Ushaw Historic House library open to public for one day

A library which holds historic books such as Sir Isaac Newton’s Principia Mathematica will open to the public for the first time – though just for a single day.

Ushaw Historic House, near Durham, will open its 50,000-item collection to the public on 9 August as part of its first ever book festival.

The library at the former Roman Catholic seminary is usually reserved for researchers, Ushaw official Sanjay Gidda said.

Looking forward to welcoming a wider audience, Mr Gidda said: “This is one of the most exciting cultural days Ushaw has ever hosted.”

As part of the day’s events, the library will display its copy of the Nuremberg Chronicle illustrated encyclopaedia from 1493.

The book is an account of Christian history from Creation to the early 1490s.

Only about a thousand copies exist in the world today, said Mr Gidda.

In addition to the 1493 edition, the library also holds a pirated copy of the book printed four years later, which was smaller and cheaper to make and of which just a few hundred still survive.

Ushaw is also home to a first edition copy of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, said Mr Gidda, as well as dozens of books printed during the earliest days of the printing press in Europe, known as incunabula.