SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

Ancient and Medieval Manuscripts
The department contains a few ancient cuneiform tablets, an ancient Egyptian papyrus roll, over 100 medieval codices (containing about 350 texts representing a wide range of subjects), 83 separate leaves (primarily liturgical; including 41 in an uncataloged "palaeographical practice set"), and several hundred (or more) pre-1500 documents as parts of several large English and Italian estate papers collections.

Renaissance and Early Modern Imprints

• The Summerfield Collection of books printed on the continent of Europe from Gutenberg (1455) through 1700 (over 7,000 titles in history, literature, law, science, theology, and the arts)
  
• The Clubb Collection of books containing text printed in Anglo-Saxon type, Great Britain, 1566 through the early 19th century (not only a typographic collection but a rich source for research in the growth of English history as a serious field of study)
  
• the Robert T. Aitchison Vergil Collection
  
• The Cervantes Collection, based on the collection of Sir William Stirling-Maxwell

Eighteenth-Century Collections

The 18th century, both in England and in France, is a period of particular concern to the Department. In addition to the collections separately described, the general collections of the Department contain large numbers of 18th-century works, particularly in politics, economics, literature, and natural history. The department's holdings of 18th-century English imprints is one of the largest in North America as reported to the ESTC (English Short Title Catalog).

The Irish Collections

The department's holdings in the history, literature, culture, and politics of Ireland from the 17th century to the middle of the 20th century is concentrated in three named collections, the Joyce Collection, the Yeats Collection, and the P.S. O'Hegarty Collection. But there also exist sizable Irish holdings in the general Rare Book Collection, making the combined Irish holdings among the most significant and sizable outside of Ireland.

Literary Collections, 19th-20th Century

• Rainer Maria Rilke (based on the collection made by Henry Sagan)
• The William Doremus Paden collection of Tennyson
  
• The Irish Collections (including the James Spoerri collection of James Joyce, the W.B. Yeats collection and the O'Hegarty Collection)
  
• New American Poetry (primarily "Beat" poets of the 1960s)
  
• The Elizabeth Morrison Snyder Collection of H.L. Mencken
  
• Science-fiction
  
• Penny dreadfuls
  
• Children's books

History of Science

• The Ralph N. Ellis Collection of natural history, ornithology and scientific expeditions
• Historical and medicinal botany from the T.J. Fitzpatrick Collection
• The Linnaeus Collection
• Herpetology, Mammalogy,and other natural history

History of American Education

• The Charles and E. Jennifer Monaghan Collection on the History of Reading in the United States
• The Shull Collection of Hymnals and Music Books
• The Children's Collection