SERICA
A conspectus of the pre-modern and “special collections” Chinese books in the Bodleian Library.
Serica blog updated 2 March 2025
Some notes on old Chinese books in the Bodleian Library’s collections and on old Chinese books in general.
Collectors’ seals on Chinese books in the Bodleian Library
Survey of Chinese “special collections” in the Bodleian Library updated 8 June 2023
This survey documents the provenance and current location of all the so-called “special collections” of Chinese books in the Bodleian Library. It was originally compiled in December 2012 for the benefit of the National Library of China, with which the Bodleian had an evanescent memorandum of understanding, and I update it from time to time.
Chinese books in Europe in the seventeenth century updated 2 March 2025
A list of books which came to Europe in the seventeenth century, under constant review as more examples are discovered.
Lists updated 19 April 2024
Lists
- Letters to James Legge from Wang Tao and Lin Xiulong
- Two guardbooks of 18th-century single-sheet items:
- Chinese painting and calligraphy
- Anti-opium publications
- Anti-footbinding publications
- Democracy Wall publications (1978-1980)
- Taiping Tianguo publications
- Chungking National Government publications
- Works by Griffith John
- Multi-colour editions
- Works given by Peter Kornicki in November 2021
- Japanese editions of Chinese works
- Rubbings (also called “ink squeezes”)
- Bibles
- The Von der Burg Collection
The pre-modern Chinese collections contain things that can be catalogued only with difficulty, and sometimes not at all. I’m trying to make lists of them, and have made a start here. I’m also making lists of things that can’t be found easily in the current catalogues.
Stone Age thinking at the speed of light – AACR2, MARC, and other dinosaurs
Book Arts Press Lecture 116 (17 March 1983) by John Jolliffe, who was Bodley’s Librarian from 1982 until his untimely death in 1985. His paper demonstrates the inadequacies of library automation orthodoxy, and together with my annotations introduces some of the principal personalities involved in its construction.
David Helliwell
2 March 2025
