The Julius S. Held Collection of Rare Books is a research collection of 283 volumes which is held in the Library of the

Clark Art Institute The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, commonly referred to as the Clark, is an art museum and research institution located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. Its collection consists of European ...

. The collection was assembled over the course of his career by art historian

Julius S. Held Julius Samuel Held (1905–2002) was an art historian, collector, and expert on Dutch painters Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, and Rembrandt. He published several monographs and was a professor of art history at Barnard College, Columbia ...

(1905–2002), a longtime professor at

Barnard College Barnard College is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college affiliated with Columbia University in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a grou ...

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

(1937–1970), who was renowned internationally for his scholarship in sixteenth and seventeenth century Dutch and Flemish art and as a scholar of Rubens and

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (; ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), mononymously known as Rembrandt was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker, and Drawing, draughtsman. He is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in ...

. Volumes include illustrations by artists such as

Peter Paul Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens ( ; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish painting, Flemish artist and diplomat. He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque painting, Flemish Baroque tradition. Rubens' highly charged comp ...

Albrecht Dürer Albrecht Dürer ( , ;; 21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528),Müller, Peter O. (1993) ''Substantiv-Derivation in Den Schriften Albrecht Dürers'', Walter de Gruyter. . sometimes spelled in English as Durer or Duerer, was a German painter, Old master prin ...

, and

Anthony van Dyck Sir Anthony van Dyck (; ; 22 March 1599 – 9 December 1641) was a Flemish Baroque painting, Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England after success in the Spanish Netherlands and Italy. The seventh child of ...

. The books include works by

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...

and

Ovid Publius Ovidius Naso (; 20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he i ...

, versions of

Aesop's Fables Aesop's Fables, or the Aesopica, is a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a Slavery in ancient Greece, slave and storyteller who lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 564 Before the Common Era, BCE. Of varied and unclear origins, the stor ...

, as well as titles on

astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...

religion Religion is a range of social system, social-cultural systems, including designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics in religion, ethics, or ...

natural history Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

, and

anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...

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 An emblem is an abstract art, abstract or representational pictorial image that represents a concept, like a moral truth, or an allegory, or a person, like a monarch or saint. Emblems vs. symbols Although the words ''emblem'' and ''symbol'' ...

and

iconology Iconology is a method of interpretation in cultural history and the history of the visual arts used by Aby Warburg, Erwin Panofsky and their followers that uncovers the cultural, social, and historical background of themes and subjects in the visu ...

. 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 Marginalia (or apostils) are marks made in the margin (typography), margins of a book or other document. They may be scribbles, comments, gloss (annotation), glosses (annotations), critiques, doodles, drolleries, or illuminated manuscript, ...

, 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; 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 Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

, the Getty Research Portal, the Massachusetts Digital Commonwealth, and the

Digital Public Library of America The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) is a US project aimed at providing public access to digital holdings in order to create a large-scale public digital library. It officially launched on April 18, 2013, after two-and-a-half years of dev ...

. 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."

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, and at the Internet Archive. Collection titles can be viewed in the Library Catalog. To access rare volumes at the Clark Art Institute Library, it is necessary for researchers to telephone, email, or write in advance of their visit; contact information is located on the home page. File:Nederduytsche poëmata 52.jpg, etailNederduytsche poëmata (1635)
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File:Picturesque views 6.jpg, Picturesque views on the River Thames, from its source in Gloucestershire to the Nore (1792)
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File:Antverpia 308.jpg, Antverpia (1610)
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File:Les genres des insectes 144.jpg, etailLes genres des insectes de Linné; constatés par divers échantillons d'insectes d'Angleterre, copiés d'après nature (1781)
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File:Het gulden cabinet 37.jpg, Het gulden cabinet van de edele vry schilder-const (1662)
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File:Amoris diuini emblemata 8.jpg, Amoris diuini emblemata (1615)
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File:New idylles 8.jpg, New idylles (1776)
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File:Het gulden cabinet 321.jpg, Het gulden cabinet van de edele vry schilder-const (1662)
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File:Apostolorum 19.jpg, SS. apostolorum et evangelistarum icones cum suis parergis a Theodoro VanLonto, delineatae (1620)
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File:Illvstrivm imagines 75.jpg, Illvstrivm imagines, ex antiquis marmoribus, nomismatibus, et gemmis expressae: quæ exstant Romæ, maior pars apud Fulvium Vrsinvm (1598)
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File:La science de perspective 79.jpg, Instrvction en la science de perspective (1625)
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File:Diverse figure 21.png, Diverse figure al nvmero di ottanta (1646)
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File:Hieroglyphica of Merkbeelden 15.png, Hieroglyphica of Merkbeelden der oude volkeren (1735)
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File:Imagini de gli dei 123.png, Le imagini de gli dei de gli antichi (1663)
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File:Juliusaesopimage.jpg, Fables of Aesop paraphras'd in verse : adorn'd with sculpture, and illustrated with annotations (1668)
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File:Fables of Aesop Page 634 (1).jpg, Fables of Aesop paraphras'd in verse : adorn'd with sculpture, and illustrated with annotations (1668)
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File:Fables of Aesop Page 128 (1).jpg, Fables of Aesop paraphras'd in verse : adorn'd with sculpture, and illustrated with annotations (1668)
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File:Casparis Contareni Page 007 (1).jpg, Casparis Contareni patricii Veneti De republica Venetorum libri quinque (1626)
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File:Perpetua crvx sive Passio Jesu Christi Page 098.jpg, Perpetva crvx sive Passio Jesu Christi a puncto incarnationis ad extremum vitæ (1650)
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File:Vita beati P Ignatii Loiol Page 045.jpg, Vita beati P. Ignatii Loiolæ Societatis Iesv fvndatoris (1609)
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File:Nunquid voluntate velim morte iniqui Page 17.jpg, Nunquid voluntate velim morte iniqui, dicit Adonai Dominus (1600-1699)
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File:Nederduytsche pomata Page 244.jpg, Nederduytsche poëmata (1635)
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File:Vita beat Mari Page 141.jpg, Vita beatæ Mariæ Vir

inis The International Nuclear Information System (INIS) hosts one of the world's largest collections of published information on the peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology. History One of the founding purposes of the International Atomic Ene ...

matris Dei, emblematib sdelineata (1600-1699)
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File:Tableaux du temple Page 594.jpg, Tableaux du temple des muses (1655)
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File:Groote schouburghHet I Page 086.jpg, Groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen. Het I.(1753)
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File:Gemmae et sculpturae Page 535.jpg, Gemmae et sculpturae antiquae depictae (1694)
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File:La Gallerie du Palais du Luxembourg Page 53.jpg, La Gallerie du Palais du Luxembourg (1710)
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File:De historia ss imaginvm Page 433.jpg, De historia ss. imaginvm et pictvrarvm pro vero earvm vsv contra abvsvs libri IV (1594)
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File:Historische levensbeschryving Page 056.jpg, Historische levensbeschryving van Petrus Paulus Rubbens, ridder, heere van den steen &c. (1774)
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File:Vestigi dellantichit di Roma Page 008.jpg, Vestigi dell'antichità di Roma (1618-1621)
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File:Vestigi dellantichit di Roma Page 089.jpg, Vestigi dell'antichità di Roma (1618-1621)
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File:Genres des insectes Page 145.jpg, Les genres des insectes de Linné; constatés par divers échantillons d'insectes d'Angleterre, copiés d'après nature (1781)
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File:Nederduytsche pomata Page 096.jpg, Nederduytsche poëmata (1635)
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File:Fables de La Fontaine Page 329.jpg, Fables de La Fontaine : précédées de la Vie d'Ésope (1882)
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File:La Gallerie du Palais du Luxembourg Page 47.jpg, Gallerie du Palais du Luxembourg (1710)
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References

External links

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Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute Library Collection at Internet ArchiveSterling and Francine Clark Art InstituteClark Library
{{ACArt Collections Art collections in the United States Former private collections in the United States

Painting Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

* * Rembrandt studies