Selected Special Collections

Kirkor Minassian Collection

Islamic bookbindings

In the late 1920s and 1030s the Library acquired Kirkor Minassian (1874?-1944), New York art dealer and authority on Near Eastern manuscripts, over two hundred items relating to the development of writing and the book arts in the Middle East. Seventy-one Islamic bookbindings, including one rare fourteenth century example are housed in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division. Most of these Turkish and Persian style bindings appear to date from the seventeenth and eighteenth century.