Harleian Collection of Manuscripts

Scope

The Harleian Collection was one of the finest of the great collections brought together in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. It formed one of the basic collections at the inauguration of the British Museum. This collection is a catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum and contains the most important volumes selected from volumes 35-736 of the Harleian Manuscripts. Included are papers for the history of Parliament and its relations with the Crown. The documents include speeches, legislation, political trials and cases at Star Chamber and Chancey. Commercial and foreign trade are central to the collection, as well as items from Walsingham’s correspondence and a series of foreign newsletters from 1563-1570. It also contains indexes of persons, places and matters (four volumes) filmed complete on the first two reels of part one.