NYU College of Dentistry has a very valuable and uniquely assembled dentally related rare book collection. Over 1000 volumes represent a portion of the famous Weinberger Collection. Dr Bernhard Weinberger (1885-1960), an alumnus of the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine, class of 1910, and a specialist in orthodontics, was a faculty at NYU Dentistry from 1923-1931 and a lecturer in History of Dentistry. A 1931 article in the Dental Survey stated the collection was... "the most complete orthodontic, rare books, historical and bibliographic dental library in the world”. During the 1950s, he decided to sell some of his books at auction. However, one thousand or so of his 5000 books and artifact collection ended up in the possession of NYU College of Dentistry. The books were kept for decades in relative obscurity until they were brought back to prominence during the last decade. The library was moved into new quarters in the Dean's Suite on the 10th floor of the Weissmann building and the current effort to digitize it is a deliberate attempt to open it to the world.

Please note: To protect the fragile copies in our collection, wherever available, we used already scanned copies to link the digital version of the books. However, we have the original copies available to scholars for inspection.

Should you decide to quote this site, please use the following format:

Bernhard Weinberger Rare Book Collection, NYU College of Dentistry, New York
http://dental.nyu.edu/aboutus/rare-book-collection.html; Last accessed at [ insert date ].

For more information, please contact dental.rarebooks@nyu.edu.

1045 volumes: 22 volumes from the 16th century, with the earliest being from 1543; 40 volumes from the 17th century, 138 titles from the 18th century, and the rest from the 19th and early 20th century. The website lists ALL titles by century. Access them by clicking on the right side of the screen. We recently digitized all 200 volumes from 16, 17, and 18th-century, with a cover story and a link to the digital version of the book. The digitization is now moving to titles from the 19th century. The College has developed a Virtual Museum of the History of Dentistry that includes dental instruments and 19th-century painkiller medicine bottles at https://dental.nyu.edu/aboutus/rare-book-collection/virtual-museum.html

The College recently received a significant donation of 28 newly restored volumes from the 16 and 17th centuries from Dr. Andrew I. Spielman, the library curator. The donation includes a 1661 edition of William Harvey’s De Motu Cordis and a 1573 edition of Girolamo Fracastore’s Opera Omnia. Furthermore, the 1566 edition of Dioscorides - De Materia Medica, a French translation of Petri Andrea Mattheoli's hand-colored edition, was just acquired

Sampling from the acquisitions of the past two years:
1. Girolamo Fracastore /Alphonso Ferri – Syphilis sive Morbus Gallicus (1547)
2. Galenos of Pergamon – Ars Medica (1549)
3. Dioscorides, Pedanos - Pedacii Dioscoridis .. de medica materia (1566)
4. Hippocrates – Magni Hippocratis Coaca Praesagia (1576)
5. André Du Laurens – Historia Anatomica (1599)
6. Andreas Vesalius - Anatomia. Addita Nunc. Antiquorum Anatome (1604).
7. Ambroise Paré – Les Oeuvres (1652)
8. Johannis Scultetus - Armamentarium Chirurgicum –(1656)
9. Cornelius Celsus – De Medica – (1687)
10. Marcello Malpighi – Opera Omnia (1687)