The library's collection of printed books to 1800 printed in, or relating to, the countries of eastern and south-eastern Europe which comprises about 360 volumes is kept in the closed stack with the special collections.
This material can be ordered by filling in a borrowing slip but direct access is not normally allowed. It contains no incunabula and the earliest book in the collection is a (defective) edition of D. Reisch's Margarita philosophica (?Freiburg, 1503).
The earliest book in Cyrillic is a Kanonnik (Moscow, 1646) and there is a notable collection of Russian books of the 18th century , including Magnitski's Arifmetika (Moscow, 1703) and Polikarpov's Leksikon treiazychnyi (Moscow, 1704).
The collection also includes two copies of Nicolini de Sabbio's Corona preciosa (Venice, 1527) which is the first printed book to contain Modern Greek vocabulary.
The majority of the 18th century Russian and Church Slavonic books are recorded by C.L. Drage. Books printed between 1801 and 1850 .
Bibliography:
Drage, C.L Russian and Church Slavonic books, 1701-1800 in United Kingdom libraries : a list with bibliographical references, locations, notes and indices (London, 1984) (Z2492.3.1984.D7=R )