Visit the UCBA Library to browse a selection of print books about the histories, cultures and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America.
Be sure to also visit the Hispanic Heritage Month Display online guide.
by Christian Boyles
Cincinnati, University of Cincinnati, John Miller Burnam Classics Library, Choir Psalter
Italy, s. XV (with s. XVIII additions)
As most of you know, the Classics Library has shifted a number of its collections this summer. One of those collections is the rare books and manuscripts that were moved from ARB to what used to be called the Pal cage on S4. Most of the palaeography collection in turn has moved to the Scriptorium by the main Reading Room on floor 4. One day in early spring, as I was reviewing the books in the Pal cage to prepare for the move, I came upon a large size book (16 x 22 inches), an original medieval choir book on parchment with a wooden cover adorned with metal bosses and metal studs at the edges. I could not find either a title page or a call no. In fact, the book had not been cataloged and neither the classics bibliographer of more than 40 years, Mike Braunlin, nor my predecessors, Jacqueline Riley and Jean Wellington, were aware of its existence. I set out to try to solve the mystery of its provenance and date, but also its acquisitions history. I could find no information in the minutes of the UC Trustees, or in any library history, so the acquisitions history may never become fully known. We included the manuscript in the Adopt-a-Book event in Langsam in March which generated interest and a generous donation.
Regarding the identification of the manuscript, however; after some initial research, I contacted specialists I knew, in particular, Carmela Vircillo Franklin, President of the Medieval Academy of America and Professor of Medieval Latin at Columbia, who in turn contacted someone I also knew and had worked with in the past. Consuelo Dutschke is the Curator of Medieval and Renaissance Collections at Columbia University’s Rare Book & Manuscript Library. There are few more distinguished experts in the world. Dr. Dutschke identified our mystery manuscript as Italian, possibly northeastern, [from the Veneto area?], and originating in the 15th century. Below are her notes:
Choir Psalter for ferial use, with psalms, hymns and other texts (invitatories; antiphons; responsories; etc.).
Italy, s. XV with later (possibly s. XVIII) additions, including an alphabetical index to the psalms as the front pastedown (signed and dated 1728), as well as some replacement leaves (e.g., f. 68), and some added prayers (e.g., the Salve Regina at the end of the book).
One historiated initial remains: on a verso (folio not known), to open the service at compline, a 4-line initial C in white-patterned pink, set on a cusped gold ground, with blue and green acanthus leaves as terminals; the initial encloses the bust of a tonsured religious man wearing black robes (Benedictine?), holding a rosary in his right hand, and with a large wooden cross leaning against his left shoulder.
A verso //<Patri simulque filio tibique sancte> Spiritus sicut fuit sit iugiter seculum per omne Gloria. Amen. <added versicle and response; then:> Ad Magnificat antiphona, Suscepit deus Israel puerum suum sicut locutus est . . . , Ad complectorium antiphona, Miserere. Antiphona, Alleluia. In secula seculorum amen. Psalmus, Cum invocarem exaudivit me iustitie mee in tri<bulatione dilatasti michi> . . .
End of the hymn, Verbum supernum prodiens; antiphon for vespers; beginning of service for compline with Ps. 4. Note in the upper margin: Ad completorium. The bottom three lines of the leaf, but carefully maintaining the original historiated initial, are an 18th century replacement. The outlined style of the initial’s ground (very cusped) and the small flourished gold dot above the initial may point to northern (even northeastern?) Italy.
Bound in brown tooled leather over wooden boards, which are outlined in stamped metal; three bosses of an original six remain.
Added on the front pastedown, alphabetical list of the psalms with references to folio numbers in this volume; at the end of the list, a separate list of the psalms used in the Office of the Dead. The list is signed: “P. M. PR Fecit 1728”; the first “P” might stand for “Pater/Padre”; the “PR” might stand for “Presbyter” (?).
Invitatories for Sundays from the first Sunday after the octave of Epiphany until Septuagesima Sunday (basically from mid-January until February, since Septuagesima = 9th Sunday before Easter), and from the first of October until Advent (basically from early October until the end of November).
This first hymn for Sunday at matins; note that the second part of the line, i.e., “quo Trinitas beata mundum condidit” is a re-writing over an erasure.
End of Ps. 117 and beginning of Ps. 118; this leaf is an 18th century (probably?) replacement for the original leaf, carefully cut off along the inner bounding line that left the original penflourishing of the initials in place.
A verso //<quoniam non de>reliquisti querentes te domine. Psallite domino qui habitat in syon . . . Exultabo in salutare tuo, infixe sunt gentes in interitu//
Ps. 9, vv. 11-16; a note in a later hand in the upper margin reads “Dominica.”
Ps. 125, v. 6; antiphon and hymn for Tuesday evening.
Added in an 18th century hand (?).
These detailed observations were made from email attachments of the images above. An in person examination will most likely yield further details. Dr. Dutschke is also one of the founders of Digital Scriptorium, a consortium of American libraries and museums whose goal is to provide inventory and detailed metadata in addition to images and, in many cases, the full text of medieval manuscripts. It is our hope that our manuscript will soon be digitized and included in the DS. However, most importantly, although the manuscript is in surprisingly good physical condition, the UCL Preservation Department will first need to stabilize the red rotted leather binding and clean the text blocks.
It was an exciting find in an obscure corner of our Library where no one knew of its existence until just a few months ago. Thanks to Professor Franklin and Dr. Dutschke and to the anonymous donor who gave us the financial support we needed, we will now be able to catalog and formally add this magnificent 15th century Italian choir book to the John Miller Burnam Classics Library’s manuscript collection.
On Monday, Sept. 16, Suzanne Bratt joined the staff of the Albino Gorno Memorial (CCM) Library as the cataloging specialist.
Suzanne graduated with a BA in music from Yale University, and with her PhD in musicology from the University of Pennsylvania. Over the past year, she has worked as a library intern at the Curtis Institute of Music, focusing on cataloging archival materials and processing ILL requests. Previous experience included working at UPenn’s Graduate Student Center as a “Navigating the Dissertation” and “Navigating the Grant” fellow. Suzanne’s research interests include the music of J. S. Bach, early Beethoven, the history of music printing, opera history and early chamber music. Her future interests include pursuing qualifications in music librarianship.
Please join us in warmly welcoming Suzanne to UC Libraries!
Interior of the DAAP Library
Elizabeth Meyer has been appointed head of the Robert A. Deshon and Karl J. Schlachter Library for Design, Architecture, Art and Planning (DAAP) effective immediately. Elizabeth has been graciously serving as the interim head of the DAAP Library since 2017. In her interim role, Elizabeth has been commended for her commitment to outstanding services and collections at the DAAP library, her creativity and her vision of how to engage with the faculty and students of DAAP to ensure a vital library presence with their innovative programs and research interests.
Elizabeth began working at UC Libraries in 2004 as the visual resources librarian. She holds an MLS from Indiana University, and a BA in art history from DAAP. Her research interests include Cincinnati modernist architecture and historic preservation, and she has continually engaged with the design and architecture communities in the Cincinnati metropolitan area, securing unique papers, archives and special collections that benefit both DAAP and the broader research community.
Congratulations, Elizabeth, on her new role as the Head of the DAAP Library!
We have new Classics Library access policies. Please see: https://libraries.uc.edu/libraries/classics/classics-library-policies.html
Please note that faculty, graduate students, Tytus fellows in Classics are given swipe card access to the stacks. We are also getting lockers primarily for non-UC classicists in which to place bags.
The rare classics books in ARB have been transferred from ARB to the new “Rare Book and Manuscript Room” in the former Pal cage on S4. Please ask library staff to retrieve rare books for consultation in the Circulation area, 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m, M-F.
Most of the palaeography collection has been transferred to the Scriptorium – The John Miller Burnam Palaeography Reading Room — room 414A off of the main Reading Room. Please request that the staff at the Circulation desk unlock the door for you.
The Reference collection is now located on the 4th floor opposite the Circulation desk and the current journals have been moved to the mezzanine.
Please review the Classics Library’s borrowing privileges for the collections in these and other locations: https://libraries.uc.edu/libraries/classics/services.html
The “New Books” have been moved to the cubby hole in the Circulation area.
We have “new” more comfortable chairs opposite the Circulation desk.
Please note that our annual supply budget of $250 cannot pay for new furniture (barely for pens). We make regular trips to UC Surplus on our own time and money to pick up discards. Much is trash, but occasionally we find decent chairs and things which was the case with the two armchairs we have put in the graduate study room to replace the tattered green one.
We currently have three new student assistants: Emily Dean and Elaine Suer (both Classicists), and Kayla Weiglein (in the German Ph.D. program).
Returning student assistants include: Brycen Carle, Kathleen Johnson, Maddie Menssen, Yo Shionoya, and Amber’Nay Wilkins. We are currently in the process of hiring additional student assistants. So far we are pleased with the applicant pool.
We are happy that Yo will be staying with us albeit in a different capacity from during the summer. Our many projects (and calamities) have greatly benefited from Yo’s intelligence, kind and helpful manner, and hard work in the supervisory position he has held since late May. His many transformative initiatives have included a new student worker recruitment process and training procedures as well as his supervision of and active participation in the many reorganization projects and salvage efforts this summer.
The black mold from the leak in the Reading Room has been removed, so the room is again safe to use.
The leak in the stacks (under the urinal) has more or less been fixed. We are still waiting for the areas affected to be cleaned. Some 400 German dissertations are being treated by the Preservation department in Langsam.
Last but not least, the Classics Library has a new and improved website: https://libraries.uc.edu/libraries/classics.html
The website has been a major undertaking for many months because of added content but also because earlier versions kept being overlaid on newer ones, not by us). I wish to personally thank Lindsay Taylor for her invaluable help in navigating the many complexities of the different reiterations and editing modules. John Wallrodt used his Photoshopping skills to produce the composite image on the Classics Library landing page.
The moving of some 15,000 books has been quite an overwhelming effort. Most of the work – reviewing each book, changing locations and labels in the catalog and on spines, carrying, lifting, and cleaning numerous books, book cases, and shelves (we’re not quite finished yet) — has been carried out by our small Classics Library staff and student workers. An outside company moved the books from ARB to the Classics Library, but because of misshelvings and other issues, some of this work has been (and continues to be) fixed by the Library staff.
Hope you will like our new and improved library organization and welcome (back) to the John Miller Burnam Classics Library, UC’s Best Kept Secret!
From Your Classics Library
A circa 1948 Kodak Duaflex Camera with flash
attachment made by the Eastman Kodak Company of Rochester, NY.
Though the Oesper Collections do not explicitly collect photographic equipment, a few interesting items have come our way over the years and will be described in this and the succeeding two installments of museum notes. Click here for issue no. 57.
Click here for all other issues of Notes from the Oesper Collections and to explore the Jensen-Thomas Apparatus Collection.
Your UCBA Library’s Book of the Month for September:
Money: 5000 Years of Debt and Power
by Michel Aglietta
As the financial crisis reached its climax in September 2008, the most important figure on the planet was Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke. The whole financial system was collapsing, with little to stop it. When a senator asked Bernanke what would happen if the central bank did not carry out its rescue package, he replied, “If we don’t do this, we may not have an economy on Monday.”
What saved finance, and the Western economy, was fiscal and monetary stimulus – an influx of money, created ad hoc. It was a strategy that raised questions about the unexamined nature of money itself, an object suddenly revealed as something other than a neutral signifier of value. Through its grip on finance and the debt system, money confers sovereign power on the economy. If confidence in money is not maintained, crises follow. Looking over the last 5,000 years, Michel Aglietta explores the development of money and its close connection to sovereign power. This book employs the tools of anthropology, history and political economy in order to analyse how political structures and monetary systems have transformed one another. We can thus grasp the different eras of monetary regulation and the crises capitalism has endured throughout its history.
Is it checked out? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered:
The Ascent of Money: a Financial History of the World (DVD)
HG171 .A83 2009
Bestselling author, economist and historian Niall Ferguson takes a look at how money evolved, from the concept of credit and debt in the Renaissance to the emergence of a global economy and the subprime crisis we face today
A History of Money (E-Book)
A History of Money looks at how money as we know it developed through time. Starting with the barter system, the basic function of exchanging goods evolved into a monetary system based on coins made up of precious metals and, from the 1500s onwards, financial systems were established through which money became intertwined with commerce and trade, to settle by the mid-1800s into a stable system based upon Gold. This book presents its closing argument that, since the collapse of the Gold Standard, the global monetary system has undergone constant crisis and evolution continuing into the present day.
Digital Gold: Bitcoin and the Inside Story of the Misfits and Millionaires Trying to Reinvent Money
HG1710 .P68/ 2015
The notion of a new currency, maintained by the computers of users around the world, has been the butt of many jokes, but that has not stopped it from growing into a technology worth billions of dollars, supported by the hordes of followers who have come to view it as the most important new idea since the creation of the Internet. Believers from Beijing to Buenos Aires see the potential for a financial system free from banks and governments. More than just a tech industry fad, Bitcoin has threatened to decentralize some of society’s most basic institutions. An unusual tale of group invention, Digital Gold charts the rise of the Bitcoin technology through the eyes of the movement’s colorful central characters, including a British anarchist, an Argentinian millionaire, a Chinese entrepreneur, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, and Bitcoin’s elusive creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. Already, Bitcoin has led to untold riches for some, and prison terms for others.
by Christian Boyles
PLEASE NOTE: THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED.
The University of Cincinnati Libraries’ Research & Data Services is calling for virtual submissions that best demonstrate the power of visualization to present complex data.
The Data Visualization Showcase will be held from 1-3 pm on Friday, Oct. 25, 2019 in the Visualization Laboratory (240H Braunstein Hall, Geology-Mathematics-Physics Library). Coffee and refreshments will be served. All are welcome.
Submissions for the showcase are open to all University of Cincinnati affiliates, but must be submitted to AskData@uc.edu by Oct. 11 to be considered for the awards. All submissions will be evaluated by a panel of judges and should follow submission guidelines.
The showcase will be juried by a panel of interdisciplinary judges scoring each submission on the following four tenants of data visualization: Impact, Storytelling, Technical Aptitude and Creativity. See the rubric for more details.
A new Facsimile of the Month is now on display in the CCM Library Atrium: a reproduction of the Mozart’s autograph manuscript of Die Zauberflöte [The Magic Flute]. Mozart’s original manuscript is kept in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz. The facsimile was published by Bärenreiter in 1979 (CCM Library call no.: ML96.5. M69 Z3). You can preview a few pages from the Facsimile of the Month using the action button of the same name on the CCM Library home page.
Celebrate the arrival of Kirill Petrenko as the new conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic. His inaugural concert with the orchestra, conducting the Lulu suite by Berg and the Symphony no. 9 by Beethoven is now available in the Archive