Library Treasures: Extreme Reads

The biggest and the smallest, the oldest and the newest, the rarest, and even the thickest. There are nearly 200,000 volumes in the Academy's Ewell Sale Stewart Library. Many of them are highly regarded for their scientific contributions, their historical significance, or their beauty. Some are just plain extreme.

The Biggest

The Orchidaceae of Mexico and Guatemala, James Bateman, 1843. (Actually, our copy of John James Audubon's Birds of America is bigger, but it's too big to fit. It's on display inside the library.)

The Smallest

Experimenta circa res diversas naturales, speciatim illas, quae ex Indiis adferuntur, Francesco Redi, 1675. (The author of this tiny book, written in Latin, is credited for being the first scientist to conduct controlled experiments.)

The Oldest

Pauli Iovii novocomensis, De piscibus marinis, lacustribus, fluviatilibur, item de testacies ac salsamentis liber, Paolo Giovio, 1527. (This remarkable book was published just 87 years after the invention of the printing press. )

The Newest

Illustrated Identification Guide to Adults and Larvae of Northeastern North American Ground Beetles, Yves Bousquet, 2010. (New volumes are continuously being added to the library's holdings.)

The Longest Running

The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 1665-present. (The Transactions is the first journal in the world exclusively devoted to science; the Academy's Library holds each and every issue.)

The Thickest

The Vertebrata of the Tertiary formations of the West. Book I, Edward Drinker Cope, 1883. (Also known as Cope's Bible, this single volume contains more than 1000 pages.)

The Rarest

Ichthyologia Ohiensis, or, Natural History of the Fishes Inhabiting the River Ohio and its Tributary Streams, Constantine Samuel Rafinesque, 1820. (There are five known copies.)

The Most Unusual

Dissertation sur l’Existence des Dragons (Dissertation on the Existance of Dragons), C. L. M. Dorfeuille, 1798. (Unfortunately for Dorfeuille, most educated westerners of the late 18th century no longer believed in dragons.)