Rare Book Collections

The JKM Library is the custodian of the rare book collections of the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and McCormick Theological Seminary. These materials, which were gathered by the schools and their predecessor institutions over the past 150 years, include items pertaining to biblical archaeology, papyri from Oxyrhynchus (Egypt), medieval manuscripts, early printed materials, Luther manuscript letters and printed works, American abolitionist materials, and hundreds of Bible translations.

McCormick Theological Seminary's collection includes such rare items as a cuneiform cylinder from Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, 605-562 B.C.E., many well-preserved 16th century theological treatises, editions of John Calvin's writings, and a document signed by King Charles II on April 7, 1672, by which he granted permission to a group of individuals "of the Presbyterian persuasion," to meet in Bristol, England.

The L. Franklin Gruber Collection, acquired by the president of the former Chicago Lutheran Theological Seminary, contains sixteen manuscript codices from the ninth through the fourteenth centuries and includes an entire New Testament, individual gospels, and gospel lectionaries. The manuscripts are listed in Kurt Aland's Kurzgefasste Liste der griechischen Handscriften des Neuen Testaments (Berlin, 1963) as "Maywood/Ill., Theol. Sem." The Gruber Collection also has several original editions of Luther's German Bible and many sixteenth century treatises and pamphlets. More information about the L. Franklin Gruber Collection may be found here .

For more information about the LSTC and McCormick rare book collections, contact:

Barry C. Hopkins
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773-256-0738