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A Guide to The English Short Title Catalogue and

Early English Books

Introduction

  • The English Short Title Catalogue, (ESTC) is a shorthand title for two works listing all works published in Great Britain and its dependencies between 1473 and 1800. These two works are:
    • A short-title catalogue of books printed in England, Scotland, & Ireland and of English books printed abroad, 1475-1640 KNIGHT REFERENCE Z2002.P77.
    • Short-title catalogue of books printed in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and British America, and of English books printed in other countries, 1641-1700 KNIGHT REFERENCE Z2002 .W5
  • Early English Books (EEB) is a microform series that reproduces the items in ESTC I and II on microfilm. It was begun in the 1950s by University Microfilms International, and is an ongoing project. Not all titles in the ESTC I and II are in EEB yet. Knight Library owns the earlier half of the EEB set (1475-1640) at MICROFILM AC1 .E5.

Scope and Details

  • The ESTC
    • Contains about 466,845 records.
    • Includes letterpress materials in any language, published in Great Britain and its dependencies.
    • Includes English-language materials printed anywhere in the world during this period.
    • Includes ephemeral materials such as rhymes and songs, anonymous ballads, and advertisements.
    • Is continually being updated to reflect surviving copies and new findings.
  • EEB
    • Contains about 179,000 ESTC titles (just under 40% of the total), as of February 2003.
    • Is indexed online by reel number and cross-indexed by item number in the ESTC.
    • Is indexed in print by reel number and cross-indexed by item number in the ESTC at KNIGHT REFERENCE Z 2002 .P771 (Pollard & Redgrave) and Z 2002 .W52 (Wing.)
    • Provides a contents page at the start of each reel of microfilm.

How to Use the Tools

The English Short Title Catalog

Use the ESTC to explore the print history of the English language, and to see where surviving copies of works are held. ESTC entries contain the following information:

  • Title and imprint (publication) information, usually transcribed from the title-page of the work in question.
  • Date of publication.
  • A description of the item's format (i.e., layout of type pages, number of parts, et cetera.)
  • Editorial information (edition, issue, and various headnotes.)
  • The item's location, in abbreviated format.

The ESTC lists works alphabetically by the following principles:

  • By the author's last name, if this is known.
    • TIP: Be prepared to search for authors under variant spellings (i.e., Brown/Browne, Smith/Smyth/Smythe.) Peers of the realm are under family name rather than title (i.e., Earls of Essex are under Devereux, etc.) Sovereigns and royals are under their first names in English form (i.e., Elizabeth I, Queen of England, etc.)
  • If there is no individual known author, by a corporate author such as "England," or "Indulgences." The ESTC also includes some subject-based categories such as "Almanacks and Prognostications," "Liturgies," and "Bible."
  • Anonymous works by individuals are listed by the proper nouns in their titles. If there are no proper nouns in their titles, they are listed by common nouns (for instance, under "Bait," The bayte & snare of fortune.)

Check the Introduction in the front of the ESTC volumes for more details on finding works and using the ESTC.

Early English Books

Use EEB to see microform reproductions of the works listed in the ESTC. To search EEB for works by author, title, subject, or keyword, use the online index to the ESTC. (Clicking on this link will open the index in a new window.)

  • TIP: You must be on campus to use the index.
  • Consult the "Search Tips" link if you don't find what you want.
  • Click here to see a sample item record in the online ESTC index.

Remember that the index contains records for all items in the ESTC, not just those in EEB. If a record doesn't provide a reel number for an item, that means the item hasn't been microfilmed by EEB yet. To limit your search to only items that are available on EEB:

  • Perform your search.
  • Click on the LIMIT button.
  • Click on the "down" arrow in the window that appears.
  • Click on OTHER.
  • Click on NOTE.
  • Click the box labeled VALUE, and type the word "microfilm."
  • Click on APPLY.
  • Your search results will be limited to items available on microfilm through EEB.
    • TIP: Remember that Knight Library only owns the first half of EEB (i.e., ESTC I; Pollard & Redgrave.) You can use Interlibrary Loan to borrow copies of microfilm from the second half of the set (i.e., ESTC II; Wing.)

     


    Maintained by: Elizabeth Peterson, emp@uoregon.edu
    Last Modified: 08/20/2007