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Rare books

Our rare books collection includes pre-1851 printed books in English and other West European languages.

Items on the shelves in this Reading Room

Printed catalogues

Printed catalogues of the collections of the British Library (up to 1975), the British Museum (1813-19 and 1881-1900), the Grenville Library, the King’s Library, the Newspaper Library and the Manuscript collection.

Microfilm set of The Burney Collection

The collection of the Reverend Charles Burney (1757-1817) represents the largest single archive of 17th- and 18th-century newspapers in our collection. Although the originals are restricted due to their fragile physical state, these microfilms are instantly available in our Reading Room

Published guides to major microfilm collections         

 Printed guides to some of the more difficult to use microform collections in the Humanities. A general guide is available at the Reference Desk.

Reference works relevant to the study of early printed books

Including works on early printing, binding, and the book trade, catalogues of specialist printed book collections, books in other libraries, and indexes to published microfilm series.

Runs of periodicals and annuals relevant to the study of early printed books

Titles include The Book Collector (from 1952), The Gentleman’s Magazine (1731–1868), Journal of the Printing Historical Society (from 1965) and Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society.

Collected editions of scores

Complete and partially complete collected editions including Early Church Music, Musica Britannia, Beethoven Werke, G.F. Handel’s Werke, Neue Mozart Ausgabe sämtlicher Werke, Purcell Society Edition and Schoenberg sämtlicher Werke.

Reference works relevant to the study of music

Includes works on music libraries and librarianship, music publishing, music catalogues, the history of music, collected biographies of musicians, national music, jazz, vocal music and opera, musical instruments and composer monographs.

Limited runs of music journals

We hold back issue volumes of some of the most esteemed journals on classical music, including the Musical Times, Early Music, Brio, Fontes and Music & Letters.