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UCL Special Collections is home to over 100,000 rare books, pamphlets and periodicals, dating from the fifteenth century to the present day.
The collections
Collection descriptions
- Strong Room B, C and E Rare Books
The collection begins with English and other so-called "Western" books printed between 1501 and 1640. The earliest English book in the Library is Andrew Chertsey's The crafte to lyve well and to dye well, printed in 1505 by Wynkyn de Worde and illustrated with woodcuts. The collection also includes medical texts, most notably two copies of Vesalius's illustrated De fabrica (1555) and Hans Gersdorff's Feldtbuch der Wundartzney (1530), the latter of which contains the first picture of an amputation in a printed work. Another principle strength is early Italian literature, for instance, many rare editions of Dante's Divina Commedia and works by authors such as Bembo, Petrarch, Ariosto, Boccaccio, Colonna, Giovio, Gelli and Michelangelo. Books printed after 1640 also feature, such as first editions of Newton's Principia (1687) and Darwin's Origin of Species (1859). An important modern work is the first edition of James Joyce's Ulysses, published in Paris in 1922.
- Hebrew and Jewish Rare Book Collection
The collection comprises the Mocatta, Gollancz, Wolf, Solomons and Myers libraries and dates mostly from 16th-18th centuries. The subjects covered are chiefly liturgies, Bibles, commentaries, editions of Mishna, works on the Cabbalah, sermons, polemical tracts, service books, grammars and dictionaries. Some examples of titles from the collection include: Burnet's The conversion and persecution of Eve Cohan (1680), George Foxe's A visitation to the Jews (1656) and Prynne's A short demurrer to the Jewes (1656). Also of note is a service book of the Roman rite, printed in Bologna in 1537, on vellum with gold initials.
- Incunabula
An important collection of books printed before 1501 and all now added to the ISTC. Subjects include mathematics, astronomy, medicine, theology, literature and astrology. Most were presented to the Library by generous benefactors over the years, though some were purchased. Highlights include the 1477 Vendelin de Spira of Venice edition of Dante's Divina Commedia, the first illustrated edition of the same work printed by Nicholas de Lorenzo in Florence, 1481, a 1493 edition of the Nuremberg Chronicle (given by Jeremy Bentham), the editio princeps of Euclid published by Ratdolt in Venice in 1482, and a handpainted herbal printed in Padua in 1485.
- James Joyce Collection
This collection includes around 1,400 printed editions, including first editions of all Joyce’s major works, most other early and later editions (including translations), as well as critical and background literature. The only major Joyce research collection in the UK, it also includes archival material donated by Jane Lidderdale, relating to both Harriet Shaw Weaver (Joyce's patron) and Lucia, Joyce's daughter.
- Laurence Housman Collection
Laurence Housman (1865-1959), brother of poet and scholar A. E. Housman, was an extremely versatile artist, writer and social reformer whose output covered all kinds of literature, from socialist and pacifist pamphlets to children's stories. The collection contains books of verse, poems in anthologies, magazines and journals, including "Armageddon - and after" in The paths of glory: a collection of poems written during the War 1914-1919 (1919); poems in fifteen issues of Pall Mall Magazine from 1901-1912; numerous first editions, including the 1902 publication of Bethlehem, together with Joseph Moorat's music scores for the play; Prunella, or, Love in a Dutch garden (1906); Victoria Regina (1934) and Little plays of St. Francis (1922), each of which has a scene design by Housman.
Prose fiction first editions include An Englishwoman's love-letters (1900); What next? Provocative tales of faith and morals (1938); The kind and the foolish: short tales of myth, magic and miracle (1952), and A doorway in fairyland (1922). His children's poems and stories were also published in a wide range of children's magazines, journals and annuals. Non-fiction works in the collection which reflect his Suffragette sympathies include an introductory poem by Housman, 'O ye that seek through blood and tears' in Great Suffragists - and why: modern makers of history (1909) and The bawling brotherhood (1910?) published by the Women's Press. Elsewhere, Housman wrote articles on religion, justice, social subjects, literature and art, many of which can be found in the collection.
- London History Collection
A collection of over 5,000 volumes, 500 maps, and many pamphlets on the topography, architecture, and the social and economic history of Greater London. There are nine STC, 36 Wing, more than 300 18th-century English imprints, and 500 early to mid-19th-century items. Tract collections of the 18th and 19th centuries include 10 volumes from the Ward bequest ("Ward Tracts") and 12 volumes from the London Institution ("SOS Tracts"). There are around 200 volumes of the histories of the City livery companies.
- Ogden Collection
Charles Kay Ogden (1889-1957) once described his book collecting interests as "semantics, meaning, word magic, supplemented by subsections of sign systems, symbol systems and non-verbal notations (including cryptography and shorthand), universal language, translation and simplification". This substantial rare books collection ranges from the 15th to 20th centuries (including 24 incunabula and 394 STC items) and is broadly built around language. Notable names represented in the Ogden Library (first editions, association copies and/or manuscripts, letters, diaries, related source material) include Francis Bacon, John Milton, John Dee, Samuel Coleridge, Robert Boyle, Ben Jonson, William Shakespeare, Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, Emile Zola, Dante Rossetti, John Bright, Joseph Conrad, André Gide and Arnold Bennett.
- Dante Collection
The Dante Collection, now numbering a little under 3,000 volumes, includes 36 editions of the Divina Commedia printed before 1600. Of particular note are 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. The collection is also supplemented by Welsh, Catalan, Danish, Hungarian, Romanian, Russian, and Japanese translations.
- Flaxman Book Collection
This small collection contains books illustrated by the artist and sculptor John Flaxman (1755-1826). It includes Acts of Mercy, the tragedies of Aeschylus, the works of Hesiod, Homer and Dante, and anatomical studies, as well as two journals containing notes and sketches. These works complements the collection of Flaxman’s plaster models, drawings and prints, which are held at the UCL Art Museum.
- General Rare Book Collection
This miscellaneous collection consists of rare books printed after 1640. It includes works across all disciplines in a variety of languages. It is particularly strong in Art, Medicine, History, Natural History, English language and literature and Scandinavian languages and literature.
- Galton Laboratory Collection
The core of the collection is Francis Galton’s personal library. It grew through the addition of the working library of the Galton Laboratory, which was compiled by various researchers who were active in the lab, including Karl Pearson and Lionel Penrose. It comprises of books, periodicals and pamphlets with a focus on statistics, genetics and the pseudoscience of eugenics, but also covering natural history, anatomy, mathematics, and anthropology. Many books contain letters, including from and to Galton. The material ranges in date from the early 18th to the mid-20th century.
- Malacological Society
This collection comprises around 500 volumes on molluscs and their shells, with some older books on general natural history and travel ranging from the 16th century onwards. In total, over 200 pre-1800 volumes feature in this collection. Highlights include Cuvier’s Anatomie des mollusques (1817), which also contains the author’s own woodblock library stamp and inscription.
- RNID Rare Printed Collection
This collection is devoted to hearing loss, deafness and people who are deaf or have hearing loss. It consists of books and pamphlets dealing with sign language, the education of deaf people, diseases of the ear, as well as historical and literary works that concern deafness and deaf people.
The bulk of the collection dates from the 19th and 20th centuries, whilst 147 items were printed before 1801. Many are exceedingly rare.
Although the majority of the items are in English, the collection is international in scope, with French, German and Russian particularly well-represented.
- Rotton Library
The religious sections include works on church history, debates about the church and the state, the Church of Scotland, dissenters, theology, Christian ethics, the lives of the saints - particularly St. Francis of Assisi - and Jewish emancipation. English literature and literary criticism feature works by and about Chaucer, Samuel Johnson, Oliver Goldsmith, Shakespeare and Pope, as well as works on English language and grammar. French, Spanish and Italian authors are present, as are books on language and dialect. There are works on philosophy, language and literature of the classical world, including the first publication in 1592 in the original Greek of Homer's works. Works on travels and voyages include a description of visits to Italian towns (together with their histories) and to India, a voyage to Patagonia, three years' wanderings in the northern provinces of China, and a narrative by Sir Joseph Banks of Captain Cook's first voyage.
- The Hertfordshire Natural History Society Library
This collection is devoted to the study and observation of plants and animals and their ecosystems, habitats and distribution. The history of botany is a particular strength. Disciplines such as geology, meteorology and palaeontology are also represented. Most of the material is concerned with the natural history of the British Isles, although there are some works, particularly marine biology and ecology, which go further afield. The collection spans the fifteenth century to the present day. It includes seven incunables, such as Johann Petri’s illustrated herbal of 1485.
Much of the collection consists of the transactions of local natural history societies - largely comprised of amateur naturalists - from the 17th century to the present day, and includes painstakingly observed inventories of local flora and fauna, as well as local meteorological data. This makes them a valuable record of the distribution and changing patterns of plants, animals and local climate in the UK.