Remarkable Books - Rare Books

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This book tells the history of the Christian world from the beginning of times to the early 1490s and includes geographical and historical information on European towns as well as biographical information on men such as the printer John Wycliffe, physician Jacopo da Forlì [Jacobus de Forlivio], and all the Popes to date.
From the earliest days of movable type, the history of the world
Schedel, Hartmann (1440-1514), Liber Cronicarum or ‘Nuremberg Chronicle’, Nürnberg: Anton Koberger, 1493. [Acc. 5504. Gift of Capt. F. H. Huth, 1903]
William Saunders Parrott campaigned against the growing congregation of the Church of Latter Day Saints [Mormon Church] in the 1860s. He spoke at public events around Bath and Bristol, even drawing up a petition against the church. To support his views, he had a mock-up of the Golden Plates of the Book of Mormon, with its 'rose-tinted' spectales, to highlight his rhetoric.
A brass book that wasn't meant to be read.
Replica ‘Golden Plates’ of the Book of Mormon, in brass, created by William Saunders Parrot [c.1860s]. [Acc A602414. Gift of Phyllis Parrott, Sept. 1975.]
Religious texts are often created on the best of materials available. Palm leaves are durable if flimsy. Creating decorative wooden battens to protect the pages gives the scribes a chance to colourfully decorate this Buddhist text in celebration of its contents.
Not all books are made of paper and leather
Sinhalese palm leaf manuscript [Pali text of Vimānavatthu vappana.] [late 18th or early 19th century] [Acc MS2994. Donated by M.F. Eckersall, Esq., 1865]
This 'floral' book of hours is a small, handwritten, volume with prayers and religious readings laid out to be used on certain dates and certain times of day. They would often be carried by aristocratic women, hence the small size. Created in France, it is written on very thin parchment sheets, and is the oldest bound volume in the collection.
Bound illuminated manuscript
[Book of Hours], Illuminated Manuscript, c1430s. [Acc. 29:747. Gift of Cedric Chivers, 1929 ]
Johann Remmelin (1583-1632), a doctor and mathematician, pioneered the use of ‘lift the flap’ books to teach anatomy with accurate representations of the organs in layers. Here the brain of a woman is exposed with the serpent twining around it.
A lift-the-flap book for adults
Remmelin, J, L., Catoptrum Microcosmicum…, Augsburg, David Franck, 1619.
Sir Alexander Fraser, a Principal Physician to the King, visited Bath in the 1660s. After consulting on the uses of Bath's mineral waters with the local physicians Fraser's 'Direction' includes 3 quarts (6 pints) of water in an hour and a half, purgatives and the 'pill marked C'.
Prescription for the taking of the Bath waters in 1675
Fraser, Sir Alexander, Directions for the use of the Bathe Waters, 1675, AL/1495
This Elizabethan charter formalised the Corporation and Council of the city, creating the 'Mayor, Aldermen and Citizens of the City of Bath', giving them new powers of governance. It also gave them control of the baths and the Abbey.
Possibly the most important document in the archives
City of Bath Charter of Queen Elizabeth I of England, 1590. BC/1/1 [Courtesy of the Charter Trustees of the City of Bath]
William Turner (1509/10-1568) was Dean of Wells, a physician and botanist. His herbal was the first botanical list of English plants in English, rather than Latin. Alongside the woodcuts Turner gave information on their medical uses and virtues. This volume was also issued with one of the first medical examinations of the efficacy of Bath’s thermal waters.
How does your garden grow - and will it cure you?
Turner, William, The second parte of William Turner’s herball…, Cologne: Arnold Birckman, 1562. [Acc.24086, donated by A. W. Page]

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