Being the country’s oldest university, it should not be a surprise that the University of Santo Tomas holds a significant number of titles in its library. In fact, UST’s book collection dates back to as far as before the founding of the university, when these books were first owned by Dominicans, (who among them was the university’s founder himself Miguel de Benavides) who donated their book collections for the establishment of what is now UST. As was mentioned previously, UST was first founded as a school for theology, philosophy, and law; most of these old books dealt with those particular subjects.
Over the years and centuries, UST library collection got accumulated as its older items became more valuable. I don’t know if there have been any books that have been lost or damaged throughout that time, but it’s good to know much of its old collection has remained intact and well-preserved, unaffected by war and its move from the old campus at the Walled City to the new one at the Main Building at the wider Sampaloc campus.
