The Rare Book Division of the Library has several Czech cultural treasures. They include seven incunabula from the Czech Lands, one of which is a Bible that was printed in Kutná Hora in 1489. This is one of the first Bibles printed in Czech, and the Library's copy is one of 18 remaining copies. Other especially rare books are a one-volume edition of the Kralice Bible of 1596 and Jan Hus' Postilla of 1563.
The Rare Book Division also has in its custody 30 works by Comenius, including a Czech hymnal printed in Amsterdam during his lifetime in 1659.
The Rare Book collections also include about 150 volumes of modern literature, many of them published in bibliophile editions in a small number of copies. They are kept by the Rare Book Division as examples of high-quality Czech book design which flourished especially in the 1920s and 1930s. This selection includes works by such noted authors as Karel Čapek, Jaroslav Seifert, Vítězslav Nezval, Jiří Wolker, and Petr Bezruč. The illustrators and book designers include such renowned artists as Karel Svolinský, Vratislav H. Brunner, Karel Čapek, and Adolf Kašpar.
The unique materials of the Rare Book and Special Collections Division, now totaling over 1 million items, include books, broadsides, pamphlets, theater playbills, prints, posters, photographs, and medieval and Renaissance manuscripts. At the center is Thomas Jefferson's book collection, which was sold to Congress in 1815. The Rare Book & Special Collections Reading Room is modeled after Philadelphia's Independence Hall. This room is home to the divisional catalogs, reference collection, and reference staff. Collections are stored in temperature and humidity controlled vaults.
