The Early British department includes books and manuscripts before 1800 by writers born in the British Isles (including England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales), mainly in the areas of literature, history, economics, philosophy, social history and theology as well as books by European writers concerning Britain, or owned and annotated by Britons. The period covered ranges from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment, from Chaucer through Shakespeare and Milton to Dr. Johnson and Adam Smith. We are interested in all aspects of book production and ownership in this period including typography, illustration, fine binding and the history of collecting and reading.
Recently the Early British department have produced two large catalogues covering the STC (1540-1640) and Wing (1641-1700) periods of British printing. Catalogues are issued roughly once a year covering all the different interests of the department.









