Project update 22 - Collection valuation

The Library's rare printed collections are conservatively valued at over $80 million. One of the easy tasks throughout this project has been identifying some of the rare and valuable items in the collection which had not beeen included in the Collection Valuation in 2005. Here are just a few of my favourites that will be included in the 2010 Valuation.

George Ruxner
Anfang, vrsprung vnnd herkōmen des Thurnirs in Teutscher nation
[Siemern : H. Rodler, 1530]
This is the first edition of the famous Book of Tournament by the Palatine herald Georg Ruxner. The volume provides information on the origin and ritual of 36 tournaments in Germany and Switzerland, with descriptions and lists of participants. There are over 200 woodcuts illustrating scenes of the dances and festivities that were as essential as the fighting as well as descriptions of the coats of arms of notable warriors.

MRB/ Q394.7/ R (16th Century)



Thomas L. M'Kenney and James Hall
History of the Indian tribes of North America : with biographical sketches and anecdotes of the principal chiefs ...
Philadelphia : F. W. Greenough, 1838-1844
Thomas McKenney (1785-1859) served as Commissioner of Indian Affairs 1824-1830. He commissioned and collected portraits of Native Americans for his Gallery in the War Department with the goal to publish a record of vanishing peoples including portraits and biographical sketches. The first issue of History of the Indian Tribes of North America was published in three volumes between 1836 and 1844. This is a beautiful example of hand-colored American lithography and is one of the earliest collections of Native American portraits. Digital images of the volumes are available online at the University of Cincinnati. DSM/ F970.3/M SET

R. Bougard
The little sea torch ; or, True guide for coasting pilots
London : Published for the Author, by J. Debrett ..., 1801.
This volume contains 34 coastal profiles on 20 hand-coloured aquatint plates. It also includes 24 hand-coloured charts of ports. This is the first and only edition of this work for coastal navigation. It was translated by Thomas Serres from René Bougard's Le Petit flambeau de la mer. SC/ F29