By Elissa B.G. Mullins Open a vellum binding, blind-stamped and splayed with age, to discover a rare edition of Giovanni Francesco Pico della Mirandola’s Hymni heroici tres, printed in Leipzig in 1514 by Melchior Lotter (who, three years later, printed the first edition of Martin Luther’s Ninety-five Theses). The library’s copy (Call Number: Q. 875.1 […]
Category: Inscriptions
Hymni heroici tres
February 19, 2025
D.H. Melhem: Biographer and Friend of Gwendolyn Brooks
November 11, 2019
by Taylor Henning Writer D.H. Melhem was born to Lebanese immigrant parents in Brooklyn, New York in 1926. During her career she authored eight books of poetry including Notes on 94th Street, Children of the House Afire (later turned into a music drama), Rest in Love, Country: An Organic Poem, Poems for You, Conversation with […]
Newly Discovered Association Copies
September 20, 2012
Curatorial intern Brian Flota has been searching the Library’s modern British literature holdings in order to track down items from the Tom Turner collection of British literature, purchased by Gordon Ray in the 1950s. In the process, Brian discovered many previously unknown association copies and a number of fine press poetry chapbooks. In this post, […]
Artemus Ward and The Woman in White (823 C69w 1860b)
September 12, 2012
Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1860. In the Civil War era few American humorists were as popular as Charles Farrar Browne (1834-67), a vagabond reporter and lecturer better known by his pseudonym–Artemus Ward. Starting his career as a typesetter for Boston’s Carpet-Bag in 1851, by the middle-fifties Browne was […]
Distinctive Ownership Inscriptions in an Incunable (Incunabula Q. 473 M28p 1482)
February 7, 2012
Guiniano Maggio. De priscorum proprietate verborum. Venice : Octavianus Scotus, 3 June 1482. While cataloging a copy of De priscorum proprietate verborum (“On the propriety of ancient words”) by the 15th-century Neopolitan grammarian Guiniano Maggio, I came across two contemporary or near-contemporary ownership inscriptions by one Ludovicus de Galliardis. One inscription is on the first […]
Contemporary Line-Drawing and Couplet in an Incunable (Incunabula 475 Z42l 1490)
January 11, 2012
Wilhelmus Zenders de Wert. Lilium grammaticae. Cologne: Heinrich Quentell, 1490 While cataloging a quarto edition of the Lilium grammaticae of Wilhelmus Zenders de Wert, I ran across an interesting drawing on the title-page. This quaint illustration in black ink shows a man in armor with a head of curly hair, clutching a small sword or […]
“Among my various possessions in old books there is none which I more proudly write my name”: Gilbert R. Redgrave’s copy of Petrus Comestor’s Historia scholastica (Incunabula F. 220 P44h 1473)
October 6, 2011
Petrus Comestor. Historia scholastica. Augsburg: Günther Zainer, 1473. The Rare Book & Manuscript Library’s copy of Petrus Comester’s Historia scholastica (1473) is one of several books the Library owns from the private collection of Gilbert R. Redgrave. Gilbert Richard Redgrave (1844-1941) is known primarily to the book world as the editor, with A.W. Pollard, of […]
Heber Copy of Plato’s Works (Incunabula Q. 881 P5.Lf 1491)
September 23, 2011
Plato. Works. Translated into Latin and edited by Marsilio Ficino. Venice: Bernardo de’ Chori and Simone da Luere for Andreas Torresanus de Asula, 1491. This 1491 edition of Plato’s works was translated and edited by Marsilio Ficino and published in Venice. The book has an interesting provenance and contains beautiful hand decoration. Two identifiable modern […]
Parfumeries & Robert de Montesquiou
June 17, 2011
Musee retrospectif de la classe 90. Parfumeries (matieres premieres, materiel, procedes et produits) a l’exposition universelle internationale, a Paris. Rapport de M. le comte Robert de Montesquiou [Retrospective Museum of Class 90. Perfumeries (raw materials, equipment, processes and products) at the universal, international exhibition, in Paris. Report by Count Robert de Montesquiou.] The […]
Cyprian Norwid’s copy of Dante’s Divina Commedia
August 5, 2010
It is with great excitement that we announce the discovery of an Italian copy of Dante Alighieri’s Divina Commedia (Firenze: Felice le Monnier, 1844) bearing Cyprian Norwid’s ownership inscription and his presentation inscription to a Polish emigre in the United States. Cyprian Kamil Norwid (1821-1883) was a Polish poet, dramatist, painter, and sculptor. He belonged […]