State Library Victoria members can access hundreds of databases from home (if your home is in Victoria). That’s millions of articles, magazines, archives, ebooks, videos, songs, audiobooks and more, available through the catalogue anytime. We’re taking a closer look at new and/or interesting databases as well as hidden gems from our collections. Read on for top picks and tips from Librarians.
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Today we will look at Early English books online.
What makes this database so great?
Taking full advantage of new printing technologies, this comprehensive collection includes nearly all works printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America, plus works in English printed elsewhere between 1473 and 1700. The breadth of topics is vast — history, literature, religion, sciences, atlases and travel books, herbals and more. You can browse by date, author, language and country of publication, and new content is added regularly. The advanced search gives you a wider range of search options, and you can also follow subjects of interest from the full record of a particular title.
Some highlights
Several editions of the atlas produced by Gerardus Mercator, Flemish geographer and mathematician are included. Published posthumously, it was the first printed use of the term ‘atlas’.
Historia mundi: or Mercator’s atlas, frontispiece, Gerardus Mercator, 1635. Excerpts published with permission of ProQuest. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Excerpts produced by ProQuest as part of Early English Books Online. www.proquest.com
This travelogue, written from nine years of travels doesn’t include maps, but richly describes the author’s journeying.
The new atlas: or, travels and voyages, 1698. Excerpts published with permission of ProQuest. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Excerpts produced by ProQuest as part of Early English Books Online. www.proquest.com
The English Civil Wars feature strongly in this collection. The Thomason Tracts, collected by George Thomason, include virtually all publications related to the Civil Wars (more than 24,000 items), documenting this time of enormous upheaval.
The Kingdomes weekly post (pictured below) was a short-lived periodical publication that charted Royalist military movements across the country.
The kingdomes weekly post with his packet of letters, 1643. Excerpts published with permission of ProQuest. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Excerpts produced by ProQuest as part of Early English Books Online. www.proquest.com
Synonymous with this fractured time, is the name of Oliver Cromwell. After the execution of Charles I in 1649, the period known as the Interregnum ended in 1660 with the restoration of the monarchy under Charles II. For a period, Cromwell installed himself as Lord Protector — ruling with the army and occasional parliamentary sittings. 1
History of the life and death of Oliver Cromwell, James Heath, 1663. Excerpts published with permission of ProQuest. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Excerpts produced by ProQuest as part of Early English Books Online. www.proquest.com
John Milton published his first volume of poetry in 1645. While continuing to write, he was appointed Secretary for Foreign Tongues to the Council of State in 1649. Milton lost this governmental livelihood with the restoration of the crown, was imprisoned, and freed after many intereceded on his behalf. Becoming blind by 1652, Milton’s work Paradise lost was largely written after this time, and was first published in 1667. Another of our databases, the Naxos spoken word library, includes a recitation of this epic work.
Poems of Mr. John Milton, both English and Latin, compos’d at several times, John Milton, 1645. Excerpts published with permission of ProQuest. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Excerpts produced by ProQuest as part of Early English Books Online. www.proquest.com
Amidst this wealth of material, I’ll now focus on just a few titles related to gardening, herbs, plant care and orchards.
The Gardeners Labyrinth was published by Jane Bell, a printer and bookseller operating in London from 1650 to 1659.2. Written by Thomas Hill, and published posthumously, this book includes a wonderful collection of woodcuts illustrating the possibilities for dedicated gardeners. 3 This book was republished in 1987 by Richard Mabey, the language entices us into the magic of the plant world, revealing the mysteries of productive gardens. Some secrets many gardeners would be happy to discover! The collection includes several editions.
The gardeners labyrinth, Thomas Hill, 1651. Excerpts published with permission of ProQuest. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Excerpts produced by ProQuest as part of Early English Books Online. www.proquest.com
Hill published widely — the collection includes more than 20 works by him, including almanacs, interpretations of dreams, and description of the seasons with predictions of the weather for every day:
The first day clowdie, and enclining to snowe or rayne, towards night a frost: the seconde colde, windie, and darke in the morning, after fayre, and a frost at night: the third indifferent fayre, with clowdes, and some wynde at night: the fourth drie and fayre weather, & a bigge winde in the night: the fift clowdie, colde, with winde: the sixt windy, blacke clowdes, and some rayne or snowe. 4
Originally published in 1618, A new orchard and garden includes the first horticultural book written for women — The country housewifes garden. 5. The 1648 edition includes excerpts from Gervase Markham’s A way to get wealth — providing guidance for maximising household productiveness and efficiency — and also, in the process, supporting ‘the inrichment of the Weald in Kent’.
A new orchard and garden, William Lawson, 1676. Excerpts published with permission of ProQuest. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Excerpts produced by ProQuest as part of Early English Books Online. www.proquest.com
Alongside tracts encouraging horticultural endeavours to be both productive and decorative, herbals explored the medicinal and curative properties of plants and animals — many harking back to classical civilisations.
This volume by John Gerrad, as with many herbals, was significantly based on an earlier work. The illustrations of the frontispiece pull together the myriad of sources used to reveal the mysteries contained therein. Gerard includes a picture of himself, holding a potato plant, the first known illustration of this plant from the ‘new world’.6
The herball or generall historie of plantes, John Gerard, 1633. Excerpts published with permission of ProQuest. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Excerpts produced by ProQuest as part of Early English Books Online. www.proquest.com
We hope you enjoy discovering some more of the gems to be found in this rich collection.
More to explore
Feather, J (2006) A history of British publishing, Routledge, London, New York
Neville, S (2022) Early modern herbals and the book trade: English stationers and the commodification of botany, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Peacey, J (2023) Collecting Revolution: George Thomason and the ‘Thomason Tracts’, eBLJ, viewed 19 May 2025.
Raven, J (2007) The business of books: booksellers and the English book trade, 1450-1850, Yale University Press, New Haven, London
Roberge, LB (2022) From pamphlet wars to Twitter wars: print and opinion in seventeenth century England, Elmbridge Museum, Elmbridge, viewed 19 May 2025
The John Emmerson Collection, Rare Book collection at State Library Victoria
References
- The English Civil Wars: origins, events and legacy, English Heritage, viewed 19 May 2025
- Published by women, Special Collections Department, Library, University of Glasgow, viewed 19 May 2025
- The first English books on gardening…, The Garden History Blog, viewed 19 May 2025
- Hill, T (1578) A prognostication made for the yeare of our Lorde God, 1572 wherein at large is set forth the description of the fovver quarters of the yeare, with the prediction of the weather for euery day, exactly calculated for Oxenforde, Richard VVatkins and Iames Roberts, London
- Lawson, W (1648) A new orchard and garden with the country-housewifes garden for herbs, Glasgow University Library, Special Collections Department, viewed 19 May 2025
- Gerard, J (1633) The herball, commentary, The Cabinet, Oxford University, viewed 12 May 2025
