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West European Collections: Home

Welcome to the West European Collections at UNC Chapel Hill Libraries!

Collection Overview

Collecting research materials from and about Europe in all European languages has long been a high priority at both the University Library at UNC Chapel Hill and Duke University Libraries. The European collections support vibrant programs in all disciplines, including business and economics, cultural and visual studies, history of science and medicine, history, literary study, music, philosophy, political science, public policy, and religion. In addition to supporting individual academic departments, the European Collections are also part of the life of The Center for European Studies (UNC is a Title VI Center), and two other TRLN (Triangle Research Libraries Network institutions: North Carolina Central University, and North Carolina State University. 

I'm here to help you find the perfect sources and resources for your research project. I'm happy to meet with you in person, via email or telephone. I would love to hear from you if you think we are missing an item in our collection.
 

Joanneke Elliott

African Studies and West European Studies Librarian

UNC-Duke Cooperative Collections

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University maintain significant cooperative acquisitions programs in belles lettres, German Studies, and European Studies. These cooperative agreements support the research and instruction at the two institutions and serve a model for other West European and area studies collaborations. Carolina and Duke acquire core materials for their undergraduate students and then share the acquisition of more specialized research materials, special formats, and expensive items such as facsimiles, critical editions, and major microform sets. The tradition of cooperative collection development it not limited to the main research library but is practiced by the UNC Rare Book Collection and the Duke Special Collections. The result of these collaborations is that our scholars benefit from collections that are broad and deep and the two collections are complementary and with a low rate of duplication.

 

Area Collections

German Collections at UNC

The libraries at Duke and UNC support the Carolina-Duke Graduate Program in German Studies, a program that combines the resources of two great universities in a curriculum that joins disciplinary rigor with interdisciplinary flexibility to create an internationally acclaimed center of excellence for graduate training, research, teaching, and scholarly exchange. Duke and UNC are part of the Triangle Research Libraries Network. The goals of the TRLN Cooperative Collection Development Program are to enhance the collections of member libraries and provide better service to users by sharing access to specialized and expensive resources that do not need to be duplicated on individual campuses. 

French Collections at UNC

The librarians at Duke and UNC work together on defining French and Francophone Studies approval plans. By working together we provide a core collection at each institution but we also aim to collect a large amount of unique titles. Below are some of the unique French Collections found at UNC.

The William Henry Hoyt Collection of French History

The William Hoyt Collection consists of monographs as well as numerous pamphlets and newspapers relating principally to the French Revolution and Napoleonic eras. Presented to the University Library beginning in 1953 by attorney and historian William Henry Hot, the Collection originally consisted of 5,000 volumes, the rarest of which are housed in the Rare Books Collection. Contemporary historical works, as well as scares and valuable books dating from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century, comprise this large and useful collection. 

The materials in the Hoyt Collection, used in conjunction with the Mazarinades, offer valuable insights into major events as they occurred as well as retrospective glances at 170 of the most turbulent years in French history.

 

The Estienne Collection

The Estienne Collection, presented by the Hanes family as the Library's three-millionth volume on Ocxtober 12, 1984, consists of 300 of the best books printed by the sixteenth-century dynasty of printer and publishers, the Estienne family of Paris and Geneva. 

Significant works in the collection include Robert Estienne's 1531 Latnae Linguae Thesaurus; The Folio Greek Testament Novum Iesu Christi D.N. Testamentum (Paris; R. Estienne 15 June 1550); Calvin's Institution Christianae reliuonis, in libros quatuor nunc primum digesta (Geneva: R. Estienne, 16 August 1559); Henri Estienne's [Graece] Thesaurus Graecase Linguae (Geneva; 1572); and what is know as 'The Stephanus Plato' -- the first complete edition of Plato's works - opera quae extant omnia (Geneva: H. Estienne, 1579).

The Mazarinades Collection

The Mazarinade Collection contains over 1,000 pamphlets and songs published against Cardinal Mazarin during the Frond (civil war) in France, 1648-1653.

West European Studies

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Joanneke Fleischauer
Contact:
919-962-3700

Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages & Literatures

The Department of Germanic & Slavic Languages & Literatures

Department of Romance Studies

UNC Center for European Studies