The collection of 3,421 items was donated in 1969 by New York rare book dealer Hans P. Kraus. It consists primarily of texts of Italian opera, but also includes Italian cantatas, serenatas, oratorios, ...

In Mainz, Germany, in the mid-1450s, Johann Gutenberg and his partner Johann Fust published more than 150 large-format copies of the Bible in Latin. This is the book known today as the Gutenberg Bible ...