Catholic University’s Rare Books Department, part of Special Collections, had another great year with targeted acquisitions via purchase, with eight items from five national and one international professional book sellers. Four of our recent wares are detailed below; two others were discussed in a recent post about the generous bequest of Msgr. Robert Trisco, and Read More

When opening a book, typically the first page one encounters is the title page – a separate page that offers several pieces of information about the work, including the title, author name, and publisher information. The presence of a title page seems rather intuitive, but that assumption underlies how common the title page has become Read More

Books are like time machines. When we read the kinds of works produced by Aristotle, Einhard, Shakespeare, J.R.R. Tolkien, Mary Shelley, etc. we lift the veil of time and make contact with a past we will never truly know. This analogy deepens in meaning when the book itself– not just the text– is centuries old. Read More

Last Monday, Theology and Religious Studies Librarian Taras Zvir published a post describing the many books that Mullen Library was able to purchase with funds from a bequest of former Professor of Church History Msgr. Robert Trisco (1929-2023). Msgr. Trisco’s generous gift has enabled Taras to strengthen and bring up to date the library’s holdings Read More

Each year, the staff of Special Collections choose several items from the Rare Books collection to undergo conservation [1]. We prioritize rare or unique items that we believe are likely to be of broad academic interest and whose condition would otherwise make it difficult for researchers to consult them without causing further damage. The goal Read More

April 13 is the birthday of Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), an American Founding Father, primary author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and Governor of Virginia (1779-1780) as well as the first Secretary of State (1790-1793), second Vice President (1797-1801), and third President of the United States (1801–1809). A Virginia planter and Enlightenment thinker (i.e. Humanism, Read More

As Special Collections at Catholic University celebrates our three hundredth blog post and eleven years with The Archivist’s Nook we reflect upon how we got here and offer a few staff favorites from across the spectrum of our holdings of university records, museum objects, rare books, and American Catholic History manuscript collections. Eleven years ago, Read More

Special Collections, which includes Rare Books, had another highly successful year of notable and carefully considered rare book acquisitions via purchase, with eight items from three national and four international professional vendors, including Italy, France, and the Netherlands.  Four of the recent arrivals are discussed in detail below, while space issues result in two others related Read More

Over the past year, Special Collections staff continued tackling conservation challenges that have arisen within the University’s Rare Books collection. Our past conservation projects can be seen in: “Part I”, “Part II”, “Part III”, and Part IV. As in years past, we have continued working alongside Quarto Conservation and have another incunabulum (a book printed Read More

Catholicism in Scotland was almost extirpated in the wake of the Reformation of 1560, banning Mass and abolishing the authority of the Pope. New laws changed a millennium of worship, and although the Presbyterian Church was not fully established until  1682, Scottish religious life was forever altered. Scottish universities were closed to Catholics and priestly Read More