The special collections of Keble College Library are comprised of over 14,000 items, dating mainly from the 13th-20th centuries. Included are bequests of manuscripts and early printed books, spanning the range of liturgical, theological and philosophical subjects. They include a collection of 33 highly decorated Books of Hours and 100 incunabula, as well as modern special collections of 20th century drama and poetry.

Many of the books were bequeathed during the early years of the College, almost all of the manuscripts within the first 45 years, by Victorian and Edwardian collectors sympathetic to the intellectual aims of the College.

Highlights of the medieval collection include the 13th century Regensburg Lectionary, produced for a community of nuns in Bavaria (MS 49); a 15th century French Book of Hours exquisitely illuminated with miniatures by the Master of the Duke of Bedford (MS 39); and an ornate breviary, produced in 1404 in Northern Italy (MS 30).

Bernard of Clairvaux from The Regensburg Lectionary (MS 49), 13th century

Our early printed book collection is home to the personal library of John Keble, as well as a significant collection of painted and illuminated liturgical books housed in the Brooke collection, and books by and about members of the religious houses of Port-Royal-des-Champs, Port-Royal-de-Paris, and the wider Jansenist movement in France. Amongst our 100 incunabula (a special category of early printed books from before the year 1501) are several editions of Dante’s Divina Comedia.

           
First edition Paradise Lost Second title page, 1668; Hours (Use of Rome), printed by Germain Hardouyn [1534]; Dante’s Divina Comedia, 1497

The College received over 3,000 books on modern theatre from the library of producer and drama critic Martin Esslin in 2007, and in 2013 received the donation of the personal poetry collection of poet, critic and Keble Alumnus, Ian Hamilton (1958), comprising some 550 items. In recent years, a collection of early editions of the works of H.G. Wells and Arthur Conan Doyle were donated; the two collections were assembled by Colonel Denys Edwin Whatmore were given by his children.

   
First edition H.G. Wells novels; First edition Sherlock Holmes novels

Digitisation

We have been working to make our collection more widely accessible and are happy to have some full digitisations of our manuscripts hosted on the Digital Bodleian.

Many thanks to our generous donors who have made this possible.

Examples from our digitised manuscripts

For more information on our collections

➤An overview of Keble Library’s special collection:
Attar, Karen. Directory of rare book and special collections in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. London: Facet Publishing, 2016.

➤A descriptive catalogue of our manuscripts:
Parkes, M.B. The medieval manuscripts of Keble College Oxford: a descriptive catalogue with summary descriptions of the Greek and Oriental manuscripts. London: Scolar Press, 1979.

➤Records of our collection of manuscripts in Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Turkish:
Fihrist : the union catalogue of manuscripts from the Islamicate world

➤A guide to using special collections in Oxford, and some further detail about Keble’s holdings:
Libguides A-Z of college libraries: special collections in college libraries