Posts filed under 'New and Notable'
The Rare Books and Manuscripts Library and the William Charvat Collection of American Fiction are proud to join their colleagues from the Hilandar Resaerch Library and the Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute Library in becoming the new Special Collections department at the newly renovated William Oxley Thompson Main Library at the Ohio State University Libraries. Operating from the Jack and Jan Creighton Reading Room, the newly merged Special Collections will again offer full public service to our faculty and students in addition to international scholars and friends and supporters of Special Collections. Within our new department, each library will retain its own identity as both Rare Books and Manuscripts and Charvat American Fiction remain distinct administrative units with individual budgets and individually defined missions in terms of collecting and programming.
Special Collections is now located on the first floor of Thompson Library overlooking the grand oval and iconic Mirror Lake: perhaps the best location in this most splendid of new buildings. We welcome you to visit and experience this new facility.
Geoffrey D. Smith (Ph.D.), Professor and
Head, Rare Books and Manuscripts Library
October 13th, 2009
As OSU employees consider an annual contribution to the Campus Campaign we’d like to take this opportunity to point out that gifts may directed to funds that support the Charvat American Fiction Collection and/or several areas within the Rare Books and Manuscripts Library. Fund code numbers are included below for your convenience. We’d be happy to your questions about any of these!
- Bennett Avant Writing Collection - 660398
- Charvat American Fiction Fund - 309347
- Keenan Library of Astronomy Fund - 604183
- Meek Thurber Endowment - 604829
- Rudolph Children’s Science Endowment - 606234
- Wing Rare Books Endowment - 667645
April 15th, 2009
The Rare Books & Manuscripts Library is pleased to announce the completion of an ambitious project to digitize the seventeenth-century manuscript commonplace book of Sir Henry Bellingham. The project is live at http://library.osu.edu/sites/rarebooks/bellingham/. This project was researched, designed, and created by Sarah Shippy, a graduate student in OSU’s Department of History. Essentially scrapbooks of useful knowledge, commonplace books were privately produced notebooks in which readers recorded valuable and practical extracts from books that they read. Bellingham’s commonplace book offers researchers a fascinating look into Sir Henry’s personal reading habits and sheds light on the wide variety of topics—including history, religion, law and government, literature, science, and domestic affairs—that were popular with readers during the mid-seventeenth century. In addition to including a full digital reproduction of the manuscript, the website also includes detailed background information on the manuscript itself, its historical context, and the life of Sir Henry Bellingham.
December 17th, 2008
Savants throughout history (along with a fair number of quacks and hucksters) have interpreted comets streaking across the sky as heralds of doom or harbingers of great change. Perhaps had we here at OSU’s Rare Books Library been wearing our divinators’ hats earlier this month we would have associated the arrival on our doorstep of an extremely rare seventeenth-century book about comets with the current world financial crisis (doom indeed?) or the imminent 2008 Presidential election (great change?). Prophets and soothsayers we are not, however, and the book that sped through the ether from New York to Columbus (courtesy of FedEx—one of the Prime Mover’s many tertiary subordinates) hopefully heralds no changes other than the influence it might have on the research agendas of scholars interested in historical astronomy. The book in question—Hypographe: Flagelli Saturni & Martis. Das ist: Beschreibung des erschrecklichen Cometsterns, welcher im Octobri, Novembri und Decembri des 1618…, published in Leipzig by N. & C. Nerlich in 1619—is a small quarto volume consisting of 12 leaves of black-letter German text and a woodcut vignette on the title page depicting the comet and its tail. The author, Paul Hintzsch—a German doctor and astronomer, provides modern researchers with a tidy summation of the astrological and astronomical observations of and discussions surrounding the appearance of the “Great Comet of 1618”, also known as “the Angry Star” due to its extremely long tail, reddish hue, and lengthy duration (it was visible to the naked eye for over seven weeks in late 1618 and early 1619, even remaining discernible during the day). Astronomers across Europe commented on the cosmic phenomenon, astrologers everywhere excitedly interpreted its meaning, and doomsayers and pessimists from Scotland to Sicily witnessed portents and prodigies in its fiery tail. Even King James I of England wrote about it, penning a poem that reminded its readers that even if the comet were a celestial sign, it would remain unintelligible to mere mortals:
Yee men of Brittayne wherefore gaze yee so,
Vpon an angry starre? When as yee knowe
The Sun must turne to darke, the Moone to
bloode,
And then t’will bee to late to turne to good.
O bee so happy then whilst time doth last,
As to remember Doomesday is not past:
And misinterpret not with vayne conceyte
The character you see of Heauen’s heighte:
Which though it bringe the World some newes
from fate,
The letter is such as none can it translate:
And for to guesse at God Almighties minde
Were such a thinge might cosen all mankinde:
Therefore I wish the curious man to Keepe
His rash imaginations till hee sleepe…
Perhaps we should all remember the gist of King James’s lines when trying to predict who will be the next President or how the world’s financial ship will right itself. As for me, I’ll limit my “rash imaginations” to dreaming of the books that in future will become part of OSU’s rare book constellation.
Eric J. Johnson, Associate Curator
October 28th, 2008
Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI, was one of sixteenth-century England’s most influential religious and political figures. Best known, perhaps, for writing and compiling the first two editions of the Book of Common Prayer, the summation and embodiment of the Reformed English liturgy, Cranmer also wrote a variety of other treatises, including a text that OSU has recently acquired and added to its outstanding Reformation collection. Cranmer’s Defensio verae et Catholicae doctrinae de Sacramento corporis et sanguinis Christi Seruatoris nostri…, is a later Latin translation of his English exploration of the controversial doctrine of the Eucharist (A defence of the true and catholike doctrine of the sacrament of the body and bloud of our Saviour Christ, 1550). Cranmer’s English original was translated by Sir John Cheke, one-time tutor to Edward VI, secretary of state, member of the Privy Council, and noted author in his own right. OSU’s copy is a 1557 second edition of Cheke’s translation, and unlike the first edition—originally issued in London in 1553—it was published abroad (in Emden, Germany) because of the catholic Queen Mary I’s accession to the English throne, her regime’s hostility toward Protestantism, and her imprisonment and execution of Cranmer in 1556. As the title page states, Cranmer revised and approved this second edition from his prison cell: “ab autore in vinculis recognita & aucta”. Bound in with Cranmer’s text is a Latin work by John Foxe (of Book of Martyrs fame) printed ca. 1580 by John Day. The book, Syllogisticon hoc est: Argumenta, seu probationes et resolutiones…De re et Materia Sacramenti Eucharistici, is a treatise consisting of a series of brief arguments and responses discussing various contentious points lying at the heart of the Eucharistic controversy that dominated Catholic and Protestant polemic alike throughout the Reformation.
Our conjoined copy of these two texts is bound in contemporary English calf with oval arabesque ornaments in the center of both the front and back covers. As an extra bonus, the sixteenth-century binder was considerate enough to include a pair of very interesting parchment end-leaves that had previously seen life as part of a glossed thirteenth-century Latin Psalter. The leaves bear text from Psalm 89 and its corresponding gloss. Also included is a heraldic bookplate revealing that this volume was once part of the private library of Hugh Cecil Lowther, Earl of Lonsdale (1857-1944), first president of England’s National Sporting Club, Arctic explorer, friend to Kaiser Wilhelm, and flashy man-about-town famous for his liaisons with some of the more famous actresses of his day.
All in all, I think it’s safe to say that this is an interesting book…
Eric J. Johnson, Associate Curator
October 9th, 2008
The Rare Books and Manuscripts Library has acquired this past summer a complete run of The Paris Review from its very first issue in 1953 through the Spring issue of 2008. The Paris Review is arguably the most pretigious and influential literary journal of the latter half of the twentieth century. Its contributors form the pantheon of twenthieth-century iconic writers and include Nobel Prize, Pultizer Prize and National Book Award winners in addition to winners of virtually every international literary award. A select, very seclect list of those writers will indicate the distinction of The Paris Review: Samuel Beckett, Ernest Hemingway, Gabrial Garcia Marquez, Nadine Gordimer, Seamus Heaney, Vladimire Nabokov and Harold Pinter. And, I reiterate, these are just a few of the hundreds of contributors to The Paris Review over the past 55 years. In addition to the writing, the decorative design of the literary review is remarkable and will please students of the book arts. The collection, which is in very good condition, was acquired from Ralph Sipper Books in Santa Barbara, California.
October 9th, 2008
Another new acquisition has just arrived:
Serious Reflections on the Dangerous Tendency of the Common Practice of Card-playing; Especially of the Game of All-Fours, as It Hath Been Publickly play’d at Oxford, in this present Year of our Lord, MDCCLIV. In a Letter from Mr. Gyles Smith, to his Friend Abraham Nixon, Esq; of the Inner Temple. London: Printed for W. Owen, at Homer’s Head near Temple-Bar, [1755].
This nifty little 24-page octavo pamphlet offers a humorous attack on the popularity of card games and card-playing by students at Oxford. Describing card-playing as a “heinous and crying Sin” and cards themselves as “the Devil’s Books,” these Serious Reflections lament the popularity of cards with all segments of society, from dukes to porters, and from “the Duchess in the Drawing-Room, to the Cinder-Wench on the Dunghill.” The author calls for some form of official “discouragement” or sanction—preferably passed by Parliament—to be imposed on card games because they “manifestly tend to corrupt the Principles and Morals of the People, to subvert all Order and Authority, and confound the Notions of Right and Wrong.” Additionally, the author laments, card games supplant education: “It is a melancholy Thing to think, how much all good Learning hath suffered by this unaccountable Attachment. The Arts and Sciences are either entirely neglected by us, or pursued only in Subordination, or Subserviency to it.” Lest the reader be confused, however, the author takes pains to point out that he is by no means attacking the gentlemanly pursuit of gaming, or betting, a pastime he defends by stating that every gentleman “hath a Right of disposing of his Lands, Tenements, and Monies, in what Manner he pleaseth, and of transferring them to another, upon any Terms and Conditions which may be agreed upon between them.”
A contemporary reader identified the pseudonymous author as Benjamin Buckler, writing this name toward the bottom of the title page in the copy we have just acquired. Buckler was bursar of All Souls College, Oxford, beginning in 1752, and was a prominent local Tory. He was the author of A Complete Vindication of the Mallard of All-Souls College (1750), and he may have been the author of A Philosophical Dialogue concerning Decency (1751; ascribed to Samuel Rolleston), a scatological work exploring different cultural habits in lavatory use. In 1777, Buckler was elected Keeper of the Archives of Oxford University, and he died in 1780.
Eric J. Johnson, Associate Curator
September 30th, 2008
I have been remiss in my blogging but vow to be more consistent with announcing important news about the Rare Books and Manuscripts Library. In particular, our new Associate Curator, Eric Johnson, introduced himself when I should have made such an announcement. Eric has been with us just over a month and we have had many productive and enlightening talks. You can see from Eric’s earlier blog, that his education and experience are exceptional. And, I can emphasize that his personal presence is every bit as impressive as his paper credentials. Eric is ever thinking and planning. For instance, he has brought forward the idea of a summer rare books “academy,” which would be offered to Columbus area youth. We have met with a supporter of Rare Books who would also be interested in launching children’s programming, an activity that Eric has extensvie experience with. Eric will be working closely with John King, Distinguished Professor of English and Religious Studies, in his Reformation History class this Fall quarter and will assist Richard Firth Green, Humanities Distinguished Professor of English, in a medieval manuscripts class in the Spring of 2009. I hope that many of you will meet or contact Eric in the days ahead.
September 29th, 2008
It’s with great excitement that my first contribution to the OSU Rare Books and Manuscripts blog gives me the opportunity to do something other than introduce myself (see a separate post for that). After all, anyone reading this is surely more interested in learning about new treasures recently acquired rather than hearing about my recent assumption of the duties of Associate Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts. So, without further ado, I’ll get to the news about our latest acquisition.
My afternoon was pleasantly interrupted on Wednesday by the arrival of a monument in the history of English publishing: The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New: Newly Translated out of the Originall Tongues: and with the former Translations diligently compared and revised, by his Majesties speciall Commandement. Appointed to be read in Churches. With more than 700 leaves and measuring over 15 inches tall, 10 inches wide, and 4 inches thick, the actual book, better known to most people as the King James Version of the Bible, is physically as cumbersome as its rather wordy title. But what a glorious tome it is!
Originally published by Robert Barker, the King’s Printer, in 1611, the King James Version was the culmination of an ambitious translation effort first proposed at the 1604 Hampton Court Conference convened by King James I. Forty-seven biblical scholars—nearly all of them members of the Church of England—spent the next seven years comparing previous English Bible translations in an effort to prepare a definitive text that would correct simple errors, inconsistencies of translation, and more complex interpretative problems believed to exist in earlier English versions of the Bible. In their efforts to prepare their revised, authoritative translation, this distinguished group of biblical savants consulted works such as the Tyndale Bible, the Coverdale Bible, the Great Bible, the Bishop’s Bible, the Geneva Bible and, most likely, Taverner’s Bible and the Roman Catholic Douai-Rheims Bible. They also examined what were then considered to be the most authoritative versions of the Bible written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, as well as St. Jerome’s traditional Latin Vulgate translation and more recent Latin translations of portions of the Bible by Theodore Beza (who also prepared an influential Greek translation of the New Testament based in part on an earlier translation by Erasmus), Immanuel Tremellius, and Franciscus Junius (the elder).
Although popular from the moment of its publication in 1611, the King James Version (a title only given to the work in the late nineteenth century) did not become the standard English edition of the Bible until the end of the seventeenth century when a combination of political pressure, changes in literary styles and reading tastes, and pointed decisions by publishers not to print new copies of earlier English translations made the King James Version the preeminent Bible amongst English speaking Protestants for the next 250 years.
In addition to being a significant addition to our general collection of rare books, our acquisition of this volume supplements our strong collections of Reformation and Early Modern printings. It also undoubtedly will be a highlight of the upcoming exhibition and conference to be hosted by The Ohio State University in 2011 celebrating the 400th anniversary of the King James Version’s publication. The Rare Books and Manuscripts Library is overjoyed to add this wonderful volume to its collection, and we encourage faculty, students, and all other interested parties to contact us if they are interested in learning more about the book or would like to consult it for research or curricular purposes.
Eric J. Johnson, Associate Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts
September 26th, 2008
