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Research Publications of the University of Minnesota

Bibliographical Series
Number 1

SOURCES OF ENGLISH HISTORY OF THE
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY, 1603-1689
IN THE UNIVERSITY OF

MINNESOTA LIBRARY

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Z2018
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COPYRIGHT 1921

BY THE

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA

287619

PREFACE

The student of Seventeenth century England is seldom troubled by the insufficiency of his material. The men of action of the day used the pen as freely as they did the sword, and in their letters, their memoirs, their newspapers, and their controversial pamphlets, we find reflected a very clear image of the times. Prynne, Pym, Burnet, Clarendon, Halifax, the genial Mr. Pepys, and the stately Evelyn, scores of others, each in his way, gives vividness to the picture.

In the Record Office, the British Museum, the Bodleian and other British libraries, are thousands of unprinted manuscripts; an inexhaustible mine from which the scholar may correct and amplify the opinions derived from the books and pamphlets of which we have so rich a store. Photography, coupled with the generosity and open-mindedness of their custodians, is now rendering it possible for the American scholar, working in some of our larger libraries, to have at hand the more important even of these.

It is with the purpose of placing at the disposition of students of the period which began with the coming of the first James out of Scotland and which ended when William of Orange came out of the Low Countries, the resources of the Library of the University of Minnesota; and of unlocking for other libraries the material contained in reprinted collections, such as Somers Tracts and the Harleian Miscellany, that the accompanying list has been prepared. It is in no sense intended as a general bibliography, though it is hoped that it may serve some of the purposes of such a publication.

The collection of the sources for the study of the period was undertaken at the instance of Professor Wallace Notestein, until recently of the Department of History at Minnesota and now of Cornell University, and to his bibliographic information and unremitting interest the Library is deeply indebted. The collection of newspapers owes a great deal to the generosity of Mr. H. V. Jones of the Minneapolis Journal, who presented to the Library unusually complete files of several of the more important publications.

To the authorities of the British Museum, the Public Record Office, Cambridge University, Trinity College, Dublin, and of the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Library makes grateful acknowledgment of their kindness in granting permission to photograph certain of the manuscript Parliamentary journals which are here listed.

In a few cases the titles represent books in the Public Library of Minneapolis and its sister institution, the Minneapolis Athenaeum. As these works are, in every sense, as available to the student at the University as if they were in its Library, the inclusion is warranted.

If the list proves to be of service to scholars working in the history of Seventeenth Century England, the compiler will feel richly repaid for his labors.

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

NOVEMBER 1, 1920

J. T. G.

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