Manuscript, Print and Benedictines: a brief tour

Benedict with Placid and Maur from the earliest copy of the Rule of Benedict (1501) in the Saint John's Collections.  This copy in Italian was printed in Venice by Lucantonio Giunta.

In a couple days I will be attending a pre-conference for the Library Section of the American Benedictine Academy, which is meeting at St. Scholastica Monastery in Duluth, Minnesota. I have been asked to give a short talk on the role of the Benedictines in the change from a predominantly manuscript to predominantly print culture in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Cool.

Click on any image to enlarge it or view a gallery.

Note the beautiful woodcut letter "A" in "Ascholta"--Italian for "Listen"--
the first word in the Prologue to the Rule of Benedict. 

  

There are many ways that one can find the influence of the Benedictines and Benedictine traditions in the late medieval and early modern world of the book.  On the one hand, the Benedictines supported the new technology by sponsoring books (the Benedictine Psalter of 1459 comes to mind), as well as providing a haven for printers to work--in 1465 the Monastery of Subiaco was the location of the first printing undertaken in Italy and the first German edition of Gregory's Dialogues was printed at the Monastery of Saints Ulrich and Afra in Augsburg (1473).


Another copy of the Rule in the Saint John's Collections (Venice, again by Lucantonio Giunta, 1501) is in Latin and has been combined with the Life of Benedict from the second Dialogue of Gregory, as well as a set of 13th-century meditations on the Rule by Bernard, Abbot of Monte Cassino.  Both the 1501 and the 1505 (as well as the 1544) editions are extremely compact and can easily fit into a shirt pocket.  The earliest printings of the Rule start at about the same time that Venetian printers were developing the small format of books that would become their trademark (so to speak), especially with the work of Aldus Manutius in the early 16th century.

The earliest "printing" of the Rule in the SJU collections dates from 1500, and is actually within a treatise on the Rule of Benedict that incorporates also the texts of the Rule of Augustine and the Franciscan Rule.  This was also printed in Venice by Lucantonio Giunta.  It includes portraits of Benedict and his sister Scholastica (both holding books, of course), as well as a portrait of Benedict with Placid and Maur presenting his Rule to other Benedictines.

Saint John's does not have copies of the earliest editions of the Rule of Benedict, but there are copies available online at the Bavarian State Library of the editions from 1485/90 in German, 1489/90 in Latin, and 1507 in Latin.  They also have a color digital reproduction of an early 15th-century copy of the Rule from Metten Abbey in Bavaria.  These are all worthy of a look and I will provide a link at the bottom of this posting.

Also of interest is Gregory's Dialogues, which contains the earliest witness to the life of Benedict.  The first edition, available online from our online image service, Vivarium, appeared in Strassburg in 1472.  You can view the entire book at:

http://cdm.csbsju.edu/cdm/ref/collection/SJRareBooks/id/17658

First page of the 1475 Dialogues
in Italian translation.

Title page of the 1509
French edition.

However, just like with the Rule of Benedict, the Dialogues very quickly appeared also in vernacular editions, both in German and in Italian, and not long after in French.  Saint John's has a copy of the 1475 Italian edition, as well as a 1509 printing in French.  The latter has a curious portrait of Gregory as its frontispiece.

Portrait of Gregory the Great from the
1509 French translation of his Dialogues.

Most of these works will eventually be added to HMML's online image service, Vivarium.  Right now there are copies of the 1520 Rule of Benedict and the 1472 Dialogues in Latin.  We also have two pictorial biographies of Benedict (from 1587 and 1596) in the online collections.  However, we will soon add complete copies of the 1501, 1505 and 1544 editions of the Rule.  We plan eventually to add further Benedictine works as we can, so keep watching Vivarium for new titles!

Finally, I would like to point readers to the resources of the Bavarian State Library, which maintains a tremendous amount of Benedictine material among its other digital collections.  Along with the copies of the Rule mentioned above, there are also versions of Gregory's Dialogues from 1473 and 1476 (in German), as well as Latin editions from 1477, 1480 and 1496.  There is also a very compact edition of the Vita Benedicti (excerpted from the Dialogues) that was published by Bernardino Benali in 1490.  The web address for the Bavarian State Library digital collections is:

http://www.muenchener-digitalisierungszentrum.de/index.html

From HMML's image service, Vivarium, the title page of the
1520 Rule of Benedict, printed in Florence.

With a raven for a friend; or, Benedict(ines) and Books, part 4

Since first coming to work at the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (Saint John's University) eleven years ago, I have been constantly impressed by the Benedictine community and the individuals who make up that community.

Yesterday (July 11, 2012), on the feast of Saint Benedict, his modern-day followers reminded me once again of the great gift they bring to all of us.  Indeed, I have used this space previously to comment on the role the Benedictines have played through the centuries in the life of the book, often relying on pictures from older books.  This is again the subject of today's musings.

One of the monks celebrating a major anniversary yesterday was Brother David Paul Lange, OSB, who began his journey as a monk 25 years ago.  I got to know David Paul in 2010, when we were among 12 folks selected to go on a Benedictine Heritage Tour in Italy and Germany.  The members of the tour were a wonderfully diverse cross-section of staff (support, administrative and faculty) from across the campus, all of whom shared an interest in the history and tradition of the Benedictines.

Of course, as a librarian, my head immediately filled with thoughts of books and places (especially those connected the Benedictines) where books could be found. The tour gave me the opportunity to see libraries at the abbeys of Subiaco, Metten and Ottobeuren, as well as a quick visit to the Bavarian State Library (perhaps the largest "monastic" library in the world).

Each of the 12 members of our newfound community made connections in his or her own way with Benedictine traditions during the course of the journey.  I still use my experiences as foundation for presentations I make to classes and other groups about HMML's work and mission.  And I continue to seek depictions of Benedict and his followers holding books, or receiving books, or writing books, or studying books in a library.

But I have digressed ...

Brother David Paul was my roommate during the tour, and as we got to know each other better, I came to learn much about art and about his work as an artist.  He teaches art at Saint John's University and brings his Benedictine values into all that he does.  This includes pictures of Saints Benedict and Scholastica as young people that he did a couple years ago.  Benedict is holding a book (of course), with a somewhat anachronistic lightbulb hanging behind him.  He looks straight back at the viewer with a bemused, but warm expression (see the picture on "Blogging with the Saints": http://bloggingwiththesaints.blogspot.com/2011/03/passing-of-st-benedict.html).

Minnesota or Monte Cassino?

So, it was a delightful surprise to learn earlier this year that he was working on a statue of a youthful Benedict as a special project. Working with an assistant, he molded a clay model that was later used to make a mold into which molten metal was poured.  The foundry work was done off campus (whew), but the statue came back to campus in early summer and was officially welcomed at a service in the last week of June.  Since I was visiting family at that time, I missed the official unveiling.  Only now have I had the chance to see "Benedict" up close.

David Paul's Benedict statue continues in that great tradition of connecting Benedictines to books.  The Saint cradles a book in his left arm and holds a quill in his right hand.  He is poised in reflection, almost entranced with the beauty of what he is contemplating.

According to Gregory the Great's biography of Benedict, written about 50 years after the Abbot died, the most important book for Benedict was the Bible.  Benedict's most famous work was of course his Rule for monastic communities.  But here we see a young Benedict who is already deeply engaged in the life of the book, as the two stacks behind him attest.  Is he writing a book? Is he reading and taking notes? Are there not the right words to express his thoughts? Are the books in the stacks those that he has read or that he has (literally) written?

One of the stacks of books accompanying Benedict.

What I have until now tried to find in old books and manuscripts--the Benedictine connection to books and knowledge--now stands across the street from HMML in a quiet corner of the campus, an ideal place to curl up with a book and a coffee ....  Hmmm, I wonder if Benedict knew about coffee?

"Of the making (and reading) of books there is no end ..."

Peace.

Summer Camp in Central Minnesota: Without Camp Songs or Campfires.

Hmmm.... Codex, or Scroll?

Next week marks the 2012 iteration of the Minnesota Manuscript Research Laboratory (MMRL), a one-week workshop introducing participants to several aspects of manuscript studies: paleography, codicology, finding manuscripts, describing manuscripts, Western and non-Western manuscripts, and even early printing.  All of the photographs in this blog entry are of materials from the Saint John's collections that will be used during the MMRL.  Lists of all the manuscripts and incunabula at Saint John's are available on our Special Collections Wiki.  The list of instructors is the MMRL Wiki-site, which is still in development.

Latin New Testament, dated late 13th or early 14th century (SJU Ms. 12)

Detail of f. 3r showing a correction where a word has been scraped off and a new one entered.

The workshop is sponsored by the Center for Medieval Studies at the University of Minnesota and by the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library, Saint John's University (Collegeville, MN).  While the overarching goal of the MMRL is to introduce graduate students to the world of manuscript studies for their research projects, the week is also open to those who wish to deepen their understanding of the early technology for the transmission of knowledge, the manuscript. This year we have eight participants and four instructors (plus a guest speaker).

Preparing for this week brought me back to the recent Introduction to Manuscript Studies by Raymond Clemens and Timothy Graham (Cornell UP, 2007).  This wonderful volume provides a very broad and yet detailed account of the terminology, concepts, issues, and methods for manuscript studies.  It provides for manuscripts what Philip Gaskell's New Introduction to Bibliography (Oak Knoll, 1995) does for early printed books.  Both volumes are useful to new scholars and advanced scholars alike.

Folio 3v of SJU Ms. 12.

Corrections using a red line to strike out the text (fourth line from bottom), combined with dots under the text to be omitted. Also, a word to be inserted at the bottom of the column.

For example, Clemens and Graham reminded me of the ongoing process in the Middle Ages to make sure that the text of the manuscript was as accurate as possible. To this end, one finds many examples for manuscript corrections in the Saint John's collection also.  One manuscript, a late 13th or early 14th-century copy of the New Testament in Latin (possibly from Paris?) also uses a vast number of abbreviations.  Since the Latin text is commonly available in printed editions, this manuscript provides a good exercise for practicing the recognition of abbreviations, letterforms, and corrections.

Folio 7v of SJU Ms. 12, with correction in the left margin.

This correction includes a small symbol (%) that matches a symbol in the text to show where the missing text is to be inserted.

Now for a small confession, the samples I have been showing were found not from the manuscript itself, but from our digital photographs of the manuscript.  Codex 12 is tiny, only about 5 inches tall, and the handwriting is extremely tiny.  You can see the entire manuscript here. Working from the digital copy was easier (and less risky) than working with the actual manuscript itself! However, working with the original brings its own rewards.

There are other topics to be discussed during the MMRL, such as interesting marginalia ...


"Marco de Fasana e un bestiale ignorante ..." from SJU Ms. 4 (Latin Grammar in Humanist hand).

Beyond paleography, however, there are codicological questions to be discussed during the MMRL.  One such question concerns the nature of book binding itself.  Often, it is more useful to work with a book that has sustained damage over the years rather than to work with one in pristine condition.  If the backing for the spine has come off, then it is possible to see exactly how the book's binding is constructed.

Elements of the binding (such as the head band, the use of leather thongs to tie the gathering together, etc.) can be easily seen in this binding on an incunable edition of Servius' commentary on Virgil (1471).

Other types of stitching for book bindings might be common elsewhere. This and the picture below show the binding of an Ethiopian manuscript (probably 18th or 19th century, so not "medieval"). 

Note the interweaving cord loops of the Ethiopian binding. This is quite different from European bindings with leather thongs or cords onto which the gatherings sewn.

My part in the MMRL will be largely running books up and down stairs between the classroom and the rare books rooms.  Unfortunately, our only elevator is out of service at the moment, so I really will be "running."  This is also unfortunate, because one of our favorite manuscripts to show is a late-medieval antiphonal which is about 30 inches tall and weighs (I am guessing) close to 50 pounds--not easily carried up the stairs!

I will also give a presentation on early printing, especially from the 15th and early 16th centuries.  Since SJU has over 65 incunabula, limiting my presentation to one hour will be a challenge!  However, the focus of MMRL is not printed books, but manuscripts.  Here are a couple samples from the books I will be presenting:

1485 Missale with extra decoration to imitate manuscript style.  Printed in two colors, with red staves for music, there are no notes printed on the staves.

1493 Missale that does have musical notation printed on the red staves.  It also has hand-written marks over several of the pericopes that indicate that perhaps the text was chanted or sung (more on this in the Special Collections Wiki page on incunabula).

The three Saint John's collections (Saint John's Rare Books, Arca Artium Rare Books, and HMML Rare Books) offer many opportunities to study the development of the book (introduction of title pages, foliation, catchwords, illustrations, etc.) over the course of the latter half of the fifteenth and first half of the sixteenth centuries.

A 1482 glossed edition of Gratian's Decretum.

The end of a 1494 edition of Boccaccio with printer's device and colophon.

Woodcut from the 1494 Boccaccio. The edition features several pages of woodcut diagrams.

Two early examples from the early 16th century are specifically Benedictine--a copy of the Rule of Benedict in Italian (1501) and a copy of the second Dialogue of Gregory (Life of Benedict), the Rule of Benedict, and a short work by Bernard of Clairvaux (1505)--all in Latin.

1501 Italian translation of the Rule of Benedict, published by Lucantonio Giunta.

Saint Benedict, holding a book (a copy of the Rule), next to his two closest followers, St. Placid and St. Maur.

Title page of the 1505 Latin edition containing Gregory the Great's second Dialogue, the Rule of Benedict, and a work by Bernard of Clairvaux.  This is also published by Lucantonio Giunta, whose publisher's device appears on the title page.

The Benedictines have the tradition of welcoming guests with a greeting of "Peace!"  HMML and the Center for Medieval Studies welcome our visitors with

PAX!

We hope to see you soon ...

A Marriage of Sorts

One of these books is not like the others ...

Every so often, one gets the opportunity to try piecing together a puzzle or two.  This week I would like to talk a little about the marriage (so to speak) of two sets of an 18th-century title, the Neu-vermehrtes historisch- und geographisches allgemeines Lexicon, by Jacob (Johann?) Christian Iselin (1681-1737).

Back in 2009, I received an e-mail from a member of the Douglas County Friends of the Library (in Alexandria, Minnesota).  The "Friends" had received an anonymous gift of a large book in German that was dated 1728.  They wanted to know what the book was and whether it was of value to anyone.  After an exchange of e-mails, digital photos, etc., I was able to determine that it was volume two (covering entries starting with the letters D through I/J) of the four-volume Lexicon by Iselin.  It was second edition and--like hundreds of volumes in our collections--was bound in blind-stamped pigskin. I suggested that the Friends might want to contact the few American libraries that have this title to see if anyone needed this volume to complete a set.

Close, but no match.

In February 2012, the Friends contacted me again.  They had not found a home for their errant volume and were curious as to whether HMML (www.hmml.org) would want to purchase the volume for the rare book collections at Saint John's.  My initial reaction was one of uncertainty--one volume from a multi-volume dictionary or encyclopedia is generally not of great value to scholars.  I suggested that I look further at online antiquarian dealers to determine a general price range for the Iselin.

The different colors of the pigskin indicate a little of the different histories these volumes have lived.

While searching for a possible price, I stumbled upon a copy of Iselin's Lexicon for sale that included only volumes 1, 3 and 4.  These volumes were also bound in blind-stamped pigskin.  The immediate hope (and for all librarians, hope springs eternal) was that this was a complete set and that we could somehow re-unite a family.  The chances were already minimal at best, but it became clear that these were different when I matched up the bibliographic records and found that volume two came from the second edition or Auflage (1728), while the other volumes were from the first edition (1726-1727). 

Clasps and bevelled boards on vol. 2 are different from the bindings on volumes 1, 3 and 4.

The book dealer was Esther Geller, at Elgen Books, located on Long Island, New York.  We corresponded by e-mail and I was able to place an order for the three volumes.  Ms. Geller demonstrated great patience with the bureaucracy at our institution while awaiting payment, but we finally go everything processed and the books came a few days later.  The ownership plates in the three volumes indicated that these were once in the Library of the Protestant Episcopal Divinity School in Philadelphia.

Detailed ornamentation on all of the volumes as was popular for hand-bound books before 1800.

Title page of volume one.

Sometimes the title seems to take as long to read as the book itself.  A partial transcription of the title page gives us:  Neu-vermehrtes historisch- und geographisches allgemeines Lexicon : in welchem das Leben und die Thaten und andere Merckwürdigkeiten deren Patriarchen, Propheten, Apostel, Vätter der ersten Kirchen, Päbsten ... vornehmer Gelehrten und anderer ... berühmter Männern und Künstlern, nebst denen so genannten Ketzern : wie nicht weniger derer Käyser, Königen, Chur- und Fürsten, Grafen, grosser Herren, berühmter Kriegs-Helden und Ministern ... und endlichen die Beschreibung derer Käyserthümern, Königreichen, Fürstenthümern ... dissmahlen von neuem mit Fleiss gantz übersehen ... und um ein grosses vermehret ... von Jacob Christoff Iselin ...

Published in Basel, the editor made sure to include the list of mayors of the city from the late Middle Ages up to the time of the Lexicon.

One of the distinctions between the two sets of the titles was the use of bevelled boards on volume 2 (dated 1728).  The boards on the three volumes from 1726-1727 were not bevelled on the edge.

Title page of volume two, with the note that this is the second edition (Zweyte Auflage) and an ownership stamp from "FH."

Perhaps the best reward of this exercise lay the new relationships that this book transaction started.  Not only was it a pleasure to work with Esther Geller, but the contact person for the Douglas County Friends of the Library came to visit HMML.  She and her colleague were able to see the Saint John's Bible and have a brief tour of the rare book collections at Saint John's, and even to learn a little about HMML's preservation mission.



List of the early kings of France .

So, HMML ended up with a "mixed set" from the first and second editions of Iselin's Lexicon.  While we did not re-unite a family, we did create a new "hybrid" family that can serve future scholars.  The coverage of each volume was the same from one edition to the other, so we have the complete contents.

HMML and Manuscripts at Kalamazoo!

Fragment from a book binding. Ms. Frag. 1, Hill Museum & Manuscript Library.

Every year a huge (but very well-behaved) crowd descends on Kalamazoo, Michigan, to spend four days discussing the history, literature, culture, music, law, life, and much else from the Middle Ages.  The International Congress on Medieval Studies (ICMS) is the largest (and longest-running) such gathering in the world.  The Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (www.hmml.org) has been active at Kalamazoo for decades now.  This year (2012) marks a high point in our participation as HMML will be displaying eight manuscripts from its own collections at the Congress.  HMML has numerous medieval manuscripts including seven books of hours, a gradual, two antiphonals, and several smaller, personal manuscripts. While the fancier Books of Hours are staying at home (in Collegeville), some representational items will travel to Michigan.

SJU Ms. 2, a Graduale from the 14th century.

The cover of the Graduale has been recycled from another manuscript.

The selection for the 2012 ICMS includes a 14th-century Graduale with decorated initials, an early 17th-century Book of Hours (no miniatures or decoration, I'm afraid), a Confessionale copied about 1500, a preacher's manual and a couple monastic miscellanies.  There is even an Ethiopian prayer scroll (not medieval, mind you) that demonstrates the diversity of our collections.

A Book of Hours copied in 1609 for use by a Cistercian nun.

The manuscripts will be on display at the Meader Room in the Special Collections and Rare Book Department, on the third floor of Waldo Library.  The Library is across the street (more or less) from the Bernhard Center.  Many thanks are due to Sue Steuer and the Special Collections for hosting us at ICMS!

Barton Williams Ms. 2, Hill Museum & Manuscript Library.

A good task for a codicologist--Barton Williams Ms. 2 has bosses on the covers and parchment charters recycled into pastedowns. Since these pastedowns are loose, one can see the structure of the book even better.

In addition to the exhibition, the Special Collections and HMML are co-sponsoring three sessions to be held at the Meader Room:

• Session 97 (Thursday at 1:30): Describing Digital Images of Medieval Manuscripts Using Dublin Core: Projects and Proposals (A Panel Discussion)
• Session 151 (Thursday at 3:30): Manuscripts (and Surrogates) in North America: Experiencing the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (A Roundtable)
• Session 233 (Friday at 10:00): Reuniting Texts: Libraries Dispersed and Books Unbound

In addition to these sessions, HMML is also co-sponsoring a session with the Texas Medieval Association on Mediterranean Identities (Session 462, Saturday at 3:30, in Valley II, Room 204).

A monastic miscellany -- only about half of the original manuscript is still in this volume.

For those interested in the exhibition, it will be open whenever the Special Collections are open during the Conference.  There will also be a chance to view the books at the HMML reception which will be held in the Meader Room on Thursday, at 5:00 pm.

A short (2-minute) video on the Graduale that will be on display.

Ms. Or. E 8, an Ethiopian prayer scroll (late 18th/early 19th century).

I look forward to visiting with you all in the friendly environs of Western Michigan University--only about 10 days away!