At the University of Pennsylvania, holdings relating to art and architecture may be found in the Anne and Jerome Fisher Fine Arts Library; the Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania; the University Archives and Records Center; and in the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts.
From 1583 to 1712, the Dutch firm of Elzevier (sometimes written Elsevier or Elzevir), with additional offices in France and Scandinavia, published a wide variety of books, and notably small-format books, for circulation throughout Europe. Penn's collection of Elzevier imprints, a donation of E. B. Krumbhaar to which subsequent purchases have been added, comprises over 1600 volumes produced by the Elzevier firm, along with related publications.
Penn's libraries are home to a wide range of special and general collections related to the Holy Land.
The Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library focuses on Shakespeare’s works, their history and theatrical context, and the long tradition of Shakespearian criticism.
The Kislak Center holds over 560 exemplars of books printed in Europe from movable type before 1501. Sixty-six of these titles are the only recorded copies in North America. These volumes contain texts in religion, philosophy, and ancient and modern literature. This collection group includes includes incunables from the Henry Charles Lea Library and the Yarnall Library of Theology.
The Ross Bible Collection includes three medieval manuscripts and over one hundred printed editions of the Bible and related Biblical texts, ranging in date from the thirteenth to the twentieth centuries. The Collection was a gift to the library from T. Edward Ross, in memory of Lucien Bonaparte Carpenter, in 1946.
Among the significant holdings of books and manuscripts from or relating to early modern Spain, Iberia, and colonial Latin America, the drama collection is particularly noteworthy. The collection includes many of the important partes of major authors including Lope de Vega and Calderón, and a large number of comedias sueltas.