Coming Soon to a Library Near You

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The University Libraries aspire to a number of goals as we develop services, collections, and library spaces.  These goals include ensuring that you have access to high quality information as easily and efficiently as possible.  Means of doing this include providing access to our catalog, online periodicals, and databases, or simply communicating when you have items waiting, and when we are open.  It also includes sharing news like this blog entry. There are many ways to accomplish our goals; our web presence and using email are among the most prevalent methods we use. Mobile Phone Interface

As smart phones and tablets have become more sophisticated and ubiquitous, we see that most individuals on campus own one or the other (or both).  A national trend shows that many users of these devices would prefer to use a downloaded App rather than view a website in a mobile browser to accomplish their transaction goals such as checking a bank balance or seeing if a requested book is ready to be picked up.  The individual Apps that many of us use for banking are a perfect example of this behavior.  While the University Libraries have long tried to make our websites accessible to smaller devices, we have decided to take the next step and roll out a Library App using Ex Libris’ Library Mobile service.

The App will be available on iOS and Android devices, and it will allow you to choose your home library (Law, PNCA or MOHL), access many of our resources and services including the catalog, find our hours, read our blog, sign up for notifications, allow us to inform you of your account status, and much more.  We anticipate going into beta testing in the next couple of weeks so watch for further announcements, download the App, try it out, and let us know what you think.  We look forward to hearing your comments and suggestions!

Food for Thought

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fruits and vegetablesThe Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics invites us all to join them in celebrating National Nutrition Month. “During the month of March, everyone is invited to learn about making informed food choices and developing healthful eating and physical activity habits.”  This annual campaign features a different theme every year; this year’s theme is “Celebrate a World of Flavors” and highlights flavors from different cultures around the globe as a “tasty way to nourish ourselves and appreciate our diversity.”  What we eat can impact us in so many ways–hence the expression, “You are what you eat!” Studies show that there is a definite relationship between what we eat and the functioning of our brains so as members of the Willamette and higher education communities, it makes sense for us all to be striving towards healthy eating.  So help yourself to some leafy greens, grab an apple, and check out these nutrition-related titles listed on our WU Reads Reading Guide.

“Moderation. Small helpings. Sample a little bit of everything. These are the secrets of happiness and good health.” – Julia Child

 

Cranberries, Voter Registration, Tsunamis and Ronald Reagan: Congressional Collections

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By Susan Irwin, University Archivist

What connects cranberries, voter registration, tsunamis, and Ronald Reagan?  The Mark O. Hatfield congressional collection. Contained within the collection are legal, economic, social and scientific data on such wide ranging topics as health care, the environment, social security, immigration, agriculture, national defense, technology, and transportation. The labeling of cranberry juice products, proposed voter registration legislation, appropriations requests for a tsunami warning system, and the inauguration of Reagan as President of the United States (Hatfield served as chairman of the inaugurations committee) are a few examples of the disparate documentary evidence found in the Hatfield collection.

Mark Hatfield’s political career spanned five decades.  Growing up in Salem, Oregon he graduated from Willamette University in 1943.  After serving in the U. S. Navy during World War II, he completed a Master’s Degree in Political Science at Stanford University. Returning to Salem, he worked as an assistant professor and Dean of Students at Willamette.

congress seal

Seal of the United States Congress.

Hatfield launched his political career in 1950, at the age of twenty-eight, by winning a seat in the state legislature, serving first in the Oregon House of Representatives and then the Oregon Senate.

Mark Hatfield

Mark Hatfield, Governor of Oregon

He went on to serve as Secretary of State for two years, followed by two terms as Governor. In 1966, Hatfield successfully ran for the U. S. Senate, where he remained until 1997.

Hatfield donated his political papers to Willamette University.  The collection spans his entire career, but the majority of records relate to his time in Congress. Hatfield’s collection, similar to other twentieth century congressional collections, is roughly twelve hundred cubic feet in size. In 2020, Willamette University archivists began processing the congressional records portion of the collection, arranging, describing and housing the records for preservation and access. Processing started with the Legislative materials, which touch upon nearly every legislative issue that came before the Senate from 1967-1996.  Work is currently focused on the Media and Constituent Service sections, which document communications and interactions between Hatfield and his constituents through newspaper columns, speeches, press releases, photographs and correspondence.  Once completed, processing will proceed on the campaign, office administration and memorabilia sections.

archives boxes

Hatfield records to be processed.

Processing will result in the creation of a guide describing the scope and content of the collection along with a folder-level inventory.

The collections of individual senators and representatives, such as the Hatfield collection, are an important source of information on the nation’s and the region’s economic, social, and legal issues, and are rich in white papers, technical reports, and scientific data not easily found elsewhere. The collection, along with the guide, opens to researchers on July 12, 2022.

In the meantime, check out the exhibit of Hatfield memorabilia, located on the second floor of the Hatfield Library.

Processing of the collection funded through the Institute of Museum and Library Services Library Services and Technology Act grant, administered through the State Library of Oregon and by the National Historical Publications & Records Commission’s (NHPRC) Access to Historical Records grant.

For more information on the collection contact archives@willamette.edu.

Black History Month

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colorful graphic with the words black history monthAlthough February is now well known as Black History Month, it originally began as a week long celebration starting in 1926.  In 1969, a month long tribute was initially proposed by black educators and students at Kent State University.  When President Gerald Ford proclaimed Black History Month during the U.S. Bicentennial in 1976, recognition of it took hold across the country, particularly in educational institutions. Through the years, various themes have been chosen including recent themes such as “African Americans and the Vote,” The Black Family: Representation, Identity, and Diversity,” and this year’s theme, “Black Health and Wellness.”  This month provides us all with the chance to reflect on African American history, heritage, and culture, as well as to acknowledge accomplishments, influences, tragedies, and triumphs.

The library periodically puts together displays to highlight different areas of our collection; this month we’ve taken the opportunity to recognize Black History Month with a display featuring DVDs and mostly recent books from our collection.  You can explore the display on the first floor of the library or online; all materials are available for checkout.

For more information see:

A Proclamation on National Black History Month, 2022

Association for the Study of African American Life and History

Black History Month

Celebrate Black History Month

A Stitch in Time

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photo of embroidery

The art of embroidery has been around for centuries and spans most cultures around the world. Taking needle and thread to fabric or other materials to create beautiful scenes or patterns, embroidery is both challenging and gratifying.  The variety of stitches, techniques, and colors, adds to the complexity and richness of embroidery.  Through the ages, embroidery has been used to decorate ceremonial attire, religious objects, household objects, book bindings, wall hangings, pillow cases, denim work shirts, and much more. Machine embroidery emerged during the Industrial Revolution and now embroidery appears on items such as polo shirts and baseball hats.  Hand embroidery remains a vital part of society and like sourdough bread baking, stitching has become increasingly popular during the pandemic. February is designated as National Embroidery Month; join us in celebration by checking out one of these embroidery-related titles from our collection listed on our WU Reads Reading Guide.

Take your needle, my child, and work at your pattern; it will come out a rose by and by. Life is like that – one stitch at a time taken patiently and the pattern will come out all right like the embroidery.

—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Shakespeare’s Second Folio

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By Doreen Simonsen
Humanities & Fine Arts Librarian, dsimonse@willamette.edu

Folio Second Edition in Archives
“Dig those crazy hieroglyphics!”
“Pardon me sir, but are you referring to that copy of Shakespeare’s Second Folio which you have in your hand?”

This is how Betsy Perry started her article, “Vault Harbors $1000 Book,” in the January 23, 1959 issue of the Willamette Collegian about the library’s valuable rare books. The “hieroglyphics” were 17th century typesetting, which even 21st century students struggle to read. Typesetting issues are one of the factors that differentiate the Second Folio from its famous sibling, the First Folio, printed in 1623, by William Jaggard for Edward Blount, John Smethwick, and William Aspley. Of the 750 copies printed, only 235 copies of the First Folio remain today.

By 1632, William Jaggard and Edward Blount had died, and the copies of the First Folio had sold out. Thomas Cotes printed all the copies of the Second Folio for five different publishers: John Smethwick, William Aspley, Richard Hawkins, Richard Meighen, and Robert Allot. Each of these publishers owned the copyrights to different plays written by Shakespeare. John Smethwick held the copyright for Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Love’s Labour’s Lost, and The Taming of the Shrew. Willamette’s copy of the Second Folio was printed for John Smethwick, which is one of the rarest versions of this work. (Please watch this video from Peter Harrington Booksellers to learn more about the Smethwick version of the Second Folio.) Watermark Example Click on this image to the right to see a close-up of the watermark in a page of our Smethwick Second Folio.

No definite census can be found reporting the number of Second Folio copies printed, but in 1990 there were 178 Second Folios in libraries in the United States, as well as several more in international libraries (Otness, 65). The Folger Shakespeare Library, famous for its collection of 82 First Folios, also owns 58 copies of the Second Folio.

But what is a folio and what makes it so special? Folios are large books comprised of pages that have only been folded once before being gathered into quires (four sheets of paper folded to form eight leaves) that are then stacked and sewn together. During Shakespeare’s life, (1564-1616), many of his plays had been printed in a quarto format, which is half the size of a folio. Folios are meant to be impressive works, like coffee table books. The playwright Ben Jonson, Shakespeare’s contemporary, published a collection of his own plays in a folio version in 1616. Jonson’s and Shakespeare’s folios were the first collections of drama meant to be read as a book, giving printed drama a place of esteem in the world of English literature. In Shakespeare’s time, plays were considered merely low brow entertainments, not worthy of serious study.

By 1632 Shakespeare’s plays were 40 years old, and some of the language used in the First Folio had become dated. The editors of the Second Folios updated some of the language, corrected hundreds of typographical errors, and made “1679 `deliberate editorial’ changes, 459 alterations of grammar, 374 changes affecting the thought, 359 affecting meter, and 357 affecting style, and 130 changes pertaining to the action.” (Black and Shaaber, 45). They added mythological and Classical allusions which the typesetters of the First Folio missed. A good example of this is this quote from Henry VI, Part I, Act I, Scene 4, lines 95-96:

First Folio (1623) example:
First Folio Example

 

 

Second Folio (1632) example:

Second Folio Example

 

 

 

Subsequent versions of this play up to the standard versions used today, such as The Complete Pelican Shakespeare (2002), now include the name Nero.

“Plantagenet, I will – and like thee, Nero,
Play on the lute, beholding the towns burn.”

These changes in the text of the Second Folio mark the beginning of Shakespearean scholarship. Second Folio Mark Changed TextIt wasn’t just the editorial work of the publishers of Shakespeare’s Folios that reflect this change in attitude to the words written by Shakespeare.  Readers themselves engaged with the texts of these plays.  They studied their personal copies of the Folios and made annotations in them. The most famous of these annotated copies belonged to King Charles I (1600–1649), son of James I, who inherited the British throne after the death of Queen Elizabeth I. Charles I’s copy with his own annotations is in Windsor Castle, part of the collection of Queen Elizabeth II.  Here you can see the names of favorite characters written in King Charles I own hand.

The other thing that makes the Second Folio distinct from the First Folio is that it contains the first ever published poem by a young, 24-year-old John Milton, the author of Paradise Lost.

John Milton Poem

For a good introduction to the meaning of this poem and the significance of the Second Folio please watch this video of Ari Friedlander, University of Dayton.

In the 1950s, Charles McCulloch, Chairman of the Willamette Board of Trustees, donated the rare 1632 edition of Shakespeare’s Second Folio to the university. In the Willamette University Archives, you can find articles about this generous donation, as well as students’ reactions to seeing the Second Folio and other rare books. (See: McCulloch Gives Rare Cotes Book to WU Library, Benefactor Gives Rare Volume of Shakespeare Plays to Library.)

Over the years, the Second Folio has been brought out of the vault to honor visiting lecturers, (See: Rare Volumes Shown), but more often than not, it has been brought to the Mark O. Hatfield Library’s Instruction Room to show it to students in English and other classes.

Below you can see a group of Theatre History students in November 2015 who were delighted to see the text of Macbeth and check out the watermarks in our 1632 Second Folio. (Some students even took selfies of themselves with the Second Folio).

Students looking at the book in the Instruction Room.

Pandemic-related quarantine issues currently prohibit viewing our rare books in person, but we look forward to the days when students and scholars can come to the Hatfield Library to see our Second Folio for themselves. In the meantime, there are wonderful digital versions that you can enjoy online.  (See: Mr. William Shakespeares comedies, histories, tragedies: published according to the true originall copies. The second impression. )

 

Bibliography

Black, Matthew W., and Shaaber, M. A. Shakespeare’s Seventeenth-century Editors, 1632-1685. New York, London: Modern Language Association of America; Oxford UP, 1937.   https://archive.org/details/shakespearesseve00blac/page/n3/mode/2up

Douglas, Adam. “Shakespeare Second Folio – John Smethwick Imprint, 1632.” Peter Harrington Rare Books. Video. https://vimeo.com/61085857

“Folios of William Shakespeare.” Walter Havighurst Special Collections of the Miami University Libraries at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. https://digital.lib.miamioh.edu/digital/collection/wshakespeare

Friedlander, Ari. “Shakespeare: Second Folio.” University of Dayton. Video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33Ep_SjErDE

“King Charles I’s Copy of Shakespeare.” British Library Collection Items. https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/king-charles-is-copy-of-shakespeare

MacDougall, Bill. “Benefactor Gives Rare Volume of Shakespeare Plays to Library.” Willamette Collegian 19 May 1950: 3.

“McCulloch Gives Rare Cotes Book to WU Library.” The Willamette University Alumnus 6.3 (1950): 5.

Otness, Harold M. The Shakespeare Folio Handbook and Census. New York: Greenwood, 1990. Print. Bibliographies and Indexes in World Literature ; No. 25.

Perry, Betsy. “Vault Harbors $1000 Book.” Willamette Collegian 23 January 1959: 2.

“Rare Volumes Shown” The Willamette University Alumnus 4.3 (1957): 6.

Shakespeare, William. Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies. The 2nd Impression. ed. London: Printed by Tho. Cotes, for John Smethwick, and Are to Be Sold at His Shop in Saint Dunstans Church-yard, 1632. Print.  https://alliance-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/f/11t0l49/CP7199449290001451

Shakespeare, William, and Alfred Harbage. Complete Pelican Shakespeare. , 2002.

Smith, Emma.  “Wadham’s Four Shakespeare Folios.” Wadham College, University of Oxford. 18th February 2019. Video. https://www.wadham.ox.ac.uk/news/2019/february/wadhams-four-shakespeare-folios

“What Is the Second Folio of William Shakespeare?” Meisei University Shakespeare Collection Database – Meisei Copy, http://shakes.meisei-u.ac.jp/e-second.html

A “New” Chant for Christmastide

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By Doreen Simonsen
Humanities and Fine Arts Librarian

Image Comparing 15th Century Chant Manuscripts

Somewhere in Europe in the 15th century, a choir sang an Alleluia followed by an Offertory on the Feast of the Holy Innocents on December 28th. A page from a book that contained parts of these songs was discovered last summer in the Vault of the Mark O. Hatfield Library. We do not know who donated this manuscript page to the library, but through the help of faculty members in the Music and Classical Studies Departments at Willamette University and elsewhere, we have been able to reveal its secrets and show how it relates to the holiday season.

Image of Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts

Psalter
France, Paris, between 1495 and 1498
MS M.934 fol. 141r
Morgan Library and Museum

This large sheet of vellum (parchment prepared from animal skin) is 20 ⅞ inches high by 15 ⅔ inches wide and has neumatic (plainsong) notation on a four-line staff with texts in Latin. Chants are written in neumes, which are notes sung on a single syllable.

There is a large Illuminated initial in the lower left-hand corner of second page. (To see how this page and illumination was created, please watch this excellent video, Making Manuscripts, from the Getty Museum.) The reason for the large size of this page was that it was meant to be read by several members of a choir at one time. The expense of creating manuscript books meant that it would be more economical to create one large book for several people to use rather than several smaller books for each person in the choir to hold.

Here is an illustration from a Psalter (A book of Psalms) showing a group of clerics singing from a large book with musical notation, similar in size and format to our manuscript.

Image of manuscript fragmentIdentifying the Texts:
Professors Robert Chenault and Ortwin Knorr of Willamette University’s Department of Classical Studies identified the texts found on these two pages.

This first page (or recto page) contains the following words and word fragments:
…tis eius; laudate eum in firmamen-

And the second page (or verso page) contains the rest of the phrase:
to virtutis eius.

These phrases combine to form the end of this Bible Verse:
Alleluia. Laudate Dominum in sanctis eius; laudate eum in firmamento virtutis eius.

 

 

Image of manuscript fragmentPsalm 150, Verse 1 (King James Version) Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power.

At the bottom of the second (verso) page, they identified the words: Anima no- which Dr. Richard Robbins (University of Minnesota-Duluth) identified as belonging to this verse:

Anima nostra sicut passer erepta est de laqueo venantium; laqueus contritus est, et nos liberati
sumus.

Psalm 123, Verse 7 (King James Version) Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped.

The two texts are separated by a red abbreviation of the word Offertory.

Identifying the Music
Professor Hector Aguëro of the Music Department at Willamette University shared images of our manuscript with his colleague Professor Richard Robbins, Director of Choral Activities at the University of Minnesota-Duluth and a scholar of choral music, especially Italian sacred music of the early Baroque.

Dr. Robbins identified our manuscript as possibly being part of a Gradual, which is a book containing chants used in the Catholic Mass throughout the year. Robbins identified the first text and melody as the end of an alleluia verse, specifically Laudate Deum (mode IV). The second melody is an offertory on the text Anima Nostra (mode II).

Both of these chants can be found in the Liber Usualis, a book of commonly used Gregorian chants in the Catholic tradition.

Image of Alleluia Chant

The notation on the library’s manuscript starts at the red line in the Alleluia above, and it ends at the red line in the Offertory Anima No|stra below.

Image of Anima Nostra Chant

You can hear a performance and follow the texts of both chants here:

Alleluia, Laudate Deum
Offertory: Anima Nostra

The text of our missal differs from that of the Liber Usualis because of its early date. It was likely written in the 15th century, and, as Dr. Robbin explains, that means it was written before the Council of Trent (1545–63) codified the Catholic Mass and the order of the chants. There was a great deal of variety in Missals before the Council of Trent, so one cannot be sure when these melodies were used during the liturgical year. However, according to Dr. Robbins, these tunes match the tunes that appear in the Holy Innocents / Epiphanytide sections in post-Trent missals.

Ornate illuminated letter D shows Jesus riding Donkey colt

Dr. Robbins also pointed out that the illuminated letter A is ornate, which would have also been more appropriate for a Christmas use. The fancy illuminated letter A is probably also the reason we only have just one sheet from this gradual. These pages could contain ornate decorations and for this reason, they were frequently removed from graduals and treated as single artworks. Here you can see similar gradual pages from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. And this page shows the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, all within the large initial D.

Teaching with a 15th Century Manuscript
The best thing about discovering this “new” manuscript in the vault was being able to share it with the students and faculty of Willamette University. In September 2019, as part of his Music History I course, Professor Aguëro had his Music History students transcribe the music written on the library’s Chant manuscript. Here you can see them displaying their work. It was such a delight to have students work with a manuscript from the library’s Rare Books Collection.

Image of Professor Professor Aguëro and his Music History I class

From left to right: Ethan Frank, Matt Elcombe, Professor Aguëro, Sam Strawbridge, Kate Grobey, and Sophie Gourlay

Acknowledgments

Many thanks to Professors Robert Chenault and Ortwin Knorr of the Department of Classical Studies and Professor Hector Aguëro of the Department of Music at Willamette University, and especially to Professor Richard Robbins, Director of Choral Activities at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. Their combined scholarship helped us explicate the text and illuminate the value and beauty of this seasonal manuscript.

 

Bibliography

Abbey of Solesmes. The Liber Usualis 1961. Internet Archive, http://archive.org/details/TheLiberUsualis1961. Accessed 27 Nov. 2019.

Anima Nostra Sicut Passer Erepta Est. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UrXb2QUSsI. Accessed 27 Nov. 2019.

“Bartolomeo Di Domenico Di Guido | Manuscript Leaf with Entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday in an Initial D, from a Gradual | Italian | The Met.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/469046. Accessed 27 Nov. 2019.

Chant Manuscript, ca. 15th Century. https://libmedia.willamette.edu/commons/item/id/163. Accessed 27 Nov. 2019.

Council of Trent. Sacrosancti et œcumenici Concillii Tridentini Pavlo III, Ivlio III, et Pio IV, PP. MM. celebrati canones et decreta. Apud Cornab Egmond et Socios, 1644.

“Council of Trent | Definition, Summary, Significance, Results, & Facts.” Encyclopedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/event/Council-of-Trent. Accessed 27 Nov. 2019.

Gregorian Chant Notation. http://www.lphrc.org/Chant. Accessed 27 Nov. 2019.

Laudate Deum – Gregorian Chant, Catholic Hymns. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaVnBFhiwqU. Accessed 27 Nov. 2019.

Making Manuscripts. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuNfdHNTv9o&feature=youtu.be. Accessed 27 Nov. 2019.

Psalter, MS M.934 Fol. 141r – Images from Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts – The Morgan
Library & Museum. http://ica.themorgan.org/manuscript/page/120/77003. Accessed 27 Nov. 2019

Robbins, Richard. “Re: Newly discovered 15th c. Chant manuscript.” Received by Hector Aguero, 22 Aug. 2019.

Wittenberg to Willamette

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From Wittenberg to Willamette:  Unlocking the Secrets of a Rare Book from the Hatfield Library’s Vault.

By Doreen Simonsen
Humanities, Fine Arts, and Rare Book Librarian

Cover of the 1599 Vulgate

Researching a Rare Book is often like a treasure hunt.  The Mark O. Hatfield Library has hundreds of rare books ranging from medieval manuscripts to 20th century first editions, and my study of one of these works, a Latin Bible entitled Biblia Sacra, proves that you really cannot judge a book by its cover.

It all started with Martin Luther.  His actions in Wittenberg inspired the leaders of the Counter Reformation to revise their version of the Bible.  With the endorsement of Pope Clement the Sixth (1592 to 1605) and the Council of Trent (1545 – 1563), the Clementine Vulgate Bible was printed widely throughout Europe.  Our library catalog record for this book notes that our copy was published in Antwerp, Belgium at the Plantin Moretus Printing House in 1599.  According to records from that printing house, Jan Moretus shipped 500 unbound copies of this book, Biblia Sacra, to Germany to be sold at the famous Frankfurt Book Fair in the Fall of 1599.  The books in that shipment were missing a quire, (a section) of the book, and our copy has missing pages, which were replaced with handwritten copies of the missing texts.  But who wrote those handwritten pages?  And who bound this book?

Missing Pages from 1599 Vulgate

In the Renaissance and Reformation, books were sold unbound, and the buyers of those texts would have them bound by professional bookbinders.  Thanks to Luther’s nailing his 95 Theses to the door of the cathedral in Wittenberg in 1517, that city became a center of book publishing and bookbinding.  By 1555 Wittenberg had a guild of 50 bookbinders, who engraved metal plates and rolls to decorate the leather book covers they made. The cover on our bible is embellished with images, borders, Latin quotes, the initials CKW and the date 1562.  CKW turned out to be Caspar Kraft of Wittemberg, a prominent bookbinder in that city in northern Germany.  The images on his 1562 plates are of Justicia and Lucretia, images “that Lutherans used to justify their resistance to imperial [and papal] authority.”1

Around these images are decorative borders made by bookbinding rolls, which were made by Hans Herolt of Würzburg, in southern Germany.  Who hired Herolt to bind this book?  Julius Echter von Mespelbruun, the Prince-Bishop of Würzburg from 1573 – 1617, is the most likely candidate.  A Latin inscription in the books states that “Magister Wolfgang Christoph Röner received (this book) due to the generosity of the most reverend and most holy Prince-Bishop of Würzburg.”  Another inscription is by Andreas Weissens…, a theology student, who might be the person who wrote in the missing pages in this bible.

Theology Student Inscription

The most prominent inscription, however, is that of Dr. Charles H. Hall who gave this book to Willamette University in 1875.  Born in Kentucky, Hall studied Classics at Indiana Ashbury College in 1852, taught Latin, Greek, and Natural Sciences at Willamette University in the late 1850s, and became the son-in-law of Alvan Waller in 1859.

How this Latin Catholic Bible with Lutheran images on the bindings traveled from Germany to America is a mystery that may never be solved, but revealing its secrets shows that rare books can be more than old texts with pretty pictures.  They are artifacts worthy of study in their own right that can illuminate historical controversies and engage curious student researchers here at Willamette University.  A rare book can truly be much more than its cover.

 

“Closeup of the CKW 1562 book
plate stamp made by Caspar
Kraft of Wittenburg, Germany”
“Emblem of the Plantin Moretus
Printing House, Antwerp, Belgium”
“Closeup of the book border rolls
made by Hans Herolt of
Würzburg, Germany”
“Inscriptions, Including Charles Hall’s
Donation to Willamette, 1876″

 

1 Zapalac, Kristin Eldyss Sorensen. In His Image and Likeness : Political Iconography and Religious Change in Regensburg, 1500-1600. Cornell University Press, 1990. Page 128.

 

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