The rare books collection at Brandeis includes incunabula (books printed before 1501) as well as a large number of first and critical editions, fine press publications, and early printings on subjects including American and European Christianity, classical studies, early exploration, English and American history and literature, English and French law and politics, Hebraic and Judaic studies, the history of science, Shakespeare, and Leonardo da Vinci. Rare book collections of note include the Baldwin Shakespeare collection; the Bern Dibner collection on the history of science; the Henry and Hannah Hofheimer collection of fine press publications; the Perry Miller collection on early American Christianity; the McKew Parr collection on Magellan and the Age of Discovery; and the Maurice and Badona Spertus collection of Hebraica and Judaica.
To find rare books in OneSearch, you can search by subject, title, or date, and narrow to Archives and Special Collections (see below). If you would like to see our entire cataloged holdings, put a "?" in the search bar; when the results come in, you can narrow down by time period, language, subject and more using the left side facets. The Special Collections department also has uncataloged books, so please contact us for more information if you are looking for works on a particular subject or from a specific time period.
For more information about our rare book collections, please see the Rare Book Collections at Brandeis University guide!
Many rare books from Brandeis Special Collections have been digitized and are available on the Internet Archive (to see all books contributed by Brandeis, try this link). You can also search for them via the Internet Archive Advanced Search screen. Under "Custom Field," type "Contributor" and type "Brandeis University" (without the quotation marks). You will see a list of full-text digitized books from the Brandeis University Libraries, and you can sort and refine your results.
You can also add keywords to the above to search for specific collections contributed by Brandeis, including conductor's score from our Victor Young collection, the Louis Nye collection of 17th century books and pamphlets, the John Galsworthy Collection and the Baldwin Shakespeare Collection.
Have a look: Brandeis's copy of the first edition of Jane Eyre on the Internet Archive
Below are a variety of online open-access resources related to book history and production, and paleography (the study of handwriting):
UCLA Special Collections: History of the Book coursebook
Harvard University: How to Read Medieval Handwriting
University of Southampton: A Short Introduction to Paleography
The Archaeology of Reading: What is the History of Books?
Cambridge University: English Handwriting Online: an online course
Princeton University: Hand Bookbindings
University of Iowa: Paper Through Time
Annotated Books Online: a Digital Archive of Early Modern Annotated Books
The Women's Print History Project: Miscellaneous Spotlights
ABC for Book Collectors, 8th ed. (John Carter and Nicolas Barker)
University of Saskatchewan Humanities and Fine Arts Digital Research Centre: Architectures of the book: various essays
Adam Matthew Digital: First Folios compared [includes the digitized Brandeis University First Folio]
State Library Victoria: From Tablet to Codex & Beyond: the History of the Book
Rare Book School: Lectures on the History of the Book
The Getty Museum: Making Manuscripts