When you hold a miniature book in your hand, it is like holding a jewel. A miniature book is usually no bigger than three inches (76 millimeters) tall, and although some need magnification to be viewed properly, most can be read with the naked eye. Dating as far back as 2500 BCE, Sumerian clay tablets with cuneiform writing are considered the prototype for miniature books ...
Read more about Miniature Books
Our miniature books are listed below. You may also browse our miniature books by publisher or by century.
Milano: Ulrico Hoepli, 1878. 499pp. One of 1,000 copies. The type, cut by Antonio Farina in 1834 but never used by him, was cast in 1850 for this edition of Dante, and is thought to be the smallest ever employed. According to Bondy, "the most widely-discussed and the most sensational... More
Milano: Hoepli, Ulrico, 1878. 499pp. One of 1,000 copies. The type, cut by Antonio Farina in 1834 but never used by him, was cast in 1850 for this edition of Dante, and is thought to be the smallest ever employed. According to Bondy, "the most widely-discussed and the most sensational... More
(Boston): Bromer, Anne and David, 1986. (15), (15)ff. From an edition of 160 copies, bound together here are two of thirty-five deluxe, numbered copies with hand-illuminated initials in gold and colors by Suzanne Moore, one of America's finest scribes. Additionally, this is the publisher's copy, indicated in Moore's calligraphy on... More
Tokyo: Bijou Book Hoshino, 1979. 104; 88pp. Text in English and Japanese, with each language separately paginated. One of 150 copies. Illustrated with a two-page map of New Guinea, printed in green, and with with chapter title pages printed in green and black. An account of an unlikely friendship made... More
(Tempe, AZ): Kelly M. Houle, 2008. (1)ff., accordion-fold. One of thirty copies, signed by the artist, Kelly M. Houle. The book is comprised of a fold-out illustration of a banana plant, printed in black on yellow parchment-textured paper. Below the illustration is a haiku by the seventeenth-century Japanese poet Matsuo... More
Tempe, AZ: Houle, Kelly M., 2008. 14pp. One of 300 copies, signed by the printer, Kelly M. Houle. An English translation of Borges's poem, by Alastair Reid, with a center spread illustrated with an engraving of a library and mystic symbols from Egyptian, Mayan, and other cultures. At the end... More
Japan: (1918). 64mo. Eleven original sumi-e and watercolor paintings in an accordion-fold book. The paintings are dated Taisho 7, that is, the seventh year of the Taisho period, or 1918. The paintings depict various landscapes, flora, and fauna, and have been created by the artists Sekitai Nagasaka, Seisen Oka, Hiyakunen... More
San Diego, CA: Iron Bear Press, 2000. One of 50 copies, signed by Weintraub. Two volumes of fables, bound dos-a-dos. Fine in boards covered with gray and tan handmade paper. (3 by 2 3/8; 75x60mm). More
NY: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., (1905). Five miniature volumes. 352; 382; 352; 347; 352pp. The titles are: Selections from the Alhambra, Selections from the Sketch Book, Selections from Bracebridge Hall, Selections from Tales of a Traveller, and Christmas Sketches. Printed by the Riverside Press, Edinburgh, on the thinnest India... More
NY: Johnnycake Press, 1985. (44)pp.+ a large fold-out map by David Marshall. One of fifty copies. Signed by the printer. An very fine copy with sugi bark endpapers, and bound in oasis goatskin by Carol Joyce with the sculpted impression of mountains across both covers. Bookplate of former owner. (2... More
Paris: Rignoux, 1823. Ten volumes, each with 48 pages. First edition. Illustrated with 68 plates from copper engravings and one folding map. Legrand's miniature library for children contains the following titles: Morale en Action; Mythologie; Geographie; Fables; Histoire de France; Contes; Animaux; Insectes; Mineralogie; and Botanique. Augustin Legrand (1765 -... More
(Lunenburg, VT): Stinehour Press, 2000. (16)pp. This short text describes things a book can be, starting with the practical ("a general term given to a variegated species whose individual members share the trait of being composed of several sheets of paper of like size...") and becoming increasingly more fanciful ("Books... More
Palm Beach Gardens: Kaycee Press, 1989. (65)pp. Limited to 200 copies printed by Ward Schori. This copy inscribed by the author. Humorous and sensitive poetry to the memory of his mother by one of the founders of the Miniature Book Society. Very fine in covers of dark blue with gilt-stamping... More
Lexington, KY: King Library Press, The Miniature Book Society, 2010. (20)pp. Produced in conjunction with a workshop for members of the Miniature Book Society held at the King Library Press during the 2010 MBS Grand Conclave in Lexington, Kentucky. The text is a selection from the cetology included in Moby-Dick... More
(N.p.): Kitemaug Press, 1972. A ten-leaf accordion panorama, with eight floral ornaments printed in color, one to a page. Fine in printed wrappers, housed in a paper sleeve. (3/4 by 11/16; 20x18mm). More
(Watertown, MA): Anne and David Bromer, 1977. (24)pp. The text is printed on Japanese paper with ornamentation in green. Wood engravings by Sarah Chamberlain, as her first miniature book commission. This is the first miniature book published by the Bromers. Midori Kunikata-Cockram captures the whimsical nature of the text, which... More
Paris: Laurent et Deberny, 1855. ii, 160pp. A miniature edition of the eighteenth-century Jesuit poet’s work. This "dainty little edition," as Bondy describes it, or "Edition Mignardise," is printed in beautifully clear and amazingly small type created by the Fonderie Laurent et Deberny in Paris. Kathryn I. Rickard's copy, with... More
Los Angeles: Dawson's Book Shop, 1991. 21pp. One of 60 copies of this miniature leaf book printed by Pall Bohne for Dawson's Book Shop. With an engraved, illustrated leaf from an extremely rare miniature two-volume picture-Bible, printed in The Hague by Daniel Langeweg, circa 1750. The original leaf contains a.... More
San Francisco: Grabhorn Press for David Magee, 1958. Octavo. 30pp. One of 200 copies printed for David Magee at the Grabhorn Press. This original leaf from a Book of Hours was likely written and illuminated in Paris during the first portion of the fifteenth century. It bears four initials accented... More
(Stillwater, ME: 1993). One of twenty-six lettered copies by artist & calligrapher Nancy Leavitt. An original calligraphic manuscript comprised of twenty beautifully hand-painted pages with a miniature garden fold-out panorama. The garden is hand-lettered with tiny cut-outs, and delightfully painted. Bound in the shape of a house in fuchsia, teal... More
(Rochester, NY): Leopard Studio Editions, 2014. (24)pp., accordion-fold, with two four-page inserts sewn in. One of five copies, signed and numbered by the artist. A miniature artist's book by Sue Huggins Leopard based on the poem by Emily Dickinson, which reads: "Love is anterior to life, / Posterior to death... More
Bristol: Lilliput Press, (1996). (37)pp. One of 150 copies, signed by the binder Tim Sheppard. The Silver Penny ABC was originally printed as a chapbook in 1818 and is reproduced here with "Of the Fatal Effects of Bad Education" and "The Moral" following the ABC. Illustrated with engravings, some of... More
(Bristol): LILLIPUT PRESS, 1986. (44)pp. One of 250 copies signed by the printer, Allan Armstrong. Contains British recipes from the 18th and 19th centuries, with a hand-colored frontispiece and hand-colored illustrations of dishes and kitchen equipment. Very fine in gilt-stamped red morocco. (1 3/8 by 1; 35x25mm.). More
