About the Collection
Oberlin College Library's Special Collections houses one of this country's largest collections of Golden Age Spanish Drama, consisting of over 7,500 dramatic works.
Major Spanish playwrights such as Tirse de Molina, Pedro Calderon de la Barca, and Moratin are well represented. The collection contains a wide variety of drama: comedias famosas, comedias nuevas, autos sacramentales, tragedias, tragi-comedias, dramas, zarzuelas, juguetes, pasillos, monologos, and bailes, along with many adaptations and translations of foreign plays.
The collection also includes a huge selection of short works, some manuscripts, and actors and prompter's copies of plays. The bulk of the texts — about 4,500 — were printed in the 19th century. Another 2,000 date from between 1900 and 1924, and the remaining several hundred date from the 17th and 18th centuries. The broad span of years represented in the printings provides material for a detailed study of the various movements in Spanish theater through the early 20th century.
A catalog of the collection was compiled in 1946 which can be accessed online through the library catalog or in the Terrell Main Library. Physical copies can also be consulted in Special Collections.