What is the oldest book in Special Collections?
• The oldest printed book in the MSU Libraries is held in Special Collections. Its title is Scriptores Rei Rusticae, which was printed in Venice in 1472, only a short time after the invention of the moveable type printing press by Gutenberg in Germany about 1455. Scriptores Rei Rusticae features classical agricultural treatises by Cato, Varro, Columella, Palladius, and others. Distinguished by its simple and elegant typescript, it was printed by Nicolas Jenson, one of the most important figures in early printing. Scriptores Rei Rusticae is an “incunable,” (Latin for ‘things in the cradle’) to mean books produced in the infancy of printing, generally speaking all books published before 1501. Special collections has a total of 12 incunabula and each one is available to be seen in the reading room. However, this is not the oldest book in Special Collections. Instead that honor goes to one of two manuscripts: either our beautiful Book of Hours, an illuminated manuscript produced probably b
