more than 50 archives in the UK and USA, Manuscript Pamphleteering in Early Stuart England details the circulation of over 500 distinct texts which collectively survive in around 4,000 unique witnesses. Furthermore, it makes available transcriptions of over 200 exemplars, the majority of which are accompanied by high-resolution images. These have primarily been drawn from the collections of the British Library, a project partner, alongside others in local record offices such as Norfolk Record Office and Surrey History Centre. In some cases, we have provided multiple exemplars of a single text in order to demonstrate not only the range of material that circulated as manuscript pamphlets, but also the variety of forms this took and the range of scribal practices involved.

For each text, the database lists basic bibliographic information, all known manuscript witnesses, and details of known print exemplars (both seventeenth-century and modern). Where available, it also provides full-text versions of transcribed exemplars and high-resolution images. PDF versions of exemplars are available under the "Text Description" tab for each exemplar, as are the XML data (encoded following TEI P5 guidelines).

A note on terminology

The database distinguishes between "texts" (abstract documents in circulation), "witnesses" (specific physical manifestations of the texts) and "exemplars" (individual witnesses that have been transcribed for the database).

Next Steps

MPESE is a work in progress. We hope to improve it over time. Here some changes we hope to make going forward:

Finalizing proofreading for transcripts that are still marked as 'draft'.
Supplying transcripts for texts that, as yet, have no transcribed witnesses.
Enriching the text descriptions by supplying short introductions, and fuller information about where texts have been printed.
Enriching the manuscript descriptions, particularly describing the context and provenance of the manuscripts more fully and providing references to other paper and online catalogues (like the Catalogue of English Literary Manuscripts).
Adding additional texts (for example, material that we excluded but would like ultimately to include) and manuscripts (for example, from archives we haven't visited yet).
Improving browse and search functionality, with a particular focus on making the keywords more systematic, and making it possible to browse by repository or restrict searches to particular repositories.

We are open to accepting help with any of these. We particularly encourage users to send us additional data for inclusion, and we have had good experiences with groups of volunteers or students working together to produce transcripts. If this would be of interest, please contact Dr Millstone.

Archives consulted

All Souls College
Alnwick Castle
Beinecke Library
Bibliothèque nationale de France
Bodleian Library
British Library
Cambridge University Library
Clark Library
College of Arms
Cornwall Record Office
Durham University Library
Edinburgh University Library
Folger Shakespeare Library
Gonville & Caius College
Hampshire Record Office
Harvard Law School
Hatfield House
Hertford College
Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies
Houghton Library
Huntington Library
Inner Temple Library
Jesus College
John Rylands Library
Kent Archives
Lambeth Palace Library
Lincoln's Inn
Lincolnshire Archives
London Metropolitan Archives
London Society of Antiquaries
Longleat House
National Library of Art, V&A
Norfolk Record Office
Northamptonshire Record Office
Nottingham University Library
Parliamentary Archives
Queen's College
Senate House, University of London
Sheffield Archives
Somerset Archives
St Edmund Hall
St John's
St John's College
Suffolk Record Office
Surrey History Centre
The National Archives
Trinity College
UCL
UT Austin MS
University College
Wellcome Library
West Yorkshire Archive Service
Westminster Abbey Library and Muniment Room
Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre
Woburn Abbey