continental european history and literature

This is one of the library’s strongest collections. They have materials from the 14^th century to the Napoleonic era with strong representation of Italy, France and Germany. Spanish and Portuguese artifacts emphasize their imperial periods and include literary works, religious history and pamphlets. Switzerland, Austria and the Low Countries are represented but not as extensively as Italy, France and Germany. The library’s collection focuses on literature and cultural history with an emphasis on politics, theology, Romance and Germanic philology, education and the classics. They have around 300 medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, political treatises of all periods up to the French Revolution, humanism, French political pamphlets from the 16^th and 17^th centuries, French Revolutionary pamphlets, early works on military science and architecture, calligraphy, handwriting and shorthand books, emblem and courtesy books, dictionaries and encyclopedias, institutional history of Christian churches, religious non-conformity, Roman and Spanish Inquisitions and religious publishing and censorship.