Bulletin of the John Rylands Library

The John Rylands Library houses one of the finest collections of rare books, manuscripts and archives in the world.  The collections span five millennia, have a global reach, and cover a wide range of subjects, including art and archaeology; economic, social, political, religious and military history; literature, drama and music; science and medicine; theology and philosophy; travel and exploration. For over a century, the Bulletin of the John Rylands Library has published research that complements the Library’s special collections. The editors invite the submission of articles in these fields and welcome discussion of in-progress projects. They particularly welcome contributions on the Library's rich and varied but less well-known non-European and modern and contemporary collections.

Areas of particular interest include, but are not limited to:

• Manuscript and archive studies
• Textual transmission and bibliographical studies
• The histories of printing and publishing
• Digital and scientific approaches to the study of books and manuscripts
• The transmission and reception of the Bible
• The history of religion, with particular regard to evangelical Christianity and the Dissenting and Nonconformist traditions
• Visual culture, including manuscript illumination and the printed image
• Social and cultural history, and the history of medicine
• Global and connected histories

The editors also invite the submission of descriptive articles or shorter notices pertinent to items in the Library collections and those held in other institutions of the University of Manchester. Further information can be found in the Library’s Guide to Special Collections.

The complete archive of the Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, from its first issue in 1903 to Volume 80 (1998) is now available to purchase from Manchester University Press. Please see the 'subscribe' tab for more information.

Abstracting / Indexing

America: History and Life; Arts & Humanities Citation Index; ATLA Religion Database; British and Irish Archaeological Bibliography; Dietrich’s Index Philosophicus; Historical Abstracts; Humanities International Index; IBR Online; IBZ Online; International Bibliography of Art; MLA International Bibliography; New Testament Abstracts; Old Testament Abstracts; Poetry & Short Story Reference Center; Religious & Theological Abstracts; Russian Academy of Sciences Bibliographies; Scopus; The Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature.

Ethics

Manchester University Press is committed to upholding high ethical standards across all of its journals and providing guidance in order to meet these standards. See here for a summary of our expectations for authors, reviewers and editors.

Frequency

Biannual (Spring and Autumn)

Editors

Fred Schurink, University of Manchester and Rachel Winchcombe, University of Manchester

Editorial Board

Chair: David Matthews, University of Manchester

Paul Fouracre, University of Manchester
Roy Gibson, Durham University
David Law, University of Manchester
Phyllis Mack, Rutgers University
Janette Martin, John Rylands Library, University of Manchester
John Morgan, University of Bristol
Walter Pohl, Austrian Historical Research Institut
Lynda Pratt, University of Nottingham
Ingrid Rembold, University of Manchester
Carsten Timmermann, University of Manchester
Huw Twiston Davies, University of Manchester
Guyda Armstrong, University of Manchester
Jack Webb, University of Manchester

The editors encourage the submission of cross disciplinary articles that enhance the scholarship and understanding of the collections. Full length articles as well as short review pieces and notes on particular collections, exhibitions and recent acquisitions are welcome. Please see the journal guidelines for preparing and submitting an article. 

Contributors should send their articles to the editors: fred.schurink@manchester.ac.uk and rachel.winchcombe@manchester.ac.uk

Requests to reproduce images of material from the John Rylands Library collections should be sent to Library’s imaging office. Please complete this form and return to the Library. Include the granted permission and high resolution image with your final manuscript.

Open Access

MUP Open provides authors or their institutions and funders with the option of paying a fee and making an article permanently and immediately available for free online. Authors can also self-archive their Accepted Manuscript on their personal or departmental website, or an institutional or non-commercial subject repository upon acceptance. For more information on Open Access and journals, see here.