第九期|British History Online开放所有资源
考虑到COVID-19对Work from Home研究者的影响，British History Online(https://www.british-history.ac.uk/)决定限期开放所有在线版资源，开放时间为2020年3月30日至7月31日。
British History Online (BHO) is a digital collection of key printed primary and secondary sources for the history of Britain and Ireland, and the British world, with a special focus on the period 1300 to 1800. The BHO collection includes over 1,280 volumes of primary content and secondary sources.
Most of this content (over 1000 volumes or c.80% of the total) is always available free to use by anyone, anywhere with access to the BHO site. In addition, we offer several subscription packages—for individual users and institutions—that provide access to a further 200 volumes of primary research content.
1. Free access to all BHO content
From Friday 27 March, we’re making the transcribed texts of these additional 200 volumes available in full to individual users who visit the BHO site.
We’re very aware of the current challenges faced by students and researchers with the closure of universities, libraries and archives. We hope that by releasing these additional volumes BHO can provide access to a wider selection of valuable research materials. This extended access currently runs to 31 July 2020.
The BHO homepage offers access to all primary and secondary content
2. What’s included in the new content?
The extra 200 volumes now available are predominantly made up of two important series:
the Calendar of Close Rolls, covering the reigns of Henry III to Henry VII (1244 to 1509),
the Calendar of State Papers Domestic, covering the reigns of Edward VI to Anne, 1547 to 1704)
Close Rolls record ‘Letters close’ which were issued by the Chancery in the name of the Crown. These letters were ‘usually of an executive nature conveying orders and instructions, and, therefore of a private and personal nature’ (The National Archives, 2020). Because of their nature, letters were ‘issued folded and “closed” by the application of the great seal’ (TNA).
The Close Rolls are records of these letters, initiated by Chancery to create a master version of the letters sent. BHO’s collection covers closed letters issued between 1244 and 1509 in a total of 61 volumes.
The State Papers Domestic are the accumulated papers of the secretaries of state relating to national home (domestic) affairs. They contain information on every facet of early modern government. State Papers took many formats: ‘including private and official letters, musters, reports, commissions and instructions, council orders and correspondence, proclamations, memoranda and draft parliamentary bills’ (TNA, 2020).
BHO’s collection covers State Papers Domestic for the period 1547 to 1704 in a total of 92 volumes.
In both cases, British History Online offers the Calendar of the original records, not the original records. These Calendars were created in the late Victorian period. They provide researchers with a full summary of the contents of the original document. For nearly all purposes these summaries are wholly sufficient for research.
The remainder of the now free BHO content comprises the following eight series:
Calendar of State Papers, Ireland, covering the period 1586-1606, in 13 volumes
Calendar of State Papers, Scotland, covering the period 1547-1588, in 11 volumes
Parliament Rolls of Medieval England, in 1 volume
Calendar of Home Office Papers, George III, covering the period 1760-1775, in 4 volumes
Calendar of Border Papers, covering the period 1560-1603, in 2 volumes
Calendar of the Committee for the Advance of Money, covering the period 1642-55, in 4 volumes
Calendar of the Committee for Compounding, covering the period 1643-60, in 5 volumes
A final series is the Calendar of Patent Rolls, covering the reigns of Henry III, Edward I and Edward II (1216 to 1307), which appear in 10 volumes. The Patent Rolls are closely linked to the Close Rolls, being the records of Letters patent (or ‘open’).
Letters patent were unsealed letters expressing the sovereign’s will on a variety of matters of public interest. BHO’s 10 volumes are the first output in a new project to digitise and publish the Calendar of Patent Rolls up to and including the reign of Henry VII (1509); this project is ongoing.
For more on the Patent (and Close) Rolls, and their usefulness for medieval historians, see this earlier IHR blog post from Dr Adam Chapman of the IHR.
The petition of sixteen inhabitants of the township of Bollington in the parish of Prestbury. From the English Petitions series in BHO. Image courtesy of Cheshire Archives and Local Studies, QJF 67/3/17.
3. Using all of British History Online for research
If you’re looking to undertake remote research, there’s much on BHO in addition to the newly released content. Notable collections—of private and secondary sources—that remain permanently free include:
3.1. Within our Primary sources collection …
House of Commons Journals, 1527-1699, in 13 volumes
House of Lords journals, 1509-1793, in 42 volumes
41 volumes of primary works edited and published by the London Record Society – a particularly rich collection (including diaries and correspondence) on London history from the 15th to the 19th century
Petitions from English Quarter Sessions, covering the period 1577-1799, in 6 volumes: an ongoing series in association with The Power of Petitioning research project at Birkbeck and University College London
Privy Council Acts, 1552-1631, in 46 volumes
3.2. Within our Secondary sources collection …
175 volumes of the Victoria County History, covering selected English counties from Bedfordshire to Yorkshire
60 volumes of the Survey of London which, at parish level, provides detailed architectural and topographical studies of the capital’s built environment.
32 volumes of the Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae: the standard authority for identifying the higher clergy of the Church of England from 1066 to 1857
3.3. Within our Datasets collection …
The Cromwell Association Directory of Parliamentarian Army Officers: a born-digital dictionary of over 4,000 officers who served in the armies of Parliament during the first English civil war (1642-6)
The returns of the Hearth Tax assessment, covering the City of London (1662), Westminster (1664) and the City of London and Middlesex (1666), in 3 volumes
3.4. Within our Maps collection …
Single volume maps of London created between 1561 and 1676
Over 100 volumes of the Victorian Ordnance Survey series, including the complete 1:10,560 series and selected areas of the 1:2,500 maps
3.5. Within our Guides and Calendars collection …
Calendar of State Papers, Colonial, America and the West Indies, covering 1574 to 1734 in 41 volumes
Calendar of State Papers, Venice, covering British diplomatic reports from Venice between 1202 and 1675, in 38 volumes
Calendar of the Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, covering the period 1509-1547, in 28 volumes
4. Subject guides to British History Online
We’ve currently a small but growing set of subject guides to using BHO for the following, written for us by external users of the resource:
Parliamentary History in BHO
Urban History in BHO
Religious History in BHO
Local History in BHO
Biographical History in BHO
We’d love to add some more subject guides to BHO, especially as more people come to the resource for first time. If you’re a historian working in an appropriate field of medieval or early modern British history—and would like to write us something on the following, or something else—please do get in touch: british.history@sas.ac.uk:
Key documentary sources, such as State Papers Domestic, Foreign, Close Rolls, and others
Scottish History
Irish History
History of the built environment
Legal History
Britain’s territories and influence overseas
Government or other aspects of life during specific periods or reigns
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