Skip to Main Content

Rare books and special collections: Renaissance Collection

Special collections : Renaissance

At present this collection comprises 37 volumes, some of which were drawn from the Morpeth Collection and from the existing Auchmuty Library collections, but the majority were purchased through the Reta Light Trust Fund. Among the items in this collectionare Foxe's Book of Martyrs, two volumes in one printed by John Day in 1576. A thick quarto book printed in black (gothic) letter, it includes excellent woodcuts and a spread sheet depicting the deaths of church martyrs. There is also an emblem book by Herman Hugo, the Pia Desideria, printed in Antwerp in 1628, and a 1569 edition of Thomas Aquinas' Summa Totius Theologiae. This work was printed in Paris by Christopher Plantin and has the original fore-edge clasps. Collection catalogue is available on Living Histories.

 

The Renaissance Collection in case