Rare and Special Collections pre-1871 Gallery
From old treasures to literary classics, the items in this gallery show some of the historic milestones that have shaped culture.
From old treasures to literary classics, the items in this gallery show some of the historic milestones that have shaped culture, up until the Library was established.
Mr William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories & Tragedies, 1623 (the First Folio)
Georg Braun and Franz Hogenberg, Civitates orbis terrarum (1572-1618)
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, 1789 
Johann Gottlieb Georgi, Description de toutes les nations de l’empire de Russie, c.1776-1777
Hocus Pocus Junior, 1634
El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes, 1605-16
Heures a l’Usaige de Rome Tout au Long sans Riens Requerir, c. 1516
Panoramic drawing of the funeral procession of Anne of Cleves, 1557
Clara Chilcott, Lucy, or the Sad Consequences of Disobedience, 3rd edn (1840)
Manuscript of William Langland, Piers Plowman, early 15th century
Auserlesene Schnecken, Muschelen und andre Schaalthiere by Franz Michael Regenfuss, 1758
Theorica Musica by Franchinus Gaffurius, 1492
The Resolution of the Women of London to the Parliament printed for William Watson, 1642
The Game of Chess by Jacobus de Cessolis, translated and printed by William Caxton (1483) translated by William Caxton, 1483
Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist (Leipzig, 1838-9)
Cicero, Opera (1642)
91app Supplemental Charter, 1867
Sylva Sylvarum or A Natural Historie in Ten Centuries by Francis Bacon, 1627
One of the Grieve Family Collection of Theatre Designs c. 1813-1857
Holograph manuscript of Don Juan by Lord Byron, 1823
Albertus Magnus, De animalibus (1495)