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The Dante Collection owes its origin
to the bequest in 1876 by Henry Clark Barlow of his
Italian library containing his important
Dante collection. At the same time he endowed the Barlow Memorial Lecture
on
Dante. The collection was supplemented by editions from the Morris
Library (1869), the Mocatta Library(1906),
and the Whitley
Stokes Collection (1910). A printed catalogue was issued in
1910. Some later editions also came from the Rotton Library in 1926,
from Sir Herbert Thompson in 1921, and from the valuable library of
Huxley
St. John Brooks, whose books were purchased by the Library on his death
in 1949.
The collection, now numbering a little under 3,000 volumes,
includes thirty-six editions of the Divina Commedia printed
before 1600, notably three incunabula; that printed by Wendelin de Spira
of Venice in 1477, the 1491 edition of Petrus de Plasiis of Cremona and
the first illustrated edition printed by Nicholas di Lorenzo in Florence,
1481. There are also two copies of the first Aldine edition of 1502 together
with five later Aldine editions. |
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There is also a collection of Dr. Barlow's personal papers and correspondence,
including his travel diaries and sketches.
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Last modified 15 December 2004
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