Check out the guide for VMS 6420: Equine Medicine and Surgery.
Resources and Services
HSL Then & Now: Visitors to the library
In 1986, all visits to the library involved leaving home or office and coming in the door. Today, 60% of the visits to the library are virtual through our website.
Number of visitors to the library (web and in person visits):
In 1986: 257,714
In 2010: 401,763
Read about more changes: A series of reflections on the changes over the last 25 years in conjunction with the 25th anniversary celebration.
Graduate Student Workshops
Index, Imprimatur, and Banned Books Week
September 24 marked the beginning of Banned Books Week, a yearly celebration of the freedom to read. Books in Special Collections are no stranger to banning and censorship – most were subject to some form of official approval, and many were banned at some point in their history.
Censorship and the License to Print
By the seventeenth century, book publication in most European countries was regulated by a licensing board made up of Church or state officials. Fail to get a license to print, an imprimatur, and your book was effectively banned. Legitimately printed books featured the imprimatur prominently, often on the verso of the title page.
Of course, books were still printed without a license – and these often included a false imprint, to make it look like they had been printed somewhere else. Printers used this bit of subterfuge to publish texts seen as subversive, heretical, or immoral.[2]
The book on the right is a work by Christopher Sandius promoting Arian and Socinian beliefs. It was published in Amsterdam by Christoph Petzold. However, Petzold issued it with a false imprint identifying a publisher in Köln. The false imprint protected Petzold, and to some extent Sandius as well, and it enabled the publication of beliefs condemned by Protestant and Catholic authorities.
The Index Librorum Prohibitorum
Underground publications like that of Sandius presented a challenge to religious and state officials: censorship wasn’t enough to keep dangerous ideas out of public circulation. Authorities responded with outright bans of books already in print.
Special Collections has a version of the Index accompanied by an edict issued by Philip II of Spain. This version of the Index was released in 1570 in response to an uprising in the Netherlands, a territory Spain had recently acquired. Issued in French, Dutch, and Latin, Philip’s Index was meant to eradicate political protest and Protestantism in the Netherlands, a goal he never achieved. It's interesting to note that this Index was printed by the renowned Christopher Plantin. Modern scholars have discovered that Plantin himself was involved in surreptitious printing of heretical and scientific texts.
The Index was updated and re-issued periodically, and authors were added or removed as opinion changed. Galileo Galilei’s heliocentric, for example, was condemned as heretical and banned shortly after its publication in 1632; by 1758, however, works dealing with heliocentrism were removed from the Index. Pope Paul VI abolished the Index in 1966.
Book Banning Continues
Book banning was certainly not limited to the Index, and it has been practiced in the United States for hundreds of years. In 1650, only twelve years after the first printing in North America, Puritans in Boston held the continent’s first book burning. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, United States Customs and the U.S. Post Office regularly confiscated shipments of books under the auspices of anti-obscenity legislation, including James Joyce’s Ulysses, Voltaire’s Candide, Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.
In schools and public libraries, attempts to ban books continue. Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been banned periodically in American schools since its publication, as have childhood favorites such as James and the Giant Peach and A Wrinkle in Time. This summer, a high school in Republic, Missouri, drew national attention for banning Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five. For more information about current attempts to ban books, see Mapping Censorship from the Banned Books Week website.
Read More
Elizabeth Eisenstein, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change. New York : Cambridge University Press, 1980, c1979.
Heresy and Error: The Ecclesiastical Censorship of Books, 1400-1800. Digital exhibit, Bridwell Library, Southern Methodist University, 2010.
Hans J. Hillerbrand, “On Book Burnings and Book Burners: Reflections on the Power (and Powerlessness) of Ideas.” J Am Acad Relig (September 2006) 74 (3): 593-614. doi: 10.1093/jaarel/lfj117
Joan Stack, ed., The Art of the Book: Manuscripts and Early Printing, 1000-1650. Columbia, Mo.: University of Missouri, Board of Curators, c2003.
Update on Ellis Library Fire Cleanup and Renovation
At approximately 3:30 a.m., Saturday, Sept. 10, Columbia Fire Department fire fighters and MU Police Department (MUPD) officers responded to a fire alarm in Ellis Library. Upon arrival, fire crews discovered several small fires in offices of the north end of the main level of the building. The fires were localized in two areas, photocopy services and circulation/interlibrary loan, and they were suppressed by automatic fire sprinklers in those areas.
Fire fighters extinguished the flames, which resulted in moderate damage to these two locations. Significant amounts of water were released in the time between the initial alarms and when emergency personnel determined that no other fires remained in the building. As a result, the northern and eastern portions of the first floor of Ellis Library, as well as areas of the lower level housing the State Historical Society, received water damage.
At approximately noon on Sept. 10, officers from the MUPD arrested Christopher C. Kelley of Columbia on suspicion of committing arson, burglary and vandalism in Ellis Library. Mr. Kelley turned himself in, and additional details cannot be released due to the ongoing investigation.
At this time, the northeast quadrant of the first floor is closed to the public. This includes
- the Circulation/Reserve/Interlibrary Loan offices,
- the 1st floor men’s restroom,
- the Government Documents collection and staff offices,
- the print Reference Collection,
- the Cisco TelePresence room, and
- the student computer lab.
The Administration Offices are accessible by a route past the south side of the elevators. Please look for the signs.
The Circulation/Reserve/Interlibrary Loan service point has been temporarily relocated to the northwest corner of the first floor.
We estimate that it will take most of the fall semester to finish the cleanup, renovate the fire-damaged offices and replace carpet and tile in the water-damaged areas.
We appreciate your support and understanding during this time. And we apologize for any inconvenience.
What’s the oldest item in Special Collections?
We get this question a lot – and we posed it as a multiple-choice trivia question this week on our Facebook page. Now it’s time to reveal the answer. Which is the oldest item in Special Collections?
And the winner is… The Mesopotamian Clay Tablet
As far as we know, this cuneiform tablet dates to around 2500 B.C.E., making it the oldest item held in Special Collections (it predates the next oldest item, an Egyptian scarab seal, by about 500 years).
This tablet is one of eight held in the Special Collections department. Although the other seven tablets have been translated, this one has never been deciphered. If you read any of the ancient Near Eastern dialects, we’d love to hear from you!
For more information about the cuneiform tablets in Special Collections, see the online exhibit Cuneiform Tablets: Records of Ancient Mesopotamia see the list on our website [digital exhibit retired; link updated 11/10/2014].
What about the other options?
This was a tough question, because all of the items were the oldest in one way or another. More information below.
The Hebrew Scroll
If you guessed that the scroll represents the oldest book form in Special Collections, you were right! The scroll predated the codex (the form we usually associate with a book nowadays) by thousands of years.
In most of the Western world, the codex replaced the scroll gradually, from around 300 to 500 A.D. However, among Jewish communities, the scroll retained its place as the primary form for storing and transmitting information. Jewish congregations still use temple scrolls produced to strict specifications in their rituals of worship.
Although it’s old, this parchment scroll is far from ancient. It dates from the 1600s, contains the Book of Ruth, and was probably not produced for temple reading. It fits conveniently into the hand, the perfect size for personal study.
The Latin Manuscript Codex
This manuscript copy of De Constructione by Priscianus dates to around 1150 A.D. Although Special Collections holds manuscript fragments that are older, this is the oldest complete book in the collection. It is a work on grammar, written in Latin with passages in Greek.
The binding of this manuscript was done later than the text, but it is also interesting because it’s a good example of a fifteenth-century German binding in blind-tooled pigskin. The back board still shows discoloration from the former site of a metal clasp.
The Egyptian Papyrus Fragment
Dating from approximately 1500-1100 B.C.E., this fragment from the Egyptian Book of the Dead isn’t the oldest item in Special Collections – but it is the oldest piece of writing on papyrus in Special Collections.
Papyrus is a plant that grows along the marshy banks of the Nile River, and the ancient Egyptians used it to make a paper-like substance for writing. Papyrus became one of Egypt’s main exports and was used throughout the ancient world, in Greece, modern-day Turkey, and the Middle East.
First EndNote X5 Workshop Thursday, Sept. 22, 6 PM
Learn to set up and use this powerful tool to organize your references and format them in thousands of citation styles.
Next workshop:
Thursday September 22, 2011
6:00-7:30 p.m.
Ellis Library Room 213
Instructor: Ashley Nelson
More information on EndNote and registration link: https://libraryguides.missouri.edu/endnote
“Simple in vocabulary while majestic in effect”: 400th anniversary of the King James Translation of the Bible
The most published book in the world celebrates its 400th anniversary.
Soon after March 24th 1603, when James VI, King of Scots, inherited the English crown, a crowd of Puritans approached him with their petition. They requested that all traces of Catholicism were removed from the Church of England service. Upon thorough consideration of their request the King rejected the whole document and even threatened to “harry the Puritans out of the land, or else do worse”.
But he surprisingly agreed to commission a new translation of the English Bible — a last-minute added wish by one of the Puritans, known as Dr. John Rainolds, President of Corpus Christi College in Oxford. The 47 translators were selected based exclusively on their scholarly reputation without regard of religious convictions, thus about a quarter of them were Puritans.
Though it is officially called the Authorized Version, King James never technically authorized this new translation of the Bible into English. It is possible to assume that this version which is now firmly connected with the King’s name was called “authorized” in opposition to the two preceding attempts made by the early dissidents – Wycliffe and ill-fated Tyndale. This translation meant to play an important role in uniting all Protestant Englishmen despite their religious differences, the endeavor started by Elizabeth I with The Act of Uniformity in 1559.
As Leland Ryken puts it: “The King James style is a paradox: it is usually simple in vocabulary while majestic and elevating in effect. However imitated or parodied, the language is dignified, beautiful, sonorous and elegant.” *
These words capture well the impression King James Bible makes on all who love the English language.
Perhaps nothing influenced the English and eventually American literature and literary language more than KJB. Edmund Wilson thought that “other cultures have felt its impact, and none — in the West, at least – seems quite to accommodate to it. Yet we find we have been living with it all our lives”**
Small wonder: first [pilgrim] settlers in America were people of the Bible, and many early American towns carry Biblical names, such as Salem, Mass, 1626; Bethel, Conn, 1700; Shiloh, NJ, 1705; Ephrata, Penn, 1732; Nazareth, Penn., 1740; Emmaus, Penn.,1740; Bethlehem, NH, 1774, etc. Seven towns named Galilee, fifteen named Trinity, fourteen – St. Joseph, including one in Missouri; as well as St. Mary, MO — one of the nineteen American towns with this name.
Everyday idiomatic usage is replete with hidden or obvious direct quotations from the KJB. Here are a few common examples:
At his wit’s end – Psalms, 107:27
God save the king – The First Book of Samuel, 10:24
My brother’s keeper – Genesis, 4:9
The land of the living – Job, 28:13
The root of the matter– Job 19:28
Fell flat on his face — Numbers 22:31
The salt of the earth– Matthew 5:13
Labor of love — Thessalonians 1:2, 1:3:
A two-edged sword—Proverbs 5:4
White as snow — Daniel 7:9:
A drop in the bucket — Isaiah 40:15
A wolf in sheep’s clothing — Matthew 7:15
Woe is me – Job 10:15
Beat swords into ploughshares — Isaiah II
In the twinkling of an eye—1 Corinthians 15:52
Sign of the times — Matthew 16:3
The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak— Matthew 26:41
You reap what you sow — Galatians VI
Physician heal thyself — Luke 4:23
Man does not live by bread alone — Deuteronomy 8:3
A broken heart — Psalms 34:18
It’s better to give than to receive — Acts 20:35
Good Samaritan — Luke 10:30/33
Feet of clay — Daniel 2: 31-33
Don’t cast your pearls before swine — Matthew 7:6,
A voice crying in the wilderness– John 1:23
Awake and sing– – Isaiah 16:19
We also encounter these quotations in our everyday lives, as I did while at the ALA conference in Philadelphia last year where I took this picture.
“Proclaim Liberty throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof” (Leviticus 25:10) – The Liberty Bell in the Liberty Bell Center, Philadelphia.
Sources:
*Leland Ryken. How We Got the Best-Selling Book of All Time. WSJ, August 27, 2011
**Robert Alter. Pen of Iron: American Prose and the King James Bible. Princeton U Press, 2010.
John Bartlett. Familiar Quotations: A Collection of passages, Phrases and Proverbs Traced to Their Sources in Ancient and Modern Literature. Boston, 1855.
Highway 70 from Columbia, MO to St. Louis.
Ellis Library will reopen on Tuesday, Sept. 13.
Ellis Library Closed Sunday and Monday (September 11 & 12).
Ellis Library will remain closed through Monday, September 12. The Library will resume regular hours on Tuesday, September 13. Circulation, Reserve and Interlibrary Loan Services have been temporarily relocated to the Current Periodicals Reading Room on the west side of the first floor of Ellis Library.
On Monday, September 12, Ellis Reference will resume phone service (573-882-4581) in addition to answering questions through chat, email and text messages until 6:00 pm. All branch libraries will follow their regular hours.
More information regarding the Saturday morning fire and cleanup may be found here.