Incunables

The third most significant incunable collection of the country consists of 1205 titles in 1051 volumes. The book that is proven to be part of the collection of the University Library for the longest time is Epistolae ad familiares by Cicero (printed in Venice in 1487, inv. no. Inc.256), and presumably it got into the library between 1586 and 1589 in Znióváralja. The first catalogue extant from 1631 already lists a number of incunables, which could be purchased for educational purposes.

The incunables represent the medieval and renaissance book culture. Several of the books were richly adorned and there are quite a few excellent masterpieces of the Gothic bookbindings in Hungary. The Biography of Saint Jerome written by Laudivius Zacchia is of outstanding importance among other unique incunabula, because it was printed in Hungary between 1478 and 1579 in the second old printing house (typ. Confessionalis).

The complete collection is available in the OPAC of the library, and the digitized versions of some copies are also available in the EDIT repository.

Old Hungarian Book Collection

The Old Hungarian Book Collection gathers the Hungarica printed before 1711. Following the classification of Károly Szabó, this collection includes three types of books: works written in Hungarian, books printed at the territory of the historical Hungary, and the works written by Hungarian authors printed abroad. The collection consists of 3127 prints, many unique copies among them, for ex.  the hydrological work edited in the Heltai Printing House, Marcello Squarcialupi: De fontium et fluviorum origine ac fluxu.

The complete collection is available in the OPAC of the library, and can be searched by author and title.

Rariora Hungarica Collection

This collection gathers the rare and especially valuable Hungarian books printed after 1711, e.g. first editions, autographed copies, facsimiles. The more than 2000 titles of this collection are accessible in the OPAC.

Printed Ephemera Collection

The printed ephemera are prints having a small number of pages. The collection includes booklets (with poems and speeches written for special occasions, pamphlets, report cards, statutes, memoranda and annual reports of different associations,) and broadsides (leaflets, letters of invitations, posters) as well. The majority of these prints has a great bibliographical and historic value. The largest part of the collection was printed in the 19th century, but there are a few thousand pieces from the 18th and the 20th century, too. The online catalogue is continuously augmented with the detailed descriptions of these items, and their photos are uploaded also to the Digital Institutional Repository (EDIT).

Collection of Engravings, Maps and Landscapes

The collection consists of 8.300 engravings or drawings, mostly portraits, landscapes, townscapes, images of buildings and maps. Most of the material were produced in the19th century, but there are some old and rare copperplate engravings and woodcuts from 15th century, too. Among the rarities of the collection there are some especially interesting handmade maps from the 18th century, which are related to the missionary work of the Hungarian Jesuits in South America.

The complete collection is available in the OPAC, and their digitised copies are also accessible in the EDIT repository. 

Political party history collection

The political party history collection consists mainly of pamphlets and other official publications of the Council Republic. Around 800 documents are available in the online catalogue  and can be requested for reading in the library.

Source/author of illustration:
Chronica Hungarorum http://hdl.handle.net/10831/32260