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New Document Images – Scanned in Greyscale

[December 2011]

The latest additions to EEBO have been scanned in greyscale to provide a more nuanced and realistic rendering of the original printed source.

Example of greyscale image in EEBO

The. holie. Bible.
Imprinted at London in povvles Churchyarde by Richarde Iugge, printer to the Queenes Maiestie., [1568]
[50], cxxviii [i.e. cclvi], clxxxv [i.e. ccclxx], cciiii [i.e. cccciiii], cxviii [i.e. ccxxxvi], clix [i.e. cccxiv]
STC 2099.2
STC reel 2289:01
http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003&res_id=xri:eebo&rft_id=xri:eebo:citation:259710075
(From the Library of Trinity College Dublin)

The 155 items that have been added to EEBO with this release correspond to Unit 81 of the microfilm collection Early English Books I, 1471-1640 (STC), and comprise more than 16,000 scanned facsimile Document Images. Greyscale images of these works are accessed using the standard Document Images and Thumbnails displays in EEBO. They can also be exported in TIFF and PDF formats.

The works newly added to EEBO include:

John Foxe 1516–1587
A table of the X. first persecutions of the primitiue church vnder the heathen tyrannes of Rome
Imprinted at London by Humfrey Lownes., 1610
Woodcuts with letterpress text
STC 11227.3
STC reel 2292:16
http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003&res_id=xri:eebo&rft_id=xri:eebo:citation:259710128
(From the Folger Shakespeare Library)

Raphael Holinshed d. 1580?
The chronicles of England, from William the Conquerour ... newly amended and inlarged with a necessarie table thereunto annexed, both of names and matters that are memorable
At London: Printed in Aldersgate Street at the Signe of the Starre., 1587
[10], 1-346, 349-1592, [60] p.
STC 13569.5
STC reel 2293:01
http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003&res_id=xri:eebo&rft_id=xri:eebo:citation:259710137
(From the Folger Shakespeare Library)

Sir Hugh Plat 1552–1611?
The floures of philosophie with the pleasures of poetrie annexed vnto them, as wel pleasant to be read, as profytable to be followed of all men
Imprinted at London by Frauncis Coldocke and Henry Bynneman, Anno. 1581
[16], 172, [1] p.
STC 19990.7
STC reel 2300:12
http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003&res_id=xri:eebo&rft_id=xri:eebo:citation:259710200
(From the British Library)

Edward Wright 1558?–1615
The arte of dialing: shewing, hovv to make any kind of diall vpon a plaine superficies howsoeuer placed
London, Printed by Iohn Beale for William Welby., 1614
[55] p., [1] folded plate
STC 26022.5
STC reel 2303:23
http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003&res_id=xri:eebo&rft_id=xri:eebo:citation:259710267
(From Harvard University Library)

New Full Text: The EEBO Text Creation Partnership - Phase II

[June 2011]

A new collection of searchable full text has been integrated with EEBO in this release, considerably improving the discoverability and accessibility of thousands of early printed texts.

This new collection, which is the product of the second phase of the highly successful EEBO Text Creation Partnership (TCP) initiative, provides accurate keyed and encoded editions of a wide variety of different printed sources from EEBO, complementing the collection of more than 25,000 searchable EEBO texts produced during EEBO-TCP Phase I (1999-2009). EEBO-TCP Phase I aimed to provide searchable keyed editions of foundational works in a wide variety of disciplines, taking the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL) as its principal guide to text selection; the aim of EEBO-TCP Phase II is produce searchable keyed editions of the remaining works, some 44,000 printed sources. Together, the Phase I and Phase II collections will eventually form a searchable archive that includes one edition (in most cases the first) of every substantive English-language work in EEBO.

The breadth of coverage of the new EEBO-TCP Phase II collection is almost as wide as that of EEBO itself, and the works that have been made searchable for the first time in this release range from translations of major literary and philosophical texts through to handbooks on domestic economy and advertisements for patent medicines.

More than 7,500 searchable keyed transcriptions of EEBO texts from the EEBO-TCP Phase II initiative can now be searched and retrieved via EEBO in institutions that have joined the Phase II partnership. Content from EEBO-TCP Phase II is seamlessly integrated both with EEBO-TCP Phase I and with EEBO itself.

Highlights of the first release of the EEBO-TCP Phase II collection include:

  • English versions of the satires of Juvenal and Persius produced by Barten Holyday (1593-1661), printed in the form of STC 19778.5 (Aulus Persius Flaccus his Satires translated into English, 1616), Wing H2770 (Horace: The best of lyrick poets [...] together with Aulus Persius Flaccus, his satyres, 1652), and Wing J1276 (Decimus Junius Juvenalis, and Aulus Persius Flaccus translated and illustrated as well with sculpture as notes, 1673)
  • English versions of Defensio fidei catholicae de satisfactione Christi and Epistola consolatoria by Hugo Grotius (1583-1645), translated by 'W.H.' and Clement Barksdale (1609-1687) respectively, and printed as Wing G2107 (A defence of the catholick faith, 1692) and Wing G2114 (The mourner comforted, 1652)
  • Royal proclamations, such as the edict issued by Elizabeth I in 1576 ordering 'vagaboundes, roges, idle persons, and masterlesse men' to return to their home areas (STC 8088)
  • R. Lowman's An exact narrative and description of the wonderfull and stupendious fire-works in honour of Their Majesties coronations, and for the high entertainment of Their Majesties, the nobility, and city of London; made on the Thames, and perform'd to the admiration and amazement of the spectators, on April the 24, 1685 ([London]: Printed by N. Thompson at the entrance into the Old-Spring-Garden near Charing-Cross., 1685), Wing L3321
  • Elixyrlogia, or, A compendious discourse wherein the eminent and effectual virtues and properties of the universal elixyr are set forth not only for the particular use of them that would prevent the contagion of the plague [...] but for the general cure, remedying, and certain prevention of most acute diseases incident to mankind [...] with the manner of taking it [...] and a rational accompt how it may certainly conduce to the prolonging of life if medically administred in a little quantity every morning to an empty stomach by Theod. Le Medde, M.D. (London : Printed for Henry Eversden ..., 1665), Wing L1037
  • The English translation of Nicolas Lémery's Recueil des curiositez rares et nouvelles des plus admirables effets de la nature et de l'art, printed as Wing L1041 (Modern curiosities of art & nature extracted out of the cabinets of the most eminent personages of the French court: together with the choicest secrets in mechanicks, communicated by the most approved artists of France, 1685)

EEBO Introductions

[June 2011]

Two new contributions to the EEBO Introductions Series have been made available as part of this release:

The contention betwyxte Churchyeard and Camell, vpon Dauid Dycers dreame sette oute in suche order that it is bothe wyttye and profytable for all degryes (London: Owen Rogers for Mychell Loblee, 1560; STC 5225)
Harriet Phillips

Desiderius Erasmus, A deuoute treatise vpon the Pater noster, made fyrst in latyn by the moost famous doctour mayster Erasmus Roterodamus, and tourned in to englisshe by a yong vertuous and well lerned gentylwoman of. xix. yere of age, trans. Margaret More Roper (London: Thomas Berthelet, [1526?], [1531?]; STC 10477, 10477.5)
Hope Johnston

A complete list of contributions to the EEBO Introduction Series is accessible by visiting the Information Resources area or by following the link to the Contents page at the top of each of the EEBO Introductions.

View the Contents of the EEBO Introductions Series.

New Records and Document Images

[June 2011]

Facsimile Document Images of more than 1,700 items have been added to EEBO in this release, including 772 items comprising Units 130-132 of Early English Books II, 1641-1700 (Wing) and more than 900 items from Unit 2 of the Tract Supplement collection, bringing the total number of records with one or more sets of Document Images (i.e. one or more scanned documents) to 126,926.

Among the items from Wing Units 130-132 added to EEBO in this release are the following:

An answer to the reasons of Newcastle against the erecting a ballast-shore at Jarrow-Slike
[London: s.n., 1670]
1 sheet ([1] p.)
Date: 1670
Wing A3439D
Wing reel 2917:04
http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003&res_id=xri:eebo&rft_id=xri:eebo:citation:297415506

William Beech
A discovery neer Milford, in South-Wales: being a loyal charge humbly layd upon the trust of [blank] to report it unto the Parliament of England, there being no representative for Pembrook-shire to do it; humbly offered, yet once more, by Wiliam Beech, late of the said county, for advance of their benefit neer ten thousand pounds; and for advance of their honor, more then ten times ten thousand pounds
[London? : s.n., 1645?]
1 sheet ([1] p.)
Wing B1679A variant
Wing reel 2917:07
http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003&res_id=xri:eebo&rft_id=xri:eebo:citation:297415509

Anon.
A full and particular account of the s[e]izing the famous Captain Wittney, the notorious robber of England with the manner of his apprehending and commitment to Newgate, and of his behaviour since in prison
[London]: Printed for T. Taverner in Fleet-Street, 1692/3 [i.e. 1693]
1 sheet ([1] p.
Wing F2286A
Wing reel 2922:04
http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003&res_id=xri:eebo&rft_id=xri:eebo:citation:297421117

Anon.
Aristotle's compleat master-piece in three parts: displaying the secrets of nature in the generation of man : regularly digested into chapters and sections, rendring it far more useful and easie than any yet extant: to which is added, a treasure of health, or, The family physician, being choice and approved remedies for all the several distempers incident to humane bodies
London: Printed and sold by the booksellers, [1690?]
iv, 131, 16, [2] p.
Wing A3697cA
Wing reel 2932:18
http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003&res_id=xri:eebo&rft_id=xri:eebo:citation:318209502

Cornelius Burroughs
Rich newes from Jamaica of great spoyl made by the English upon the enemy, both by land & sea. Being the substance of a letter from Cornelius Burroughs, steward generall, dated from Point-Cagway London: Printed by M. Simmons, 1659
[2], 4 p.
Wing B6127
Wing reel 2950:11
http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003&res_id=xri:eebo&rft_id=xri:eebo:citation:489263883

William Righton
The disloyal actings of the Bermuda Company in London by their keeeping [sic] back a petition presented (from the General Assembly in the said islands, convented together there, according to the laws of the said company) to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty. With several grievances, petitions, and papers; as will more at large appear in the following narrative, shewing the great oppressions the poor inhabitants in the said islands do groan under, by the arbitrary government of the Somer-Islands Company: in all humility presented to the honourable, the knights, citizens, and burgesses assembled in Parliament, craving from them to be relieved from the aforesaid and following oppressions
[London: For J. Robinson], Printed in the year, MDCLXXVIII. [1678]
[4], 26 p.
Wing R1512C
Wing reel 2956:39
http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003&res_id=xri:eebo&rft_id=xri:eebo:citation:489265446

Enhancements to EEBO Interactions

[July 2010]

Contributions by EEBO users to the new social-networking resource EEBO Interactions (http://eebo-interactions.chadwyck.com) are now more prominently signposted within EEBO itself, making EEBO Interactions an even more effective forum for discussion and exchange among EEBO users worldwide.

The EEBO Interactions icon, which provides direct access to the interaction page for a particular work or author, now appears on the EEBO Search Results display alongside each title and name entry. This means that all users of EEBO are alerted to the existence of relevant user-generated content in EEBO Interactions when reviewing the results of their EEBO searches.

The EEBO Interactions icon is also displayed on Full Record and Document Image displays for each work in EEBO.

Empty speech bubble icon The empty speech bubble icon indicates interaction pages that do not yet feature any submissions by users. Click on the icon to go to EEBO Interactions and start interacting.

Speech balloon icon when content is present When a particular work or author interaction page in the EEBO Interactions site receives a contribution from a user, the speech balloon icon in EEBO is updated to indicate the presence of user-generated content.

EEBO Interactions is evolving to meet the needs of its users. Forthcoming enhancements include modifications to the design of the Author and Work-level Interaction pages, which will ensure that submissions to the resource are even more clearly credited to their creators than at present.

Want to get involved? Find out more about EEBO Interactions, including how to register.

EEBO Interactions will develop according to the requirements of its users, and feedback is welcomed. If you have any suggestions regarding possible improvements to the resource, please contact the EEBO webmaster.

EEBO Interactions

[January 2010]

EEBO now has its very own dedicated social networking resource, EEBO Interactions (currently at http://eebo-interactions.test.collabforge.com).

EEBO Interactions aims to provide scholars with new ways of engaging with EEBO and with the community of early modernists who use EEBO in teaching and research.

Find out more about EEBO Interactions.

New Texts from the Text Creation Partnership

[July 2010]

The EEBO Text Creation Partnership (TCP) collection consists of searchable keyed and encoded transcriptions of EEBO texts.

Eight Welsh-language texts have been added to EEBO in this release, bringing the total number of keyed texts to 25,277. These eight Welsh-language texts have been proofread and edited at the National Library of Wales.

Y Bibl Cyssegr-lan sef yr Hen Destament a'r Newydd
Printedig yn Llùndain: Gan Bonham Norton a Iohn Bill, printwyr i Adderchoccaf fawrhydi y Brenhin, 1620
[1172] p.
STC 2348
STC reel 1596:04
http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003&res_id=xri:eebo&rft_id=xri:eebo:citation:99857238

John Dod, 1549?-1645
Ymadroddion hen Mr. Dod
Printiedig yn Llundain: gan Tho. Whitledge a W. Everingham, 1693
1 sheet ([1] p.)
Wing D1789
Wing reel 1905:24
http://gateway.umi.bhowell.com/openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003&res_id=xri:eebo&rft_id=xri:eebo:citation:99827200

Church of England
Ffurf gweddi I'w harfer ar ddydd mercher y pummed dydd o fis Ebrill, yr hwn fydd ddiwrnod ympryd wedi drefn drwy gyhoeddus orchymyn y Brenhin, &c.
[Argraphwyd yn Llundain: gan Charles Bill, ac executris Thomas Newcomb fu farw, Argraphwyr i Ardderchoccaf fawrhydi y Brenhin, 1699]
[8] p.
Wing F843B
Wing reel 1907:19
http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003&res_id=xri:eebo&rft_id=xri:eebo:citation:99827315

Thomas Gouge, 1605-1681
Rhesswmmau yscrythurawl yn profi mae dyledswydd pob maeth o wrandawyr (oddieithr y rhai sydd yn byw ar elusenau) yw cyfrannu yn ol eu gallu o bethu da'r byd hwn tuag at gynhaliaeth cyssurus eu gweinidogion, au athrawion
[Llundain]: Printiedig yn Llundain gan Tho. Whitledge a W. Everingham, 1693
10 p.
Wing G1376A
Wing reel 1701:22
http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003&res_id=xri:eebo&rft_id=xri:eebo:citation:23721099

Richard Jones, 1603-1673
Testûn testament newudd ein Harglwydd a'n Jachawdwr Jesu Grist yn benhillion cymraeg mewn egwyddoraidd drefn, a ofodwyd allau trwy lafûr / Ri. Jones ... yn Sir Drefaldwyn ...; fo chwanegwyd atto epitome ô lyfr cyntaf Moses yr hwn a elwir Genesis ...
Ai printio, yn Llundain: Ag iw werthu gan John Brown tan y fefen euradyn mon-wynt, 1653
[15], 54 p.
Wing J986
Wing reel 319:20
http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003&res_id=xri:eebo&rft_id=xri:eebo:citation:13195051

Thomas Powell, 1608-1660
Cerbyd jechydwriaeth Neu prif byngciau grefydd gristonogawl wedi eu egluro a'u gosod allan. 1. Yn gyntaf, mewn senteniau a rheolau awdyrdodol. 2. Yn nessaf, mewn cyd-ymddiddan trwy ymholion ac attebion
[Llundain]: Printiedig yn-ninas Llundain, gan Sarah Griffin, dros Philip Chetwind, 1657
[6], 39, [1] p.
Wing P3070
Wing reel 2014:07
http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003&res_id=xri:eebo&rft_id=xri:eebo:citation:99829948

Edward Wynn, 1618-1669
Trefn ymarweddiad gwîr Grîstion: neu Lwybr hyffordd i'r Cymro i rodio arno beunydd gyd a'i dduw Edward Wynn. D.D.
A brintiwyd yn Llundain: [s.n.], 1662
[4], 140 p.
Wing W3778A
Wing reel 2105:21
http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003&res_id=xri:eebo&rft_id=xri:eebo:citation:99832610

Thomas Comber, 1645-1699
Teg resymmeu offeiriad pabaidd wedi ei hatteb gan Brotestant o Eglwys Loegr. A gyfiethwyd [translated] gan W.J.
[A translation of Plausible arguments of a Romish priest answered by an English Protestant]
Preintiedig yn Llundain: dros R. Clavell dan Lun y Paun ym Mynwent Dant Pawl, 1686
[7], 54 p.
Wing C5495A
Wing reel 2606:05
http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003&res_id=xri:eebo&rft_id=xri:eebo:citation:43663247

The EEBO Introductions Series

[October 2009]

This release of EEBO sees the addition of nine new contributions to the EEBO Introductions Series:

Thomas Rawlins, The Rebellion: A Tragedy (1640)
Anna Fahraeus

William Rowley, A Tragedy called All's Lost by Lvst (1633)
Anna Fahraeus

John Rastell, A New Co[m]modye in Englysh in Maner of an Enterlude [] wherein is Shewd [and] Dyscrybyd as Well the Bewte [and] Good Propertes of Women, as Theyr Vycys [and] Euyll Co[n]dicio[n]s ([London] : Iohes Rastell me imprimi fecit, [c.1525]; STC 20721, Tract Supplement E4:2) [a translation of Fernando de Rojas’s La Celestina, Comedia o Tragecomedia de Calisto y Melibea]
José Maria Pérez Fernández

James Mabbe, The Spanish bawd, represented in Celestina: or, The tragicke-comedy of Calisto and Melibea (1631)
José Maria Pérez Fernández

Abraham Cowley, Abrahami Couleij Angli, Poemata Latina. In Quibus Continentur, Sex Libri Plantarum, viz. Duo Herbarum, Florum, Sylvarum, Et Unus Miscellaneorum [...] (1668)
Victoria Moul

Job Hortop, The Rare Trauailes of Job Hortop, an Englishman (1591) / The trauailes of an English man (1591)
Philip Palmer

Simon Fish, A Supplicacyon for the Beggers ([1529?])
Dunstan Roberts

John Bourchier, Lord Berners, The Castell of Love ([1548?], [1552], [1555])
Rocío G. Sumillera

M.R., The Mothers Counsell or, Liue within Compasse. Being the last Will and Testament to her dearest Daughter ([1630?])
Ulrike Tancke

The EEBO Introductions Series provides concise and informative commentaries on some of the less well known texts in EEBO. Each contribution to the series has been prepared by a specialist in the field of early modern studies and offers insights into a range of contextual, bibliographical, and reception-based issues associated with a given EEBO text.

Links to each of the contributions to the series are provided as part of the EEBO Full Record, Document Images, Illustrations and Thumbnails displays for the work (or works) to which it relates; such links also accompany relevant entries on the EEBO Search Results display. For example, the Search Results screen for any search retrieving the EEBO Full Record for STC 1585 (La Marche, The trauayled pylgrime, 1569) will incorporate a link to Dr Marco Nievergelt's discussion of this work (this link follows the summary of bibliographic information, immediately after the 'Copy from' field).

A complete list of contributions to the EEBO Introduction Series is accessible by visiting the Information Resources area or by following the link to the Contents page at the top of each of the EEBO Introductions.

View the Contents of the EEBO Introductions Series.

Cross search between EEBO and Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO)

[September 2008]

Authorized users of Cengage Gale's Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) can now include ECCO records in their EEBO searches and link to the corresponding records in ECCO. This gives EEBO users the opportunity to discover additional texts relevant to their research among 136,000 texts published between 1701-1800. Library administrators can activate the cross search feature from the Administration Resources area in Information Resources. For additional assistance or information about activating the EEBO-ECCO cross search feature, please contact the Webmaster.

Variant Forms Functionality

[March 2008]

This release of EEBO sees the addition of another piece of innovative search functionality made possible by the Virtual Orthographic Standardisation project.

The new Variant forms checkbox, which appears on the Basic, Advanced and Periodicals Search screens, makes it easy to expand your search so that it retrieves all of the different inflected forms of your search term(s) present in EEBO. For instance, if the box for Variant forms is checked and you type the word murder in the Keyword(s) field, when you submit your search you will retrieve all instances of the word murder together with its inflected forms murdered, murdering, murders etc.

This expansion or 'lemmatisation' of your search term is fully interoperable with the existing Variant spellings functionality. Thus if you type the word murder in the Keyword(s) field with the Variant spellings and Variant forms boxes checked, your results will include (i) instances of your original search term murder; (ii) instances of early modern variant forms of your original search term, e.g. murther, murdre, murdir, mvrder; (iii) instances of modern-spelling inflected forms of your search term, e.g. murdered, murdering, murders, and (iv) instances of early modern variant forms of all the various inflected forms of your original search term e.g. murthred, murthrest, murdreth, murdring, murtherynge, murthers.

Read more about the CIC CLI Virtual Orthographic Standardisation Project.

Variant Spellings Functionality Now Available to All Users

[November 2007]

From the time EEBO was first released in 1998, users and librarians have been concerned that the inconsistent spellings that occur in early modern English texts would cause users to miss material relevant to their research and thus limit their ability to use the collection to its full potential. Building on research being conducted by Professor Martin Mueller at Northwestern University, the Virtual Orthographic Standardisation Project has developed a tool that allows both expert and non-expert users to search databases such as EEBO using modern English spellings and automatically retrieve instances of extant early modern spelling variants.

The project is funded by the Council of Library Initiatives (CLI) of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) with support from ProQuest. Beta versions of EEBO and Literature Online with built-in Virtual Orthographic Standardisation have been made available to users of these resources at 13 member institutions since November 2006 for a period of development and testing. With this release, Virtual Orthographic Standardisation is available to all users of EEBO.

This exciting functionality represents a major step forward in searching the early texts in EEBO and Literature Online, and is not currently available in any other commercial products.

The Virtual Orthographic Standardisation functionality is very easy to use. A new Variant spellings box, which is checked by default, appears on the Basic Search, Advanced Search and Periodicals Search screens. If you type a search term in the Keyword(s) box and the Variant spellings box is checked when you submit your search, you will automatically retrieve all instances of your search term and its early modern variant forms present in EEBO. For example, if the box for Variant spellings is checked and you type the word murder in the Keyword(s) field, when you submit your search you will retrieve all occurrences of the word murder and its early modern variants murther, murdre, murdir and mvrder. A new Check for variants link, which appears to the right of the Keyword(s) field on the Basic and Advanced Search screens, allows you to browse and manually select particular variant forms of your search term or terms to build a more targeted search query.

The new Variant spellings checkbox absorbs and replaces the existing Typographical variants functionality. When you search with the Variant spellings box checked, you will automatically retrieve instances of your search term(s) modified by any of the simple substitutions previously dealt with by the old Typographical variants functionality (i for j and vice versa, u for v and vice versa, and uu and vv for w etc).

A future release of EEBO will see the addition of more new functionality that will allow users to lemmatise their search terms. Lemmatisation takes the process of standardisation one step further. It is the linguist's term for the practice of bundling the different forms of a word under the form in which the word is likely to appear in a dictionary. Thus loves, loved and loving are forms of the lemma love. Lemmatisation is part of the Virtual Orthographic Standardisation project, which will allow users to look for all variant spellings of the standard spelling love or search for the lemma love, which would retrieve all variant spellings of the standard spellings love, loves, loveth, loving, and loved.

Please contact the EEBO Webmaster if you have any questions about this exciting new project.

Improved Search Results Display

[November 2007]

Users with access to the EEBO Text Creation Partnership collection can now analyse the results of full text keyword searches more quickly and efficiently than ever before. In response to user feedback we have re-engineered the EEBO Search Results display so that it incorporates an integral Context of Matches display. Up to five matches are displayed, with context, as part of each entry on the Search Results display. In many cases this means that the user no longer has to click through to view a separate Context of Matches display on a new screen, and as a result is able to identify the most interesting and relevant full text matches more quickly and effortlessly. Where a search retrieves more than five matches in any given text, a separate Context of Matches display is provided.

EEBO Enhancements- Thumbnails ...

[June 2007]

Thumbnails

Users of EEBO can now view documents in the collection as a series of thumbnail facsimile images, making it much easier to gain an overview of the contents of a particular volume and identify pages containing illustrations, titles and chapter headings, printers' marks, and other suggestive textual features. Up to one hundred thumbnails can be displayed on a single screen, greatly enhancing the experience of working with longer works.

Using the new Thumbnails display it is easy to identify the beginning and end of individual plays printed as part of the various folio editions of the works of Shakespeare, for example. In many cases, act and scene divisions are also visible in the thumbnail view. Similarly, when viewing a collection of verse in thumbnail form it is possible to distinguish different stanza forms, pattern poems and longer works in blank verse - see for example the Thumbnail display for Wing M872 (Andrew Marvell, Miscellaneous poems by Andrew Marvell, Esq. ... 1681) or STC 13183 (George Herbert, The temple sacred poems and private ejaculations ... 1633).

The Search Results display now incorporates a thumbnail image for each work in EEBO for which Document Images are available - a miniature version of either the title page of the volume in question or the first of the Document Images in the relevant set. Clicking this thumbnail image takes the user to the Thumbnails display. Users can also access the Thumbnails display by clicking the new Thumbnails icon: thumbnail icon.

Enabling Library Branding

Librarians and systems administrators can now add their institution's logo to EEBO using a simple new form in the password-protected Administration Resources area under Information Resources. Library Branding appears on most pages in EEBO and can be configured so as to provide your patrons with a link to your library home page.

Case Study - Dr. Georgia Wilder, University of Toronto

Read this Case Study (PDF file) for a fascinating view of how Dr. Georgia Wilder uses EEBO in the classroom.

Results of the 2006 EEBO in Undergraduate Studies Essay Contest

[February 2007]

We would like to thank everyone who submitted essays to the 2006 EEBO in Undergraduate Studies Essay Contest and offer our congratulations to the following winners.

Grand Prize: Mark Hanin (Yale University) - A Revolution of Political Allegiance: Elkanah Settle and Henry Care

First Prize: Danielle Bradley (University of Iowa) - From Fact to Fable: The Book of John Mandeville's 16th Century Fall from Authority

Second Prize: Caroline Murray (Bath-Spa University) - The Lord Mayor's Show in Print, 1616-1698

Honorable Mention: Victoria Mason (University of Warwick) - "Unknown but reall:" A Pseudonymous response to Charles II's Coronation

Honorable Mention: Niina Polari (Florida Atlantic University) - Repetition, Echo, Sound: The Connection Between John Milton's "Paradise Lost" and Helkiah Crooke's Descriptions of the Ear in "Mikrokosmographia"

You can soon read copies of the winning submissions here.

Call For Entries: EEBO In Undergraduate Studies Essay Competition for 2007

[February 2007]

Announcing the EEBO In Undergraduate Studies Essay Competition for 2007

ProQuest LLC and the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership are sponsoring an essay competition for undergraduate students.

The EEBO in Undergraduate Studies Essay Competition Committee is seeking undergraduate research papers that rely on research conducted via the Early English Books OnlineTM collection of primary texts. The Committee consists of professionals and scholars drawn from both industry and academic contributors to EEBO. Essays may reflect the approach of any number of academic disciplines - history, literary studies, philosophy, anthropology, religious studies, and more - or they may be interdisciplinary in nature. The chief requirement is that each paper draws substantial evidence from the works included in Early English Books Online.

The Committee will judge the entries using a "blind" review process to select five papers for the following cash prizes.

Grand Prize: $1,000
Second Prize: $750
Third Prize: $500
2 Honorable Mentions: $200

EEBO will contain page images of 125,000 books listed in the Pollard and Redgrave, Wing, and Thomason Tracts catalogs. With its substantial coverage of printed material found in England between 1473 and 1700, EEBO provides rich research possibilities for students interested in a wide variety of topics in early modern studies.

The Committee will read and evaluate each properly submitted essay. Criteria for selection include:

  • Quality and creativity of the thesis
  • Potential for the essay to contribute to its field and to early modern studies more generally
  • Significance of the study for illustrating EEBO's usefulness in undergraduate research

All papers must be written by an undergraduate student or students. Any entrant under the age of 18 must have a parent or guardian's permission to enter this contest. The essay should reflect work done between November 1, 2006 and October 31, 2007. Group papers may be submitted provided that all group members meet the contestant criteria and consent to the submission by executing the entry form. Proof of enrollment at a college or university with EEBO access during this time period must accompany each submission. All contestants must be enrolled in an institution with approved access to Early English Books Online. ProQuest LLC is not responsible for the effect an award payment may have on a foreign student's immigration status or eligibility. This offer is void where prohibited by law.

Deadline for receipt of essays is October 31, 2007. Prizes will be announced in January 2008.

Essays must be the original, unpublished work of the student. Only one essay per individual student or group may be submitted, except that students who submit entries as part of a group may also submit an entry as an individual. All essays become the property of ProQuest LLC, which reserves the right to publish the essays in any form, either electronically or in print. By entering the essay contest, entrants grant further permission to the sponsors to use the entrants name and photo, and to publicize the winning entries as well as the names of all the winning essays, without royalty or additional compensation.

The prize winners will be notified by U.S. Mail. The winner or winners must provide proof of identity and may be required to execute an affidavit of Eligibility/Liability and Publicity Release and a statement certifying that all material submitted as part of the entry is original and does not infringe on the copyright, intellectual property, or other right of another person or entity. If a group entry wins the contest, then the prize will be split between all entrants of that group. If a potential individual winner or any member of a winning group fails to return the required documentation within 15 days following attempted notification, the prize will go to the next runner-up.

The transfer of prize property will occur as soon as practicably possible, but no later than 90 days after the award is announced.

Essay Format and Citation Style

Submitted essays must consist of no more than 20 pages of written text. All entries must be accompanied by a one-page abstract. The essay must be typed in 12-point type, double-spaced with 1" margins, and the pages numbered. Required cover pages and illustrations are not included in the allotted 20 pages. Each paper must include a bibliography.

Each essay must make use of the text(s) found in EEBO. The essay should use EEBO page image numbers when making references to the texts, as follows:

In the opening remarks in A briefe and true report of the new found land of Virginia (1588), Thomas Hariot claims that "There haue bin diuers and variable reportes with some slaunderous and shamefull speeches bruited aroade by many that returned from thence" (Image 3).

For all other matters of citation and style, essays must adhere to MLA or Chicago Manual of Style guidelines.

No name or identifying references (i.e. school, professor, or author's name) may appear on the essay itself, even though style guides may require such notations. Such information should only appear on the cover page described below.

Required Submission Materials

Cover Page: All submissions must include a cover page listing the entrants name(s), college, mailing addresses and phone numbers (both home and school), email address, and title of the paper. This page should be the only page on which the entrant's name appears.

Abstract: The second page should not display the entrant's name or any personal information. It should serve as an abstract of the paper and include the following information:

  • The title of your project
  • Account of how and why the topic was chosen, as well as dates of when work occurred. If the paper was written for a class, the name of the instructor should be included.
  • An explicit statement of the paper's thesis
  • A description of the way the paper uses documents from EEBO
  • An evaluation of the value of the paper's conclusions for others in the same field of study

Letter of Eligibility: A letter on school stationery from the Registrar's Office that verifies the entrant's enrollment at the time the paper was written should be included.

Materials Submission
  1. Submit one copy of your essay and other required submission materials.
  2. Keep a copy of the essay and other submission materials. (No materials will be returned to entrants.)
  3. Have entry delivered by 5:00 p.m. on October 31, 2007 to address below. (Entries may not be faxed or
  4. emailed.)

EEBO In Undergraduate Studies Essay Competition
c/o EEBO Product Manager
ProQuest LLC
789 E. Eisenhower Parkway, Box 35
P.O. Box 1346
Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346
USA

Neither the Committee nor ProQuest LLC is responsible for lost, late, or misdirected entries. Any entries postmarked or received after the above deadline shall be returned to the entrant. Neither the Committee nor ProQuest LLC is responsible for printing or typographical errors associated with the content or any condition beyond the control of ProQuest LLC or the Committee that may cause the contest to be interrupted.

Previous EEBO Enhancements

[November 2006]

Some of the enhancements that were made to EEBO for this release include:

  • Additional variant author name forms and pseudonyms have been added from Literature Online. A search for the author Austin, John will now retrieve works authored under the pseudonym William Birchley, and vice versa.
  • Branding of content from the British Library
  • Library branding with links back to your library is now available on more pages within EEBO
  • For users with access to the TCP full text, you can now search for pagination within the keyed documents. From the Advanced Search screen, Limit Full Text keywords to Pagination to find a particular full text page. From there you can link to the corresponding image for that page.
Single-Character Wildcard

EEBO now accepts search terms that include a single-character wildcard (?), making it easier to broaden searches and retrieve variant forms of a given term. Substitute any character in your search term with the new wildcard (as in wom?n) and EEBO will find instances of matching words that have any character in the position of the wildcard (such as women and woman). EEBO will also retrieve words in which no character appears in the position of the wildcard, meaning that hono?r will retrieve honour, honovr and honor.

The new wildcard is a powerful tool for searching old-spelling texts, particularly when used in conjunction with the truncation wildcard (*). A search for je?lo?s* will retrieve a number of variant forms of jealous and jealousy, for instance jealousie, jelowsye, jelousies and jealosies. This search can be broadened still further using the typographical variants functionality discussed above, which will ensure that variants such as iealosies, iealousies, ielosy and iealosie are also included in your results.

Improved Access to Early English Newspapers

[December 2005]

Some of the earliest extant news publications in the English language are now accessible in EEBO using the Periodicals Search, Browse Periodicals by Date and Browse Periodicals by Title interfaces.

EEBO traces the history of English journalism back to its origins, back to the broad sheet publications known as corantos that were published in the Netherlands in 1620 and 1621. Users can now search and browse corantos alongside both the later quarto-format newsbooks (1622-1642) and the vast wealth of periodicals preserved in the British Library's Thomason Tracts collection (1641-1663).

Each individual coranto and newsbook is accessible throughout EEBO via a bibliographic record that documents exactly its unique title and date information, making it easy to retrieve particular items when searching. Each is also linked to an additional bibliographic record that groups together associated items according to the various series identified in Folke Dahl's definitive work A Bibliography of English Corantos and Periodical Newsbooks 1620-1642 (London: Bibliographical Society, 1952). These additional records allow users to reconstruct the original serial order in which these publications were issued.

For example, users can access images of the newsbook entitled A relation of the King of Svveden, his happie and incomparable successe and victories..., which formed number 22 in a series of newsbooks printed for Nathaniel Butter and Nicholas Bourne from 1629 to 1631, in two ways: via its own bibliographic record, which gives the full title of the individual item and additional notes specific to it, and via a record with the title Newbooks Seventh Series: Printed for Nathaniel Butter and Nicholas Bourne, c.1629-1630 - 29 Nov. 1631., which links to images of all the newsbooks from this series available in EEBO.

Both types of record can be searched and retrieved using Basic, Advanced and Periodicals Search interfaces. The Periodicals Search interface allows users to retrieve corantos and newsbooks according to the more granular date information available for all periodicals in EEBO.

Links to author pages in Literature Online

[December 2005]

For users of both Literature Online and Early English Books Online (EEBO) we have been making improvements to both resources that helps bring together these two leading online sources for Early Modern research.

Earlier this year we implemented a comprehensive cross-searching facility that allows scholars and students to search EEBO from Literature Online. Searches from the Literature Online Quick Search and Search Texts functions will now also search the entire set of EEBO citation data: your results will include full results from EEBO, and clicking on any of the items in your EEBO results list will link directly to EEBO's facsimile page images in a separate browser window. If your institution has access to the version of EEBO that incorporates keyed full text created by the Text Creation Partnership, you will also see keyword hits from texts within EEBO in your Literature Online search results. More information about this feature is available at Literature Online.

In this release of EEBO, links will appear alongside author names on results and records in EEBO for all authors who have Author Pages in Literature Online. This provides EEBO users with instant access to the keyed texts, biographies, bibliographies, critical references and web sites for 1015 authors who appear in both of these resources.

Library administrators can get more information about enabling author links to Literature Online at Information Resources.

Example of a Literature Online Author page link in EEBO

Example of a Literature Online Author page

Recommended Titles

[February 2004]

Two hundred titles have been specially selected and categorized by subject to help undergraduates get started in EEBO. These titles are recommended as key texts from the collection, as well as for being interesting and representative of the times. Take a look at Information Resources.


Linking from the ESTC

[November 2004]

Early English Books Online is now a target for inbound OpenURL linking, allowing users to link from outbound compatible sources such as the ESTC to items available in EEBO. EEBO is also now Z39.50 compliant. Find out more.

Thomason Tracts Completed

[November 2004]

The Thomason Tract collection of political tracts, broadsides and newspapers is now complete! This invaluable collection of over 22,000 rare items is now fully searchable and browseable in EEBO.

Users can browse all of the Tracts in the order in which they were collected, as well as all periodicals alphabetically by title, and chronologically by date of each issue. A new search screen for the Thomason periodicals allows users to search for 400 periodicals and individual issues using criteria such as title, date ranges, editor, and tract number. EEBO's navigation has been updated to account for these new features and make is easier for users to access all of the search and browse screens. In addition, all screens can be bookmarked with a 'Durable URL.'

Read more about the Thomason Tracts or view a list of periodicals.