Frequently asked questions
Frequently asked questions
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The majority of the miniature collection at the College is donated by William Rueter, founder of The Aliquando Press, and a long-time friend of the College and Library, having donated over 600 of his personal book collection on printing, incunables, and manuscript fragments to the library.
Many works relating to 19th century British printing, including most works the History in Miniature section, were collected by the late Ruari McLean, initially to support his own work as a typographer in the late 20th century. His personal collection was purchased in its entirety by Massey College upon his passing in 2006, and it remains the largest rare book collection held at the College to this day.
Massey's collection veral items not traditionally classified as miniature books are also featured in the exhibition, to help establish a broader context of small-format writing and publishing over time. The 4000-year old cuneiform tablet One She-Goat Dead, for example, comes from the library's Gurney collection. The late Roy Gurney was plant superintendent at University of Toronto Press in the 1960s, and helped assemble Massey College’s early printing collections.
This site serves as a digital catalogue for the physical exhibition at Massey College. It is not intended as an exact digital replica of the physical exhibit, since the scale and visual details of these books cannot quite be fully captured on a screen.
Site is recommended for viewing on a desktop or tablet. Works shown on this site are not to scale, and may appear in a different order than in the physical exhibition.
The exhibition runs until October 2025 at the Robertson Davies Library, on the Lower Ground Floor of Massey College, University of Toronto. Visitors to Massey College are asked to sign in at the Porter's Office.
Those interested in consulting specific works in the collection are requested to make an appointment by emailing the Librarian, Andreea Marin at andreea.marin@masseycollege.ca
Please refer to the Exhibitions page of the Massey College website for information about latest exhibitions.
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, feel free to email Devin de Silva, exhibition curator, at devin.desilva@hotmail.com.