The Library is open over the October long weekend, with reduced hours on Monday 2 October 2023. View the long weekend opening hours here.
Appeal
Important Rare Books
Annual Appeal 2023
Thanks to you we have now raised over half a million dollars in this year’s appeal.
Thank you so much for your imaginative generosity, which will enable us to continue with our plan to acquire some of the most important treasures in the history of printing.
You have made this the most successful annual appeal in the history of the Library!
— Dr John Vallance, State Librarian
Rare books acquired
Thanks to your generosity the Library has been able to acquire these books and more exciting acquisitions are in the pipeline.
The father of comedy’s first printed edition
Comoediae novem, 1498
by Aristophanes,
edited by Marcus Musurus
A pioneering work on mining
De re metallica libri XII. - De animantibus subterraneis liber, 1556
by Georgius Agricola
A medieval bestseller
The Golden Legend, 1527
by Jacobus de Voragine, translated by William Caxton
The most influential architectural book in the world
I quattro libri dell'architettura di Andrea Palladio …, 1570
by Andrea Palladio
The most accessible Qur’an in Europe
Al-Coranus s. lex Islamitica Muhammedis, 1694
Edited by Abraham Hinckelmann
How decimals reached Europe
Les oeuvres mathématiques, 1634
by Simon Stevin, edited by Albert Girard
A monument of Renaissance scholarship
Historiarum et annalium libri qui exstant, 1574
by Publius Cornelius Tacitus, edited by Justus Lipsius
The first and greatest classic of modern economics
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, 1778
by Adam Smith
Make a donation
Your gift can be made online by clicking the button below or by contacting Susan Hunt, Director, State Library Foundation (02) 9273 1529 or 0438 012 264 email foundation@sl.nsw.gov.au. All donations are welcome and are tax deductible.
Thank you for supporting the State Library.
give now