The Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto has significant holdings of books printed in Italy during the Renaissance. These volumes cover a wide variety of disciplines and represent a major resource for scholars of literature, philosophy, science, and print culture. The article explains how the Renaissance material came to Toronto by tracing the historical formation of the rare books and special collections of the University Library. It then analyzes the main areas of strength of the Fisher’s early modern holdings, offering representative examples of the most important editions and of the outstanding bibliographic treasures. Finally, it briefly considers the contribution made by the Fisher Library to Renaissance studies in Canada in the last fifty years. La bibliothèque Thomas Fisher de livres rares de l’Université de Toronto possède une collection significative de livres imprimés en Italie à la Renaissance. Ces livres relèvent d’une variété de disciplines et constituent une importante ressource pour la recherche en littérature, en philosophie, en science, et en histoire de l’imprimerie. Cet article décrit comment ces livres de la Renaissance se retrouvent à Toronto, en retraçant l’histoire de la collection de livres rares et des collections spéciales de l’Université de Toronto. On y analyse ensuite les domaines majeurs de la collection Fisher de livres de la Renaissance, par le biais d’exemples des plus importantes éditions et des trésors bibliographiques inestimables. Enfin, on y décrit la contribution de la bibliothèque Fisher aux études canadiennes de la Renaissance des cinquante dernières années.

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• Ricci, A., (2025), "The Renaissance in Toronto: Early Modern Italian Books in the Collections of the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library", HSSCommons: (DOI: )

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1. Renaissance and Reformation

Original publication: Ricci, Antonio. "The Renaissance in Toronto: Early Modern Italian Books in the Collections of the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library." Renaissance and Reformation 37 (3): 2015. 181-212. DOI: 10.33137/rr.v37i3.22462. This material has been re-published in an unmodified form on the Canadian HSS Commons with the permission of Iter Canada / Renaissance and Reformation. Copyright © the author(s). Their work is distributed by Renaissance and Reformation under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. For details, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/.