London, British Museum Library, since 1973 The British Library
Owner Id3442
TypeCorporate body
Biographical dates - Period of existence1753-
Other InformationThe library of the British Museum was formed by collections of printed books and manuscripts, the vast majority of which were transferred to the newly founded national library for the UK, The British Library, at the time of its foundation (1973).
Variant NamesBritish Museum, London, Bibliotheca Britannica
British Museum, London, King's Library
King's Library, London
British Museum. Department of Printed Books
British Museum. Deparment of Manuscripts
Other Identifierhttps://aeolus.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/collections/incunables/provenances_for_mei.xml#xpointer(//*[@id=
http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelprestype/prbooks/provenanceresearch/provenanceresearch.html
Activity
Start (year)1753
End (year)1973
NoteStamps and inks used to mark the books have been described in detail by P.H. Harris in Libraries within the Library, ed. G. Mandelbrote and B. Taylor (London: The British Library 2009); they have been classified in four types, used with different inks along times, to mean the various methods of acquisitions: see: http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelprestype/prbooks/provenanceresearch/provenanceresearch.html. Duplicate stamp of the BM has also been found in books that came beck to the Museum, such as a Grenville copy (BMC V: 554: G.9289 (IA. 24413).)
[Bod-inc Index of provenances:]
see Arundell Esdaile, The British Museum Library, with introduction by Sir Frederic Kenyon (London, 1946); Edward Miller, That Noble Cabinet: A History of the British Museum (London, 1973), passim; The Library of the British Museum: Retrospective Essays on the Department of Printed Books, ed. P. R. Harris (London, 1991); P. R. Harris, A History of the British Museum Library 1753-1973 (London, 1998); for the history of the Museum from a `non-bibliocentric' standpoint, see now David M. Wilson, The British Museum: A History (London, 2002); sales: A Catalogue of the Duplicate Books, Coins, and Medals of the British Museum. Which Will be Sold by Auction (London: Leigh and Sotheby, 6-26 March, 1788); A Catalogue of the Very Valuable Duplicate Books of the British Museum (London: Leigh and Sotheby, 20 Feb. 1805); Catalogue of the Duplicate Books of the British Museum (London: Sotheby, 19 Feb. 1819); a number of books were transferred to the Bodleian in 1889; see Library Records d. 501; but the main source of acquisition of incunabula for the Bodleian was the exchange in 1913 when 35 incunabula were acquired; see Library Records c. 1054, fols 15-19, `List of duplicate incunabula in the British Museum, not in the Bodleian', in the hand of A. W. Pollard; fair copy made by G. D. A[mery], dated 29 July 1913, fols 20-3; also Library Records e. 243; T. A. Birrell has generously supplied information on the interpretation of British Museum stamps, shelfmarks, alienation of duplicates, etc.
MARC Area Codee-uk
Profession / Type of InstitutionLibrary
CharacterisationNo characterisation/lay
Activity
Start (year)1973
NoteThe British Library was established on 1 July 1973, after the British Library Act (27 July 1971) set up a national library for the UK by administratively combining: the library departments of the British Museum (which included the National Reference Library of Science and Invention), the National Central Library, and the National Lending Library for Science and Technology (the centre for interlibrary lending, located at Boston Spa in Yorkshire). In 1974 the British National Bibliography and the Office for Scientific and Technical Information became part of the BL, as did, in the following decade, the India Office Library and Records (1982) and the British Institute of Recorded Sound (1983). The vast majority of the BL’s current holdings of incunabula were part of the British Museum library, whose stamp was not substituted. The BL stamp has been applied to incunabula acquired after 1973 and, retrospectively, to books in which there was no visible evidence of British Museum ownership (see also the entry in the dataset Holding Institution, id: LondonBL).
The British Library was hosted in the same building of the British Museum, in Bloomsbury, until the new building in St Pancras was finished and ready for the collections to be moved; the BL in the new site at St Pancras was officially opened in 1998. The vast majority of the BL’s current holdings of incunabula were part of the British Museum library, whose stamp was not substituted; the BL stamp has been applied retrospectively only to books in which there was no visible evidence of British Museum ownership. Continuity is also shown by the title of the catalogue of incunabula, which has maintained the standard abbreviation BMC (British Museum Catalogue) for the volumes XI-XIII, published after 1973 under the title of “Catalogue of books published in the 15th century now in the British Library” (see: P.H. Harris, A History of the British Museum Library 1753-1973. London: The British Library, 1998; Libraries within the Library. The origins of the British Library's printed collections, ed. by G. Mandelbrote and B. Taylor. London: The British Library, 2009; http://www.bl.uk/aboutus/quickinfo/facts/history/) [A. Panzanelli].
MARC Area Codee-uk
Profession / Type of InstitutionLibrary
CharacterisationNo characterisation/lay
Last Edit2018-05-30 16:57:44