The Crispin Collection of exquisite examples of early bookmaking and fine binding was given to Honnold Library by Dr. Egerton Crispin during the decade of the 1950s and early 1960s. Nearly fifty Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, many of them in leather gilt-tooled slip cases, including 12th century sermons, 13th century Bibles, 14th and 15th century books of hours, missals, psalters and antiphonals are among the contents of the collection. These are now cataloged definitively in Dutschke and Rouse, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Claremont Libraries (University of California Press, 1986). 17th century patents of nobility, early 18th century Slavonic manuscripts—one with colored primitives, and 19th century Turkish, Persian and West African Qur'ans complete the manuscript holdings.
Printed books include fifty-three incunabula and 226 fine editions of classics, and related reference books. Among the examples of fine printing are a 1541 Cranmer’s Bible, a first edition, second issue King James Bible, and a fourth folio Shakespeare.