Background Information
Consult these sources to learn more about literary authors, periods, genres, texts, and their historical contexts.
- Augustan Literature: A Guide to Restoration and Eighteenth Century Literature, 1660-1789LAU Stacks PR441 .A84 1994
- The Cambridge History of American LiteratureLAU Stacks PS92 .C34 1994 vol. 1-8
- The Encyclopedia of English Renaissance LiteratureLAU Stacks PR411 .E53 2012 vol. 1-3
- Renaissance: The Elizabethan WorldProvides background information about life and culture in Elizabethan England. Includes A Compendium of Common Knowledge 1558-1603, Elizabethan Heraldry, Elizabethan Sumptuary Statutes, and The Trial of the Earls of Essex and Southampton, 1601.
16th & 17th Century Primary Sources
- 17th-18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Gathered by Reverend Charles Burney, 17th-18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers is a collection of the newspapers and news pamphlets primarily published in London, with some English provincial, Irish and Scottish papers, and examples from the American colonies. The original Burney volumes are now in a poor physical state and only available through restricted use.
- Gale Primary Sources This link opens in a new windowSearches across Gale primary source collections, including Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO); Nineteenth Century Collections Online (NCCO); Sabin Americana, 1500-1926; The Making of Modern Law; and The Making of the Modern World.
- BBC Shakespeare Plays This link opens in a new windowPremier collection of BBC productions of Shakespeare's plays, available via streaming server and on mobile devices. The plays are chaptered by acts, which allows you to zoom directly to a desired segment.
- British Literary Manuscripts This link opens in a new windowA digitized collection of manuscripts of British authors dating from roughly 1120 to 1900. Contains poems, plays, novels, diaries, journals, correspondence, and other papers from major library collections, reproduced in facsimile and searchable via detailed descriptive information.
- British Periodicals This link opens in a new windowFacsimile page images and searchable full text for nearly 500 British periodicals published from the 17th through the early 20th centuries. Topics covered include literature, philosophy, history, science, the fine arts, archaeology, architecture, and the social sciences.
- Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ben Jonson Online This link opens in a new windowPresents a fully searchable version of Jonson's complete works, including all the original introductions, collations, and commentary. Includes a comprehensive body of essays and archives necessary for full study of Jonson’s life, performance history, and afterlife. Comprises around 90 old-spelling texts, 550 contextual documents, 80 essays, several hundred high-quality images, and 100 music scores; lists details of more than 1300 stage performances; and has a cross-linked bibliography of over 7000 items
- Caribbean Newspapers, 1718-1876 This link opens in a new windowMore than 140 newspapers from 22 islands, including Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Cuba, Curaçao, Dominica, Grenada, Guadaloupe, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Montserrat, Nevis, Puerto Rico, St. Bartholomew, St. Christopher, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Tobago, Trinidad, and the Virgin Islands.
- DEEP: Database of Early English PlaybooksContains every playbook produced in England, Scotland, and Ireland from the beginning of printing through 1660 along with information about the original playbooks, their title-pages, paratextual matter, advertising features, bibliographic details, and theatrical backgrounds.
- Donmar Shakespeare Trilogy on Screen This link opens in a new windowPart of Bloomsbury's Drama Online collection, Harriet Walter leads an all-female cast in these three productions of Julius Caesar, Henry IV and The Tempest, all set in a women's prison. Inspiration for these productions sprung from the real-life women who have experienced the criminal justice system.
- Drama Online: National Theatre Collection This link opens in a new windowDrawing on 10 years of National Theatre Live broadcasts, alongside high-quality recordings never previously seen outside of the NT’s Archive, the National Theatre Collection makes this rich body of work available to students in schools, universities and libraries around the world. The collection contains 30 full length recordings of National Theatre performances.
- Drama Online: Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) Live Collection This link opens in a new windowBloomsbury's Drama Online: Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) Live Collection provides access to filmed Live performances of Shakespearean plays staged and acted by the Royal Shakespeare Company. This growing collection currently consists of 24 performances with more scheduled to be included throughout the year.
- Early American Imprints (Series I): Evans, 1639-1800 This link opens in a new windowBased on the Evans American Bibliography, this collection contains the full text of all known existing books, pamphlets and broadsides printed in the United States or in the British American colonies from 1639 through 1800. It provides a foundation for research in early American history, literature, philosophy, religion, politics and nearly every aspect of life in early America.
- Early American Newspapers This link opens in a new windowOffers more than 700 historical American newspapers from 23 states and the District of Columbia printed between 1690 and 1876. Focusing largely on the 18th century, Series 1 is based on Clarence S. Brigham's "History and Bibliography of American Newspapers, 1690-1820" and other authoritative bibliographies.
- Early Americas Digital ArchiveA collection of digital texts written in or about the Americas between 1492 and 1820. May be searched or browsed by author or title.
- Early English Books Online (EEBO) This link opens in a new windowFeatures page images of almost every work printed in the British Isles and North America, as well as works in English printed elsewhere from 1470-1700. From the first book printed in English through to the ages of Spenser, Shakespeare and of the English Civil War, EEBO's content draws on authoritative and respected short-title catalogues of the period and features a substantial number of text transcriptions.
- Early English Books Online (EEBO) Text Creation Partnership (TCP) This link opens in a new windowA partner database to Early English Books Online. Provides a subset of fully searchable texts from the titles available in EEBO.
- Emory Women Writers Resource ProjectA collection of edited and unedited texts by women writing from the seventeenth century through the early twentieth century.
- The English Renaissance in Context (ERIC)Provides tutorials on the making of Shakespeare's plays and a database of scanned texts from the Furness Shakespeare Library.
- Europeana This link opens in a new windowOnline access to paintings, music, films and books from Europe's galleries, libraries, archives and museums.
- Gale Primary Source Newspapers This link opens in a new windowProvides cross-searching capabilities for several Gale digital collections, including 17th and 18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers, 19th Century British Library Newspapers, 19th Century UK Periodicals, Illustrated London News Historical Archive 1842-2003, Times Digital Archive 1785-1985, Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive 1902-2006, Picture Post Historical Archive 1938-1957.
- Global ShakespearesOnline access to performances of Shakespeare from many parts of the world.
- Leeds Verse Database (BCMSV)Provides detailed information about individual items of English poetry contained in the 17th and 18th-century manuscripts from the Brotherton Collection at the University of Leeds.
- Luminarium: Anthology of English LiteratureProvides an online anthology of literature from Middle English, the Renaissance, & the 17th century. Includes essays, articles, and selected texts.
- Making of the Modern World This link opens in a new windowCollection of digital facsimile images of 61,000 works of literature on economics and business published from 1450 through 1945. Covers commerce, finance, social conditions, politics, trade and transport.
Includes:
Part I: The Goldsmiths'-Kress Collection, 1450-1850
Part II, 1851-1914 - Medieval and Early Modern Sources Online This link opens in a new windowMedieval and Early Modern Sources Online (MEMSO) is an essential resource for the study of Britain and its place in the world during the medieval and early modern period (c. 1100-1800).
- Renascence EditionsAn online repository for digital editions of works printed in English between 1477 and 1799.
- Sabin Americana, 1500-1926 This link opens in a new windowBased on Joseph Sabin's landmark bibliography, this collection contains works about the Americas published throughout the world from 1500 to the early 1900s. Included are books, pamphlets, serials and other documents that provide original accounts of exploration, trade, colonialism, slavery and abolition, the western movement, Native Americans, military actions and much more.
- The Shakespeare Quartos ArchiveA collection of of pre-1642 editions of William Shakespeare's plays.
Research Guides
Use the below guides to go deeper into your research.
Catalogs & Indexes
- American Literary ManuscriptsA checklist of literary manuscript holdings in academic, historical, and public libraries, museums, and authors' homes in the United States.
- ArchiveGridA searchable collection of finding aids to primary source material held in archives, special collections, and manuscript collections around the world. Includes historical documents, personal papers, family histories, and more.
- Catalogue of English Literary Manuscripts, 1450-1700A freely-accessible record of surviving manuscript sources for over 200 major British authors.
- English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC)Indexes more than 460,000 that were published between 1473 and 1800 primarily in Britain and North America. Works are predominantly in English and are from the collections of the British Library and over 2,000 other libraries.
- A Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland, & Ireland and of English Books Printed Abroad, 1475-1640 (Pollard & Redgrave)LAU Ref Stacks Z2002 .P77 1976 vol. 1-3
Browsing Areas
The following sections are good for browsing for books on 16th & 17th century literature, which are shelved on the 5th floor of Lauinger Library.
English Language
PE814-896 – Early Modern English.
English Literature
PR421-429 – Elizabethan Era (1550-1640)
PR431-439 – 17th century
PR2199-3195 – English Renaissance (1500-1640)
PR3291-3785 – 17th & 18th centuries (1640/1770)
American Literature
PS185-195 – 17th and 18th centuries
PS700-893 – Individual authors - Colonial Period (17th and 18th centuries)
