To answer the frequent question, “What is a Rare Book?,” examples of rare books are shown and explained in the current exhibition in the Carol McDonald Gardner Rare Book Room at the St. Louis Public Library. The display at the Main Library, 1301 Olive St., will remain through June 30.
Drawn from the library’s own collection, the 55 rare books on view present examples of first editions of modern authors; hand written manuscripts and books from the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, prior to the invention of the printing press; early printed works, known as incunabula; early children’s books and other miniatures, and examples of handcrafted printing produced by private presses, also fine bindings and limited editions.
The exhibit is open to the public without charge from noon to 5 p.m., Monday through Thursdays, and on alternate Fridays from March 24 and alternate Saturdays from March 18.
Originally published in The Paper, April 1978.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Archival transcription note: The printed fifteenth-through-seventeenth-century manuscript phrase “prior to the invention of the printing press” is retained as source wording, not independently endorsed.
Original source: SD_Times1978_04.pdf, printed page(s) 8; PDF page(s) 8.
