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, […]
Category: AD
Newly Discovered Association Copies
September 20, 2012
Poem in Sir John Franklin’s Narrative Identified
May 18, 2012
Martyn Beardsley, author of Deadly Winter: The Life of Sir John Franklin, has brought to my attention that the poem written in the University of Illinois’s copy of Franklin’s Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea is in fact by Franklin’s first wife, Eleanor Porden. In his research, Beardsley examined unpublished […]
Unpublished Poem by Sir John Franklin on the Difficulties of Writing (Q. 919.8 F85n)
May 8, 2012
John Franklin. Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea, in the Years 1819, 20, 21, and 22. London: John Murray, 1823. In 1966, the University of Illinois purchased a significant group of manuscripts and books from the personal collection of Sir John Richardson (1787-1855). Richardson was a naturalist and surgeon who […]
“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 […]
A copy of Rolevinck’s Fasciculus Temporum from the Pillone Library (Incunabula Q. 902 R64f 1484)
September 28, 2011
Rolevinck, Werner. Fasciculus temporum omnes antiquorum chronicas complectens incipit feliciter. Venice: Erhard Ratdolt, 28 May 1484. This copy of Rolevinck’s Fasciculus temporum is one of 172 volumes with fore-edge paintings originating from the Pillone Library. The Pillone Library was started in Renaissance Italy by Antonio Pillone (d. 1533) and was added to by his descendants […]
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 […]
Roxburghe Copy of the Comedies of Aristophanes (Incunabula Q. 881 A7 1498)
September 22, 2011
Aristophanous Kōmōdiai ennea = Aristophanis Comoediae novem. Venetiis: Apud Aldum, MIID Idibus Quintillis [1498] This is the editio princeps, or first printed edition, of the Greek text of Aristophanes’ comedies. The work includes nine comedies, but not Lysistrata and Thesmophoriazusae, the texts of which were yet to be discovered. It was printed in 1498 by […]
German Christmas Songs (IUA15239)
December 20, 2010
A collection of German Christmas songs (call number IUA15239) from the library of Richard Aron passed through Quick and Clean Cataloging a few months ago. This Sammelband contains 38 pamphlets published between 1774 and 1828. Most of the pamphlets are only two to four leaves in length and contain the lyrics to German Christmas and […]
Dobell Catalogs (017.4 D65c and 017.4 D65ca)
October 11, 2010
The Rare Book & Manuscript Library recently discovered that we hold a complete set of the Dobell catalogs, which appear to have been owned by the Dobell family. On 16 July 1956, Gordon N. Ray purchased 22 volumes of the catalogs from Days Bookshop in England. These volumes are uniformly bound in three-quarters brown goat […]
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 […]