Manuscripts:
The Manuscript Collection consists of three parts. The first is a collection of books beginning with two manuscript codices of the 12th century, a Gospel of Mark, and the Acts of the Apostles, a 13th century substantially complete manuscript bible and three Bibles printed in the incunabula period. A second part is a collection of some 800 parchment indentures, wills, and other legal documents written between 1597 and 1895 on parchment or paper ranging in size from 4 x 12 inches to large folded documents 20 x 36 inches that are part of the Downing Collection. The final piece is the Kuenzel Collection which contains documents relating to the Church in Italy and numbering 839 items dating back to the 14th century.
Incunabula:
Sixty-five incunabula—books printed before 1501— is one of the largest collections in the state of Iowa. The earliest, printed in 1471, is the Nicolas Jenson printing of Quintilian’s Institutiones. The importance of this collection is not only that it contains books from the earliest years of printing but that the texts represent the thinking of some of the most outstanding scholars of the time.