Julius S. Held Collection of Rare Books

The Julius S. Held Collection of Rare Books is a research collection of 283 volumes which is held in the Library^[7] of the Clark Art Institute.

The collection was assembled over the course of his career by art historian Julius S. Held (1905–2002), a longtime professor at Barnard College, Columbia University (1937–1970),^[8] who was renowned internationally for his scholarship in sixteenth and seventeenth century Dutch and Flemish art and as a scholar of Rubens and Rembrandt. Volumes include illustrations by artists such as Peter Paul Rubens, Albrecht Dürer, and Anthony van Dyck. The books include works by Virgil and Ovid, versions of Aesop's Fables, as well as titles on astronomy, religion, natural history, and anatomy dating from the sixteenth through the nineteenth century, in a range of languages, including Greek, Latin, German, Italian, English, and French. The collection also includes important art histories and early treatises on the emblem and iconology.^[9]

Of note are the approximately 80 books that form the working core of Held's scholarly collection. These texts include his manuscript annotations and commentary concerning provenance and identification of illustrations present in the texts and appear on the inside of covers, as marginalia, and as end notes on the fly leaves. Also included are separate ephemera consisting of Held’s notes on images within the works, along with letters, invitations, annotated dealer’s catalogs and offprints.

The collection is currently being digitized;^[10] recently added volumes can be viewed in the Clark Library Digital Collections. According to the Institute of Museum and Library Services press release of Grants to Museums in 2014: "The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute will digitize significant volumes from the Julius S. Held Collection of Rare Books, in the Clark Library, and make these materials available through the library's digital collections interface, the Internet Archive, the Getty Research Portal, the Massachusetts Digital Commonwealth, and the Digital Public Library of America. The museum will digitize 185 of the collection's 283 volumes and enhance cataloging and metadata for the more than 107,000 images in the collection, including a significant number of rare titles and unique volumes dating from the sixteenth through the nineteenth century. The project fulfills the museum's goal of collections stewardship by allowing access to these exceedingly rare volumes, ensuring their physical preservation while facilitating access and knowledge."^[11]

Accessibility

The collection is non-circulating. The digitized volumes of the Julius S. Held Collection of Rare Books are available online through the Clark Digital Collections,^[12] and at the Internet Archive.^[13] Collection titles can be viewed in the Library Catalog.^[14] To access rare volumes at the Clark Art Institute Library, it is necessary for researchers to telephone, email,^[15] or write in advance of their visit; contact information^[16] is located on the home page.

[Detail] Nederduytsche poëmata (1635). Ebook
Picturesque views on the River Thames, from its source in Gloucestershire to the Nore (1792). Ebook
Antverpia (1610). Ebook
[Detail] Les genres des insectes de Linné; constatés par divers échantillons d'insectes d'Angleterre, copiés d'après nature (1781). Ebook
Het gulden cabinet van de edele vry schilder-const (1662). Ebook
Amoris diuini emblemata (1615). Ebook
New idylles (1776). Ebook
Het gulden cabinet van de edele vry schilder-const (1662). Ebook
SS. apostolorum et evangelistarum icones cum suis parergis a Theodoro VanLonto, delineatae (1620). Ebook
Illvstrivm imagines, ex antiquis marmoribus, nomismatibus, et gemmis expressae: quæ exstant Romæ, maior pars apud Fulvium Vrsinvm (1598). Ebook
Instrvction en la science de perspective (1625). Ebook
Diverse figure al nvmero di ottanta (1646). Ebook
Hieroglyphica of Merkbeelden der oude volkeren (1735). Ebook
Le imagini de gli dei de gli antichi (1663). Ebook
Fables of Aesop paraphras'd in verse : adorn'd with sculpture, and illustrated with annotations (1668). Ebook
Fables of Aesop paraphras'd in verse : adorn'd with sculpture, and illustrated with annotations (1668). Ebook
Fables of Aesop paraphras'd in verse : adorn'd with sculpture, and illustrated with annotations (1668). Ebook
Casparis Contareni patricii Veneti De republica Venetorum libri quinque (1626). Ebook
Perpetva crvx sive Passio Jesu Christi a puncto incarnationis ad extremum vitæ (1650). Ebook
Vita beati P. Ignatii Loiolæ Societatis Iesv fvndatoris (1609). Ebook
Nunquid voluntate velim morte iniqui, dicit Adonai Dominus (1600-1699). Ebook
Nederduytsche poëmata (1635). Ebook
Vita beatæ Mariæ Vir[ginis] matris Dei, emblematib[us] delineata (1600-1699). Ebook
Tableaux du temple des muses (1655). Ebook
Groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen. Het I.(1753). Ebook
Gemmae et sculpturae antiquae depictae (1694). Ebook
La Gallerie du Palais du Luxembourg (1710). Ebook
De historia ss. imaginvm et pictvrarvm pro vero earvm vsv contra abvsvs libri IV (1594). Ebook
Historische levensbeschryving van Petrus Paulus Rubbens, ridder, heere van den steen &c. (1774). Ebook
Vestigi dell'antichità di Roma (1618-1621). Ebook
Vestigi dell'antichità di Roma (1618-1621). Ebook
Les genres des insectes de Linné; constatés par divers échantillons d'insectes d'Angleterre, copiés d'après nature (1781). Ebook
Nederduytsche poëmata (1635). Ebook
Fables de La Fontaine : précédées de la Vie d'Ésope (1882). Ebook
Gallerie du Palais du Luxembourg (1710). Ebook