The rare books collection consists of volumes printed before 1850 which came to the Library mainly with the early collections. It contains volumes printed in England and continental Europe as well as many printed in the Middle East, India and East Asia. Many were collected by scholars of Asia and the Middle East connected with the Faculty or with Cambridge. Dictionaries, grammars, Bibles, descriptive works and books of travel and exploration are heavily represented, as are books on Arabic and Persian studies.
The Library does not purchase volumes to add to this collection but books are sometimes added from new bequests.