Rare Collection Of Fine Printing Shown in Widener

In celebration of the five hundredth anniversary of printing by movable type and the four hundredth anniversary of printing in the Western Hemisphere, Widener Library is currently exhibiting a collection of finely printed and historic books dating from 1455.

On exhibit are pages from the "Gutenberg Bible," the first great production in printing, of which there are only a few copies in existence in the entire world.

Also in the show cases is an example of the first book published in the Western Hemisphere, which was printed by Juan Pablos, a Spaniard who set up shop in Mexico in 1539 and published his first work a year later.

Book From Oldest U. S. Press

The earliest surviving copy of a book printed in the United States, the "Bay Psalm Book," published at Cambridge in 1640 by Stephen Daye with type which belonged to Harvard College, is included in the Widener collection and will be on exhibit.

In the modern cases, the possibility of producing fine books in large volume is demonstrated by the achievements of contemporary Russian, French, Italian, and German presses. Their editions were issued very cheaply, in tens or hundreds of thousands, but the calibre of printing and illustration is still high.

One item shown in this connection is an advertising leaflet prepared for the European equivalent of the Pullman company, to advertise its sleeping car accommodations; the leaflet is simply printed in white type and illustrations are on a dark blue background.