Published by Primary Source Microfilm

Series One: The English Renaissance c. 1500-1700

The English Renaissance collection at the Bodleian Library is one of the richest stores of original 16th and 17th-century literary manuscripts in the world.

Part One:

In recent years, the Rawlinson Poetry Manuscripts' fame has been enhanced by the attribution of the poem "Shall I Dye I Flye" from a poetry miscellany (Rawlinson Poetry Manuscript 160) to Shakespeare, and its subsequent inclusion in an edition of the Complete Works.

Part Two:

Part Two includes the English Poetry class of Manuscripts from the Bodleian Library. Many of these manuscripts are basic texts for the attribution of poems to the canons of John Donne, Thomas Traherne, Henry King and Robert Southwell.

This material is not exclusively poetic, however, with important dramatic texts in such manuscripts as Pudsey's commonplace book, which includes copies of Jonson's masque Cynthia's Revels, his complete Everyman plays and Poetaster, along with selections from Lyly, Marston and Shakespeare.

Part Three:

Part Three covers ten collections which are of great historical interest, but not exclusively literary in context. Among the outstanding pieces are the "Wyburd manuscript," an important source of verse by Carew and Drayton, along with verse and prose by John Donne; and Sir Philip Sidney's letter to Queen Elizabeth touching on her marriage.

Part One: Rawlinson Poetry Manuscripts
15 reels

Part Two: English Poetry, English Miscellaneous and English Theology Manuscripts
9 reels

Part Three: Additional, Ashmole, Aubrey, Bodleian, Cherry, Clarendon, Don, Douce, Fairfax, and Firth Collections
17 reels

Complete collection: 41 reels