News from the Special Collections blog

“The most interesting objects” - (August 24, 2011)

Two recent acquisitions enhance our strong collections in natural history, anatomy and the history of collecting. The first is a catalogue of the natural history collections at the Zwinger in Dresden, by the curator Christian Heinrich Eilenburg (1710-1771)- Description du Cabinet Roial de Dresde touchant l'histoire naturelle (Dresden, 1755). The second, a copy of the first catalogue of the Anatomical Theatre in Berlin, by August Schaarschmidt (1720-1791). Read more...

 

Eighteenth-century English erotica for a discerning German wartime audience - (June 28, 2011)

The Rare Books Department has just purchased a rather unusual piece of First-World-War printing. John Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, or Fanny Hill was one of the first examples of extended prose pornography in the English language, and rapidly landed its author and publisher in court. This unusual German translation, printed in Berlin in 1918, was limited to 100 copies printed for subscribers, "nur für einen wissenschaftlich interessierten Leserkreis" - "exclusively for an academically-interested readership". Read more...