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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.
A Visit From St. Nicholas (and other tales of Santa Claus)
The legend of St. Nicholas of Myra has taken so many twists and turns over the centuries that he is barely recognizable to us anymore. Instead, he has been replaced by a jolly, bearded, portly man in a red suit and cap and coal black boots. For this installation of Scripta Manent, we will trace the history of St. Nicholas/Santa Claus/Father Christmas/Kris Kingle, just in time for Christmas. The real St. Nicholas was born in Asia Minor during the third century in the city of Myra (in present-day Turkey). He was the only son of wealthy Christian parents named Epiphanius and Johanna according to some accounts and Theophanes and Nonna according to others. His wealthy parents died while Nicholas was still young and he was raised by his uncle—also named Nicholas—who was the bishop of Patara.
In 325, Nicholas attended the Council of Nicaea. There, Nicholas was a staunch anti-Arian and defender of the Orthodox Christian position that Jesus was fully divine and fully human, and one of the bishops who signed the Nicene Creed. Legend holds that he was so angry with Arius (who taught that Jesus was only a man) that Nicholas punched him in the face. However, the most famous legend associated with St. Nicholas is that of the poor man with three daughters. In the tale, the man could not afford a proper dowry for his daughters. Hearing of the poor man's plight, Nicholas decided to help him, but being too modest to help the man in public, or to save the man the humiliation of accepting charity, he went to his house under the cover of night and threw three purses (one for each daughter) filled with gold coins through the window opening into the man's house. There are different variations of the story. One has Nicholas throwing the bags down a chimney. Another embellishes the story and has a daughter’s stocking hanging over the embers of the fireplace to dry, where the bag of gold dropped straight in.
In the ensuing centuries, the story of St. Nicholas has evolved. Beloved by children all over the world, St. Nicholas/Santa Claus/Father Christmas/Kris Kringle brings gifts to good boys and girls on Christmas (and sometimes coal to bad children). However, he has not always been the most beloved of figures. In 1686, Josiah King published a pamphlet called The Examination and Tryal of Old Father Christmas. In the pamphlet, Father Christmas is put on trial by those who worry that Christmas is becoming too materialistic and too much of an excuse to party and commit debauchery. In the end, Father Christmas is acquitted of his charges, and yet he is admonished by the judge to remember that Christmas is about Jesus.
Although Father Christmas was usually thinner and wore a green coat, the modern idea of a rotund jolly man in a suit came about with the publication of A Visit from St. Nicholas by Clement Clark Moore in 1823. However, Moore’s Santa was an elf with a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer. It was Thomas Nast’s subsequent illustrations that helped cement the image of the modern Santa Claus in the minds of most Americans. The idea that Santa Claus resides at the North Pole may also be attributed to Nast. One of his illustrations is entitled “St. Claussville, N.P.” Another depicts two children drawing Santa’s route to their house from the North Pole.
One of the most famous writings involving Santa Claus came from a newspaper column in the New York Sun. Little 8-year old Virginia O’Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor asking if there really was a Santa Claus. As her letter says, her father told her that “if [it is] in the Sun, it’s so.” Her letter was answered eloquently and reassuringly by Francis Pharcellus Church, whose line “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus” is often quoted more than a century later. It remains the most reprinted editorial ever to run in any newspaper in the English language.
In the 20th and 21st centuries, the image of Santa Claus has been used for all sorts of advertisements. The most famous may be the Coca-Cola Santa Claus, which debuted in the 1920s. During World War II, Santa was depicted with a helmet to ask Americans at home to send Christmas gifts overseas to soldiers fight in Europe and the Pacific. However, not everyone is thrilled with the overexposure of Santa Claus. Fred Rinne’s hand drawn artist book, God Santa Christ depicts Santa Claus as a creation of a consumer culture. As he writes:
Santa Christ/is the protecting god/of the consumerist economy/Belief in Santa Christ/is crucial to that/vague entity known as/"our way of life".
However, it is the spirit of giving to those in need that the original St. Nicholas represents. It is our hope here at Special Collections that this spirit touches you, dear reader, and that you intently research local and national charities before giving to those in need this season. By doing so, you keep the spirit of St. Nicholas and Santa Claus alive. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone. See you in 2013!
Try an Interactive Case from NEJM
The New England Journal of Medicine is offering a free trial of their new Interactive Cases. Try to solve this week’s case: A Patient found Unresponsive.
Second and third floor to be painted next week
The second and third floors of the library are scheduled to be painted, beginning with the top floor on December 17. The second and third floor carpets will also be cleaned.
Ellis Finals Lounge
Everyone deserves a break! Visit the Finals Lounge in 159 Ellis Library from 6-10 pm on Monday and Tuesday of finals week for free drinks and snacks. See reference desk for directions to the Lounge.