Rare Books
Rare Books and Special Collections Librarian
410 University Court NW
Calgary, AB
T2N 1N4
Rare Books
The Rare Book Collection includes representative works from many centuries of Western print culture including several incunabula (such as the 1493 Biblia Latina cum postillis Nicolai de Lyra Nuremberg: Anton Koberger and Wynken de Worde’s 1495 edition of Higden’s Polychronicon) and other titles. There are significant texts particularly in 19th century British literature, architecture, publications by significant private presses such as those works designed by Bruce Rogers, a modern British poetry collection donated by Eric W. White, the Garrick Club collection which comprises approximately 2000 French and English plays from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the rare book collection of the Arctic Institute of North America, the rare book collection from Dr. David Lewis, and the Robert H. Carnie rare book and decorated covers collection, and more.
Highlighted Collections
- Edgar Osborne CollectionThe Edgar Osborne Collection contains a diverse selection of Early Modern [1592-1830] European books and manuscripts. Ranging from the 15th to 19th Century, the collection is comprised mainly of British manuscript documents. This includes ballads, letters, plays, parliamentary documents, speeches, petitions and application for letters patent and unpublished plays, which has been the research topic for the University of Calgary English Department’s “The Osborne Project: Manuscript Plays and the English Drama.”
The Osborne Collection also includes a series of pre-1600 manuscripts and books, broadsides and watermarks. The subject matter for books and manuscripts includes classical, scientific, secular, political, religious and monarchical texts. Also included are almanacs and registers from England and Ireland, travel literature referencing North America, essays referring to the East India Trading Company, various speeches by English and French monarchs, and early English dramas, including unpublished plays, alternatively titled Marriage upon marriage, or As I told you before and The humorous magistrate.
Rare Book Images
