Rare Books

The Rare Book Collection at Stony Brook University includes over 20,000 fine and unique volumes dating from 1493 to the present. Our holdings can be accessed through STARS, the University Libraries’ online catalog. The collection encompasses titles on diverse subject areas, including: 16th and 17th century books, Long Island and New York history, classics in Latin, Irish literature, the Perishable Press Limited, Black Mountain Poetry, natural sciences, and book and printing history. Our oldest and most significant volume is The Nuremberg Chronicle, a pictorial history of the earth published in 1493 and compiled by Dr. Hartmann Schedel, illustrated and engraved by Michael Wohlgemuth, Wilhelm Pleydenwurff and Albrecht Dürer, and printed and published by Anton Koberger.

In 2002, the University received as a gift from Dr. Jacqueline Newman the largest English-language Chinese cookbook collection in the world. The collection can be searched on STARS from here.