This volume serves as the definitive bibliographical record of the works and library of the seventeenth-century poet and cleric John Donne. Geoffrey Langdon Keynes, a renowned bibliographer and surgeon, compiles extensive data on Donne's publications, manuscripts, and personal collection. The text provides a rigorous framework for scholars to track the provenance and printing history of Donne's canonical texts through meticulous cataloging and physical description.

Experts regard this work as a foundational reference for any serious study of John Donne's literary output. Scholars frequently cite the precision of Keynes's cataloging as the standard for bibliographical research in the field of English Renaissance literature.