Grenville Library

Thomas Grenville's Armorial tooled in gold on an 18th century binding for “Churchyardes Choise.” [1579]
Thomas Grenville's Armorial tooled in gold on an 18th century binding for “Churchyardes Choise.” [1579] British Library shelfmark G.6213

Grenville’s Library offers researchers access to a considerable canon of historical printed books from the British Isles, continental Europe, and the wider world.

About the collection

Thomas Grenville (1755–1846), politician, book collector and Trustee of the British Museum, formed a library containing circa 16,000 titles in 20,240 volumes over his life which he bequeathed to the museum.

Grenville’s collection draws together many of the monuments and grand editions of the first 400 years of Western print. It complements the King’s Library in incunabula and post-incunabula and extends an impressive catalogue of very rare books.

High spots include:

  • Gutenberg 42-line Bible, copy printed on vellum
  • Unique fragment of Tyndale’s 1525 Cologne New Testament
  • Classics, both Greek and Latin with particular strengths in the Homers, the Aesops, and the Ariostos
  • Early voyages and travels, such as George Best’s A True Discourse of the Late Voyages of Discoverie (1578) – an account of Martin Frobisher’s expeditions in search of the Northwest Passage
  • Early vernacular literatures, especially old Italian and Spanish poetry and romances
  • English literature (including all four early folio editions of Shakespeare’s plays)
  • Caribbean, Canadian, former British Colonial and United States publications
  • Bills, petitions, broadsides and tracts relating to British and Irish affairs 1680–1760
  • Several bound volumes of printed ephemera
  • Fine bindings (nearly 300 can be viewed on the British Library's Database of Bookbindings – select Grenville, Thomas (1755–1846) from the drop-down list under 'Ownership Mark').

What is available online?

Catalogues and finding aids

Volumes from Grenville's Library are listed on the British Library's main online catalogue Explore the British Library.

The Collection has not been fully digitised. 

You can use Library networked PCs to access electronic facsimiles on subscription-based databases, such as Early English Books Online or Eighteenth Century Collections Online. In some cases the copy used for the facsimile is the Grenville copy (you can check by looking at the shelfmark of the item, the Grenville Collection is shelfmarked G.1 – G.20279).

What is available in our Reading Rooms?

Registered Readers can request items from the Grenville Library to the Rare Books & Music Reading Room using Explore the British Library .

A small number of Grenville items are restricted from general access. Please contact rare-books@bl.uk for more information.

Printed catalogue

A printed catalogue Bibliotheca Grenvilliana (see below) is held on open shelves in the Rare Books & Music Reading Room at shelfmark RAC 000

What is available in other organisations?

Grenville not only collected books, he made them available to scholars for research. Some books were gifted to others so it is possible to find Grenvilliana outside of the collection he bequeathed to the British Museum. 

Further books with a Grenville provenance have been acquired for the British Library since 1846. 

Further information

The fundamental reference source for using the Grenville Library is:

  • J.T. Payne and H. Foss, Bibliotheca Grenvilliana (2 parts, 1842–48); ephemera is described separately in part 3 by W.B. Rye (1872). There is a general index of parts 1–3.

Other useful reference sources

  • B. Taylor, ‘Thomas Grenville (1755–1846) and his Books’, in G. Mandelbrote and B. Taylor (eds), Libraries within the Library (2009), 321–40. 

  • K. Limper-Herz, ‘A Monument of the Love of Letters: The Right Honourable Thomas Grenville and His Library’ (London PhD thesis, 2012).

  • J. V. Beckett, The rise and fall of the Grenvilles: dukes of Buckingham and Chandos, 1710 to 1921 (1994).

  • W. Y. Fletcher, English book collectors (1902).

  • Elizabeth J. Saville, Rt. Hon. Thomas Grenville. [Proof Sheets of an article intended for publication in “The Nineteenth Century,” with corrections by the author.] (1908). Copy held at shelfmark G.20274.

  • Denis V. Reidy, Panizzi, 'Grenville and the Grenville Library' in Electronic British Library Journal (1997).



How to guides

Using the English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC)

How to use the English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC)

Guide to researching provenance of books now in the British Library

Where do the British Library’s old printed books ‘come from'? Who owned or read them in centuries past? Why does it matter?

Get a Reader Pass

Access over 170 million collection items for free with a Reader Pass.

Guide to Explore Archives and Manuscripts

A guide to help you use the catalogue, covering: login, search, how to manage your results, how to browse the collections and how to request items

How to reuse images of unpublished manuscripts

Guide to the copyright of unpublished documents

About Explore Archives and Manuscripts

With Explore Archives and Manuscripts you can search for information about our rich and unique archive and manuscript collections.

Access manuscripts and archives

Accessing manuscripts and archives and obtaining a Letter of introduction or recommendation

How to get a Reader Pass if you are under 18

How to apply for an under 18 Reader Pass

How to order images

Instructions on how to order images of the British Library's collections from our Imaging Services

Terms of use for Google Books

This page states the terms and conditions surrounding the British Library’s out of copyright books which have been digitised by Google.

How to request items not in the catalogue

You can use 'Request Other Items' to order items which have no record in Explore the British Library. Also to order most items found in Expore Archives and Manuscripts.

Free Discovery and 1-2-1 sessions: 2019

We offer a range of free Discovery and 1-2-1 sessions to help you make the most of your time researching here.

Guide to Explore the British Library

A guide to help you use the catalogue, covering: login, search, how to manage your results, how to order/view items

What collection items can I view online?

You can see books, manuscripts, maps, playbills, scores and much more. Researchers can use our collection of electronic resources and databases to help them find material relevant to their research.

How to handle books

See the techniques you should use to keep our books in good shape.

How to handle rolled items

We show how you should unroll items like scrolls, rolls and maps.

Electronic resources

We collect thousands of electronic journals, books and websites and hundreds of databases. You need to come to the Library to access the majority of these resources.

Breaches of British Library Reading Room Conditions of Use

These guidelines outline the British Library’s policies and procedures with regard to breaches of its Reading Room Conditions of Use. They are to ensure consistency in the actions taken in response to such breaches and to define the appropriate roles and responsibilities in the process.

Guide to the British National Bibliography

A guide to help you use the British National Bibliography catalogue, covering: login, search, and how to manage your results

Can I take photographs of British Library material myself?

You can take photos of our collection items yourself in British Library Reading Rooms

Can I copy material in the Reading Rooms?

What you need to know about copying British Library collections in our Reading Rooms
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