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Information for Librarians

What’s New: September 2024

This month’s update, introduced by David Cannadine, reviews the ODNB on its 20th anniversary. First published in September 2004, the ODNB has since added 8000 biographies, and notably completed 20 annual releases of recent lives, which now cover 2001 to 2020, creating an important national record.

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Browse our 20th anniversary gallery wall

Rich [née Boyle], Mary, countess of Warwick

Born at Youghal, Co. Cork, in November 1624, the thirteenth child of an Irish nobleman, she defied her father by rejecting the marriage he had arranged for her. Marriage to the future earl of Warwick took her to Leigh, Essex, where after a religious conversion experience ‘she transformed herself into a paragon of piety’.

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News

SEPTEMBER 19, 2024

20th Anniversary of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

To celebrate the ODNB turning 20, we’re sharing thirty influential lives from the British Isles spanning nearly two millennia.

SEPTEMBER 19, 2024

What’s New: September 2024

Welcome to the 114th update of the Oxford DNB, which marks the twentieth anniversary of the Dictionary’s first publication in September 2004.

AUGUST 8, 2024

What’s New: August 2024

Welcome to the 113th update of the Oxford DNB, which adds sixteen new articles and seven portrait likenesses. Entries in this release have a special focus on the lives of early modern noblewomen in Britain.