Collection of Danish plays uncovered

A collection of Danish plays from the 18th and 19th century has recently been cataloged. This collection of roughly 70 items includes translations of contemporary popular plays from France and Germany. The bulk of these items were found in the cataloging backlog section that our team is currently working through. The rest, which were in our off-site storage facility, were reunited through cataloging and applying subject headings. These plays were all purchased at the same time (29 May, 1948) from Herman H.J. Lynge & Son (Copenhagen) using funds from a donation by Professor Henning Larsen, professor of English (1939-57), Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences (1947-53), and provost (1953-57).

All of these plays were printed in Copenhagen, and many of them were translated from their original source by Niels Thoroup Bruun or Thomas Overskou. This collection provides some interesting insight into the popular drama culture in Denmark, and also into what was being imported from other countries. They are easily recognized by the use of marbled boards and the same, distinct handwriting found on paper labels attached to the front covers of each item. We have gathered this disparate collection together using two different headings: “Danish plays –18^thcentury” and “Danish plays – 19^th century”. DG

   

Collection of Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Spanish Romances (IUA19102-IUA19170)

While working through our miscellaneous backlog, we came across a stack of unbound short dramas printed in Barcelona.  This small collection (about 70 items) turned out to be a group of Spanish Romanceros, or ballads, printed by two different printing families.  The ballad was a popular form in Spain from the 15th century, and often featured heroic themes and would be accompanied by music. Many of the popular ballads drew from historical sources or dealt with the tension between Spain and the East. Often called vulgars or romances morisco, these ballads were written as pulp entertainment for the public, and feature interesting and sometimes grotesque illustrations.  The ballad fell in and out of public favor, but found a new renaissance during the Romantic period of the 18th century.

                        

This collection of ballads was printed by the families of Juan Jolis and Bernardo Pla, both located on the Calle de Cotoners (or Calle de los Algodoneros) in central Barcelona. Both of these printing houses used a very similar format, and the same woodblock illustrations were reused for different imprints. Most of the items in this collection are undated, but can generally be dated from the first quarter of the 18th century to mid-19th century. All of these ballads are 22 cm high and most are 4 or 8 pages, printed on a rag paper, and are designed for popular consumption. Most of the items in this collection are referenced in Palau y Dulcet’s Manual del librero hispano-americano, a standard bibliography for Spanish material.

                        

The majority of this collection is in very good condition; in fact, most of the 8-page items are uncut. This collection provides a unique resource for students of popular culture of the 18th and 19th century.

The collection can be found between the shelf-marks IUA19102 and IUA19170. DG

Unidentified coat of arms found in the Incunabula collection

 

While cataloging a copy of Leonardus de Utino’s Sermones aurei de Sanctis (Venice: Johann von Koln and Johann Manthen, 1475) we came across a coat of arms that is so far unidentified. This coat of arms has been added to the recto of leaf a2 and is located after the incipit to the prologue.  The inscription at the head of the leaf reads:  Emptu[?] Jhr…ne[??] die ii  Juli 16[-]1, and a previous inscription has been struck-through above it. The library is one of seven universities in possession of this text in the United States.

The volume was bequeathed to the Library in 1931 by Mrs. Mary F. Kitchell from the library of her late husband, John Wickliff Kitchell of Pana, Illinois. The rest of the initials in this item have all been added in gilt, continuing the “golden” theme.  It has been bound in parchment on boards, with spine title: “Leonardi de Vtino Sermones de Sanctis 1475”.

 

 

We are seeking any information that might lead to the identification of this coat of arms. If you have any suggestions please contact the Non Solus blog moderators or the Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

An anonymous manuscript tract found in the Incunabula collection

While updating the catalog records for the Incunabula collection, a copy of the Pseudo-Augustinian work Sermones ad heremitas was recently re-cataloged. The Rare Book & Manuscript Library has three fifteenth-century imprints of this work, two from Venice and one from Strasbourg. The copy printed by Paganinus de Paganinis on 26 May 1487 is the smallest in size of the three copies and is bound in vellum.

This copy also features an anonymous manuscript tract written on the last (blank) page and continuing on a leaf tipped in at the end. This tract is titled “Tractatalus de excelle[n]tissi[m]o sacramento corporis [Christ]i” (from explicit) and is written in a fifteenth-century hand, with the incipits and the explicit in red, and with two initials. 

This tract would be an excellent opportunity and a manageable editing project for a student studying classics, medieval studies, or paleography. DG

 

To the End of the World and Back (Post-1650 MS 334)

Under the direction of Captain Sir William Parry, the HMS Hecla and HMS Griper left port on 11 May 1819 destined for the Arctic. Their objective was to continue the search for the Northwest Passage and to pursue the Longitude prize by surpassing the record for a sailing vessel traveling the farthest north (previously set by whalers/explorers William Scoresby, Sr. & Jr. in 1806 at 81 30′ N). Parry’s arctic voyage of 1819-1820 has been labeled the most successful arctic voyage of the 19th century.

The journey, chronicled in Parry’s Journal of a Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific (London, 1821; shelfmark: Q. 919.8 P24J), sailed to Greenland and to the mouth of Lancaster Sound. The expedition easily passed through the sound (previously thought to be impassable by the 1818 expedition of Captain John Ross) and progressed towards the Arctic Ocean. The expedition finally reached 113 46′ 43.5″ and were impeded by ice, and so the decision was made to winter on Melville Island. This was the first British naval expedition of the 19th century to winter in Arctic conditions.

 During the winter on Melville Island the crew entertained themselves with theatrical shows, hunting, schooling, and with the circulation of a weekly journal called The North Georgia Gazette and Winter Chronicle. The goal of the Chronicle was to “enliven the tedious and inactive months of winter” which would be “wholly dependent on the gentlemen of the expedition”, and was first proposed on 20 October 1819 to be edited by Captain Edward Sabine. The Chronicle was circulated in manuscript form between all of the expedition’s crew.

 

Post-1650 MS 0334 is the personal copy of Charles Palmer, Midshipman on the H.M.S. Hecla. Mr. Palmer is mentioned many times throughout Sabine’s printed version of the Chronicle as an entertainer and singer, who was a source of good humor for his expedition mates. MS 334 is comprised of 54 large leaves (31 cm) written in two columns and composed as a contemporary newspaper. This manuscript and the printed version (shelfmark: Rare Books Q. 052 NG) are accompanied by a short letter written to Mr. Palmer’s sister, Judith Maria Palmer. DG

Moon Type Books

At the early age of four Dr. William Moon (1818-1894) lost sight in one eye due to scarlet fever and by 1839, he became totally blind. Moon quickly devoted his attention to learning the various types of type for the blind and eventually began teaching other blind pupils of various ages, which led to the formation of the Asylum for the Blind, Easton Road, Brighton. Observing that his pupils had a difficult time committing many passages to long term memory, Moon desired to develop a new method of reading that was based loosely around the Roman alphabet. Moon developed his new Moon Type and published his scheme in 1845. Moon type was very successful, especially with readers who had lost their sight later in life after learning how to read. Throughout his career, Moon published more than 300 works in Moon type in over 400 different languages and dialects and set up Home Teaching Societies and Free Lending Libraries across the United Kingdom. It is estimated that his embossing stereotype plates produced over 200,000 imprints.

During our cataloging of the backlog in the Rare Books & Manuscript library, we stumbled upon a box of materials for the blind that had not been touched since the late 1980’s. This box included four volumes in Moon type, Shakespeare’s Henry V printed in Boston line type [IUQ04524], and a fragmented run of the Michigan Herald for the Blind [IUQ04525], donated to the Rare Book & Manuscript Library by Professor Joseph Larsen in 1987.

    

IUQ04520 is Moon’s “First illustrated reader” published in the late 19th century. This reader credited on the title page as “Owing to the extensive use of the Elementary School Series, published by Messr. Daldy, Isbister & Co.,” and includes eight embossed plates of images that would allow readers to ‘see’ illustrations of the topic being discussed in the text. This is an early use of the tactile images that would later become popular in works for the blind, especially children’s works. IUQ04521 is Moon’s adaptation of T. Nelson and Sons’ Royal school primer printed in the late 19^th century. IUQ04522 is the first volume of a 10 volume English dictionary that Moon produced during the last years of his life. This volume contains definitions for words A-Base. IUQ04523 is a unique find and is not listed in the bibliography found in Rutherfurd’s William Moon and his work for the blind (1898). It is an illustrated history of the United States based on the popular work by John Fiske (1894). This work provides illustrations and embossed maps with captions for the reader.

These books are the only works in Moon type cataloged at the University of Illinois, and provide very unique examples of a rarely-used reading system for the blind for students on the Urbana-Champaign campus. DG

    

Spanish Antiphonal Manuscript (Pre-1650 MS 209)

Recently donated by Roberta Lynn Hay, Pre-1650 MS 209 is a large and imposing addition to The Rare Book & Manuscript Library of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  Once used for the observance of the Divine Office, this manuscript is one volume of an incomplete antiphonal of the Temporale cycle of a non-Dominican monastery or church. An antiphon is a response to a Psalm, in this case sung in Gregorian plainchant. This volume’s text provided the antiphons used in a monastery or church for the six-eight week period from the beginning of Advent through the beginning of Ordinary Time (including Nativity, Christmastide, Circumcision, the Epiphany and the Octave of Epiphany).

An antiphonal would traditionally be placed at the front of a choir on a lectern, in good light or under candlelight, so that all of the members of the choir could see the chant. The text for the verse or Psalm only needed to be large enough for an intoner to read, however the response or antiphon needed to be large enough for the entire choir to read. The contents of the codex, in this case, dictated the physical size needed for it to function properly. Because an antiphonal was needed for each order of the Office, it needed to be a very durable and easy-to-use item. The utilitarian aspect of these manuscripts explains why MS 209 is so heavily used, has such thick binding chords, very thick boards, and leaves made from durable parchment.

This manuscript was probably produced in the 15^th or 16^th century in Spain at a monastery or church for local use. MS 209 was a heavily used manuscript, which is apparent from its current condition. Upon a casual browse, a reader of this manuscript will immediately notice the darker condition and flexibility of the corners of the leaves, due to the amount of page-turning required for each hour of the Office. Some of the leaves have drops of wax found on them, which illustrates that this manuscript was sometimes read under candle-light. In MS 209, certain prayers and songs have been erased and replaced with new prayers or antiphons. The insertion of a new set of antiphons and responses were all probably due to changes within the Catholic Church. This evidence also shows that this manuscript was not a static text, but a fluid thing that could be changed to conform to current trends or rules.

Measuring at over 50 cm tall, MS 209 is the largest music manuscript in the RBML. It is comparable in size and use to a seventeenth-century Spanish Gradual on display at the Music and Performing Arts Library, donated in 2009. (http://www.library.illinois.edu/mux/about/exhibits/gradual.html) DG