Biographical Note

Lloyd Berry was dean of the Graduate School at the University of Missouri and a historian of the bible and Renaissance literature. His family donated his working library to the University Libraries after his death in 1977.

Scope and Contents

Editions of the works of Renaissance dramatists, poets, and literary critics represent the largest segment of the collection. In addition, the collection contained numerous anthologies, criticisms, bibliographies, works on literary theory, and literary histories. These materials were absorbed into the Libraries' circulating collection.

The rare books in the Lloyd Berry Collection range from a sixteenth-century Latin-English dictionary to numerous eighteenth-century titles, political, religious, literary, and legal. The most notable is the 1546 edition of Sir Thomas Elyot's Boke named the governour, a popular treatise on the upbringing and education of sons destined to rule or bear authority.