Gleeson Library’s Special Collections are housed in the Donohue Rare Book Room, and feature more than 17,000 items including books, manuscripts, photographs, drawings, engravings, and other artworks. But you don’t have to come to the library to look at some of our rare books — you can visit the library’s digital collections online! Here’s a selection of images from some recently digitized rare books:
Want to see more? Click the links in the list below to see the full text of these digitized books:
- Bengali manuscript
- Matsya from Asia by John Ogilby (1673)
- Contemplative skeleton from Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et métiers, par une sociéte de gens de lettres. Recueil de planches – A by Diderot & d’Alembert (Briasson, 1762)
- Obeliscus Ramessaeus sive Lateranensis from Romani collegii societatis Jesu Musæum celeberrimum by Athanasius Kircher (Janssonio-Waesbergiana, 1678)
- Lettres Capitales from Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et métiers, par une sociéte de gens de lettres. Recueil de planches – B-C by Diderot & d’Alembert (Briasson, 1763)
- Hecates Aegyptiae from Obelisci aegyptiaci nuper inter Isaei Romani rudera effossi interpretatio hieroglyphica by Athanasius Kircher (Typographia Varesij, 1666)
- Pochoir illustration from Jazz Instruments by Vance Gerry (Weather Bird Press, 2003)
- View of the Temple of Mecca from The Koran (George Sale, 1734)
- Bathsheba from Livre des Rois by J.C. Mardrus (Gonin, 1930)
- Illustration from Atlas Japannensis by Arnoldus Montanus (John Ogilby, 1670)
- Fold-out map Mississippi River from Decouverte de quelques pays et nations de l’Amerique septentrionale by Jacques Marquette (Michallet, 1681)
- Robert Louis Stevenson inscription from Fruits of Solitude by William Penn (Benjamin Johnson, 1792)
You can also see these beauties in-person on campus. Special Collections materials can be viewed in The Donohue Rare Book Room on the 3rd floor of Gleeson Library. Contact us to set up an appointment.