Scope of Archive

The archive contains a wide range of Swift’s prose works, but not his poems or his correspondence. At this stage (June 2010), it is largely dependent on the holdings of the Cambridge University Library. Several texts, but not all, are held in more than one version.

Titles

The short titles used in the archive are generally those in the index to Herbert Davis’s index to his edition of The Prose Writings of Jonathan Swift, ed. Herbert Davis and others, 16 vols. (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1939-74), vol. xiv.

The Browse facility lists the works by title alphabetically, omitting initial ‘the’, ‘a’, and ‘an’.

In Search the Work Search facility enables you to search for a word within the title, or if you have the Teerink or ESTC number you can use them instead. In Advanced Search you can use an alphabetically segregated menu of drop-down titles, but in Advanced Search you are strongly recommended to include a word as well.

Words

You can search for individual words or combinations of words in Free Text Search (remember to remove your previous research term or it will serve as a filter) or, if you know the title of the work, or the name of the publisher or printer, or the years that interest you, within Advanced Search, limiting your search by title, or publisher, or year, if you wish.

Bookseller, Printers, and Publishers

Bookseller and printers are listed when they have been identified. The listing is not entirely dependent on imprints but there has been no systematic identification of printers by ornaments. Trade publishers are not distinguished from booksellers. You can find booksellers, publishers, and printers by using the Browse facility under Publishers and Printers, or you can use Advanced Search, limiting your search by title, publisher, or year, if you wish. In Advanced Search you are strongly recommended to include a word as well.

Years

You can Browse titles by the year. And you can use years as a way of limiting your search in Advance Search.

Choosing a Version to Read

If you find more than one version of a text and are unsure which version to read, the Introduction will give you some information designed to help you to decide.

Viewing Two Versions

When you find a text that is held in the Archive in more than one version, you can choose to view two of them in parallel on the screen.

Teerink/Scouten Numbers

Items in the Archive are connected to H. Teerink, A Bibliography of the Writings of Jonathan Swift, second edition, ed. Arthur H. Scouten (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1963) by citation of the bibliography’s numbers. The Work Search facility enables you to search by Teerink/Scouten number.

ESTC Numbers

Items in the Archive are connected to the English Short Title Catalogue (http://estc.bl.uk) by citation of the catalogue’s numbers. The catalogue, which lists 460,000 items, gives brief bibliographical accounts and library holdings. The Work Search facility enables you to search by ESTC number.

Cambridge Works of Jonathan Swift

The Archive is a project in association with the Cambridge Edition of the Works of Jonathan Swift. At present only one volume of the edition, English Politics, 1711-1714, edited by Bertrand A. Goldgar and Ian Gadd, has been published, but A Tale of a Tub, edited by Marcus Walsh, is advertised for mid-July 2010. For more information, please visit the Cambridge University Press website, which is available from the home page.