Selections from Archival and Special Collections: 

Curating Experiential Learning in Archival & Special Collections

Melissa McAfee | Special Collections Librarian

 

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uring the Winter 2020 term, University of Guelph students were given an extraordinary opportunity to engage in a variety of experiential learning projects with a collection of original medieval manuscript codices, dating from the 13th to 16th century, through the “Manuscripts in the Curriculum II” loan program.  An initiative of Les Enluminures, a rare book firm with offices in Chicago, New York, and Paris, the loan of manuscripts to the University of Guelph Library was one of only four awarded during the 2019/2020 academic year and only the second to a Canadian institution. Over the course of the term, several hundred students have been exposed to the manuscripts, the equivalents of which are not otherwise available within the university.

The earliest book in the loan is a German Psalter, which dates from around 1240. This book is bound in an early alum tawed leather binding, with five bosses and two strap and pin fasteners to protect the binding and its contents. Richly illuminated with red and blue pigments and gold leaf, this Psalter contains 150 songs which formed the core of the Divine Office and was most likely intended for lay use.

The loan also includes a printed Book of Hours published in Paris around 1526, just 70 years after the Gutenberg Bible (the first book to be printed from metal moveable type). Books of Hours were used for private prayer and contained prayers and psalms that were recited at prescribed hours of the day. The most widely produced illuminated manuscripts of the later Middle Ages, they were popular well into the age of print. This Book of Hours has 17 large metalcut illustrations, which have been lavishly painted in the style of illuminated manuscripts.

The other books in the loan include a 13th century Bible, a variety of 15th century books that represent standard texts of the Middle Ages, including the Office of the Dead, a Breviary, Juvenal’s Satires, Da Vercelli’s Sermons, a Confessional, and a 16th century book of French feudal land holdings.

Although made for different purposes, all of the manuscripts in the loan (except for one) were written by hand on parchment (specially prepared untanned animal skin). Many contain elaborately illuminated and decorated initials and illustrations.

Students in three History classes taught by Dr. Susannah Ferriera (associate professor, History) joined forces during the Winter 2020 term to curate an exhibit, “Illuminating Life: Manuscript Pages of the Middle Ages,” based on the manuscripts in the loan.

History graduate students conducted the preliminary research on the books and developed the themes of the exhibit in seminars held during the Fall 2019 and Winter 2020 terms. The fabrication and design of the exhibit were undertaken by undergraduate students in a History WPL (Workplace Learning) course. These students also planned a colloquium related to the medieval manuscripts. Undergraduate students in a Pre-Modern History course curated an online exhibit based on the physical case exhibit, which includes supplementary content. In addition, a First Year Seminar has organized three outreach events to share the manuscripts with the Guelph community: an exhibit preview; an open house for the Guelph community; and an open house for children in selected classes.

“Illuminating Life,” which will be launched at the “From Parchment to Pixels” colloquium in McLaughlin Library on March 12, can be viewed both in physical and online formats in the Exhibit Gallery on the second floor of McLaughlin Library. The books will be exhibited until May 12, 2020. The colloquium, which is sponsored by the University of Guelph Library, College of Arts, and the THINC Lab, will feature talks on medieval manuscripts by fourteen undergraduate and graduate students in History and Art History classes. Will Noel, Associate University Librarian for Special Collections at Princeton University, will give the keynote address on his ground-breaking Digital Archimedes Palimpsest project (the focus of his 2012 TED talk) and will share his thoughts on the need for Open Access for cultural heritage materials. In addition to illuminating the history of the Middle Ages, both the exhibit and colloquium also illuminate the power of student engagement with rare books through tactile encounters with the past.

The colloquium and exhibit launch are free and open to the public. All are welcome!

 

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Over the years, the University of Guelph Library’s Archival & Special Collections staff have partnered with faculty in Art History, Hospitality and Tourism Management, History, Landscape Architecture, and Music to support experiential learning projects based on rare, original primary source materials in the library’s core collecting areas. Examples of these include digital pedagogy projects such as the Scottish Chapbook Project and the What Canada Ate sites and physical and online exhibits such as  “From Glen Notes to War Notes: A Canadian Perspective on the First World War in Rilla of Ingleside,” “More than Just Maple: A Collection of Canuck Staples,”  “A is for Angler,” and Scotland in the Mail!

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Interested in the history of printed books? Check out this article also by Melissa McAfee.

Witchcraft and the Magic of Early Printed Books

 

 

 

A version of this article appeared in print in The Ontarion issue 188.3 on March 12, 2020.

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