The separate printed works in the Library, which are contained in about 160 collections, amount to over two million, and cannot possibly be shortly described. They are all in the General Catalogue of printed books, of which two copies are available for the use of readers.
It has to be remembered that since 1610 (see p. [20]) the Library has had a right to a copy of every book published in the United Kingdom, and receives about 300 literary items (books, pamphlets, sheets of music, etc.) a day. But every foreign book and periodical has to be purchased, and though much has been done, the foreign literature is not fully adequate. All that can be accomplished is to provide, in this department, a large and useful working library. It is in English Literature, in Theology and in Classics that the Bodleian can be justly called firstrate.
The number of Incunabula is about 5600,[27] of which the Caxtons are sixty. Space only allows in this place a mention of such out of the collections of printed books as have a distinctive character and are still kept together, with a few other notes.
Ashmole (English antiquities, heraldry, astrology).
Dissertations.
Douce (English literature).
Georgian (Georgian language and literature: the Wardrop Collection).
Gough (British topography).
Hope (old periodicals).