The Rare Books Department welcomes U back to school! Do you have your textbooks ready? How about your reading primers? Primers were a type of textbook that taught students how to read. Initially, they contained "primary" or fundamental religious materials. Reference to primers appears in English...
Last year, on May 22, Rare Books lost our dear friend, Marie Christensen Dern. On that day, like the rest of the world, we were sheltering in place. We were locked out of our office, and more disorientingly, out of the Rare Books Vault. We...
Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the...
“When the Holy One, blessed be He, was about to make the world, all the letters of the Alphabet were still embryonic, and for two thousand years the Holy One, blessed be He, had contemplated them and toyed with them. When He came to create the world,...
V. Os nu(n)c de ossibus meis et caro de carn(e) mea. R. Fortitudo et decor indume(n)tum eius: byssus et purpura...
“There is no safety but by flight.” Mercury: or the secret and svvift messenger… John Wilkins (1614-1672) London: Printed by I. Norton, for Iohn Maynard, and Timothy Wilkins, and are to be sold at the George in Fleetstreet, neere Saint Dunstans Church, 1641 First edition Z103 W68 1641 This codebook has...
“A catt may look on a king” Lexicon Tetraglotton, an English-French-Italian-Spanish… James Howell (1594? – 1666) London: Printed by J.G. for Samuel Thompson, 1660 First and only edition James Howell, born in Wales and educated at Oxford, began his literary career in 1640 with the political allegory, Dendrologia: Dodona’s...