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Open stacks contain the CRRS’s collection of modern books. To access rare books, patrons must submit retrieval requests in advance via our website form here. Please note the Centre’s materials do not circulate.

The Centre’s library holdings fall into three main categories:

1. rare books, most of which were printed before 1700 (currently about 4,000 titles):
   • Among the rare books in the Centre’s collection are a number of humanist editions of the classics as well as works in history, religion, theology, philosophy, language and literature. The CRRS now has a dedicated, searchable catalogue with some digitized images of its rare book collection.
2. modern books (currently about 25,000 volumes):
   • A comprehensive collection of bibliographies, critical editions, other printed documents (chronicles, letters, and so on) as well as an array of relevant monographs and journals.
3. microforms (several thousand microfiches and microfilm reels)

To find a listing of the CRRS library’s holdings, please refer to the University of Toronto Library Catalogue. Under “Advanced Search,” you may limit the format, as well as location to “Victoria University CRRS.”

Erasmus Collection:
The CRRS library contains primary and secondary materials relating to most aspects of the Renaissance and Reformation. In particular, it houses the Erasmus Collection, one of the richest resources in North America for the study of works written or edited by the great Dutch Humanist Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam. The collection holds a substantial number of pre-1700 editions of his works, including the Novum Instrumentum of 1516. Professor Andrew James Bell (d. 1932) endowed many of these books to Victoria College. For information on the editions of the complete works of Erasmus available at the CRRS, please click here.

The Confraternities Collection:
The CRRS publishes Confraternitas, a journal dedicated to the study of confraternities and other associations in Reformation and Renaissance Europe. Sinec 1989, the CRRS has been a repository for publications received by the Society for Confraternity Studies and thus houess a number of monographs dedicated to the study of early modern confraternities. Researchers interested in confraternities, ritual associations, local charity and institutional bureaucracies, among other things, may wish to browse the complete Confraternities Collection. Click here to view a PDF of the Confraternities Collection.