ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


265

F O L G E R  L IB R A R Y  A C Q U IR E S  
R E F O R M A T IO N  E D I T I O N S

A collection of 850 early editions of the 
works of the Reformation has been acquired by 
the F o l g e r  S h a k e s p e a r e  L i b r a r y . In an­
nouncing the purchase, O. B. Hardison, Jr., 
said, “The addition of this magnificent collec­
tion to the extensive Reformation materials al­
ready in the library will make Washington one 
of the major international centers for Reforma­
tion studies.” Elizabeth Niemeyer, acquisitions 
librarian, was responsible for locating the col­
lection.

Assembled by the Swiss bibliophile and au­
thor Emanuel Stickelberger (1884-1962), the 
collection was offered exclusively to the Folger 
Library by the firm of Erasmushaus-Haus der 
Bucher, Basel. The accompanying catalog pro­
duced by the prestigious book firm states in its 
introduction that “the collection is incorporated 
as a whole into one of the world’s greatest and 
most beautiful libraries, the Folger Shakespeare 
Library in Washington, D.C., where it will be 
a pleasure and a help to many more biblio­
philes and scholars.” In its field, this Reforma­
tion collection is considered to be “the most 
extensive and interesting collection of the 
twentieth century.”

Of the 850 items in the collection, 700 are 
dated before 1551; of these, 516 were printed 
before 1531. The works include 180 original 
impressions of Martin Luther, most notably a 
first printing of the expanded version of the 95 
Theses, Resolutiones disputationum ad  Leonem  
X (Basel, 1518). The collection includes the 
writings of Calvin, Zwingli, and other reformers 
as well as materials on debates and disputa­

tions that took place during the period and 
numerous pamphlets by German supporters of 
the reform. Early Bibles, including a copy of 
the first French Protestant Bible (Neufchatel, 
1535), and Psalters are to be found among the 
new volumes.

The volumes are extensively illustrated with 
woodcuts by early sixteenth-century German 
artists, such as Hans Holbein, Lucas Cranach, 
Hans Baldung Grien, Urs Graf, and Hans 
Weiditz. Many of the volumes are hand bound 
in modem quarter vellum, with covered boards 
made from incunabula leaves and with back- 
strip titles hand lettered in Gothic script. Oth­
ers are bound in old vellum manuscripts.

Purchase funds for the collection had been 
contributed by an anonymous gift from a friend 
of the library and provided by grants from 
Crystal Trust of Wilmington, Delaware; from 
the National Endowment for the Humanities; 
and by the library’s acquisition benefit.—  
F olger Library Newsletter ■■

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