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Welcome to the Josiah Royce Comprehensive Index website. The Comprehensive Index of the papers of Royce found at Harvard University was created by the Frank Oppenheim with the assistance of Dawn Aberg and John Kaag.

The titles to the left are links to the sections of the Index. On each screen, a brief description of the section is provided, along with one or more attachments which constitute the Index itself. Below each list of attachments is a link: Add a comment. Should you wish to offer a correction or provide additional information, please use this link. These comments will be collected regularly, reviewed by Frank Oppenheim and his staff, with appropriate changes then made to the Comprehensive Index.

The Comprehensive Index is a dynamic work which will develop as Royce scholars work with it. This Index shows the breadth and depth of Royce’s thought and allows for new insights into Royce’s writings.

The Harvard University Archives contain most of the papers of American philosopher Josiah Royce (1855-1916). One hundred fifty-five “boxes” house the original manuscripts of his published and unpublished books, articles, lectures, letters, logic work, and other materials. In 2008-09, Royce scholar Frank Oppenheim worked to compile a critical review of the entire collection. This website presents his efforts as a Comprehensive Index of the Writings of Josiah Royce (the CI). The Index describes, dates (where possible), and in some cases evaluates the Harvard Archives Royce Papers (HARP). The detailed Table of Contents, chronologically arranged, offers a quick sense of Royce’s creative work in its breadth and depth.

A user may approach the Index in various ways. The user may view the Introduction and entire CI text as a whole (altogether, some 800 pages). Or the user may select a discrete section of the work. The CI divides into three main parts and three appendices. A history of the Harvard Royce collection, and direct links to the Tables of Contents may also be separately accessed.

Harvard University’s archivists have created a “Finding Aid” to the Collection. Appendix C of the CI describes the collection in greater detail, from a scholar’s rather than an archivist’s point of view.

Finally, while the CI has been copyrighted, it is a work in progress. We invite readers who stumble on errata or omissions to post comments on the site so that the CI may be improved with your help.