Collections and Critiques

To depict developments in the art of printing from the Fifteenth Century to the present time, the Widener Treasure Room has placed a variety of its possessions on exhibition.

The editions which are on display are grouped according to the century in which they were printed, but at the same time an effort has been made to include the works of as many countries as possible. In the Fifteenth Genuine Germany is represented by the Nuremberg Chronicle of 1493, a large folio Latin, illustrated by fine wood cuts the people and scenes of the times.

In the Sixteenth Century display there is also an English publication a work of sir Thomas Moore in 1557. The Satyrs of Persius, put out of France two years earlier, is not in such good condition although the copicus interlineations in its pages make it interesting. The prize of the century is the Polyglot Bible, printed in Aniweir in 1572. It is a massive dome with rare full-page cuts of miracles and clerical symbols.