Please note that some of these collections are available only on campus or by authentication. Off-campus access to these collections is available only to students, faculty and staff of Brigham Young University and requires authentication (BYU ID and password), as noted below. If you are not affiliated with the University you are welcome to use these collections within the Library building.
American Periodical Series Online 1741-1900 (Authentication Required)
Popular magazines and other rare periodicals from early American history. More than 1000 titles.
Analytic Bibliography of Online Neo-Latin Texts
Early printed books containing Latin texts written during the Renaissance and later. Chiefly images of early printed books.
Archive of Americana (Authentication Required)
Early printed newspapers and documents. Includes American State Papers, 1789-1838; Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800; Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819; U.S. Congressional Serial Set, 1817-1980.
British Library Treasures in Full
Digitized versions of some of the British Libraries most treasured books, including the Gutenberg Bible, Shakespeare's Quartos, and Caxton's Chaucer.
Growing collection (438 as of October 2009) of digitized incunabula from the Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek at Technische Universität Darmstadt (Germany).
Early English Books Online (EEBO) (Authentication Required)
Digitized images of over 125,000 English books published between 1475-1700.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) (Authentication Required)
180,000 English-language and foreign-language titles published in the United Kingdom between 1701 and 1800, along with thousands of important works from the Americas.
Eighteenth Century Journals Portal
Journals printed between c1685 and 1815.
Pamphlets printed between 1547 and 1626 from L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Brigham Young University.
The Making of the Modern World (Authentication Required)
Digital version of Goldsmiths'-Kress Library of Economic Literature, 61,000 works of literature on economic and business published from 1450 through 1850.
Münchener Digitalisierungszentrum (MDZ)
Nearly 3,000,000 titles, including early printed books and manuscripts, from the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek.
Octavo Editions -- Special Collections -- Rare AC 1100 .A1
Early and rare books on CD-ROM. Available for consutation in the Special Collections Reading Room.
Images of papyri and links to other papyrological resources from the Advanced Papyrological Information System (APIS), the Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri (DDbDP) and the Heidelberger Gesamtverzeichnis (HGV).
Sabin Americana 1500-1926 (Authentication Required)
Nearly 30,000 books, pamphlets, serials and other documentsabout the Americas published throughout the world from 1500 to the early 1900's.
International project led by the Library of Congress and UNESCO, containing more than 10,000 cultural treasures from around the world. The WDL makes available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from all countries and cultures.For more information, click here.
See also many other free websites with images of rare books, linked from The Directory of Web Resources for the Rare Book Cataloger.
To find printed facsimiles of early printed books and manuscripts in the Library's collections,
Go to the Library home page.
Click on the drop down arrow to the right of the search box (or left of the magnifying glass).
At the bottom of the popup window, choose "Alphabetic browse"
Click on "genres"; enter facsimiles
Additionally, the Library has collected some or all the volumes of the following facsimile series. To explore, go to the Library's catalog, click
"alphabetic search", type in one of the following, and click "Series." Or click one of the links below.
Codices selecti phototypice impressi
Early English manuscripts in facsimile
The English experience, its record in early printed books printed in facsimile
English linguistics, 1500-1800--a collection of facsmile reprints
March of America facsimile series
Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints
Theatrum Orbis Terrarum series of atlases in facsimile
The Music Library also collects facsimile editions of early printed and manuscript music.
American Primers -- MICROFICHE PE 1119 .A47
Microfiche collection of over 800 American primers and other introductory reading material from the late 17th century to the 1930's.
Early American Imprints. First Series (1639-1800) -- MICROFICHE 080 Sh64
Approximately 37,500 American books printed between 1639 and 1800.
Early American Imprints. Second Series (1801-1819) -- MICROFICHE 080 Sh64a
Nearly 40,000 American books printed between 1801 and 1819.
Harold Jantz Collection of German Baroque Literature -- MICROFILM 830.8 no.1
3700 early German imprints. A guide to the entire collection may be found here. There is also a printed guide in the Library's collection (Main Stacks PT 278 .X1 G47 1974).
Yale University Library Collection of German Baroque Literature -- MICROFILM 830
2600 early German imprints. There is a printed guide in the Library's collection (Humanities Reference PT 238 .X1 Y23)
Harry Ransom Center (UT-Austin)
Peplin, Poland v. 1 (Requires popup)
Peplin, Poland v. 2 (Requires popup)
Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen
In addition to the online digital copies listed above, the Library owns the Octavo Editions facsimile of the Library of Congress's Gutenberg Bible (Rare AC 1100 .A1 no.22). The CD-ROM can be consulted in the Special Collections Reading Room. For more information, click here.
The Library also owns several other printed facsimiles of the Gutenberg Bible. For more information, click here.