Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads

April 14, 2006 2:28 PM

Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads Digital images, plus the occasional sound file, for the Bodleian's massive collection. In addition, Samuel Pepys was an enormously important collector, and the Early Modern Center at UCSB has digitized his collection--again, with some sound files. See also the Francis J. Child Ballads, taken from Child's The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. (For previous MeFi sojourns in the wonderful world of ballads, see here, here, and here.)
posted by thomas j wise (8 comments total)

Fantastic post. I like it that the Bodleian's collection is searchable.
posted by LarryC at 3:54 PM on April 14, 2006

Better yet--the sound files at the Bodleian are just midis of the tunes, but the UCSB site has performances of the songs in downloadable MP3 format!
posted by LarryC at 4:01 PM on April 14, 2006

What a gift. Thank you Bodleian Library and tjw. I've been a fan of early music for a long time, and Packington's Pound was always one of my favorite melodies. Now I have more lyrics than I know what to do with. Great woodcuts, too.
posted by Ohdemah at 6:21 PM on April 14, 2006

[this is good]

I've called a few of these from the stacks in my time, but having searchable access to them all is very very lovely. (Fourteen to the tune of Lillibullero? Heh.)
posted by holgate at 7:12 PM on April 14, 2006

Excellent. Thanks.
posted by peacay at 11:36 PM on April 14, 2006

i love these--thanks!
posted by amberglow at 12:13 AM on April 15, 2006

Great post. More ballad goodness here. See In particular, the late Bruce Olson's catalogue of various collections, and the Roxburghe Ballads (unfortunately not the broadsides themselves).
posted by GeorgeBickham at 3:36 AM on April 15, 2006

superb post, as always. Thanks for sharing it.

I find it interesting (and heartening) that more and more of this material is becoming available via the web. Just a few days ago I ran across this ballads page and I know there are more out there.

I'm thankful there are people using the web for more than samurai kittens.
posted by anastasiav at 7:06 AM on April 15, 2006