Rare books dating back to 15th century donated to Australian library

A rare collection of books dating back to the 15th century has been bequeathed to the State Library of Victoria, Australia, in what has been described as the single greatest donation in the library's 160-year history.

The collection was donated by the family of the late barrister, John Emmerson QC on Thursday, and is estimated to be worth up to 5 million U.S dollars.

The collection includes books owned by King Charles I, a Nuremberg bible dating back to 1485, pamphlets that had daily news about the impeding execution of Charles I, and early first-edition works by Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift and John Milton.

The donation of more than 5,000 publications came with a 1 million U.S. dollar endowment, to be spent on the upkeep and maintenance of the precious works.

"It would be the finest collection of that material outside the British Library and the Bodleian Library at Oxford," said Des Cowley, the library's head of rare books on Thursday.

Emmerson began collecting the rare works back in the 1960s, and meticulously maintained his collection until his death in 2014.

His niece, Chloe Emmerson-Miller, said that the collection was always going to stay in Melbourne and at the State Library of Victoria.

"There couldn't be any better way of honoring it than for them to be in this amazingly beautiful institution," she said on Thursday.

The library said that it would take up to five years to properly catalog the collection, and that some works were expected to be put on permanent display for the public to visit. Endi