Find out more about our rare books and newspapers
We feature here just some of the books and newspapers from our unique and eclectic collection at the Priaulx Library; take a look at the list so far.
L'Archipel de la Manche
Victor Hugo's guide to the Channel Islands.
Patois Poems of the Channel Islands: The Lamentations of Damaris
A poem in Guernsey French by George Métivier about the demolition of old Fountain Street in the 1860s, and a translation by J. Linwood Pitts.
Guernsey - the Pick of the Bunch
A tourist brochure from 1934, the title an allusion to the magnificent "Cannon Hall" grapes, a favourite of Queen Victoria, once grown commercially in the island and exported to the UK. This is a fascinating look at the optimistic years before the second war, with some interesting photographs and advertisements offering plenty of information for the social historian.
Currency and Coins of Guernsey
The profusion and confusion of medieval and early modern currency and coins in the island, with a table of the value of the Guernsey livre tournois, the information taken from the Library book collection.
Diverse Affections, by Major Herbert Garland (1906)
A slight romantic novel set in Guernsey, written by a young WWI explosives expert, Bimbashi (Major) Herbert Garland, who served in the Arab campaigns with T. E. Lawrence and pioneered techniques still used to devastating effect today.
The Saumarez Tower and Jerbourg Signal Station
Matthew de Saumarez' quirky contribution to the Napoleonic War effort, no longer standing.
Captain White's Log Book
The log book of the keeper of the Jerbourg Signal Station 1810-1814, who lived at the Saumarez Tower.
The Life of Helier Fautrat, by John Quick (1636-1706)
This manuscript is a biography of the Jersey minister, Helier Fautrat, or Fautrart, conflated with that of his son, Daniel, the minister at St Peter Port Town Church in 1633. Interesting in itself for the picture it gives of the life of men devoted by their families to the Protestant Church from a very young age, it also contains a famous witchcraft anecdote.
The History of New Holland, 1787
William Eden, 1st Baron Auckland, was a penal reformer and politician, who opposed the death penalty. After also attempting to prevent the resumption of transportation, which he viewed as cruel, he reluctantly accepted its inevitability and on the eve of the first convict expedition to Botany Bay in 1787, wrote an wide-ranging introduction to Australia, or "New Holland", most of which was little known, to help the public decide on the appropriateness of the punishment.
Letters and fashion plates from the time of Jane Austen
Some fascinating letters from a young Caroline Guille Le Marchant to her friends in Bath and London, from Edith Carey's Scrapbook, and some contemporary winter ladies costumes for Christmas, from two bound volumes of fashion-plates, entitled in French Figures. The plates are hand-coloured; some are from The Fashions of London and Paris, a monthly magazine that began publication in 1798, published by Richard Phillips.
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Italian Comedy
The Priaulx Library holds a small suite of rare books on the subject of Italian Comedy, the most desirable of which is probably Luigi Riccoboni's Histoire du théâtre Italien, depuis la decadence de la Comedie Latine; avec un catalogue des tragedies et comedies Italiennes imprimees depuis l'an 1500, jusqu'a l'an 1660, et une dissertation sur la tragedie moderne, published in Paris in 1728, with its exquisite illustrations. The figure here is from Maurice Sand's famous 19th-century study of the Italian Comedy, which is lavishly illustrated.
La Magie naturelle I: Grimoires
Grimoires are books of household magic. Two in particular, Le Grand Albert and Le Petit Albert, were enormously popular and feared in France and the Channel Islands throughout the 18th and 19th centuries.
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The Book of Sark
The Book of Sark: twenty-one reproductions in colour from the Royal Academy exhibits and other paintings in oil and water colours, by William Toplis; text by John Oxenham.
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The Royal Guernsey Militia
The Royal Guernsey Militia: a brief sketch of its services, etc. from 800 to 1895. In two volumes; vol. 2, Uniforms of the Royal Guernsey Militia. By Lieut.-Colonel John Percy Groves (1850-1918). J. Percy Groves researched the history of the militia for the published first volume, and painted a selection of their uniforms in watercolour, which are bound in a unique second volume held here at the Library where he was Chief Librarian.
Richard de Jersey's Book of Navigation
Richard de Jersey: Book of Navigation (1737). A handwritten and hand-coloured wonder. The Library won a national prize with this one! find out more
Thomas Andros' Commonplace Book
July 2008: Thomas Andros' Commonplace Book, a handwritten pamphlet of herbal medicine and fruit-growing, dated 1589, Guernsey; and other texts quoted within it. A most beautiful and interesting document from a Seigneur of Saumarez Manor, who had to practise his handwriting when he was a boy just like we did!
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Guernsey Folk Lore
Guernsey Folk Lore, by Edgar MacCulloch, ed. Edith Carey, 1906. A super book, one of the most consistently popular on the subject, a fascinating blend of scholarly research and local anecdote.
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Christmas 2008
Guernsey Christmas - published and unpublished excerpts from the Library's collection, 18th-century letters from a chilly Copenhagen and a chilly schoolboy in Chesham Bois, diary entries from the 1860's Afghan War, and an excerpt from Victor Hugo's Guernsey novel, Toilers of the Sea, the story of which begins at Christmas; "Christmas" being the only English word Hugo professed to know. find out more
The works of Ralph Durand
Ralph Durand was Librarian of the Priaulx Library from 1929-1945, the curator of the Island Museum from 1938-45, and an all-round boy's own hero.
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Lilium Sarniense, or, a Description of the Guernsay-Lilly
The first treatise on the history of the island's national flower, and some biographical notes on its author, a medical pioneer.
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Early children's books
The Priaulx Library has amongst its collection of rare items several books intended for children.
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Sword Exercise of the Cavalry
Guernsey's reforming hero, J. Gaspard Le Marchant, founder of the Royal Military College, brilliant watercolourist, excellent flute player, sword designer, and altruistic warrior, first made his name with this hugely important handbook for the training of officers.
J. Gaspard Le Marchant, Rules and Regulations for the Sword Exercise of the Cavalry, LONDON, PRINTED for the WAR OFFICE, and sold by T. EGERTON, MILITARY LIBRARY, WHITEHALL, 1796
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Deutsche Guernsey Zeitung
During the Occupation of Guernsey the German forces produced their own newspaper, known as Deutsche Guernsey Zeitung. They also printed other books and documents for the island in the years between 1940-45, such as Deutsches Leben.
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The Gazettes of Jersey and Guernsey
Entrpreneurs of first Jersey and then Guernsey copied the fashionable London newspapers of the second half of the 18th century and published their own Gazettes, written almost entirely in French, from the late 1780s onwards. The first Gazette de L'Isle de Guernesey came out in 1791 on the Jersey model; before that, Guernsey news was sometimes included in the Jersey newspaper. Rolling excerpts with translations from the early years of these newspapers are the subject of our On This Day ... feature.
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