The Printer's Small Library: A Digital Exhibition of the Franciscan Printing Press in Jerusalem

The digital exhibition, The Printer’s Small Library. Books, Reference Works and Handbooks on the Shelf of the Franciscan Printing Press in Jerusalem, is online. It is a precious testimony of one of the most fascinating cultural enterprises ever undertaken by the Franciscans in the Holy Land since 1847. But it is also an example of the bibliographic tools used in a typography between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The “printer’s small library” does not often survive, making it impossible to fully comprehend the fundamental concepts and expertise that the art of printing requires. However, some of these publications are preserved among the vast material found in the editorial archive of the Franciscan Printing Press, at times with the stamp “Franciscan Press”, a truly precious and rare record, useful to better understand the working methods of a typography before the digital age. For more information: www.bibliothecaterraesanctae.org