The Library of Congress has two copies of the first edition of the Book of Mormon in addition to other foundational texts from the Church of the Latter-day Saints. This post discusses the institutional history of these copies and provides information about their material condition and how to gain digital access to the Book of Mormon, the Pearl of Great Price, and Book of Commandments.
The publication of the Aitken Bible, the first complete Bible published in an independent America, was a landmark moment in the book history of the United States. This blog post provides information about former owners of the copy that is now housed in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division at the Library of Congress.
Learn about the playful pen flourishes, or penwork, and the decorated initials that appear in a small Book of Hours that was created in the Northern Low Countries (Netherlands) during the fifteenth century.
This post introduces readers to a once popular but now obsolete use of the term "common sense," as it is presented in Gregor Reisch (1467-1525)'s enormously popular text book, Margarita Philosophica, first printed in 1503.
Learn about a fifteenth-century Middle English manuscript at the Library of Congress that contains information about the monastic library and community for which it was created. This manuscript was used by women, likely commissioned by women, and copied from a French Rule of St. Benedict probably by a female scribe.
