Bullock Collection

Date range: 16th-20th centuries

Medium: Printed

Number of items: 5,000 items.

The collection was formed by Walter Llewellyn Bullock, first in Chicago and later in Manchester, where he was Professor of Italian Studies from 1935 until his death in 1944. It illustrates the literature and social life of Italy, with around 2,500 items dating from the 16th century. The core of the collection was kept together while the later material was dispersed in the general collections.

The major Italian authors are represented, but the greatest strength of the collection lies in the large number of works by minor and obscure authors which it contains. Authors like Lodovico Dolce, Lodovico Domenichi, Giovanni Battista Gelli, Giovanni Battista Giraldi, Girolamo Muzio and Francesco Sansovino are represented by between five and 50 items each. There are over 100 16th-century comedies and 50 tragedies together with over 200 works of literary theory.

Other subjects for which a substantial number of items are available in the collection are medicine, religion, education, law, letter writing, travel and the art of war.

Further information:

• Recorded in Library Search.
• See also Walter L. Bullock, 'A Collection of Cinquecento Books', Italica, vol. 8, no. 4 (1931), pp. 112-17.

Location:

• The John Rylands Library, Deansgate  [Map]
• Find out how to use the reading rooms in the John Rylands Research Institute and Library