Reserve Collection
This general collection contains over 8000 printed books and journals, most published before 1900 and relating to long-standing areas of strength in teaching and research. Subject areas particularly well represented include early work on agriculture, gardening and mathematics, and English literature of the 1890s.
The collection dates from the foundation of the University Extension College, Reading, in 1892. Early donations included over 400 volumes of 17th and 18th century books of Edward Cobb of Banbury (1806-1899) in 1918-19; 448 volumes, chiefly 18th and early 19th century classics, from E.R. Dodds and A. Sterne in 1923-24; and several hundred early English books and pamphlets from Sir Charles Firth in the late 1920s and ‘30s.
The following items from the Reserve Collection have appeared as our featured item:
- Berthe van Nooten, Fleurs, fruits et feuillages choisis ... de l’Ile de Java, 1880 (May 2007, with another illustrated botanical work)
- Oscar Wilde, Salome: a tragedy in one act, 1894 (February 2007)
- Thomas Morley, A Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke , 1597 (August 2005)
- Torquato Tasso, La Gierusalemme liberata, 1590 (January 2005)
More information
- Most of the collection is fully catalogued on the Enterprise catalogue