The Lee Library’s current exhibit, “Curious Remedies: Medicine During the Renaissance,” highlights medical knowledge of the Renaissance and Early Modern period with books from Special Collections. Before chemical engineering or even the discovery of penicillin, physicians relied on plants, minerals, and animals to concoct medicines for their patients. Botanical encyclopedias called herbals helped scientists identify …
Special Collections has a complete set of books issued by the Limited Editions Club, a publishing venture founded in 1929 to issue selected literary works in finely printed and illustrated editions. Many famous authors, illustrators, and designers of the 20th century worked on producing these books. Some of the most spectacular of the Limited Editions …
One of the most famous early printed Bibles is known as the “Complutensian Polyglot,” a multi-language Bible published at the Complutense University in the early 1500s (the University is now the University of Madrid, but in the 15th and 16th centuries the university was located in Alcalá de Henares, which was called Complutum in Latin). …
Enjoy these woodcut images of the Christmas story, as found in the Book of Hours printed by Simon de Colines in 1543. Three of the woodcut illustrations are signed by Geoffroy de Tory, and the kneeling figure in the scene of the Adoration of the Magi is thought to be a portrait of French king …
If you’ve walked past the exhibit space on the main floor of the library, you may have gotten a peek at the latest exhibit being installed. “Curious Remedies” will display the history of medicine in the Renaissance and features a variety of scientific books from Special Collections. This blog will highlight a few of those …
When new manuscripts make their way into Perry Special Collections, they go through a thourough process to make them ready to be used by patrons. They go through accessions to become a permanent part of the library. Then workers analyze the items and enter information into the catalog so that patrons can find what they …
We are fortunate to be the recipient of a beautiful muslin coverlet from the 1700s. The coverlet was made by a fifteen-year-old girl. She used the patterns from her mother’s plates and the needlework is exquisite After a brief period of conservation, the coverlet will be available for viewing. Hopefully classes in textiles, folklore, and …
Special Collections is always acquiring new fine press books. This year, we’ve added books from important 20th century presses like the Grabhorn, Gregynog, and Golden Cockerel Presses, along with the work of contemporary artists. Here is a brief sampling:
One of the premier collections in our Renaissance printing collection is a collection of imprints by Parisian printer Simon de Colines. The library is constantly adding to the collection in order to get a complete record of Colines’ output as a printer. Here are images from our most recent acquisitions:
To coincide with the American Library Association’s 2016 Banned Books Week, BYURadio’s Top of Mind With Julie Rose spoke with HBLL’s European Studies Librarian, Richard Hacken, on the history of book banning. Several prominent banned books mentioned in the conversation are found in Special Collections, including Galileo’s Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems (Vault …