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= Cardiff University Special Collections and Archives = The Cardiff University Special Collections and Archives is a university archive and special collection based in Cardiff, and run by Cardiff University. It is located within the city of Cardiff, on Corbett road, proximate to various public transport links, and was established in 2005. Cardiff University, founded 1883, is a Russel Group institution and the largest research university in Wales, it is well regarded as a research university, as such its archive is extensive with numerous resources, across several distinct collections. .

Collections of the Cardiff University Special Collections and Archives
The Cardiff University Special Collections and Archives is comprised of collections from many different contributors, and of many different kinds. These include documents which date back to the 15th century, as well as more modern documents, and digital resources. Notable amongst the special collections are the Salisbury Library, sold to the university by Enoch Robert Gibbon Salisbury in 1885, and Cardiff Rare Books, which have proved invaluable to academic research.

Special Collections
The special collection is comprised of books and documents donated and sold to Cardiff University which are of general interest and academic value.

Salisbury Library
Sold to the university in 1885 not long after it was first established, due to the financial difficulties of Enoch Salisbury, this collection is comprised of some of the contents of his personal library. There are about 13,000 books in all, and all are either in Welsh, or relate to Wales, or the border-counties, including almost every edition of the Bible ever published in Wales, or in Welsh.

Welsh Ballads
18th and 19th century in origin, these cheap printed verses were intended to entertain, and convey news. The contents of this collection is of mostly unknown authorship, and comprised of a number of one-page ballads, typically organised into small pamphlets. These ballads were sold cheaply at fairs and street-corners, furnishing the poorer members of the Welsh population with news and entertainment, to scholars they offer significant insight into the cultures, and sub-cultures, of this often overlooked social group. Being both cheaply made and widely circulated it is unusual that so many should survive into the modern day, and as such the ballads from the Salisbury Library collection are of great academic value. From this collection, and the collections held at the National Library of Wales, Cardiff University, working with the National Library of Wales, University of Bangor, University of Swansea, and the then University of Wales, Lampeter (now University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Lampeter campus), has been able to digitise 4000 of these ballads.

Hymnology
Hymn books and pamphlets from a wide range of denominations, and church groups. With hymns gathered, in numerous editions, from the Welsh Anglicans, Calvinistic Methodist, Baptist, Independent, Presbyterian, Unitarian and Brethren denominations, and festive pamphlets from specific church congregations and institutions, this repository offers insight into the history of Welsh Christianity, and its non-Conformists, pluralised nature.

Almanacs
Dating from the 17th century, through to the 20th century, these almanacs were calendars with additional, useful, information on weather predictions, tides, planting times, and astronomy, with the additions of poems and short stories. Around 1000 Welsh language almanacs are held in the Salisbury Library collection, an astonishing number as - due to their cheapness, and the fact that they were intended to see a year's use at most - most almanacs are very fragile. Many of these are filled with notes made by their users, offering great insight into the personal lives of individuals, and represent part of a rich Welsh tradition of almanacing.

Works by Richard Baxter
Written by Richard Baxter, a writer who was active during the English Civil War. He was a Puritan, and moderate Parliamentarian, who nonetheless believed in a monarchy with limited powers, and played a role in the restoration. His work is theological, and walks the line between Puritan non-Conformity, and Anglicanism, his books were popular during his life, and remain widely read by those interested in theology into the modern day. The Salisbury Library Collection holds almost all of his works, in almost all of its editions.

Cardiff Rare Books
Since the 19th century Cardiff City Council has amassed a substantial collection of rare books, in a bid to become home to a national library in Wales. The Rare Books collection within the Special Collections represents the core of this collection of English and European works, and was acquire by the university from city council in 2010.

Incunabula
The incunabula are early European printed works, published between 1470 and 1500. The incunabula here are mostly theological and philosophical, with a few which are historical. Notable within this collection are; a unique tract on moral theology by Johannes Watton, the only example in the U.K., and one of only two world-wide, and Triumphs a series of poems by Francesco Petrarch the only such copy in the U.K. This is certainly one of the foremost stores of incunabula in Wales, if not the UK, with some 90% of the incunabula representing the only known copies in Wales.

Bibles
In addition to the Welsh bibles from the Salisbury Library,