The following list includes resources for those in search of information, special collections, and research projects relating to the history of the book. For ease of scanning, the resources are subdivided by general format: Indexes and Databases, Studies and Projects, Bibliographies and Research Guides, and Discussion Groups. Further information can be found at the websites linked below. Researchers should also consult the listings at Archives and Collections and Online Exhibits and Programs, linked in the menu above. To add new resources or to make corrections, please submit them to the webmaster.

Indexes and Databases

The resources listed below provide access to a wide range of source material useful for those researching the history of the book and print culture.

Manuscripts, The Ancient World, The Middle Ages

• DEEP: Database of Early English Playbooks, Database. Publishing, printing, and marketing of Renaissance drama in England, Scotland, and Ireland through 1660
• The Digital Scriptorium, Database. University of California Berkeley
• The Duke Papyrus Archive. Searchable database about papyri
• Illuminated Manuscripts at the Bodleian
• Manuscripta Mediaevalia. Illuminated manuscripts from Italy in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich
• Medieval Illustrated Manuscripts. KB and Museum Meermano

Europe

• APICE. Università degli Studi di Milano. Collects, preserves, and promotes the use of archival collections for the study of literature, art, and modern and contemporary media.
• Archivio Salani: illustrazione libraria tra Otto e Novecento (Laboratorio di Arti Visive of the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, with the contribution of Italian publisher Salani), digitizes all the sketches preserved in the Salani archive, from the late 19th century to the present (nearly 30,000 sketches), studying the images as artwork as well as part of the book, and as part of a particular edition. Database.
• British Armorial Bindings. The Bibliographical Society of London in conjunction with the University of Toronto Library. A comprehensive catalogue of all the coats of arms, crests, and other heraldic devices that have been stamped by British owners on the outer covers of their books, together with the bibliographical sources of the stamps.
• The Dicey and Marshall Catalogue (London, 1764). R. C. Simmons
• CERL (Consortium of European Research Libraries). Manuscripts and early printed material to 1830.
• Early European Books, ProQuest (subscription service–check your library). All works printed in Europe before 1701, regardless of language, or printed in European languages elsewhere
• Finales de libro: Exposici? de colofones. University of Salamanca
• The French Book Trade in Enlightenment Europe. Mapping the Trade of the Société Typographique de Neuchâtel, 1769-1794
• HENRIK: Books and their Owners in Finland to 1809. Finnish Lit. Soc. & Project Henrik. Database
• Heritage of the Publishers and the Published of Catalonia. The Biblioteca de Catalunya.
• Il libro antico. Angela Nuovo, Aldo Coletto and Graziano Ruffini
• London Lives, 1690-1800. A fully searchable edition of 240,000 manuscripts from eight archives and fifteen datasets, giving access to 3.35 million names.
• The Poetry of the Gentleman’s Magazine, 1731-1800. Emily Lorraine de Montluzin. The database provides users with a comprehensive, fully browsable and searchable list of the 12,365 poems (of which 4,763 are by identified authors) printed in the Gentleman’s Magazine from its beginning in 1731 through 1800.
• Price One Penny: A Database of Cheap Literature, 1837-1860. Marie Léger-St-Jean
• Private Libraries in Renaissance England (PLRE) Folger database
• USTC (Universal Short Title Catalogue), St. Andrews University. All books published in Europe between the invention of printing and the end of the sixteenth century.

North America

• First Charging Ledger, 1789-1792. Reflects the reading habits of over five hundred members of the Society Library, many of whom were prominent New Yorkers and government officials during the early years of the United States. New York Society Library
• 19th-c. American Children’s Book Trade Directory. American Antiquarian Society
• Putting Them on the Map. A data visualization of an early 20^th century African American book publisher’s network of subscription agents.
• What Middletown Read. Ball State University, et al. Reproduces circulation records of the Muncie (Indiana) Public Library, 1891-1902

Periodicals

• The Athenaeum. Index to Reviews and Reviewers: 1830-1870
• British Newspapers 1800–1900. A subscription service from Gale, searching over two million pages.
• The Curran Index to Wellesley Revisions. Victorian periodicals
• Internet Library of Early Journals. Provides digital versions of substantial runs of 18th and 19th century journals, together with their associated bibliographic data
• Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (NCSE) a free, online edition of six nineteenth-century periodicals and newspapers
• Obscure Contributors to 19th-century Periodicals
• The Poetry of the Gentleman’s Magazine, 1731-1800. Emily Lorraine de Montluzin. The database provides users with a comprehensive, fully browsable and searchable list of the 12,365 poems (of which 4,763 are by identified authors) printed in the Gentleman’s Magazine from its beginning in 1731 through 1800.
• The Quarterly Review Archive. Jonathan Cutmore
• The Spectator Project: A Hypermedia Research Archive of 18th-c. Periodicals

Graphic Design, Typography, Illustration

• ArchBook. Architectures of the Book. Open-access, peer-reviewed collection of richly illustrated essays about specific design features in the history of the book. Supported by University of Saskatchewan Humanities and Fine Arts Digital Research Centre
• Archivio Salani: illustrazione libraria tra Otto e Novecento. Laboratorio di Arti Visive of the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, with the contribution of Italian publisher Salani.  Database. See description above.
• Database of Bookbindings. British Library
• Database of Mid-Victorian Wood-Engraved Illustration. Cardiff University
• Graphics Atlas. Image Permanence Institute. Online print identification tools
• The Image of France, 1795-1880. Database of prints
• Rare Images Database, Diet National Library. Database searchable in Japanese
• Thomas L. Gravell Watermark Archive. University of Delaware

The 19th Century

• At the Circulating Library: A Database of Three-Volume Victorian Fiction. Troy Bassett. Host: Victoria Research Web
• British Fiction, 1800-29: A Database of Production, Circulation & Reception. Cardiff University
• Forget Me Not: A Hypertextual Archive. Katherine Harris. A scholarly edition of the first British literary annual 1823-1847. Includes facsimile scans of pages, lists of authors, publishers, engravers, engraving titles, poem and prose titles.
• 19th-Century Books on Publishing and the Book Trade. Includes searchable catalogue
• 19th-Century Schoolbooks: A Demonstration Project. Digital Research Library

Wide Views, Broad Views

• ABC for Book Collectors (classic glossary, 8th ed., ILAB). Downloadable text
• Andy Holt Virtual Library. University of Tennessee-Martin. A concept library, focusing on the Humanities and Fine Arts
• The Bookdealer Interviews. Sheila Markham
• Book History Online: An International Bibliography (Koninklijke Bibliotheek). Searchable database
• British Book Trade Index (BBTI). An index of the names and brief biographical details and trade details of people who worked in the book trade in England and Wales and who were trading by 1851
• Japanese and Chinese Classics Database
• Karlsruhe Virtual Catalog. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. A meta search interface which allowing access to online library and book trade catalogs.
• Memory of Paper. Paper, paper study, and paper history, providing resources in historical research of paper in Europe, expertise for paper documents, support for the creation of new paper databases, introduction to digital paper studies. The Bernstein project was co-funded by the EC programme eContentplus
• Old Maps Online The Great Britain Historical GIS team, University of Portsmouth, working with Klokan Technologies. Search portal for historical maps
• Scottish Archive of Print and Publishing History Records
• Scottish Book Trade Index. Lists the names, trades,and addresses of people in printing in Scotland to 1850