This sammelband of dramatic works is only one of thousands of items held by OSU’s Rare Books and Manuscripts Library (RBMS) that can help shed valuable light on the wider social, historical, literary, artistic, and cultural contexts of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. RBMS strives to locate and acquire unique, rare, and special resources that can support the growing research and curricular interests of the CMRS’s faculty, students, and friends; but the pursuit of such materials is extremely difficult. The rare books and manuscripts market is finite, and as time passes unique resources become more scarce. Additionally, prices for original rare materials consistently rise year after year. Coupled with this steady inflation is the limited nature of the funds OSU and RBMS have available to support the purchase of rare and unique materials.

In an effort to offset the uncertainties inherent in annual funding levels and market prices, RBMS has established a number of funds dedicated toward the acquisition of materials supporting Medieval and Renaissance Studies at OSU. Each of these funds is committed toward helping build RBMS collections in particular areas, and the monies they supply help ensure the Library’s ability to acquire the truly special materials that will continue to be used by teachers, students, and researchers at OSU for years to come. Listed and described below are the seven current funds specifically tasked with supporting medieval and Renaissance purchases.

Denney Fund for Books in the Age of Shakespeare (#201680): Aids with the acquisition of materials related to the age of Shakespeare (broadly defined as approximately the mid-sixteenth through seventeenth centuries), including dramatic texts, religious treatises, philosophical or historical works, and more.

The Whole Book of Psalms. Collected into English Meeter by T. Sternhold, J. Hopkins, and others. London: Imprinted for the Company of Stationers, 1639; in contemporary embroidered binding.

Donald Wing Endowment for English Imprints, 1640-1700 (#267645): Funds the purchase of materials recorded in Donald G. Wing’s Short-Title catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and British America, and of English Books Printed in Other Countries, 1641-1700.

John Reynolds. The Triumphs of Gods Revenge against the Crying and Execrable Sin of Murther… London: Printed by Sarah Griffin for William Lee, 1656.

Philip Keenan History of Astronomy Collection Endowment (#204183): Assists with purchases of items illustrating the wide and varied history of astronomy, from the Middle Ages through the Age of Enlightenment and beyond.

Prodromvs und Erster Vortrab oder, Kurtze und einfeltige Erklerung des Cometen oder Beschmäntzten Sterns, so sich im November des 1618, Jahres hat sehen lassen. Gedruckt zu Alten Stettin: In der Rhetischen Druckery, 1619.

Friends Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts Fund (#308498, fmdv): Supports the purchase of medieval and Renaissance manuscript materials of all stripes, including complete codices, individual leaves, diplomatics, and fragments produced across Europe between 500-1700 CE.

Caption: Detail from an early glossed 12^th-century Bible, possibly from Germany or Switzerland.

Friends Incunabula Fund (fifteenth-century books) (#308498, fincu): Aids in the purchase of books produced during the earliest period of printing with movable type (ca. 1450-1501), including books printed across Europe in all languages and genres.

Caption: St. Augustine. De contritione cordis. Basel: Michael Furter, ca. 1489.

Friends Reformation/Counter-Reformation Fund (#308498, frefm): Supports the acquisition of materials related to all aspects of the Protestant Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Caption: Johann Cochlaeus. Septiceps Lutherus, ubique sibi, suis scriptis, contrarius, in Visitationem Saxonicam, per D.D. Ioannem Cocleum, ęditus. Leipzig: Valentinus Schumann, 1529.

Friends Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies Acquisitions Fund (#308498, fcmr): This special fund is designated for the acquisition of any and all materials that could be used to support the teaching and research missions of the CMRS, including rare books and manuscripts, modern monographs and reference works, research databases, and more.

Each fund is open and accepting donations in any amount. Should you wish to contribute to any of these funds, please forward your check to:

Eric J. Johnson
Rare Books & Manuscripts Library
119B Thompson Library
1858 Neil Avenue
Columbus, OH 43210

Please make your checks out to “The Ohio State University” and be sure to clearly note which fund is to receive your donation by including the appropriate account number(s) and/or code(s) printed in bold after the title of each respective fund (e.g. “#308498, fmdv”). The Rare Books and Manuscripts Library and The Ohio State University Libraries are committed to building our medieval and Renaissance teaching and research collections, and the funds listed above will help insulate us from the vagaries of an ever-shifting antiquarian market and will allow us to continue to meet the needs of our students, teachers, and researchers.

If you have any questions or would like more information, please feel free to contact us directly at:

rarebooks@osu.edu

Thanks for your support!

I’m pleased to announce a major new book, a comprehensive edition of my work in Globbolalia (my invented language): TEXTIS GLOBBOLALICUS, 3 vols. [997 pp.], Roanoke, VA: mO)onocle-Lash Press, 2010

- John Bennett

Thompson Library
1858 Neil Ave.
Columbus, OH 43210

AN INTERNATIONAL AVANT WRITING SYMPOSIUM

In Memoriam Thomas L. Taylor

This August 19-21, the Thompson Library will be invaded by an exciting horde of writers, scholars, artists, and others for the 2nd Avant Writing Symposium.  There will be some 50 presentations, performances, papers, readings, installations, exhibits, and other events, and an untold number of observers, fans, scholars, and kibitzers.  Sponsored by The Avant Writing Collection and the Rare Books & MSS Library, with additional support from The Department of Spanish & Portuguese and The Center for Latin American Studies, the attendees and presenters will come from all over the United States, Latin America, and elsewhere.  All with a focus on various of the Avant Gardes active in the world today, primarily those using language in some form or other.  Events will take place in the Thompson Library, at OSU’s Urban Arts Space, and at Skylab in downtown Columbus.   In addition to the presentations and performances, there will be exhibits in the Thompson Library, and at Skylab, and a room dedicated to continual presentations of electronic and digital poetry and literature.

The previous Symposium, in 2002, was a huge success, and is still being talked about.  So if you want to learn about literary innovation and experimentation, avant garde writing, electronic and digital literature, multi-lingualism, visual poetry, performance poetry, Fluxus poetry and texts, collaborative writing, sound poetry, international networking, artist´s books, cut-up text, concrete poetry, found poetry, mail art, video poetry, and much much more, this is your opportunity.

For complete schedule and poster please see: http://library.osu.edu/find/collections/rarebooks/RBMSnews/avant-symposium/

Thursday August 19
8 AM – 5 PM, Thompson Library
Presentations and installations

7 – 8 PM, OSU Urban Arts Space
50 W. Town St. (downtown)
Be Blank Consort

Friday August 20
8 AM – 5 PM, Thompson Library
Presentations and installations

5-7 PM, 11th floor, Thompson Library
Award Reception

Saturday August 21
8 AM – 5 PM, Thompson Library
Presentations and installations

8 PM – 10 PM, Skylab
57 E. Gay St. (downtown)
Collaboration festival, performances, visual poetry exhibit

Sponsored by:

• The Ohio State University
• The Avant Writing Collection
• The Rare Books & MSS Library
• The Thompson Library
• The Department of Spanish & Portuguese
• The Center for Latin American Studies
• Skylab Gallery
• OSU Urban Arts Space/The Larry Marotta Hour

Curated by John M. Bennett

Registration fee is $30 US.  Pay by credit card on-line at: http://library.osu.edu/sites/rarebooks/orderform.php, using invoice no. 100; or pay at the door by check or cash (no credit cards accepted  at door)

Contact John M. Bennett for further information, registration and hotel information, and/or to be added to an email information list.  Bennett.23@osu.edu or 614-292-3029.

On 13-15 July, the Rare Books & Manuscripts Library hosted its first “Rare Books Academy” for children. Fifteen students—from Columbus and as far afield as Morgantown, WV—enrolled and spent three days learning how manuscript books were made in the Middle Ages, how books were printed in the hand-press period, and how librarians and conservators today help to ensure that old and rare books will continue to survive for years to come. The students didn’t just learn things about the history of books, however; they also learned how to make their own manuscript and hand-printed products. They practiced the medieval technique of “pouncing,” a method of illustration in which the artist lays a picture on top of a piece of parchment, pricks holes around its outline piercing both the illustration and the parchment beneath, and rubs colored chalk over the pierced illustration that passes through the pricked holes onto the parchment to form dots that the artist then connects to complete the illustration. Students also printed their own sheets on hand-presses at the Logan Elm Press, experimented with calligraphy, learned how to bind their own manuscript booklets, and lent a hand in the Libraries’ conservation lab by treating old paper with a deacidifying spray-gun.

The students produced and bound their own sheepskin booklets, including pounced and free-hand illustrations, decorated initials, short stories and more. All fifteen booklets are currently being highlighted in a ten-day long “Rare Books Academy” exhibition in the Special Collections display area on the first floor of Thompson Library (through 1 August). Like the manuscripts and old books they’re modeled after, each of these booklets has its own unique qualities and charm that reflect the interests and preoccupations of their makers. More importantly, they all also embody  the thoughtfulness, creativity, effort—and fun—that goes into the design and use of books.

(Click on pictures to view larger versions)

– Eric J. Johnson, Associate Curator

The opening on January 21, 2010, was well-attended, and featured a presentation by Steve Clay, the publisher of Granary Books, who talked about the press and some of the individual books on display.

The exhibit was curated by John M. Bennett, Avant Writing Collection.

 Snapshots from the Event:

John M. Bennet and Steve Clay

Looking at the Books

Carol Diedrichs, Steve Clay, Ann Hamilton, Gay Jackson, John M. Bennett

Unless you are an accountant, chances are you probably find taxes and all things pertaining to them to be mundane, depressing and completely uninteresting. However, the Rare Books and Manuscripts library has recently acquired a rather interesting tax record: a 14^th century tax roll dated 4 January 1352 (658 years ago this past Monday).

The document is comprised of 53 lines written in brown ink on a roll of irregularly cut parchment measuring 417 mm x 142 mm (16.4 in x 5.6 in).  The roll existed alongside the codex in this period and was used primarily for records keeping. Rolls were easy to add to as pieces of parchment could conveniently be sewn together as the records grew. This particular roll is a single piece of parchment and when rolled there is a shelf mark that would have identified where it was stored in a library or record office.

The text block measures 364 mm x 133 mm (14.3in x 5.2 in) and is written in a Secretary hand.  Although a structured and formalized script like Gothic or any of the many other scriptural styles, Secretary is a more freehand or cursive style that allowed for faster writing. Secretary hand is seen mostly in legal documents such as this, as well as quitclaims, charters and other records of court and government business.

The roll was signed by a notary named Francesco who served Mastino II della Scala (1308-1351).

Notaries in the Middle Ages acted as scribes and authenticators. They were often members of the clergy, however by the 14^th century a secular class of notaries had emerged as the Church took a less active role in lay affairs as demand for secular legal services increased. The document also sports a lovely notary symbol before the first line measuring 22 mm x 16 mm (0.86 in x 0.63 in). Notary symbols acted in a way very similar to the stamps and seals that appear on notarized documents today. They were distinct to a particular notary and served as an authenticating feature. Often these symbols would be recorded by a guild when the notary joined.

Although this roll is dated to 4 January 1352, sources indicate that Mastino II died in 1351.  Mastino II della Scala was the lord of Verona and was a member of the Scaliger family. After amassing vast wealth and lands, a powerful league of surrounding states forced Mastino II to return nearly all the land he had acquired through conquest and purchase.

This tax roll adds diversity to OSU’s collection of manuscripts because it is neither a codex nor an individual leaf from one. It is only one piece of parchment and yet it is a complete and distinct document in its own right. It also serves as a unique example of 14^th century Secretary script, a fact that makes this particular document a useful palaeographical teaching tool.

Isabelle Bateson-Brown, Library Associate

Last summer OSU’s Rare Books & Manuscripts Library acquired a wonderful book to add to its growing collection of incunabula (books printed prior to 1501). Printed in Brescia by Angelus and Jacobus Britannicus in 1494 (the colophon states that the firm completed the job on 24 December, just in time for Christmas) , this rather unassuming, small-ish octavo volume in its non-descript stiff vellum 18^th-century binding offers a good deal more than meets the eye. Between the book’s covers lies the Summa de virtutibus et vitiis (otherwise known as the Summa aurea, or Golden Summa), a thirteenth-century moral-theological encyclopedia written by the Dominican preacher, William Peraldus (ca. 1200-1271?). Peraldus’s summae originally appeared as two separate works, the Summa de vitiis (ca. 1236) which exhaustively treated the qualities and characteristics of the seven deadly sins, or vices, and their constituent parts, and the Summa de virtutibus (ca. 1248), which built upon the earlier work by providing an in-depth description of the seven cardinal virtues standing in direct opposition to the principal vices. But by 1250 the two texts were circulating together so often that they were frequently recognized as a single work. Together, Peraldus’s Summae became two of the most important preachers’ and confessors’ hand­books of the later Middle Ages: the Summa de virtutibus survives in over 300 manuscripts, while the Summa de vitiis has come down to us in approximately 500 manuscript copies. The two works are replete with hundreds of exempla, historical and fanciful anec­dotes, and quotations from Classical, Patristic, and contemporary authorities, and through their influence on preaching and confessional practice, Peraldus’s Summae and the moral and pastoral theology they promote extended beyond the clerical realm to impact the everyday lives of late-medieval Christians across Europe.

Massively popular, the Summa aurea was a natural candidate for the efforts and attention of Europe’s first printers who frequently relied upon the literary products of the Middle Ages as sources for their own publishing efforts. Appearing in over thirty incunabular and early printed editions—a fact that along with the large number of surviving manuscripts testifies to the continued popularity and importance of the text during the three centuries after its initial appearance—Peraldus’s work influenced not just preachers, confessors, and theologians, but also famous literary authors such as Chaucer and Dante. In spite of its long-lived popularity and wide-ranging effect on the moral theology and vernacular literature of the later Middle Ages, the Summa aurea has yet to appear in an authoritative modern edition or translation, a fact that makes early printed edi­tions of Peraldus’s work like the one we recently acquired indispensable resources for scholars.

Eric J. Johnson, Associate Curator

We’ve all heard about Martin Luther, “father” of the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation. But how many of us know about Philip Melancthon, Luther’s ablest assistant and the man the arch-Reformer called the Lord’s “learned champion”?

Born in 1497 in Bretten, a small town located in Germany’s Kraichgau Valley, Melancthon (Greek for “black earth,” or Schwarzerd, his family name) enrolled at the University of Heidelberg in 1509, qualifying for his Master’s degree in Greek and Classical studies by the time he was fifteen. Heidelberg denied him the degree on the grounds of his extreme youth, but the University of Tübingen wasn’t so shortsighted and accepted him as an official Master’s candidate in philosophy and humanistic studies, conferring the degree upon him in 1516. Two years later, at the tender age of 21, Melancthon was appointed Professor of Greek at the University of Wittenberg. It was here that Philip’s life would change forever after meeting his colleague from the theological faculty, the fiery, reform-minded Augustinian monk, Martin Luther. Together, Philip and Martin would work together to lay the groundwork for the Reformation that would shake the religious, political, and cultural foundations of Christendom and forever change the face of Western society.

In contrast to Luther, Melancthon was soft-spoken and calm. Luther himself described their differences, noting how their opposing personalities worked together harmoniously: “I am rough, boisterous, stormy and altogether warlike. I am born to fight against innumerable monsters and devils. I must remove stumps and stones, cut away thistles, and thorns, and clear the wild forests; but Master Philip comes along softly and gently sowing and watering with joy, according to the gifts which God has abundantly bestowed upon him” (Luther’s Preface to his Commentary on the Colossians). Luther’s words blasted his opponents and hammered home his notions on reform; Melancthon’s—although no less forceful—were more calmly reasoned and discursive. And while Luther issued his revolutionary writings in rapid-fire succession, jumping from topic to topic as it suited him, Melancthon’s approach to spreading evangelical reform was more methodical.  Nowhere is this measured approach more apparent than in his massively influential text, Loci communes theologici (or Theological Commonplaces).

First issued in 1521 and based on his school lectures on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, Melancthon’s Loci was the first systematic explanation of Protestant theology. Whereas authors of earlier medieval systematic theologies like Peter Lombard, Thomas Aquinas and John Duns Scotus (to name only a few of hundreds) explicated faith by analyzing it through the lens of secular philosophy and rationality and a reliance on earlier traditional authoritative writings, Melancthon eschewed the notion that philosophy or the writings of man could reveal truth more fully or clearly than the words of the Bible itself. In his Loci he highlighted the pre-eminency of the Scriptures above all else, claiming that all there is to know about God and correct doctrine is to be found in the Bible alone. Although he published the Loci in 1521, he continued to work on it for years, issuing major revisions and expansions of the text over the next three decades. These subsequent editions witnessed a mellowing of Philip’s attitude toward the utility of philosophy in biblical study, but they maintained a strict adherence to the primacy of the Bible as the root of faith. The various versions of the Loci came to dominate the expression of Lutheran thought and belief, so much so that Luther himself praised the work in the highest possible terms, stating: “You cannot find anywhere a book which treats the whole of theology so adequately as the Loci communes do… Next to Holy Scripture, there is no better book” (from Luther’s Table Talk).

The Rare Books and Manuscripts Library at Ohio State is overjoyed to announce that we have recently acquired two of the major revised editions of the Loci. While we’re still waiting for a copy of the 1521 first edition to enter the fold, we count ourselves lucky to have obtained copies of both the 1535 and 1555 revisions.

These editions were not simple reissues of the text with minor corrections. Rather, in each Melancthon substantially adjusted his earlier thinking, radically rewriting and expanding his own theology. The 1555 edition, for instance, includes a major redevelopment of Philip’s opinions on free will and nearly quadruples the length of the 1521 version. Additionally, Philip also supplied new introductory epistles to his readers in each version. Our 1535 copy was printed in Wittenberg by Joseph Klug; and the 1555 was printed in Basle by John Orporinus. Both copies have come to us in their original, elaborately tooled bindings and, as an added bonus, the 1555 copy includes contemporary marginalia added by an engaged reader.

These two books represent a significant addition to the Library’s wonderful assembly of Reformation materials, The Harold J. Grimm Reformation Collection (http://library.osu.edu/sites/rarebooks/finding/reformhome.php). While the Grimm holdings are particularly strong in German and Lutheran materials, until this year it had not included Melancthon’s Loci. Considering that this text represents the fundamental statement of Lutheran doctrine and the first work to attempt a systematic accounting of Protestant theology and dogmatic, we realized we simply had to acquire copies of its major editions. As well as supplementing our already strong Lutheran holdings, these volumes will also better contextualize and inform other aspects of our collection, such as our copy of John Eck’s Enchiridion locorum communium adversus Lutherum (Ingolstadt: Alexander Weissenhorn, 1543).

Originally published in 1525, Eck’s treatise offered a point-by-point response to the Loci from the Roman Catholic point of view. Over forty separate editions of Eck’s response were published between 1525 and 1576, making it perhaps the most popular Catholic handbook of the Counter-Reformation. Taken together, our copies of Melancthon’s Loci and Eck’s Enchiridion allow us to see Protestant and Catholic teachings (and polemic) in dialogue and help us gain a fuller, more nuanced understanding of the theological issues at stake and the rhetoric the different camps used to score their points. As we build our collections, we build our understanding of and appreciation for the past and all that it can tell us about the present and the future. So, let’s welcome Philip’s Loci to our collections!

Now all that remains is to track down that pesky 1521 edition…

Eric J. Johnson, Associate Curator

Geoffrey D. Smith (Ph.D.), Professor and
Head, Rare Books and Manuscripts Library

It’s not every day that I have the pleasure of announcing that the Rare Books and Manuscripts Library at OSU has acquired an original medieval codex, and I’m pleased to say that today isn’t one of those days either. Pleased, you might ask? Yes, because today I happily announce that we have just added three medieval books to our collection! These acquisitions mark the first complete medieval manuscript additions to RBMS’s collection in over twenty years. All three manuscripts were acquired based on a range of criteria: content, scriptural style, codicological context, uniqueness and, most importantly, their ability to serve as valuable foundations for individualized and classroom teaching and ongoing research. Each manuscript is distinct and includes qualities that previously had not been available in OSU’s manuscript collections.

Our first new addition is Pseudo-Sextus Aurelius Victor’s De viris illustribus Romae, a historical work that includes seventy-six summaries of the lives of famous Romans.  Although a sixteenth-century inscription in OSU’s copy attributes the work to Suetonius and one recent scholarly opinion credits Pliny the Elder as its original author, the true authorship of this text has been contested for centuries. Produced in Italy in the late-fifteenth century (ca. 1450-1475), OSU’s copy (one of an estimated five examples in North America) is written in a fine humanistic script. Adding further flavor to the item is its binding: a leaf from a late-twelfth century decorated Italian Lectionary. Taken together, the book’s text and the binding’s late Carolingian script offer students a wonderful opportunity to see side-by-side Italian humanistic script and the original scriptural style upon which it was modeled. The manuscript also provides interesting codicological fodder, giving readers a chance to see a fifteenth-century binding error and a number of later inscriptions and paratextual additions.

An early-fifteenth century noted Cistercian Processional in Latin (with some rubrics in Dutch) is our second new codex. The manuscript includes an array of text and music used during processions for important liturgical feasts and celebrations such as the Purification of the Virgin, Palm Sunday, Corpus Christi, and others. Also included are the antiphons sung to celebrate the washing of the feet on Maundy Thursday. The text is written in formal gothic bookhand in brown ink and red rubrications. The manuscript is particularly valuable from a codicological standpoint, surviving, as it does, in its original leather-covered pasteboard binding. Pasteboard bindings were not common prior to the early-sixteenth century, a fact that makes OSU’s volume extremely interesting not just because of its early date, but also because the pasteboard is made from sheets of parchment—rather than paper—that are glued together. Although OSU has several examples of medieval musical manuscripts in its collection of disjunct leaves, this volume is the first musical medieval codex to come to the University.

Original medieval vernacular manuscripts can be hard to come by, but occasionally a fine example appears on the market. Our third manuscript addition is a lovely little volume of prayers, masses, and a sermon likely produced in northern Italy between 1375 and 1425. The first twenty-three folios include an array of prayers and masses in both Latin and Italian, but the book’s final 128 folios feature a macaronic sermon written mostly in Italian, but with occasional Latin additions. Luke 14:16 (“Homo quidem fecit cenam magnam”) is the sermon’s main theme, but other subjects such as the two natures of Christ, the influence of the heavens and planets on everyday life, Purgatory, Hell’s punishments, and the glories of Paradise are also discussed. Unfortunately the text’s original binding doesn’t survive, so we’re deprived of any inscriptions or marks of ownership that may have helped us piece together its provenance. Given its small size (93 x 66 mm)–note the small scale by comparing the text to the elegant thumbs holding it open–and the fact that most of it is in the vernacular, this book may have been intended for personal rather than institutional use.

All three manuscripts are welcome additions to the Rare Books and Manuscripts Library’s growing collection of original medieval documents and will prove to be popular, highly useful teaching and research tools. One ambitious and gifted student has already begun historical and codicological research on the Cistercian Processional, and work toward producing an edition and translation of the Italian prayer and sermon manuscript is also underway.  Students from the French department have also conducted in-depth, hands-on analysis of one of the manuscripts during a class session at the Library earlier this quarter. Although the manuscripts are amongst the Library’s oldest holdings, it’s clear that they are already finding ways to speak to today’s students and scholars.

Eric J. Johnson, Associate Curator