The Abinger papers (of the Godwin and Shelley families, and their circles) were mostly deposited on loan at the Bodleian Library in nine batches between 1974 and 1993, by the 8th Baron Abinger (d. 2002). As they arrived, the notebooks and files of loose papers were allocated 'Dep.' shelfmarks.

A few further items (here listed as 'Additional' or 'Abinger Keats-Shelley') did not arrive until 2004. In that year, the Library purchased the collection from the 9th Baron Abinger, with the support of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Foundation, and other institutional and private donors. The John R. Murray Charitable Trust has provided further generous help to enable the Library to create a full catalogue.

As deposited, the papers were often disordered, with no internal numbering within each Dep. file. Cataloguing has allowed their rearrangement under permanent shelfmarks and folio-numbers. The process of resorting has been done at item level rather than at file level, so the contents of each Dep. file are no longer together.

This conspectus has been created to cross-reference each item in the collection from the old Dep. shelfmarks to the new 'MS. Abinger' shelfmarks and folio numbers.

You can use ctrl+f to search the page if using Windows and cmd+f if using a Mac OS.

For each item, the first column lists the original shelfmark (Dep., Additional, or Abinger Keats-Shelley) and the second column the item's arbitrary location (as found by the present cataloguer) within that original shelfmark. The third column lists the new MS. Abinger shelfmark of the item, and the fourth its new folio number(s). Preliminary matter (original wrappers, labels, lists and boxes) have not been foliated. The Date column lists the date given by the original author of the letter or manuscript (or, failing that, the date it was received or postmarked, if known). Creator and Recipient are used particularly for correspondence and Creator is also listed for non-correspondence items. A blank field means that the creator/recipient is unknown. Please note that the Incipit has been provided for letters only, and a Contents description for non-correspondence only.

For citations, please use the form (for example): MS. Abinger c. 55, fols. 3-5

Please see also the full catalogue of the Abinger collection.