Book of Hours. Tours, ca. 1470. (Ms. 7).

Albrecht Durer. Apocalypse.

Nuremberg: A. Durer, 1511.

The song of songs which is Solomon's.

Chelsea: Ashendene Press, 1902.

The tradition of the book in the Western World is well documented in the Watkinson.

Highlights include:

• Medieval manuscripts and manuscript leaves, 12th- 15th century
     
• 3,000-4,000 early printed books (15th-17th centuries)

• Trumbull-Prime collection of early illustrated books, especially strong in 16th-century German and Italian materials, including works of Albert Durer, emblem books and Florentine and Venetian book illustration

• ca. 10,000 18th-century titles

• 19th-century illustrated books on a wide range of subjects and from many lands, including an extensive Cruikshank collection

• Alphabet books (ca. 350 titles)

• Fine printing from the Private Press collection including:
  • a nearly complete run of the Ashendene Press
  • classic titles from the Private Press movement
  • 300+ titles from the Limited Editions Club
  • 100+ contemporary artists' books

   

• Examples of fine bookbinding (15th-20th centuries)

• Extensive secondary holdings on the history of printing and bookbinding