Anthony Wood was an Oxford resident who collected contemporary ballads from an early age: his collection covers many subjects and dates from the period from about 1640 until his death. A historian of the City and University of Oxford, he annotated many of the ballads in his collection with the date of his purchase and sometimes with commentaries on the historical events referred to in the verses. He bequeathed his books and manuscripts to the Ashmolean Museum; they came to the Bodleian Library in a transfer of materials in 1860, apart from two missing volumes (see Kiessling, below).
Bibliography: Nicolas K. Kiessling, ‘The location of two lost volumes of ballads, Wood 399 and Wood 400’, BLR, XV,4(April 1996) pp. 260-291;
Nicolas K. Kiessling, The Library of Anthony Wood, (Oxford Bibliographical Society, 2002.)
Contents: 409 ballad sheets from the 17th century
Below are the volumes contained in this collection, click to expand.
