Jump to content - Jump to section navigation
Hebrew Manuscripts
The Special Collection Department houses in facsimile and in microform reproductions of Hebrew manuscripts. These collections complement collections that are housed in the microform section of the Library. The Register of Hebrew Manuscripts on Microfilm at Brandeis University, by Judith R. Sebestyen (Judaica Reference Z6621 .B736 H4 1980) provides a partial guide to the collections housed in the Special Collections Department.
Collections of note include:
Wagenseil Collection
Johann Christoph Wagenseil, the noted author and orientalist served as professor of history, canon law and oriental studies at the University of Altdorf from 1667 to 1697. In his lifetime, he collected a significant number of rare Hebraic and Semitic writings authored by noted rabbinical scholars, Christian Hebraists and Orientalists. His collection, consisting of six hundred titles, is currently housed at the University of Altdorf. It includes various editions of the Bible and Talmud, works which describe the life and customs of the Jews, as well as historical, philosophic, and philological works. The microfiche edition includes the Catalogue of the Wagenseil Collection on CD-Rom.
Dime Novel and Juvenile Literature Collection
This collection consists of over 1,000 dime novels, an extensive collection of the works of Horatio Alger, Harry Castleman, Oliver Optic and other boys and girls literature of the 19th and early 20th century. A preliminary container list to the dime novel collection is available on the website and in the Special Collections Department. Access to the remainder of the collection is through the card catalog in the Special Collections Department.
Trustman Collection of Honoré Daumier Lithographs
During his lifetime, Daumier created more than 4,000 lithographs. Through the generous gift of Benjamin A. and Julia M. Trustman the late 1950s, Brandeis University acquired copies of virtually all of them, amassing one of the largest collections of lithographs by this master artist. The collection is currently being cataloged and digitized thanks to a 2001 IMLS Leadership Grant. Click here to see the Daumier website and to search and view the lithographs.
Gorham Collection of Early Music Imprints, 1501-1650
The Gorham Collection consists of the original imprints of music or books on or related to music published between 1501 and 1650, a golden age of music printing and publishing. To date, comprises seven editions published between 1512 and 1622. We hope to make at least three purchases each year to keep the collection expanding. A detailed description and list of books can be found here.
Hall-Hoag Archives on Extremism in the United States
The collection includes approximately 5,000 exemplars of right and left wing "extremist literature" pertaining to social, religious and political issues. The materials cover the period from 1960 through the 1980's and are arranged alphabetically by title under the name of the sponsoring organization. A Checklist of Materials in the Hall-Hoag Collection of Extremist Literature, is available in the Special Collections Department (Z7164 .L65 B79 1987).
Hofmeimer Collection
The collection is comprehensive in three areas of book collecting: first, the English Romantic Movement (Coleridge, Shelley, et al.); second, Italian Renaissance material (Dante, Cellini, etc.); and third, finely printed modern press books. In particular, the English Romantic books are noteworthy, many of the books are unique due to the handwritten annotations, tipped-in letters by the authors, and exceptional provenance of the individual volume. A full listing of the titles in the collection may be obtained through a subject search in the Brandeis University libraries' on-line catalog, LOUIS:
Subject Search: Hofheimer, Henry and Hannah, donor
Incunabula
The Special Collections Department houses a collection of forty-four incunabula. A Checklist of Incunabula in the Brandeis University Library, compiled by Victor A. Berch, is available in the Special Collections Department. In addition, the Illustrated Incunabula Short Title Catalogue (IISTC), a database on fifteenth-century printing, developed by the British Library, is available in the Electronic Research Center.
The following collections of Hebrew incunabula in facsimile are housed in the Library:
Leonardo da Vinci Collection
The collection includes books and pamphlets dealing with all aspects of Leonardo da Vinci's life, art, and engineering feats. A full listing of the titles in the collection may be obtained through a subject search in the Brandeis University libraries' on-line catalog, LOUIS:
Subject Search: Leonardo da Vinci, 1452-1519
McKew-Parr Collection on Magellan and the Age of Discovery
The McKew Parr Collection was donated to Brandeis in 1961 by Connecticut State Senator Charles McKew Parr and his wife, Ruth. Comprised of nearly 7000 items, the McKew Parr Collection, titled “Magellan and the Age of Discovery,” was one of America’s premier private collections devoted to the era of exploration, the period from the mid-fifteenth through the mid-eighteenth centuries, with works relating to Magellan, Columbus, and other voyagers. Of these items, almost 1000 books and several hundred pamphlets of particular rarity and value are housed in the Robert D. Farber University Archives & Special Collections Department, while the remaining volumes, consisting mainly of mid-twentieth-century scholarly works on exploration, are held in the open stacks. For more information on the collection as a whole, see Special Collections Spotlight.
Radical Pamphlet Collection
The collection includes approximately 5,000 pamphlets published from 1920 through the 1950s dealing with Socialism and Communism in the United States and Great Britain. A checklist of items in the Radical Pamphlet Collection is available in the Special Collections Department (Z7164 .S67 B689 1988).
Shakespeare Collection
The collection consists of all critical editions of Shakespeare's works from the first published edition (1709) to the present. It also includes the First, Second, and Fourth Folios and important pre-1800 Shakespearean criticism and commentary. The digital version of the Brandeis University Libraries' Shakespeare First Folio is available to the public on the Perseus Digital Library website. To visit the digital version of the First Folio, go to the link below.
A full listing of the titles in the collection may be obtained through a subject search in the Brandeis University libraries' on-line catalog, LOUIS:
Subject Search: Shakespeare Collection
Books of Hours and Medieval Manuscripts
The collection consists seven illuminated manuscripts and Books of Hours. A detailed list is available here.
