Rare Books
Macao Public Library house a collection of approximately 40,000 rare books, including Chinese and Western texts published before 1950 which are located at the Sir Robert Ho Tung Library and the Senado Library. The ‘Chinese Ancient Books Chamber’ (a rare- collections building) at Sir Robert Ho Tung Library currently has some 20,000 Chinese rare books, of which 16 are precious rare books from the Jiaye Book Library Tower previously collected by renowned modern bibliophile Liu Chenggan. Among these 16 books, the Manuscript of Siku Quanshu’s Synopsis by Weng Fanggang is of intrinsic value. Moreover, the Senado Library houses a collection of approximately 20,000 foreign ancient texts, varying from the 16th to 20th Century historical documents of the Portuguese presence in the Far East to literature of Portugal’s policy in its overseas colonies.
Rare Book Recommendations
本館所藏的The Chinese commercial guide : containing treaties, tariffs, regulations, tables, etc., with an appendix of sailing directions for those seas and coasts （中文書名意譯“中國貿易指南”）為1863年在香港出版的第五版。第一版始於1834年，其目的是為滿足英美商人的貿易資訊需要，其編製、印刷、出版發行都是由《中國叢報》（Chinese Repository, 1832-1851）的印刷團隊負責。
《中國叢報》是由第一位來華的美國宣教士裨治文（Elijah Coleman Bridgman，1801-1861）擔任主編。1829年裨治文接受美部會差遣到中國傳教，他在美英商會的聚會上與倫敦傳道會的馬禮遜結成密友。 在馬禮遜倡議下，裨治文和歐美來華的傳教士於1832年5月創辦《中國叢報》。
The Chinese commercial guide的前期版本由馬禮遜兒子馬儒翰（John Robert Morrison, 1814-1843）負責編寫，其後更新工作則由美國公理會差會派遣到中國的衛三畏（S. Wells Williams, 1812-1884）負責，先後在廣東、澳門和香港出版：
Canton : 1834.
Macao : S.W. Williams, 1844.
Canton： Chinese Repository 1848
Canton： Chinese Repository 1856
Hongkong : A. Shortrede & Co., 1863.
本古籍正是由衛三畏所編，由蘇格蘭商人蕭德銳 (Andrew Shortrede) 在香港所開的出版社出版。蕭氏在香港1845年至1858年間主編China Mail 《德臣報》，主要刊登商業廣告、政府憲報以及傳教士和專家撰寫有關中國的文章。“鴉片戰爭”後，隨著五口通商，The Chinese commercial guide內容更為豐富，所載資料多達700頁，為當時一本重要的中國貿易工具書，出版這書也使蕭德銳聲名大噪，獲得多方好評。