De Arte Rhetorica Libri Tres (The art of rhetoric book III), 1644

This collection contains several early printed books from the 16th and 17th centuries.

Many of the holdings were printed in Italy, mostly in the Manutius workshop of Venice. The rest were printed in The Netherlands, England, Germany, France, Switzerland, and Belgium. Twelve books are in Latin or partly Latin as there are three bilingual items (mostly Latin and Greek) and one (Dionusiou Longinou Peri hupsous, 1694) employs three languages (Latin, Greek, French). In some books there is marginalia but it is often illegible.

Topically, the items range from natural science, religion, poetry, music, and history, to classical literature, medical science, and linguistics. Some of the holdings are considered quite rare. Most notable are: Blancardus’s Anatomie (1691), Plantin’s Promptuarium (1576), Cicero’s Orationes (1582 pocket edition), and Meibomius’s Antiquae Musicae Auctores Septem (1652). All of these are either the only extant originals in the United States or one of the very few.