Really Big Manuscripts

Probably not going to be a reality show at any point, but there are a lot of Really Big Manuscripts out there which one normally doesn’t get to see. One notorious breed of super huge manuscripts are what my coworker refers to as “Filzas,” or large books of Italian accounts and legal documents from the [...]

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Macabre Manuscripts

One of my projects this summer was to examine some “hybrid books” (a printed book with some manuscript – handwritten – sections) and describe the manuscript portions. Most/all of these can’t even be found in any kind of online catalog, only in the card catalog in the Rare Book room, and even they will only [...]

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Annotated Schisms

Currently cataloging an Estonian manuscript from 1532. It’s a confirmation by Pope Clement VII of a bishop of Oesel (which has various spellings, it seems). The manuscript itself is pretty ordinary, just going through normal bureaucracy (with one mention of the “rebelles” – Protestants).
What’s fantastic about this is a later annotation in another hand:
Clemens inferni [...]

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The Top Vices

Right now I’m working on a 15th-century manuscript of a 13th-century book by Guilelmus Peraldus, called Summa Vitiis (it seems to have other names like the Summa vitiorum, summa vitiis et virtutibus, etc).
Interestingly enough, this book on vice (anti-vice; Peraldus was a Dominican monk!) was a direct inspiration (to the point of being able to [...]

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Latin Poetry; Inaptly Rote?

I’m currently working on a 17th century manuscript of Latin epigrams and poetry. The author is unknown, but the paleography is lovely AND legible (an unusual treat!). Much of the poems focus on Thomas Aquinas (and God and various saints, but mostly ol’ Tommy here).
Probably the best part of this is the wordplay that goes [...]

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Electronic Resources, plus a link

Apparently, there’s a whole slew of other Drexel interns at my library, and various members of the library staff here been hosting a small set of lectures for us on what they do in the different sections of the library. Today I got to hear about Electronic Acquisitions, and learn some of the nitty-gritty about [...]

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Medieval Idol?

In cataloging a series of miscellaneous Jesuit documents and codices, I found myself typing into OCLC Connexion the phrase “Saint Bernard and the Beatitudes” in my 520, which I found highly amusing (for those curious, the full phrase is Section 8 contains various printed works, all on one side of the leaf only, with handwritten [...]

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Ancient Place Names

Have you ever had that irksome problem where you found a Latin place name and cannot figure out what its modern name is? Or perhaps the opposite – you know your manuscript was written in what is now Friuli, but can’t figure out what the Latin name is (it’s Forojuliensis, as everyone knows)? Well, be [...]

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Research

“Cut up missal in evening – hard work,” – Ruskin in his diary, 1854
I’ve been doing a lot of research, both for work and fun, on the destruction of manuscripts, mostly during the Victorian era, for collages. Most of the articles and books I’m finding on the subject are interesting and well-written, and I thought [...]

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Destructive Art

On many of the older manuscripts I work with (13th, 14th century), there’s a certain kind of paper and certain kind of ink that one sees frequently, especially in legal or royal documents. The paper seems thinner, browner, and more brittle than usual, but what makes this particular combination unique is the ink. I don’t [...]

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