History of the Book
PAGE CONTENTS 1 minute read.
About
UNT Special Collections holds many rare artifacts, specimens, books, and manuscripts that enable students and faculty to trace the evolution of the book across human history. With roots in social, cultural and materials studies, book history plays an important role in a variety of disciplines. Specific examples of book history which may be explored in this collection include:
Original medieval manuscripts, pages and fragments
- Manuscript leaf from a Bible of ca.1250
- Manuscript leaves from a 15th century Flemish book of hours 1475 to 1499
- The De Fonette Hours 1500
Early Printed Books
- Opera philosophica et epistolae 1478
- Boetius de consolatione 1491
- West-European incunabula: 60 original leaves from the presses of the Netherlands, France, Iberia and Great Britain
- German incunabula : 110 original-leaves
- Italian incunabula : 110 original-leaves
Printing Technology
- Printing plates, lithographic stones, type setters’ tools and paper making supplies are available for classroom use
Illustration Techniques
- Della historia vinitiana, containing woodcut illustrations of heroes and monsters, 1552
- Les Chats, with engraving attributed to Anne Claude Philippe de Tubières, 1727
- The complaint, and the consolation, or, Night thoughts, with illustrations by William Blake
- The Paradise lost of Milton, with illustrations designed and engraved by John Martin, 1827
- México y sus alrededores, with 41 lithographic plates, 1858
Descriptive Bibliography
- Special Collections librarians can provide instruction on descriptive bibliography using our collections of early printed works, literary works, and modern first editions.