Printing Collection

A collection of items relevant to the study of printing, typography and book design, primarily from an artefactual point of view, formed to facilitate teaching the history of graphic design,

searchable via the catalogue.

There are books, journals and collections, including the Schmoller Collection of Type Specimens. The collection also contains ten incunables, including the Library’s oldest book Ruralia commoda by Petrus de Crescentius (1471).

The collection is hugely augmented by items in other rare book collections, especially the Overstone Library, the Cole Library and the Reserve collection. There are also separate collections of books printed by the Golden Head Press and the Two Rivers Press.

More information

• The Isotype Collection of material relating to the Isotype movement (c. 1925-70), which pioneered methods for disseminating information through pictorial means, is housed by the Lettering, Printing and Graphic Design Collections. 
• Read Featured Item articles on items from this collection: on our oldest printed book, Ruralia commoda by Crescentius (1471) and design masterpiece The Grammar of Ornament by Owen Jones (1856).

Associated collections

• Charles Mozley Illustrations Collection
• Two Rivers Press
• Golden Head Press
• Gaberbocchus Press Collection