Medieval Libraries of Great Britain
In the spirit of the renewed year, one renewed Bodleian resource is sure to delight those interested in medieval libraries: the newly re-released Medieval Libraries of Great Britain database. MLGB, as it is now commonly known, aims to list every manuscript and printed book associated with an institutional library during the Middle Ages, either by citing internal evidence, or by referencing the medieval library catalogues and booklists published by the Corpus of Medieval British Library Catalogues series.
MLGB started off its life as a published handlist edited by N. R. Ker in the early twentieth century, which was followed by an enlarged second edition and a later supplement. In 2009, MLGB and the Corpus of Medieval British Library Catalogues project collaborated to create a digital resource known as MLGB3, which went offline in 2024 with many other Bodleian resources. Thanks to a British Academy grant, this resource has now been released in a new format.
Using the same infrastructure as Medieval Manuscripts in Oxford Libraries, the 2025 re-release of MLGB has several new features that improve searchability and accessibility. Users can free-text search the whole database, or filter their results by medieval library, booklist, books, works, or people. Each of these categories can themselves be further faceted, leading to a precise search experience. Familiar features from the original MLGB3 and printed catalogues, such as evidence type, are also easy to find and filter.
This tool allows for precise citation and understanding of the landscape of medieval library holdings, and is growing all the time. It should be considered the first port of call for those hoping to understand the landscape of medieval library holdings.
Julia King, Member of Council
