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 ...
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Our miniature books are listed below. You may also browse our miniature books by publisher or by century.
Boston: D. Hale, 1814. 256pp. Illustrated with sixteen wood engravings with captions. Adomeit records only eight surviving copies, five of which are mutilated. This is a complete copy, and perhaps the eighth of the seven, the others being recorded as held in institutions. In contemporary brown leather, with rules in... More about Bible History
NY: Hurst & Company, (c. 1880). 192pp. Twenty-five engravings—one frontispiece and each of the remaining twenty-four introducing a chapter—depicting significant scenes from the Bible. Among them appear Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, Pharaoh being swallowed up in the Red Sea, and Peter's denial of Christ. The volume..... More about The Child's Bible
A nineteenth-century French solid gold enamel binding containing five bone leaves. First appearing around 1820, the carnets de bal were used to record the order of an evening's dances, as well as the name of the partner for a particular dance. This opulent example is decorated with a leaf border;... More about CARNET DE BAL (dance card holder
Paris: Chez Janet Libraire, (1806). 1-16, 1-24, 17-32pp., + (12)ff. engraved illustrations. Title page also engraved. This miniature almanac includes calendar tables for the year 1806 and a list of eclipses, as well as twelve short educational poems. Each of the rhyming poems, consisting of three stanzas of eight lines... More about Le Sentiment Analysé ou l'École de l'Adolescence
Glasgow: Bryce, David, & Son, (c. 1900-1905). Five miniature volumes. (127); (127); (240); (384); (127)pp. The volumes included are: Golden Thoughts from Great Authors; Witty, Humorous, and Merry Thoughts; Robert Burns' Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect; The Smallest English Dictionary in the World; and Old English, Scotch, and Irish... More about Mite Series in Tartan
(Holland): B. de Later, 1676. 48pp. Printed in 5-point black-letter type. Each opening shows a four-line devotional poem, the text going across two adjoining pages. In an extraordinarily beautiful binding of seventeenth-century brown calf, with spine in compartments, gilt fillets and floral corner tools. Each corner, front and back, has... More about Sekere Maniere des Gebeds, en beweginge van dien. Door M.D. (Secure Manner of Prayer and its...
Oxford: Oxford University Press, (c. 1900). 576pp. An edition of the Church of England's Book of Common Prayer. Bound in full black leather with gilt tooling to upper cover, spine, and inner edges of covers. All edges red. The volume is in such fine and unsullied condition likely because it... More about The Book of Common Prayer
N.P. Miniature Book Society, 1988. Fine in printed wrappers. (2 7/8 by 2 7/8; 73x73mm). More about A Catalog of the Miniature Book Competition
Worcester, MA: St. Onge, Achille J., 1962. 54pp. One of 950 copies. Illustrated with a frontispiece portrait of the author. This copy is in a variant binding, unrecorded by Massmann, of green morocco with a gilt-stamped binding design by Rudolph Ruzicka. Very fine. A.e.g. (Massmann 20; Bradbury, p. 253). (2 15/16 by 2 1/4; 75x57mm). More about The Wants of Man. A Poem by John Quincy Adams
Boston & Vancouver: Bromer Booksellers & HM Editions, 2015. 72pp. From an edition of 120, this is one of thirty-five deluxe copies. Winner of the 2016 Miniature Book Society Competition Distinguished Book Award. Designed and printed at Heavenly Monkey, this lovely miniature memoir and bibliography contains stories of pleasure, coincidence... More about XI LXIVMOS: Memoirs of a Bibliomidget
Boston & Vancouver: Bromer Booksellers & HM Editions, 2015. 72pp. From an edition of 120, this is one of 85 copies that make up the regular edition. Designed and printed at Heavenly Monkey, this lovely miniature memoir and bibliography contains stories of pleasure, coincidence, and difficulty for each of the... More about XI LXIVMOS: Memoirs of a Bibliomidget
Worcester, MA: St. Onge, Achille J., 1952. 27pp. One of 750 copies. Inscription in ink by St. Onge. Illustrated with a portrait frontispiece of King George VI by Karsh of Ottawa. First American edition of Winston Churchill's speech. Printed by the Chiswick Press and bound by Sangorski & Sutcliffe. Very... More about King George VI, The Prime Minister's Broadcast February 7, 1952, by Winston S. Churchill
Worcester, MA: St. Onge, Achille J., 1952. 27pp. One of 750 copies. Illustrated with a portrait frontispiece of King George VI by Karsh of Ottawa. First American edition of Winston Churchill's speech. Printed by the Chiswick Press and bound by Sangorski & Sutcliffe. Very fine in red morocco with gilt-stamping... More about King George VI, The Prime Minister's Broadcast February 7, 1952, by Winston S. Churchill
Boston: Anne & David Bromer, 1983. (62)pp. First edition. From an edition of 400 copies signed by Gorey, this is one of 100 copies comprising the deluxe issue with the illustrations hand-colored by him. The text is an alphabet of short humorous couplets patterned after early moral primers for children... More about The Eclectic Abecedarium
Boston: Anne & David Bromer, 1989. (32)ff. From an edition of 400 copies, this is one of 110 hand-colored in metallic casein by the artist, and signed by him below the colophon. This Gorey rarity is bound in a one-of-a-kind designer binding by Brother Edgard Claes, a binder known for... More about Q.R.V
Boston: Anne & David Bromer, 1989. (49)pp. First edition. From an edition of 400 copies signed by Gorey, this is one of 110 comprising the deluxe issue, with twenty-nine illustrations hand-colored by him in silver and gold metallic paint. An homage to Isaac Watts, Gorey's text is obscurely akin to... More about Q.R.V
(New Britain, CT: Art Press), 1971. (16)pp., frenchfold. One of 50 copies. The Foreword by Massmann is signed by him. Hunter's account of the post-Civil War reuse of Egyptian mummies' wrappings by a Maine paper merchant is bound in stiff wrappers in the shape of a sarcophagus with the profile... More about Dard Hunter on Papyrus. Excerpted from The Story of Early Printing
Needham, MA: Rosemary Press, (1916). (iii), 101, (2)ff. From an edition of 75 copies printed for the 129th meeting of the American Oriental Society, this is one of fifteen reserved for the Press. A charming miniature book featuring Khayyam's celebrated couplets on the recto of each page. The edition was... More about Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám of Naishápúr
New Britain, CT: Art Press, 1971. (6)pp., frenchfold. One of 50 copies printed at the Art Press and signed by the proprietor, Robert E. Massmann. Several keepsakes in one, this tribute to Hunter includes a eulogy and a reproduction of a letter from Harrison Elliot, both held in pockets on... More about A Dard Hunter Keepsake
(Vancouver): Heavenly Monkey, 2008. 20ff.,+ 4 tipped-in paper samples. Second edition. One of 50 copies. Printed to mark the tenth anniversary of its original publication, El Autobus Azul was the first book printed by Rollin Milroy, and this new edition adds a Foreword by him. Four samples of papers collected... More about El Autobus Azul: Handmade Papers from Costa Rica
London: Grant Richards, 1904. 103pp. A comical miniature illustrating the inhabitants of London and poking fun at everyone from the telegraph boy to the sentry at Buckingham Palace. Full-page color plates by the famous British poster artist and illustrator John Hassall are accompanied by rhyming verses. In a limerick about... More about London Characters
(Boston): Anne and David Bromer, 1986. (15), (15)ff. From an edition of 160 copies, bound together here are one of the thirty-five deluxe copies with hand-illuminated initials in gold and colors by Suzanne Moore, and one of the 125 regular copies. Both are A.P. copies, indicated in Moore's calligraphy on... More about Shall I Die? Shall I Fly?
(Germany: 1834). 12 loose cards of paper and pink silk, plus two cover cards of metal, gold, and paper. Each month lists the dates with their corresponding days of the week and saintly figures. The cards are headed by an arch cutout, backed in mesh, upon which rests an embossed... More about Silk Calendar of Saint's Days for the Year 1835
N.p. n.d. (4) ff. A photo-reduced reproduction, with news of the day on the cover and horse race information inside. Fine. (1 5/8 by 1 1/16; 41x27mm.). More about Daily Racing Form
N.p. n.d. (8) ff. A photo-reduced reproduction of The Times. Fine. (2 3/16 by 1 7/16; 55x36mm.). More about The New York Times
