Rare Book School Report

I participated in a Rare Book School course, 15th-Century Books in Print and Manuscript, the week of August 14-18. Classes were co-taught by Paul Needham and William Noel, and met daily from 8:30-5 at the Walters Art Museum. Coffee breaks, lectures, receptions, and evening cocktail hours all took place in the the neighboring Engineers Club, which is housed in the magnificent Garrett-Jacobs Mansion. I was invited to participate by Terry Belanger, who showed his customary generosity in contacting me and suggesting that I look into the course when he learned that I would be in Baltimore working on the Roman de la Rose Digital Surrogates project at Johns Hopkins University’s Eisenhower Library. In addition to attending the course as a student, I helped out by offering coverage during the days when the RBS staff were otherwise occupied back in Charlottesville.

The stated purpose of the course was “to encourage a way of bibliographical thinking that should prove useful in the analysis of all books, early or modern,” a goal that Needham and Noel realized admirably. The notions that the study of 15th-century books should incorporate both manuscript and print materials and that a study of one informs the other are fundamental ones; indeed one might say that these are obvious truths. Yet the opportunity to learn about books and manuscripts from the 15th century in one setting is quite rare, and the opportunity to do so with the expertise of a top-notch incunabulist (Needham) and a widely recognized expert on medieval manuscripts, and especially manuscript illumination (Noel) working in tandem may be unprecedented. Class participants learned not only from the prepared lessons given by the instructors, but also from witnessing and participating in the process of Needham and Noel learning from one another. There were many unscripted light-bulb moments as important parallels between print and manuscript materials were revealed. In addition to their expertise, both are very personable and have an obvious enthusiasm for teaching and for their fields. There was also a bit of good-natured ribbing between them, with Needham playing the paper-loving American print enthusiast to Noel’s parchment-loving British manuscript devotee. On several occasions Noel produced one of the many incredibly beautiful examples of medieval illumination held in the Walters collection, calling attention to its gold-leaf decorations and exquisitely prepared parchment, before handing over control of the class, along with a particularly plain example of printed material, to Needham!

Topics covered in the class included how print imitated manuscripts and vice versa, the development of print – particularly Gutenberg’s innovations and Needham’s well-known discovery that Gutenberg did not use movable type, how a printing shop worked, paper sizes, the influence on parchment size on paper size, the influence of manuscript codex sizes on the size of printed books (e.g. many books of hours are roughly of the same size, as are many Bibles, psalters, and so forth), and how books of both types were constructed.

There were many fringe benefits as well. The Walters is a wonderful museum, and its setting in the Mt. Vernon cultural district of Baltimore provides good opportunities for dining out, shopping for used books, or seeing the sights. In addition to food, drink, and culture, the class, along with a course on Islamic manuscripts that was running simultaneously, collected a diverse group of friendly and interesting participants, including librarians, collectors, art historians, professors, and medievalists (and of course some filled more than one of these roles).

The Bryn Mawr Experience: CLIR orientation report

The incoming class of CLIR postdoctoral fellows (minus two members who could not attend due to scheduling conflicts) met from July23-August 3 at Bryn Mawr College. The sessions were cheerfully and ably run by Elliott Shore, Constance A. Jones Director of Libraries and Professor of History at Bryn Mawr, and Christa Williford, a former CLIR postdoc who now works as a librarian at nearby Haverford College. The goal of the session was to prepare the recently-graduated PhD’s, most of whom hold degrees in humanities disciplines, for careers in libraries. Although a couple of the fellows had experience working in libraries, the majority were familiar with them primarily from having spent years using them intensely as undergraduate and graduate students. Evenings were spent reading in and writing about a variety of topics, including the history of the library, the future of the monograph, institutional repositories, the library’s role in pedagogy, challenges and opportunities presented by digital technologies, the impact of Google on libraries (and particularly the so-called “Google Five”), and the reception of the CLIR postdoctoral program itself in the library world. These topics were then discussed in detail during the following day’s seminars.

Highlights of the experience included sessions with Don Waters, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s Program Officer for Scholarly Communications, and Mary Patterson McPherson, President Emeritus of Bryn Mawr College and Vice President of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and a wonderful trip to the Library of Congress. At the LOC, we had behind-the-scenes tours of the Rare Books and Special Collections Division, the African and Middle Eastern Division, the Performing Arts Division, and the Manuscript Division. We saw a wide variety of wonderful materials, including early printed materials from the Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection, the Bible used Lincoln swearing-in ceremony, presidential papers, Ethiopian manuscripts, and scores by Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven. We concluded with a session with Deanna Marcum, Associate Librarian for Library Services.

No account of the session would be complete without mentioning the food. We began with an introductory dinner, and Elliott Shore informed us that the library world was one where eating and drinking were important. This meal was the first of many indulgences. The dining services at Bryn Mawr are of unusually high quality, and we enjoyed both the quality and the unlimited quantity that our dining hall offered. Enormous breakfasts were followed immediately by the daily baskets of local delicacies that Elliott brought to class, which included local pastries, soft pretzels that are one of the culinary trademarks of the Philadelphia area, and Tastykakes. (Be forewarned – should it ever occur to you to compare Tastykakes to Hostess cakes, DO NOT do so in a 200-mile radius of Philadelphia. These baked goods are a matter of local pride not to be sullied through association with that national conglomerate.) The Peanut Butter Kandy Kakes (despite the unexplained affinity of the Tastykake company for the letter k) is terrific.

Finally, we had a weekend during which we could tour Philadelphia, a great place to visit. I saw a Phillies game, toured the Eastern State Penitentiary, which I recommend highly, and of course saw the Liberty Bell and ate a (chicken) cheesesteak. All in all, it was an informative and enjoyable experience that left us all both inspired and exhausted.