Thanks to CVM-IT, we’ve got more computers in the library! There will be a total of 6 new machines — these computers are connected to the printers across the hall. So, students, you can use your Print Quota!
Enjoy!
Resources and Services
Digital Humanities Roundtable
The Importance of Thomas Bodley 400 Years Later
Today marks the 400th anniversary of Thomas Bodley’s death. Although his name is not as well known on this side of the Atlantic, Bodley’s contribution to research and learning has had lasting impacts in the English-speaking world for centuries.
Though English, Bodley spent his childhood and adolescence abroad in Europe. He had the misfortune to be born into a Protestant family in the last year of the reign of Henry VIII in 1545. After the short reign of Henry’s son, Edward, Mary took the throne and spent the entire five years of her reign persecuting Protestants. His family escaped to mainland Europe, and there, Bodley studied under the tutelage of John Calvin in Switzerland and attended services by John Knox. When Mary died and was succeeded by Queen Elizabeth, the family returned and Bodley enrolled in Magdalen College at Oxford University.
After finishing college, his career took him to Parliament and eventually he served as a diplomat and sent on secret missions to the Netherlands, France, and Denmark. In 1596, he returned home and settled back in Oxford. Two years later, Bodley was given a large dinner in his honor. It is speculated that it was that fateful evening in 1598 when 53 year-old Thomas Bodley, while speaking to old friends and colleagues, came up with the inspiration to do one last project that would make his name live on 400 years later.
Over 120 years earlier, the main library at Oxford University had been presented as a gift from Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester. However, after Queen Elizabeth had ascended to the throne, the library had been stripped and abandoned. In 1598, after the dinner in his honor, Bodley determined to restore the library and spend the rest of his life working in it. Oxford immediately and graciously accepted his offer. In 1600, Bodley began collecting books to donate to the library that would use his name.
To motivate others to donate money and books, he created a large book bound in vellum, a “Benefactor’s Book”, which would remain on display in the center of the library. The book would contain the names of all those who had contributed to the library. This novel idea is used to this day in libraries around the world.
The Bodleian Library is one of six legal deposit libraries in the United Kingdom and Ireland. A copy of every book, CD-Rom, website, and other public materials published in the UK and Ireland is deposited at the Bodleian. As such, space is limited and larger facilities are used as depositories to hold all of the materials the Bodleian possesses. Some of the treasures of the Bodleian include a copy of the Magna Carta, one of 42 complete 1455 Gutenberg Bibles still in existence, the Ashmole manuscripts, the Song of Roland, the Book of Hours (shown here) and the Codex Bodley.
Special Collections has various items relating to the Bodleian Library and its long history. The items depicted in this blog post are all materials you can find by visiting us up on the 4th Floor West in Ellis Library. We would be happy to help you and answer any questions you might have.
Now Online: JVDI
We now have online access to the Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation! Online access goes back to the Jan 1999 issue and includes article in press.
Enjoy!
MLK, Jr. Replica Ribbon Cutting
Undergraduate research paper contest: win $500, submit by February 1
Giovanni Boccaccio turns 700
Giovanni Boccaccio was born seven hundred years ago in Tuscany, Italy. Special Collections and Rare Books celebrates this important anniversary by displaying editions of Boccaccio’s work as well as that of influential contemporaries and predecessors.
Boccaccio made an inauspicious start as the illegitimate son of Boccaccino di Chellino. He was adopted by his father, but along with security and status came the duties associated with being an acknowledged scion of the merchant class. Boccaccio received training in banking and law–both of which he resented– before abandoning both for poetry.
Though Boccaccio is best known today for The Decameron, he wrote over fifteen works, many of which were valued over The Decameron in his own lifetime. Beyond the passing tides of literary taste, what remains certain is that Boccaccio’s work reflects the uncertainty of his era. Fourteenth-century Italy, with its dynastic wars, popular uprisings, and plagues favored resourcefulness. There were times to cast off the past, and there were times to cling to past models. Boccaccio began writing in the vernacular early in his career with Caccia di Diana of 1334. It is to this phase that we owe The Decameron, a work that has been called the “epic of the merchant class” and "Boccaccio’s human comedy that stands next to Dante’s Divine Comedy." His work would take a sober turn after he became acquainted with Petrach. With Petrarch’s encouragement, Boccaccio studied the classics and began writing in Latin. To this phase we owe the existence of De genealogia deorum gentilium.
Highlights of our exhibition include a combined edition of De genealogia deorum gentilium and his other reference work, de montibus & siluis de fontibus: lacubus: & fluminibus, published in 1494 in Venice. The Italian translation, Geneologia degli dei, published in 1547, also in Venice, will also be displayed. Other items of interest include sixteenth-century works of Ovid, Petrarch, Dante, and Villani. These include a first edition of the Italian translation of Dante’s De Volgare Eloquenzia.and an edition of Petrarch published by the famous printer, Aldus Manutius, in 1533. We will also display of early twentieth-century deluxe editions of Boccaccio’s Decameron, rated PG-13 for the portrayal of clerics in compromising poses.
Branca, Vittore. Boccaccio: The Man and His Works, trans. Richard Monges. New York: New York UP, 1976.
Serafini-Sauli, Judith Powers. Giovanni Boccaccio. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1982.
The Struggles of Abolitionism and the 150th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation
My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause.
– President Lincoln’s public response to Horace Greeley’s open letter published in the New York Times, August 22, 1962
Today, the brand new start to a New Year, marks the 150th anniversary of what is arguably the most important document of the 19th century. Although the Emancipation Proclamation did not outlaw slavery, nor make former slaves citizens, the Proclamation did announce that all slaves in the Confederates States that were still under rebellion were free and ordered the Union Army to treat any slaves they found in the rebellious states as such. However, there were five slave states not under rebellion. Of the estimated 4 million slaves in the United States at the time, the Emancipation Proclamation only applied to 3.1 million.
And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God
– Emancipation Proclamation, January 1, 1863
Slavery, of course, had been a contentious issue not only in American history, but in the history of many different nations for centuries. At Special Collections, we have many different print and microform sources on the subject of slavery and abolitionism. Even though slavery nearly tore apart the United States, a great majority of our sources were published in London. Before and after the passage of the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 by the British Parliament, abolitionists from all over wrote impassioned speeches and sermons decrying the evils of slavery. Pictured here is one such speech delivered by Reverend Benjamin Godwin of Oxford to the General Anti-Slavery Convention.
One of the greatest, and certainly the most earnest, British abolitionists was William Wilberforce. Wilberforce took up the cause of ending slavery in 1787. It took a full twenty years of fighting before Wilberforce saw his first victory.
The Slave Trade Act of 1807 ended the commerce of buying and selling human beings throughout the British Empire, but it did not end slavery itself. Buoyed by his success in 1807, Wilberforce and his compatriots assumed that a full ban on slavery would be forthcoming. They were wrong. It took another twenty-six years for slavery to end throughout the British Empire, only three days before Wilberforce passed away at the age of seventy-three. The story of his lifelong work to end slavery was told in a major motion picture, Amazing Grace, which was released in 2007 to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the Slave Trade Act of 1807.
Back in the United States, many of the great statesmen of our nation changed their mind on the subject. Thomas Jefferson is known as a slaveholder, but also someone who spoke on the eventual dismantling of the institution. In 1807, Jefferson signed into law a bill that banned the importation of slaves into the United States. In Missouri, our very own Representative James S. Rollins, known as the Father of the University of Missouri, was also a slave owner. Rollins was reticent at first to completely abolishing slavery. However, he opposed the expansion of slavery and the secessionist movement that turned into the American Civil War.
Despite initially stating that the Emancipation Proclamation was legally void, he was eventually one of the most important supporters of the 13th Amendment in 1865, which completely outlawed slavery everywhere in the United States. His speech on the floor of the House was pivotal in bringing in the two-thirds majority needed for the amendment to become law. That speech is reproduced in a volume in Special Collections’ MU collection.
As for President Lincoln, his Emancipation Proclamation fundamentally changed the Civil War. The proclamation provided for the addition of former slaves into the Union forces, increasing the number of soldiers and sailors by almost 200,000. While the Confederate States were being depleted of fighting men, the Union was gaining more. Furthermore, the proclamation ignited a new fervor in the north, the idea that with every square mile of ground gained by the Union was more land that was now free from bondage and slavery gave the North the needed boost and a moral imperative to win the war. Today, the original Emancipation Proclamation resides in the National Archives in Washington, D.C. alongside other famous documents including the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and one of the original copies of the Magna Carta.
Gary St. Ivany Art on Display in Bookmark Cafe
Gary St. Ivany
www.garystivany.com
gary@garystivany.com
I paint everyday in my studio overlooking the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri. My paintings are in numerous private, corporate and public collections through out the world. They have been featured in the magazines Columbia Home and Life, Kansas City Home and Garden, St. Louis Homes and Lifestyles, and Lake Lifestyles. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, featured the developing art community at the Lake of the Ozarks and included my art in the article. I currently have paintings at the The Vine Wine Bar and Gallery in Osage Beach, Missouri, Country Club Hotel and Spa in Lake Ozark, Missouri, Teller’s Bar and Gallery, Columbia, Missouri, and Dunklin Street Gallery in Jefferson City, Missouri. I am a member of the Columbia Art League, and show my paintings annually at Art in The Park.
My paintings are done primarily in oil and acrylic and I stretch my own canvases to fit unique frames that I select for my paintings. My style is flowing and varies from impressionistic to abstract, but always with strong design and a vibrant use of color. My subjects include landscapes, portraits, animals, and abstract designs.
I make my art for the pure pleasure, joy and beauty that art can bring. I want my paintings to evoke an emotion from the viewer.
The End of the World, Past and Present
Still waiting for the world to end? Perhaps you need a different apocalyptic prophecy. Don't worry, Special Collections has plenty! They may not be Mayan, but here's a small sampling of various ways the world could have ended over the past 350 years.
Joseph Mede (1586–1638) was a fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge, and a recognized authority on the Bible, Hebrew language, and ancient Egypt. In his Clavis apocalypseos (Key to the Revelation), Mede claimed that the book of Revelation should be interpreted literally as a prophecy of world history. An ancient Near Eastern text on dream interpretation, he argued, provides the key to interpreting the book's symbolism. Mede identified Rome as the Antichrist and the source of the apostasy supposed to come with the end times. He thought the biblical Apocalypse would occur sometime prior to 1716, and suggested 1654 as a probable date. Mede's work had broad influence, and its translation into English after his death renewed interest in the apocalypse among English scholars and religious leaders.
The daughter of a farmer, Joanna Southcott (1750–1814) proclaimed herself a prophet and visionary in her early 40s. She saw herself as a champion of the poor, and she gained credibility and a large following when some of her public predictions came true. In 1814, at the age of 64, Southcott believed herself to be pregnant with the second incarnation of God. The child, named Shiloh, was supposed to usher in the Millennium, the thousand years of peace that some Christians believe will occur before the Last Judgement. Rather than giving birth, Southcott died on December 27 of that year. Her followers preserved her legacy, including a box of sealed prophecies, into the twentieth century.
John Cumming (1807-1881) was a Presbyterian preacher whose career was initially built on popularizing established forms of worship. By the 1840s, his congregation numbered over 4,000, and he was patronized by members of the peerage and social elite. At the height of his popularity, Cumming turned increasingly to the study of biblical prophecy. His interpretations of the books of Genesis and Daniel led him to believe that the second coming would occur in 1867. Even after that year passed, Cumming continued to publish pamphlets with apocalyptic and prophetic themes, despite the decline of his congregation and popularity.
Very little is known of David Pae (1828-1884), but he seems to have been a contemporary of Cumming. His pamphlet The Coming Struggle among the Nations of the Earth laid out a detailed sequence of world events Pae claimed would take place over a fifteen-year span, starting in 1853, and ending with Britain dominant over most of the world. This hegemony, Pae argued, would set the stage for the end times, in which those of Anglo-Saxon descent would feature as God's chosen people. Pae published at least two follow-ups to The Coming Struggle to counter objections and answer questions about his very Anglo-centric prophecies.
Special Collections has dozens of other works on eschatology. Some attempt to interpret contemporary events as signs of the end; others are works of prophecy. Many are serious treatises written by theological scholars, while others are perhaps better characterized by this manuscript note, from a nineteenth-century reader: "The author is half crazy & all his trash is only fit to throw into the fire."
But don't take that reader's word for it; you be the judge! Search the MERLIN catalog under the keywords Eschatology, Apocalypse, and End of the World, and find your own favorite work of impending doom.