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900 Years of recorded knowledge...and counting.

The Rare Book Collection covers over 900 years of human interaction with the book, and aptly illustrates that the book has meant many different things to people across time and place.

Collection Areas

Topics

Our Rare Book Collection includes a variety of topics, including Science and Technology, Medieval and Renaissance Books, Ephemera, Anglo-American Literature and more!

Finding Aids

Collection Guides

View finding aids for the Rare Book Collection

By Topic

Click the cards below to learn more about some of our main collection areas.

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Science and Technology

The Scientific holdings of the Rare Book Collection cover the advancement of learning from ancient Greece to the atomic age.

a rotating dial, called a volvelle, displaying the signs of the zodiac

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Anglophone Literature

Holdings from across the Anglophone world from the Middle Ages to the present, with particular strength in the writers of New England.

Frontispiece Portrait of Phillis Wheatley

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Ephemera

Ballads, broadsides, and political print culture from Europe and the Americas.

A book printed in raised type for the blind

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The Early Modern Atlantic

The history, politics, and commerce of the colonial Caribbean.

We still venerate idols here.

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Book Arts

Collections of fine and small presses and modern artist books, including those produced by artists in residence at the UF School of Art and Art History.

Marbled Paper