The project will see the Internet giant digitalise up to 40 million pages first published between 1700 and 1870 that are out of copyright.
The project will cover publications on a vast range of topics over a period that witnessed the French Revolution, the industrialisation of the modern world, the invention of rail travel, the Battle of Trafalgar and war in the Crimea.
Among the first works to be digitised will be the 1775 work 'De Natuurlyke Historie van den Hippopotamus of het Rivierpaard' (translated from French as 'The Natural History of the Hippopotamus, or River Horse') by George Louis Leclerc, which includes an account of the stuffed Hippopotamus kept in a cabinet of curiosities by the Prince of Orange.
The collection will also include a pamphlet from 1791 called 'Les Droits de la Femme. A la reine' (The Rights of Women. To the Queen), in which author Olympe de Gouges cast a critical, contemporary eye over the reign of Marie-Antoinette.
Dame Lynne Brindley, chief executive of the British Library, said: "In the nineteenth century it was an ambition of our predecessors to give everybody access to as much of the world’s information as possible, to ensure that knowledge was not restricted to those who could afford private libraries.
"We are delighted to be partnering with Google on this project and through this partnership believe that we are building on this proud tradition of giving access to anyone, anywhere and at any time.
"Our aim is to provide perpetual access to this historical material, and we hope that our collections coupled with Google’s know-how will enable us to achieve this aim."
Google, which will bear the cost of the digitisation, will make the books available through Google Books and the Library’s website, where they will be stored in perpetuity within the digital archive.
The project forms part of the British Library’s commitment to increase access to all those wishing to use its archive for research purposes.
The books will be available to view from anywhere in the world, and can be copied, shared and manipulated for non-commercial purposes.
Peter Barron, director of external relations at Google, said: "What’s powerful about the technology available to us today isn’t just its ability to preserve history and culture for posterity, but also its ability to bring it to life in new ways.
"This public domain material is an important part of the world’s heritage and we’re proud to be working with the British Library to open it up to millions of people in the UK and abroad."
The project follows a similar partnership between the British Library and online publishing and technology company Brightsolid to digitise up to 40 million pages from its newspaper collection.
The library has also previously partnered with Microsoft to digitise 65,000 nineteenth century books, some of which are now available as an iPad app.
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