 In addition, the library is both a federal and state depository of government documents.Included in the BPL's research collection are more than 1.7 million rare books and manuscripts.Its wide-ranging and important holdings include medieval manuscripts and incunabula, early editions of William Shakespeare's works (among which are a number of Shakespeare quartos and the First Folio), the George Ticknor collection of Spanish literature, a major collection of Daniel Defoe, records of colonial Boston, the personal l library of John Adams (3,800 volumes), the mathematical and astronomical library of Nathaniel Bowditch, important manuscript archives on abolitionism (including the papers of William Lloyd Garrison), and a major collection of materials on the Sacco and Vanzetti case.