Browse Items (25 total)

Welcome to "iPhone in the Vault: Inside Tisch Special Collections." Over the next month we will examine remarkable #tischrarebooks but let's start with what Special Collections really is about, people: seeing, discussing, doing research, and sharing…

The first question most people ask about Special Collections: "What is the oldest book Tufts has?" It is Manuscript 21, a Latin Bible copied in Paris some time between 1220-1240 CE. The text is written on vellum, made from calf skins. It features 80…

MS 21 fits the entire handwritten Bible, art, and textual apparatus into a book measuring approximately 8 x 5 inches. Eyeglasses and magnifiers existed in the Middle Ages.

In the news since 532 CE, Hagia Sophia, Istanbul. Commissioned by the emperor Justinian, for nearly a thousand years it was the world's largest Christian cathedral. It was converted to a mosque in 1453, and turned into a museum in 1935. In 2020 it…

On Thursdays of late the library has posted photos of pets. Special Collections does its part with this dog, who lives in Tufts University MS 20, a psalter copied in Switzerland or SW Germany, c. 1450-1475.

The Revd. Hosea Ballou 2d, founding president of Tufts, made his reputation as a scholar, educator, minister, and leader in the Universalist church. His library, preserved in Special Collections, reflects his work and interest in religion, history,…

In 1838 Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) escaped slavery in Maryland with assistance from his soon-to-be wife, a free Black woman, Anna Murray. They settled in Massachusetts, a center of Abolitionist effort. Douglass quickly became a leading orator,…

Today on the autumn equinox we showcase the work of Margaret Bryan, an English schoolteacher, who in 1797 published "A Compendious System of Astronomy." Bryan taught girls at locations in or near London. Beyond that, and three educational…

How was it put together? Is everything there? Questions for anyone who studies an early printed book, even an online digital copy. If you like puzzles, early printed books may be for you.

Over centuries of use, misuse, vandalism, repair, and…

Elephants! From A New History of Ethiopia: being a full and accurate description of the kingdom of Abessinia: vulgarly, though erroneously called the empire of Prester John / by Hiob Ludolf, printed for Samuel Smith, bookseller, at the Prince's Arms…