Not all the material that makes up the Special Collections is rare but there are around
45,000 books and manuscripts that are. To
look at a rare item you must join the rare materials membership scheme.
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Beginning
of the first canto of Dante Alighieri
Lo inferno, e'l purgatorio e'l paradiso
(1515)
Taken from
the Clericetti collection of Italian
writers.
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What makes an item
rare?
There are several criteria
for deciding whether an item is rare including:
- any item published before 1850 is automatically
considered rare
- first and limited editions
- books annotated or signed by the author
- hand-written items
Other Materials
Rare pictorial ephemera include photographs,
postcards, illustrations and slides.
