Content of the HPB Database

The Heritage of the Printed Book Database now contains over six million records of books from the beginning of printing to the middle of the 19th century. Searches are across the files provided by the 22 institutions listed below. Every year further files are added, while others are updated. Most files consist of high-level bibliographical records, created by book-in-hand cataloguing. Some of the files are created in retroconversion projects, and gradually replaced by sections with improved records.

L'Agence bibliographique de l'enseignement supérieur (ABES)

c. 551,900 records contributed by c. 543 French academic libraries

Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, München

c. 347,600 records of their holdings
c. 101,600 records from Das Verzeichnis der im deutschen Sprachraum erschienenen Drucke des 16. Jahrhunderts

Biblioteca Nacional de España, Madrid

c. 197,250 records of their holdings

Biblioteca Histórica de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid

c.25,700 records of their holdings

Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon

c. 13,000 records from pre-1800

Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris

c. 940,000 records, for the period 1455-1830

British Library, London

c. 30,700 records, Incunable Short-Title Catalogue
c. 24,700 records, Books printed in the German-speaking countries and of German books printed in other countries (1601-1700) now in the BL / [comp. David Paisey]

Cathedral Libraries Catalogue

c. 25,700 records (volume 2, foreign imprints), Books printed on the Continent of Europe before 1701 in libraries of the Anglican Cathedrals of England and Wales / [Ed. David Shaw]

Common European Heritage

A project of four Polish libraries to create a catalogue of microfilmed old prints (XVI-XVIII cent.)

ETH Library, (Library of the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule), Zurich

c. 45,600 records, e-rara

Eton College Collections

c. 20,300 records

Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo Unico (ICCU), Rome

c. 982,000 records contributed by c. 175 Italian libraries, SBN Antiquarian
c. 66,400 records, EDIT 16

Jagiellonian University Library

c. 15,400 records of their holdings

Kongelige Biblioteket, Copenhagen

c. 75,000 of their holdings

Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague

c. 131,200 records, 1540-1800, Short-Title Catalogue, Netherlands
c 137,600 records, Early Printed Editions

Koninklijke Bibliotheek van België – Bibliothèque royale de Belgique, Brussels

c. 93,000 records

Kungliga Biblioteket, Stockholm

c. 50,000 records, Swedish National Bibliography, 18th century (SB17)
c. 6,000 records, Swedish National Bibliography, 17th century (SB16)

Leighton Library, United Kingdom

c. 3,520 of their holdings

Lambeth Palace Library, London

c. 60,000 records

Mendham Collection

c. 4,000 records from Catalogue of the Law Society's Mendham Collection, lent to the University of Kent at Canterbury and housed in Canterbury Cathedral Library. Completed and edited by Sheila Hingley and David Shaw from the catalogue of Helen Carron and others, published by The Law Society, London, 1994.

Middle Temple Library, London

c. 11,000 records, Law

National Library of Austria, Vienna

c. 260,000 records of their holdings

National Library of the Czech Republic, Prague

c. 20,500 records of their holdings

National Library of Finland, Helsinki

c. 19,400 records of their holdings (c. 4,950 MARC21 records for pre-1700 material, and c. 14,450 records for publication years 1700-1827)

National Library of Lithuania, Vilnius

c. 2,000 records covering 18th-century Polish books issued in Lithuania, Hebrew books issued in Lithuania between 1799 and 1830, and Lithuanian books from the period 1547 to 1830

National Library of Norway, Oslo

c. 19,400 records of their holdings

National Library of Poland, Warsaw

c. 1,345 records of their holdings

National Library of Russia, St Petersburg

c. 28,500 records of their holdings

National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh

c. 24,100 records, 1500-1830, Catalogue of collections

National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth

c. 13,250 records of their holdings

National Széchényi Library, Budapest

c. 11,000 records derived from the Catalogus librorum sedecimo saeculo impressorum, qui in Bibliotheca Nationali Hungariae Széchényiana asservantur. Editiones non Hungarice et extra Hungariam impressae, E. Soltész, C. Velenczei and A.W. Salgó (comp.) (Budapest – Szeged: Országos Széchényi Könyvtár / Scriptum Kft., 1990)

National and University Library, Ljubljana

c. 18,800 records of their holdings

National and University Library, Zagreb

c. 8,200 records of their holdings

Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, Göttingen

c. 1,004,650 records from the Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, Göttingen, the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, and a number of German Cluster libraries

Oxford University Libraries

c. 76,000 records from Oxford libraries, including the Bodleian, Taylorian, Ashmolean, as well as College and Departmental libraries

Regione Toscana

c. 13,500 records from various libraries in the Regione Toscana

Slovak National Library, Martin

c. 300 records of their holdings

Szeged University Library, Hungary

c. 9,000 records of their holdings

Academic Library of Tallinn University

c. 9,700 records of their holdings

Tartu University Library

c. 20,904 records of their holdings

Senate House Library and Heythrop College Library, University of London

c. 57,700 records of their holdings

The Vatican Library, Vatican City

c. 5,600 records of their holdings

Utrecht University Library

c. 102,700 records of their holdings

Vlaamse Erfgoedbibliotheken

c. 26,000 records of their holdings

Warsaw University Library

c. 10,200 records of their holdings

Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine, London

c. 52,000 records of their holdings

Wroclaw University Library

c. 5,400 records of their holdings

Wrocław Biblioteka Ossolineum

c. 5,700 records of their holdings

Yale University Library

c. 270,700 of their holdings

Projected file loads

CERL is continually preparing new files for addition to the HPB database and would welcome suggestions of suitable collections to widen its scope and coverage (please contact the CERL Executive Manager: Marian.Lefferts@cerl.org.

For more information on CERL’s file loading procedures click here.