Special Collections: Science Resources: Rare Books

The collection relates to the thought, artistic and scientific achievements, and influence of Leonardo da Vinci. Included are many editions of his Treatise on Painting, beginning with the first Italian and French editions, published in 1651. Also present are facsimile editions of Leonardo's notebooks. (See catalogue of exhibition: The Anthony J. and Frances A. Guzzetta Collection of Leonardo da Vinci, in The University of Rochester Library Bulletin, vol. 44, 1994.)

Collection includes first-edition, first-issue copies of both On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859) and The Descent of Man (1871).

Included in the collection are American, Canadian, English, French, and German trade catalogues from the 1890s to the 1950s. These represent approximately one thousand companies producing and dealing in lenses, optical instruments, surveying equipment, microscopes, binoculars, and similar optical and scientific equipment. There are strong holdings for the American Optical Company (United States), W. Watson and Sons (England) and E. Leitz and Carl Zeiss (Germany).

The collection consists of approximately 600 books illustrated with original mounted photographs. The insertion of original photographs preceded the invention of photomechanical reproduction as a method of book illustration.