The print collections of the Rare Books and Special Collections department at the Fisher Library are many and varied, reflecting the wide diversity of research conducted at the University of Toronto by its own faculty and students, visiting scholars, and the general public. Chronologically, they range from books from the earliest days of the printing press to modern artists' books.

Among the oldest books in the collection are: a copy of Johannes Balbus's Catholicon, printed in the 1460s, possibly by Johann Gutenberg (placed on long-term deposit in the Library); an early Hebrew imprint, Moses Maimonides' Mishneh Torah printed in Rome about 1475, and two William Caxton books: Cicero, printed in 1481 and is the oldest English-language book in Canada, and Recueil des histoires de Troyes, printed in 1474-75 and is the oldest French-language book in the country.

The greatest strengths of the Library lie in the fields of British, European and Canadian literature, philosophy, theology, political science, the history of science and medicine, Hebraica and Judaica, and the history and art of the book. Additional information about these collections can be found below.

In addition to the general rare book collections, the holdings of books and other printed material are organized in over one hundred special author or subject collections, focussing on fields as diverse as AIDS, Aristotle, Birdsall Bindings, Darwin, Aldous Huxley, Incunabula, Libretti, Petlice, Printed Ephemera and the Spanish Civil War.

An alphabetical list of most of our collections can be found at our searchable Print and Manuscript page.

Book History and Print Culture

Primary resources for the study of book history and print culture are to be found throughout the varied collections of the Fisher Library. However, in addition to much relevant material scattered throughout our holdings, there are a number of separate, specialized collections which relate specifically to book history and print culture. These include:

Louis Blake Duff Collection - A collection of books, pamphlets and periodicals on the art and history of the book. Includes books on the history of printing, publishing, bookselling and collecting, works on bibliography, catalogues of public and private libraries.

Incunabula - A representative collection of books printed before 1501. Other incunables are shelved with special subject collections such as Bagnani, Forbes, Walsh, Aristotle or Friedberg.

Publishers, printers, designers and presses - Th collection includes books and archival papers from various presses, including William Morris' Kelmscott Press, designer and typographer Bruce Rogers, and the Canadian design firm Cooper & Beatty, among many others.

Canadian Pamphlets and Broadsides - A large collection of pamphlets and broadsides with a Canadian subject focus, including both Canadian imprints and works by or about Canadians; these are being digitized and are available for full text searching at the Canadian Pamphlets and Broadsides digital collection.

For more information on the library's Book History and Print Culture holdings, please contact David Fernandez.

British Literature

The British Literature collections of RBSC contain first editions of many of the most significant English literary works as well as important and extensive holdings for several individual authors. Late seventeenth-century drama, with particular emphasis on the plays of John Dryden, as well as the editions of the major eighteenth century playwrights are collected. The works of the important eighteenth century writers of prose and poetry, in particular Swift, Pope, Gay, Fielding, Richardson, Johnson, Boswell, Gray and others, are added whenever possible to the already significant holdings of these authors. As well, there is a fine collection of the extensive writings of Daniel Defoe. A concerted attempt has been made to collect poetical miscellanies of the eighteenth century. Scottish literature of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, including the works of Robert Burns, is well represented.

For more information on the library's British Literature holdings, please contact John Shoesmith.

Canadiana

The Library's Canadian holdings are extensive and include many special collections. Canadian literary and historical collections are especially comprehensive and wide-ranging, including much manuscript as well as printed material. There are many works of Canadian interest scattered throughout the Fisher Library's general and special collections, including the history of science and medicine. There are extensive holdings for nineteenth century, alternate press, and women's movement periodicals. Maclean-Hunter and Southam Press have deposited runs of their journals, including specialized titles like Canadian Footwear, Domestic Heating and Plumbing, Quill and Quire, and Style, as well as more general magazines such as Maclean's and Chatelaine. Art exhibition catalogues from galleries across Canada are also collected.

Some other highlights from the Canadiana collection include:

The Northwest and the Arctic

One of the most interesting groups of historical material pertains to the search for the Northwest Passage and the subsequent exploration of the Arctic. First editions of works by seventeenth century explorers include Northvvest Fox (1625) by Luke Fox and A Strange and Dangerous Voyage (1633) by Thomas James. The eighteenth-century Dobbs-Middleton controversy over the search for the Northwest Passage is well documented both by printed material and by a notable group of manuscripts (1749-1752) from the files of the solicitor for the Hudson's Bay Company, Joshua Sharpe. Highlighting the holdings of early nineteenth century Arctic material is a manuscript journal and a volume of watercolour drawings executed by Owen Stanley, second lieutenant on Sir George Back's northern expedition of 1836-1837. After the disappearance of Sir John Franklin's expedition to the Arctic in 1845, the story of the search for the Northwest Passage became the saga of the search for Franklin. Forty-two expeditions in search of his vanished party were launched over the next twenty years and the published accounts of their adventures and discoveries form an engrossing part of the Library's Arctic exploration material.

The overland exploration of northwestern Canada is also well documented. First or important editions of such explorers as Samuel Hearne and Sir Alexander Mackenzie are complemented by one of the Library's outstanding manuscripts, David Thompson's “Narrative of his Explorations in Western America, 1784-1812”. This manuscript came to the Library as a gift from Joseph Burr Tyrrell (pictured at left), himself an explorer of note, a geologist, and a mining engineer. Tyrrell's own papers, bequeathed to the Library on his death in 1958, contain journals, photographs, and maps documenting his expeditions across the Barren Lands in 1893 and 1894, and include as well material relating to the Klondike where he lived from 1899 to 1905. The Champlain Society, which first published Thompson's Narrative, edited by Tyrrell, as well as many other important accounts by early explorers and fur-traders, has also deposited its records and papers in the Library.

Colonization and Emigration: Part of the Library's Canadiana collection is devoted to early colonization and emigration schemes. An outstanding item from this category is Richard Whitbourne's A Discourse and Discovery of New-Found-Land (at right), published in 1620. The Library's copy bears the royal arms of King James I to whom the work is dedicated. Other interesting colonization material includes documents relating to Lord Selkirk's struggle to bring Scottish settlers to the Red River District. Material on nineteenth-century settlement and immigration is also well represented, and a sample of these have been digitized and made available in the Fisher's Canadian Pamphlets and Broadsides online collection.

Canadian Literary Collections

The Library holds the University Library's reference collection of Canadian literature. From The New-Year Verses of the Printers Lad printed in Quebec in 1766 to the latest novel written by Margaret Atwood, the Library attempts to acquire all editions, and as many translations as possible, of literary works--poetry, fiction and drama--by Canadian authors.

Canadian literary manuscripts are also actively collected. Among earlier writers represented are Susanna Moodie, Archibald Lampman, and Duncan Campbell Scott. The extensive Mazo de la Roche papers contain the manuscripts for all her novels in addition to her voluminous correspondence. The papers of the imagist poet W.W.E. Ross, whose writings from between the wars presaged the modern poetry movement in Canada, were added to the collection in 1983. Contemporary Canadian writers whose papers are now in the Fisher Library include Margaret Atwood, Don Bailey, Earle Birney, Ernest Buckler, Leonard Cohen, Douglas Fetherling, Mavis Gallant, Graeme Gibson, Dennis Lee, Douglas LePan, Gwendolyn MacEwen, John Newlove, Josef Skvorecky, David Solway, Raymond Souster, Anne Wilkinson, and Eric Wright. The papers of the literary critic, W.A. Deacon, whose book page appeared regularly in Toronto newspapers for over forty years and exerted a strong influence throughout Canada, provide an invaluable resource for students of Canadian literary history from the 1920s to 1960. The papers of William French, his successor at The Globe and Mail, continue this resource to 1990.

One collection in the general field of Canadian literature is especially worthy of note for students of Canadian publishing and printing history as well as Canadian literature. The Graphic Publishers Collection contains the books, pamphlets, and ephemeral material issued by that firm and associated publishers in Ottawa from 1925 to 1932.

For more information on this collection, please contact the library's Canadiana specialist Grant Hurley.

Cookery

A growing subject strength at the Fisher is culinary materials. Our print collections include early works such as Bartolomeo Scappi's Opera, Christophero di Messisbugo's Banchetti, Platina's De Honesta Voluptate, and Apicius De re culinaria.

Our dedicated modern culinary collection consists of mostly Canadian and British cookbooks and culinary ephemera from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with several items such as the Cook Not Mad representing some of the earliest cookbooks published in Canada.

These can be searched using the call number 'cook' or subject headings 'cooking' or 'cookery'.

The Fisher also holds several hundred Canadian menus which can be found under call number T-10 00100 which can be searched and requested using the finding aid located here.

There is also an extensive collection of culinary manuscripts, and includes over forty manuscript cookbooks, including items from England, Canada, Ireland, Germany, and Italy. These culinary manuscripts can provide insight into the reading, household management, and social activities of women as well as being a window into culinary trends of their time.

Many of these culinary manuscripts have been digitized and made available on our collections platform under 'Manuscripts.'

For more information about the library's Cookery collection, please contact Special Collections Librarian Liz Ridolfo.

Hebraica and Judaica

The Fisher Library has several significant collections of Hebraica and Judaica, including some unique manuscript and archival resources. Some of the highlights of the collections can be found below.

Friedberg Collection: The Friedberg Collection is a fine collection of Hebrew manuscripts and early printed books of exceptional quality and significance. Among the manuscripts in the collection are some of the oldest specimens of Hebrew texts to have survived the vicissitudes of time, and the trials and tribulations of a wandering people. Printed works in the Friedberg Collection include over twenty incunabula, an extensive collection of early Constantinople imprints, and many other 16th-century items and others of more recent vintage, some of them unique and hitherto unrecorded.

Price Collection of Rabbinics: The Price Collection is an important collection of printed rabbinic material, including over 300 items printed before 1800. It is especially strong in responsa and Talmudic commentaries. It is a significant monument to the life of one of Toronto's most influential twentieth-century rabbinic figures, Rabbi Abraham Price.

Otto Schneid Archive of Twentieth-Century Jewish Art: This collection contains the material gathered by Otto Schneid, artist and art historian, in preparation for writing a monograph on twentieth-century Jewish art. The archive includes German and Hebrew versions of Schneid's monograph, copies of his other articles and books, Schneid's correspondence with artists, autobiographies of same, reproductions of the art work of some 160 artists, art books and pre-World War II exhibition catalogues, as well as Schneid's correspondence with world leaders and important figures on questions pertaining to human survival. A detailed finding aid facilitates access to the collection. The collection has also been digitized and is available on the Internet Archive.

The Druck Collection of Kibbutz and Secular Haggadot and Holiday Ephemera: A collection of kibbutz and secular haggadot, as well as other holiday (often haggadot-like) materials, dating from the mid-1930s to the mid-1990s. Most of this material was produced in-house by various kibbutzim, youth movements and army units for use at seder celebrations, as well as other holidays. One of the largest of its kind in the world - with over 500 items - this collection documents how kibbutzim and various Zionist, socialist, and secular groups and movements in Israel and around the world created new liturgies to satisfy their own spiritual needs. The collection also includes a number of Passover-related publications such as synagogue and army base newsletters published before Passover. The bulk of the collection was assembled by Jerusalem collector Arnold Druck, and the Fisher Library is continuously adding to it. A searchable Finding Aid for the collection is available. Many of these Haggadot have been digitized and are freely available via the Internet Archive.

The Alain Goldschläger Holocaust Literature Collection

The Alain Goldschläger Holocaust Literature Collection is one of the largest collections of its kind. It comprises over 3,500 books, primarily first-hand accounts from Holocaust survivors, in nearly thirty languages from forty-four countries around the globe, including many books published in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War.

Having been involved in a well-known trial of a Holocaust denier in Canada the 1980s, Professor (emeritus) Alain Goldschläger of the University of Western Ontario realized the importance of memoirs - first-hand accounts - of survivors to counter the claims of Holocaust deniers.

Consequently, he established the Holocaust Literature Research Institute at Western and began diligently collecting such memoirs, along with other Holocaust literature, published around the world. Upon his retirement, Prof. Goldschläger generously donated this collection to the Fisher Library in 2021. It comprises of over 3,500 books in nearly thirty languages from forty-four countries around the globe, including many books published in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, and even some during the War.

Alongside the physical collection, the Holocaust Literature Research Institute also included an annotated bibliography-database of memoirs and testimonies of Holocaust survivors, and that bibliography is now included here in two searchable Excel files (click on the links to access): one for the physical collection and the other for those titles that are not yet included in the physical collection. There is also a separate listing for Holocaust memoirs found elsewhere in the University of Toronto Libraries.

The Fisher Library continues to add to this important collection.

More information about the Goldschläger collection can be found in the December 2021 issue of the Halcyon.

Naomi Bell Collection of Jewish Folk Music: Consisting of 23 boxes, this collection includes an extensive collection of Yiddish folk songs and other songs, primarily in Yiddish and Hebrew, including Canonical and Art Songs. Also includes some rare and fragile music and song books; cassettes of ‘Naomi’s Programs’ and collected songs; as well as research notes, lecture-recital material, workshops and presentations created and presented by musicologist, teacher, accompanist and lecturer Naomi Bell. A searchable finding aid for the collection is available.

Chava Rosenfarb Papers: The collection includes the drafts, proofs and correspondences of the renowned Yiddish author and Holocaust survivor Chava Rosenfarb (1923; Lodz, Poland - 2011; Lethbridge, Alberta). Searchable finding aids are available.

Other Manuscripts: The library also owns a small collection of Yemenite manuscripts, from the 18th-19th centuries and a scroll of the Tikkun leil Shavu'ot, which contains selections from the Torah, intended for reading and study on the first night of the festival of Shavu'ot (Weeks), which commemorates the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. The library holdings also include a Samaritan Pentateuch manuscript, copied in Shekhem (Nablus) in formal Samaritan script, which resembles the ancient Hebrew script of biblical times.

For more information about our Hebraica and Judaica holdings, please contact the library's Jewish Studies Librarian Nadav Sharon.

History of Science

The Library has large and comprehensive collections in the history of science, in several key areas. The library's general Science Collection, which contains approximately 8,000 items, covers many branches of theoretical and applied science. One of the principal focuses of the collection is the science of the Renaissance, prior to Galileo, whose work, and that of his contemporaries, form a separate special collection.

Among the subject strengths in the History of Science collection include:

Mathematics

The works of early Renaissance scientists are complemented by scholarly editions of the rediscovered texts of the ancients. Early editions of the Greek mathematicians Diophantus of Alexandria, Archimedes, Pappus of Alexandria, Apollonius of Perga, and especially of Euclid, are well represented. The first Latin edition of Euclid's Elements of Geometry, printed by Ratdolt at Venice in 1482, the Greek editio princeps (Basel, 1533), and the first printed Arabic version (Rome, 1594), are complemented by translations into modern languages, including the first Italian (1543), English (1570), and German (1562) versions. In all, the library has twenty-six editions of Euclid, published between 1482 and 1620.

The Renaissance produced many important mathematical texts, particularly in Italy. Multiple editions of the works of Niccolò Tartaglia, Girolamo Cardano, Federico Commandino, Raffaelle Bombelli, Bonaventura Cavalieri, to name a few, are all among the collections. French mathematics is represented by the works of Marin Mersenne, Pierre Fermat, and François Viète. The Renaissance was also renowned for fine printing, two of the most beautiful texts in the field of mathematics being Luca Pacioli's Divina proportione (Venice, 1509); and Viète's Canon mathematicus (Paris, 1579). Other mathematical landmarks in the collection include Simon Stevin's work on the decimal system, John Napier's Mirifici logarithmorum canonis constructio (Lyon, 1620). and G.W. Leibniz's announcement of the discovery of differential calculus that predates Newton's (1684). Important mathematical texts of the nineteenth century include C.F. Gauss' revolutionary work of number theory, Disquisitiones arithmeticæ (1801); Augustus De Morgan's treatise on double algebra (1849); Sir W.R. Hamilton's discovery of quaternions (1853), George Boole's ground-breaking work on logic and probability (1854); G.F.B. Riemann on the theory of functions (1867); N.I. Lobachevskii on non-Euclidean geometry (1866); and Georg Cantor on multiplication (1883). The writings of Henri Poincaré, Gottlob Frege, and A.N. Whitehead are also well represented.

English experimental science of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, centred predominantly on the activities of the Royal Society, is another prominent aspect of the collection. The extensive writings of Robert Boyle, Robert Hooke, including a first edition of the splendid Micrographia (1665), stand alongside the works of Sir Isaac Newton, among which are first and subsequent editions of Principia (1687), and Opticks (1704). Works by foreign members of the Royal Society, such as the Dutchmen Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, and Christiaan Huygens, including a fine copy of the latter's Horologium oscillatorium (1673), inscribed by the author to Sir Christopher Wren, are also represented in the collection.

Alchemy and Chemistry: The history of chemistry is represented by alchemical works of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and by the pioneering writings of A. L. Lavoisier and Joseph Priestley at the end of the eighteenth century. The first edition of Lavoisier's Traité élémentaire (1789), one of the cornerstones of modern chemistry, is among the highlights of the collection. The library has copies of most of the important chemical texts of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, many of them from the library of Franz Sondheimer.

Electromagnetism: Among the major landmarks in the history of electromagnetism, are William Gilbert's De Magnete (1600), and Michael Faraday's Experimental Researches in Electricity (1839-1855).

Mining and mineralogy: The collection includes several editions, including the first, of Georgius Agricola's De Re Metallica (1556, 1561, 1657; and an Italian version 1563), as well as the first edition of his De Ortu & Causis Subterraneorum Lib. V. (1546), said to be the first book on physical geography. Lazarus Ercker's work on ores and assaying, Beschreibung allerfurnemisten mineralischen Ertzt vnnd Bergwercksarten (1629) is complemented by the 1686 English translation entitled Fleta Minor, to which the translator, Sir John Pettus, appended his own Essays on Metallick Words. Other highlights include William Prynne Mineralogia Cornubiensis (1778), Richard Kirwan Elements of Mineralogy (1794), and Geological Essays (1799), Robert Jameson's Manual of Mineralogy (1821) and an English translation of Friedrich Mohs' Treatise on Mineralogy (1825). Among the works on fossils is K. Gesner's De Omni Rerum Fossilium Genera, Gemmes, Lapidibus Metallis (1565), and on crystallography, the first scientific contribution to the field, Robert Boyle's An Essay about the Origine & Virtues of Gems (1672).

Geology: Materials in the history of geology range from the early speculative writings of such writers as Thomas Burnet, John Woodward, and William Whiston, to the various theories of the origins and structure of the earth debated in the geological controversies of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. First editions of James Hutton's Theory of the Earth (1794), and of Sir Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology (1830-1833) are both in the collection.

Agriculture

Agricultural books, ranging from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries, form a significant part of the science collections. The library's earliest book on agriculture is Pietro de Crescenzi's Ruralia Commoda, dating from the early 1490s. It is adorned with delightful woodcuts, depicting various aspects of husbandry. The library's copy bears evidence of attempts by a would-be censor to efface the images of various beasts of the farmyard in the act of procreation. Other early works of agriculture include a 1540 edition of Geoponica; Palladius' De Re Rustica (1543); and Charles Estienne and Liebault's L'agriculture et maison rustique (1564). Notable among English books of husbandry from the sixteenth century are Reginald Scot's A Perfite Platforme of a Hoppe Garden (1578); a 1576 edition of Thomas Tusser's Fiue Hundreth Points of Good Husbandry, written in verse; and first editions of Sir Hugh Plat's The Jewel House of Art and Nature (1594), and of Leonard Digges Tectonicon (1600).

The collection is particularly rich in British agricultural books of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, many of which are practical treatises on the cultivation of crops, and the raising of livestock, designed to bring about improvements in the overall general standard of farming practices. Highlights from the seventeenth century include Walter Blith's The English Improver Improved (3rd edition, 1653); Samuel Hartlib's His Legacy of Husbandry (3rd edition, 1655); Andrew Yarranton's Englands Improvement by Land and Sea (1677); and John Houghton's A Collection of Letters for the Improvement of Husbandry and Trade (1681-1683), which is considered to be the first agricultural periodical. There are also several works by Gervase Markham, including a copy of the sixth edition of Markham's Maister-piece of Farriery (1644) that once belonged to John Evelyn, the diarist. Evelyn's own writings on various aspects of husbandry are well represented, including copies of the first four editions of his Sylva.

The profusion of books on agriculture in the eighteenth century, a period of innovation and reform, is reflected in the collections, including John Mortimer's Whole Art of Husbandry (1707); Richard Bradley's A Complete Body of Husbandry (1727); Edward Lawrence's The Duty of a Steward to his Lord (1727); Edward Lisle's Observations in Husbandry (1757); Thomas Hale's A Compleat Body of Husbandry (1756); and many of the voluminous writings of Arthur Young, John Wynn Baker, William Marshall, and James Anderson. The library also possesses many of the county surveys, conducted under the auspices of the Board of Agriculture at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries.

Agricultural works of the nineteenth century are also include a copy of the important 1829 edition of Jethro Tull's The Horse-hoeing Husbandry, edited by William Cobbett.

Horticulture: Books on horticulture, a field closely related to agriculture, deserve special mention, among them Estienne's De Re Hortensi Libellus (1539); Antoine Mizauld's Historia Hortensium (1577); Marco Bussato's Giardino di Agricoltura (1592); A.J. Dezallier d'Argenville, La theorie et la pratique du jardinage (1709). The collections also has several notable works on landscape gardening, including first editions of Batty Langley's A sure method of improving estates (1728), and Humphry Repton's Observations on the theory and practice of landscape gardening (1803), adorned with colour plates with flaps, demonstrating before-and-after treatments.

Botany

Among the earliest botanical works in the collection are two incunables: the Herbarius Latinus (Louvain, ca. 1485), and the above mentioned Pietro de Crescenzi's Ruralia commoda. (Speier, ca. 1490-1495), both illustrated throughout with woodcuts. The collection is also rich in herbals of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, notably those of Hieronymus Bock, Dietrich Dorsten, Leonhart Fuchs, and Rembert Dodoens. Editions of P.A. Mattioli's commentaries on Dioscorides are particularly numerous, and include the 1565 Venice edition. The library is fortunate to possess one of the actual original woodblocks used in this latter edition. Early English herbals are well represented by John Gerard's Herball (1597, 1633 and 1636 editions), and John Parkinson's Paradisi in sole paradisus terrestris (1656 edition), and Theatrum botanicum (1640).

The voluminous output of Carl von Linné (Linnæus) is well represented in the collection, with almost fifty editions of his major works, including the imposing Hortus Cliffortianus (1737), one of the few Linnean works to be illustrated.

Many of the beautifully illustrated botanical books in the collection have been displayed in several exhibitions held at the Library. Among the notable illustrated botanical books in the collections are Carolus Clusius' Rariorum Plantarum Historia (1601); various editions of Philip Miller's Gardener's Dictionary; John Hill's The British Herbal (1756); J.P. de Tournefort's Complete Herbal (1719) and History of Plants Growing about Paris (1732); and William Withering's landmark An Account of the Foxglove, which introduced digitalis into the materia medica. The rich botanical drawings of P.J. Redouté adorn C.-L. L'Heritier de Brutelle's Stirpes Novæ, aut Minus Cognitæ (1785) and Cornus (1789), André Michaux's Flora Boreali-Americana (1803), and J.J. Rousseau's Botanique (1805). Other spectacular nineteenth-century botanical works are Charlotte and Juliana Sabina Strickland's Select Specimens of British Plants (1797-1809); and James Bateman's The Orchidaceæ of Mexico and Guatemala (1837-1843).

Zoology

Among the earliest writers on zoology were Pierre Belon and Conrad Gesner. First editions of Belon's L'histoire naturelle des estranges poissons marins (1555), and of his Les obseruations de plusieurs singularitez & choses memorables, trouuées en Grece, Asie, Iudée, Egypte, Arabie, & autres pays estranges (1555), the latter richly illustrated, are in the collection. A second edition of Gessner's influential Historian Animalium (1585-1602), a work that is regarded as marking the beginning of the scientific study of zoology, is another highlight. The writings of Ulisse Aldrovandi are well represented, notably his Ornithologiæ (1600), and the posthumously published work on snakes Serpentum et Draconum Historiæ (1640). Other notable early books on ornithology are George Edwards A Natural History of Birds (1743) and John Legg's A Discourse on the Emigration of British Birds (1795), often attributed to Edwards.

The important role of the horse in the economic and military life of nations is reflected in the numerous works on farriery in the collection. The earliest is a 1559 Italian version of Laurentius Rusius's Opera de l'Arte del Malscalcio (1559), and a 1573 edition of Claudius Corte's Il Cavallerizzo. Seventeenth-century works on the horse include a copy of the sixth edition of Gervase Markham's Markhams Maister-peece (1644), that belonged to the diarist John Evelyn; Jacques de Solleysel Le parfait mareschal (1664); and Francesco Liberati's La Perfettione del Cavallo (1669).

Early entomological works include Francesco Redi's Esperienze Intorno alla Generazione degl'Insetti (1668); Jan Swammerdam's doctoral dissertation Historia Insectorum Generalis (1669) and a 1682 French translation of the same, and his important study in Dutch of the mayfly, Ephemeri Vita (1675). R.A.F. de Réaumur authored the richly illustrated six volume Mémoires pour servir a l'histoire des insectes (1737-1748), and a landmark work on artificial incubation, Art de faire éclorre et d'élever en toute saison des oiseaux domestiques de toutes especes (1749), with an English translation in 1750.

Comparative zoology is treated in a number of works: M.A. Severino's Zootomia Democritæa (1645); Gerardus Blasius Anatome Animalium (1681); James Douglas's Myographiæ Comparatæ Specimen (1707 and 1729) which compares the muscles in humans and various quadrupeds; Buffon's monumental forty-four volume Histoire naturelle générale et particulière (1749-1804), as well as his three-volume Histoire naturelle des oiseaux (1770-1772); Francis Willoughby's Ornithology (1678); and Lamarck's Histoire naturelle des animaux sans vertebres (1815-1822).

A fascinating illustrated account of the anatomy of the elephant is appended to William Stukeley Of the spleen (1723); and sheep breeding is discussed in A compleat system of experienced improvements, made on sheep, grass-lambs, and house-lambs (1749) by William Ellis. One of the most visually impressive zoological works is Anatomie descriptive et comparative du chat (1845) by Hercule Straus-Durkheim.

For more information about the library's History of Science collections, please contact Alexandra Carter.

Philosophy

The Fisher's philosophy holdings are strong in the works of early philosophers - including Aristotle, Bacon, Locke and Hobbes - as well as the writings of nineteenth- and twentieth-century thinkers, which are included in the Bertrand Russell Collection, John G. Slater Collection of British and American Philosophy, Einstein Collection and the Michael Polayni Collection. The Michael Walsh Philosophy Collection, which is detailed below, further strengthens the holdings in all areas of Western philosophical thought.

Walsh Philosophy Collection

The gift of Dr Michael and Virginia Walsh of Toronto, and assembled over a period of some thirty-five years, this major collection comprises a wide and valuable survey of Western philosophical thought from ancient Greece, through the early Middle Ages, to the current day. The collection ranges widely from the incunabule period to important works of the 20th century. There are some fifteen books printed before 1500. More important than the number, however, is the rarity and condition of these items. Among others, they include fine copies of the first edition of the first part of Aquinas' Summa Theologica (Padua, 1473), no copy having appeared at auction in America or England since 1914. Similarly, one may peruse the first dated edition of his Summa contra gentiles (Rome, 1475), for which there is no Canadian copy (and only three in each of England and the United States), or the only known copy printed on vellum of Duns Scotus' Scriptum in quartum librum Sententiarum (Venice, 1476), formerly in the Doheny Collection. The collection also includes the first edition of Aquinas' Commentum in libros politicorum Aristotelis (Barcelona, 1478) for which there are only eleven recorded copies, and the second edition of the second part of Aquinas' Summa theologica (Venice, 1478) with its exceptional binding from the Benedictine Abbey of Weingarten.

There are twenty 16th century books, including, among others: a beautiful sammelband containing Augustine's De civitate Dei and De Summa Trinitate (Basel, 1515) in a contemporary dated binding; a copy of Swineshead's very rare Calculator (Venice, 1520); the first Zimara edition of Aristotle (Pavia, 1521) in a contemporary binding; Pomponazzi's Tractatus acutissimi (Venice, 1525); the first edition of the Greek text of Diogenes Laertius' Lives of the Philosophers (Basel, 1533); the first edition of Proclus' commentary on Plato's Timaeus (Basel, 1534); the first edition of any work of Aristotle published in English, his Ethiques (London, 1547); a fine copy of the first edition of Gessner's authoritative edition of Aristotle (Basel, 1550); the very rare 1550 Lyons edition of Plato's Opera in five "pocket sized" volumes; and the first publication of Plato in French (Paris, 1555).

The collection of 17th century books is extensive. In addition to important first editions of standard authors, such as Aristotle, the Collection contains the first editions, among others, of Arnauld and Nicole's Logique ou l'Art de penser (Paris, 1662); of Bacon's Of the proficience and advancement of learning (London, 1605); of Campanella's Atheismus Triumphatus (Rome, 1631); Erigena's De divisione naturae (Oxford, 1681); the first English translation of Machiavelli's political works (London, 1675); and the first edition in Greek of Sextus Empiricus (Orleans, 1621). Of exceptional importance, rarity, and value is the fine copy of Descarte's Discours de la methode (Leiden, 1637), the work which launched "modern" philosophy. Hobbes is represented by first editions of several works, including a fine copy of Leviathan (London, 1651). There is an extremely rare legal dissertation by Leibniz (Leipzig, 1665). The collection of first editions of Locke, again almost always in fine contemporary bindings, is virtually complete, including, of course, his Essay concerning humane understanding (London, 1690), as well as twenty other works. Spinoza is represented not only by a fine copy of his Opera (Amsterdam, 1677), but also by Principiorum Philosophiae (Amsterdam, 1663) and the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus (Amsterdam, 1670). Lastly, a fine and very rare 1657 Hebrew edition of the Summa contra gentiles rounds out the library's already strong Aquinas holdings.

Even more extensive and comprehensive are the holdings of 18th century philosophers, there being few important works not included for this and later periods. To list only a few examples: almost all of Berkeley's books are present in fine first edition copies, including his very rare Treatise concerning the principles of human knowledge (Dublin, 1710) and a copy of Siris (Dublin, 1744) presented by him to his close friend, the Earl of Egmont; Condillac's Essay on the origin of human knowledge in both its original French (Amsterdam, 1746) and very rare English editions (London, 1756); a representative selection of Fichte, including his first book, Versuch einer Critic aller Offenbarung (Königsburg, 1792); Godwin's chief work, Enquiry concerning political justice (London, 1793), rare especially in such fine condition. There is also a fine selection of the works of Herder, including his Ideen (Riga, 1784), Baron d'Holbach's Systeme de la nature in both its French (Amsterdam, 1770) and exceedingly scarce English editions (London, 1795), and Lessing's Laokoon (Berlin, 1766). The collection of Hume is essentially complete in fine first editions, including, for example, not only his scarce Treatise of human nature (London, 1739-40), but also one of the few known copies of the Abstract of that work, prepared and published anonymously by Hume in 1740, as well as fifteen other of his works. Similarly, the collection of Kant contains all the works from his critical period, such as the Critik der Reinen Vernunft (in both the first, 1781, and second, 1787, editions), Critik der Practischen Vernunft (1788), and Critik der Urtheilskraft (1790). As well, exceptionally scarce earlier works such as his first book Gedanken von der Wahren Schätzung (1746), the Allgemeine Naturgeschichte und Theorie des Himmels (1755), of which there are only six recorded copies in Germany, and his extremely rare inaugural dissertation De mundi sensibilis (1770), are all present in fine condition. In all, over twenty first editions of Kant are included, as well as the very rare sale catalogue of his library and many early German commentaries on his work. Price's extremely rare Review of the Principal Questions . in Morals (London, 1748) is included, as are near complete collections of the works of Hutcheson, Reid, Stewart, and Rousseau, including first editions of the latter's Émile (Amsterdam, 1762) and Confessions (1782 and 1790). Lastly, the Collection also boasts first editions of Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) and Essays on Philosophical Subjects (1759).

Nineteenth century philosophy is equally well represented. To touch upon just a few of the major works or authors: George Bentham's extremely rare Outline of a New System of Logic (1827), Bolzano's Wissenschaftslehre in four volumes (1837), Boole's Mathematical Analysis of Logic (1847), Cabanis' Rapports du Physique (1802), Comte's Cours de philosophie positive in six volumes (1830-42), De Morgan's Formal Logic (1847), Feurbach's Das Wesen des Christenthums 91841), Hanslick's Vom Musikalisch-Schonen (1845), James Mill's Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind (1829) and Fragment on Mackintosh (1835), eleven of John Stuart Mill's books in first editions, a representative selection of works by Schelling, Stirner's Der Einzige und Eigenthum (1845), and Ueberweg's own interleaved and heavily annotated copy of his System der Logik (1857) all grace Fisher's shelves. All of Hegel's major works are held in the Collection, including his Ph¨anomenologie des Geistes (1807) and the three-volume Logik (1812-16). The collection of Schopenhauer's books is unique, holding all of the editions issued in his lifetime, including a fine presentation copy of his first book (1813). In all there are twenty-two 19th century editions of Schopenhauer and twenty-one 19th century secondary works concerning his thought, most of extreme rarity. Finally, the Collection has a large holding of the translations of Thomas Taylor, including his extremely rare nine-volume quarto edition of Aristotle's Works (London, 1806-12), of which only fifty copies were printed, and the five volume Plato's Works (London, 1804). In all, there are sixteen separate published editions by this English Platonist.

A number of rare and outstanding items from the late 19th and 20th centuries also form part of this collection. These include the original "Minute Books" of the Aristotelian Society for the period 1901-1936, an item that offers unique research opportunities. There are also a number of first editions by such figures as Bradley, Brentano (11 German firsts), Carnap, Carrol, Cassirer, Frege, Heidegger, Husserl, Moore, Nietzche, Popper, Quine, Royce, Sartre, and Schweitzer. Not to be overlooked are some exceptional Wittgenstein items including a typescript prepared by Bertrand Russell of Wittgenstein's 1913 discussion on logic; Herbert Feigl's annotated copy of the Tractatus as first published (1921) in Annalen der Naturphilosophie, the only known copy associated with a member of the Vienna Circle; and both the Blue Book and the Brown Book, typescripts of Wittgenstein's lectures of 1933-34 and 1934-35 prepared for circulation to a select group of his students.

The Collection also includes a comprehensive selection of the monuments of philosophical scholarship, such as Brucker's five-volume history of philosophy (Leipzig, 1742-1767), Stanley's in three volumes (London, 1655-1662), and Ueberweg's in five (Berlin, 1923-28), as well as many important secondary sources.

Given the university's traditional strength in philosophical research and teaching, the presence of this Collection at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library is an invaluable aid to modern scholarship, and complements the other philosophical collections at the Fisher, including the Aristotle, Bacon, Hobbes, Locke, Voltaire, Rousseau, and Slater Collection of Bertrand Russell. In addition, from a bibliophile's point of view, the Walshes' emphasis on the preservation of contemporary bindings and insistence on a uniformly high standard of condition, coupled with the presence of many notable association copies, makes this collection an exceptional addition to the University of Toronto Library. In addition to their contribution of rare and historic volumes, the Walshes have also endowed a fund to help grow and maintain their philosophy collection.

Theology

The library's theological holdings are large and diverse, ranging from early bibles - including a 15th century Vulgate, the Geneva Bible from 1560, and a 1611 Kings James Bible - through to entire collections that focus largely on theology, including the Knox College and Forbes Collections.

Knox College Collection

The Knox College Collection - numbering some 5000 rare books - was deposited at the Fisher Library in 1995. It originally constituted the core of the Knox College theological library, which was established in 1844. The college itself was founded in the same year to serve the educational needs of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. To that end, in 1858 it received a charter from the government of Canada West to grant degrees. In 1925, when the entire Knox faculty and the majority of the student body joined the newly formed United Church of Canada, the present building that stands on King's College Circle in the heart of the University of Toronto was awarded to The Presbyterian Church in Canada. Since 1969, Knox has been a fully accredited member of the Toronto School of Theology and of the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada, with the ability to grant Masters and Doctoral degrees conjointly with the University of Toronto.

The long tradition of theological study at Knox has resulted in a collection of exceptional scope, especially noted for its strength in the biblical, pastoral and historical fields, as well as an extensive collection of works particularly focused on reformed theology. Some of the highlights of the collection include Albertus Magnus' Summa (1507), Erasmus' Novum Testamentum (1519), Luther's Piae ac doctae in psalmos operationes (1521), Calvin's Institutio Christianae religionis (1559), the Book of Mormon (1840), numerous editions of the Book of Common Prayer, as well as Bibles in English (1540-1800), French (1687-1701), German (1548-1761), Greek (1545-1907), Hebrew (1608), Latin (1498-1743), and polyglot (1645-1655). In addition, there are many sermons, classical texts, historical treatises (with special reference to Scotland and Upper Canada), and publications of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

The Forbes Collection

The acquisition of the library of the Rev. James Forbes (1629?-1712), Nonconformist Minister in Gloucester between 1654 and 1712, represents one of the largest single accession of early printed books in the history of the University of Toronto. A Scot by birth, Forbes took his M.A. at Aberdeen before proceeding to Oxford from which place he was called in 1654 to be lecturer and weekly preacher in Gloucester Cathedral. At the Restoration of the Stuarts in 1660, he was turned out of his position. His refusal to conform led to his imprisonment, but upon release from jail the second time he left for London where he survived both the plague of 1665 and the Great Fire of the following year. Returning to Gloucester in 1672, he continued to suffer harassment, fines, as well as threats of excommunication and death.

Three years following his death, the church to which he had bequeathed his library was divided by theological differences, and half the membership seceded. By agreement, those who abjured the congregation took with them everything that was portable, including the communion plate and Forbes' books. The library traveled with the dissenters to various places in Gloucester, eventually settling at Southgate Chapel where it remained until the only incendiary bomb to strike the city during the Second World War made short work of the library building. In 1954, the collection was housed at the Gloucester Public Library, where it remained until the congregation's trustees decided in 1966 to sell it to the University of Toronto to pay for needed repairs to their church.

The library consists of about thirteen hundred printed books, three hundred pamphlets, and a small quantity of manuscript material. It contains no books of great distinction, and few of special rarity. The strength of the collection lies in its integrity: only about a half a dozen books published after Forbes' death have found their way into it, and hence it is a "period" library undiluted by later accretions. Its great value is the representative evidence it afford of the interests of a man who as nonconformist, scholar and divine, remained for over sixty years sensitive to the complicated movements of late seventeenth century religious and political controversy.

The bulk of the collection is theology of one sort or another: bible commentaries and paraphrases, liturgical, historical, critical and pastoral works and, above all, controversy: tracts on the Anabaptists, on Quakers and Papists; on Socinianism, Pelagianism, Arminianism and Calvinism; on justification, the sacraments, original sin and the Trinity; on Sabbatarianism, infant baptism (an especially large and interesting group) and episcopacy. It is everything that a dissenting library should be. The catalogue is too numerous to detail, but mention must be made of the impressive collection of over sixty works and editions of Richard Baxter (1615-1691) and of such eminent Puritan divines as John Preston (1587-1628), John Owen (1616-1683), Isaac Chauncy (1632-1712), John Edwards (1637-1716), and many others. There is also a good representation of the works of more than two dozen continental scholars and reformers. In addition, the works of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church should not be overlooked: St Gregory the Great (Cura pastoralis, 1629), St Jerome (Epistolae, 1602), St Bonaventure (Soliloquies, 1655), the native Grossteste (De cessatione legalium, 1658), Aquinas' (Catena aurea, 1566, and commentary on St Paul's epistles, 1591), and the great late mediaeval bible-commentary of Nicholas de Lyra (NT, 1492, imperfect - the oldest book in the collection; OT, 1507, incomplete).

Of material relating to Forbes himself there is no great quantity; he published little, and only his Pastoral instruction: being some remains of the Reverend James Forbes (1713) is found here. There is more manuscript material: many seventeenth century sermons, notes and extracts; a journal for the years 1694/5 (much damaged) with notes of sermons preached, presumably in the Gloucester church, and the names of preachers; a few letters to Forbes (but none from him); and a statement of account from an apothecary listing more than a dozen prescriptions in five months - which may go some way to explaining the presence of a number of medical books in the library (including two pharmacopeias) and a manuscript book of medical recipes.

There is little secular literature, with the exception of Bunyan, Milton, Marvell, and Defoe. Classical authors fare better, and there are editions of Horace and Juvenal (1544, imperfect), Aristophanes (1600), Seneca (1614), Homer (1641) and Virgil (1661). Of an interesting group of more than a dozen school-books, six - Walker's Phraseologia Anglo-Latina (1672), Gouldman's Copius dictionary (1674), Kirkwood's Grammatica facilis (1674), Lye's New spelling book (1677), Lily's Short introduction of grammar (1679) and Culman's Sententiae pueriles (1681) - fall within the later years of Forbes' life when he was forced to teach to support himself and his family.

There is a number of other items of special interest. T. Brightman's Apocalypsis apocalypseos (Frankfurt 1609) occurs in a copy apparently marked up for the printer: the corrections listed in the errata leaf are all inserted in the text, and these is a mass of detailed correction and emendation consonant with editing for the press (although there is no evidence that the volume ever went through the printer's hands). A copy of Philippe de Mornay's Mysterie of iniquitie (1612) noted as "missing" in the late nineteenth century catalogue of the library was returned by post from Canada on 27 February 1910: it is an anti-papal treatise of the most exemplary bigotry. Among the manuscripts is part of a book-list in the form of a basic bibliography for theological students, with editions specified and prices cited in most cases. There are also some fragments of mediaeval manuscripts found in the bindings of printed books.

The Forbes collection is very different from other libraries founded in the period. Such charitable benefactions as that of Barnabas Oley, fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, prebendary of Worcester, who in 1685 required his executor to give sixteen volumes to each of ten poor vicarages in the diocese of Carlisle, or the parochial libraries founded by the S.P.C.K between 1710 and 1729, are attempts to ameliorate the intellectual poverty of the lives of so many of the clergy, and to safeguard their doctrinal literacy. But they are semi-official libraries made up of books it was thought proper and improving that a country parson of the established church should read. It is not surprising that Forbes possessed only six books that are also to be found in the standard S.P.C.K. libraries of about seventy volumes.

A more useful comparison can be made with those parochial libraries, often donated by individuals, still to be found scattered about England. Of those still extant only five are both as large and as old as Forbes. Three of these have grown to their present size by augmentation over a long period; and while the library of Reigate, Surrey, begun by Andrew Cranston, the vicar in 1701, and largely completed in the following decade, has not suffered augmentation, it was built up by numerous donations from different people and is therefore largely conglomerate. All lack the distinctive period and personal character of Forbes. Only the library of Maldon, Essex, a collection of 5000 volumes bequeathed by Thomas Plume in 1704, can stand beside Forbes as a memorial to a man and his age. But as a monument to a life dedicated to faith, a dedication expressed in the motto "Suprema optima, fugit hora, ora labora, spe expecto" which appears with his initials in nearly every book in the collection, the Forbes library stands alone.

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