Medieval History
I squinted at the calligraphic handwriting. (I don't read much Latin or Middle French, and in this script, it's challenging just to make out the letters.) And I marveled at the content: God stands next to Adam in the Garden of Eden in all the regalia of a 15th-century monarch. The serpent assumes the head and torso of a woman when it tempts Eve to eat the apple. Queen Tomyris wears a placid expression as, with one hand, she points a bloody knife toward King Cyrus' decapitated corpse and, with the other, she holds his severed head over a vat filled with the blood of his soldiers. Medieval theologians are astonishing.
Then, I stepped back and asked, how might this manuscript help a teacher bring medieval Europe to life for his or her students? What does a manuscript provide that a textbook does not? What would be gained and what would be lost if we had this page digitally reproduced, that is, professionally photographed and displayed on a website? The texture, the smell would be gone. But those colors and the startling scenes would still be stunning on screen. Does the Internet's much-touted ability to overcome spatial barriers effectively dissolve the walls of a rare-books reading room?
Click here to read this article from the Chicago Tribune
Click here to visit the Digital Collections from the Classroom website
- Killing Kings: Patterns Of Regicide In Europe, Ad 600?1800
A new study by a Cambridge University criminologist reveals just how dangerous it was to be a monarch in Europe in the medieval and early modern eras. On 30 January 1649 Charles I was executed on a balcony overlooking Whitehall in central London. A huge...
- The Newberry Library And The University Of Notre Dame Acquire Rare Fourteenth-century Book
Chicago's Newberry Library and the University of Notre Dame recently jointly acquired an unusual early fourteenth-century codex originating in southern France that contains a collection of 38 scholastic texts, only two of which have been edited in...
- Greetings From Rare Book School In Charlottesville, Virginia.
This summer Rare Book School is excited to offer four courses designed specifically to advance the research of scholars in medieval and renaissance studies. Introduction to Paleography, 800?1500 introduces students to the book-based scripts...
- Newberry Library Fellowships In The Humanities, 2009-2010
Newberry Library Fellowships in the Humanities, 2009-2010 The Newberry Library, an independent research library in Chicago,Illinois, invites applications for its 2009-2010 Fellowships in the Humanities. Newberry Library fellowships support research in...
- Ex Libris Conference
49th Annual RBMS Preconference Rare and Special Bytes: Special Collections in the Digital Age June 24-27, 2008 | Los Angeles, California Hosted by UCLA and the Getty Research Institute Register and book your hotel room early, the last two RBMS Preconferences...
Medieval History
Newberry library project makes historical documents and images accessible for the classroom
Then, I stepped back and asked, how might this manuscript help a teacher bring medieval Europe to life for his or her students? What does a manuscript provide that a textbook does not? What would be gained and what would be lost if we had this page digitally reproduced, that is, professionally photographed and displayed on a website? The texture, the smell would be gone. But those colors and the startling scenes would still be stunning on screen. Does the Internet's much-touted ability to overcome spatial barriers effectively dissolve the walls of a rare-books reading room?
Click here to read this article from the Chicago Tribune
Click here to visit the Digital Collections from the Classroom website
- Killing Kings: Patterns Of Regicide In Europe, Ad 600?1800
A new study by a Cambridge University criminologist reveals just how dangerous it was to be a monarch in Europe in the medieval and early modern eras. On 30 January 1649 Charles I was executed on a balcony overlooking Whitehall in central London. A huge...
- The Newberry Library And The University Of Notre Dame Acquire Rare Fourteenth-century Book
Chicago's Newberry Library and the University of Notre Dame recently jointly acquired an unusual early fourteenth-century codex originating in southern France that contains a collection of 38 scholastic texts, only two of which have been edited in...
- Greetings From Rare Book School In Charlottesville, Virginia.
This summer Rare Book School is excited to offer four courses designed specifically to advance the research of scholars in medieval and renaissance studies. Introduction to Paleography, 800?1500 introduces students to the book-based scripts...
- Newberry Library Fellowships In The Humanities, 2009-2010
Newberry Library Fellowships in the Humanities, 2009-2010 The Newberry Library, an independent research library in Chicago,Illinois, invites applications for its 2009-2010 Fellowships in the Humanities. Newberry Library fellowships support research in...
- Ex Libris Conference
49th Annual RBMS Preconference Rare and Special Bytes: Special Collections in the Digital Age June 24-27, 2008 | Los Angeles, California Hosted by UCLA and the Getty Research Institute Register and book your hotel room early, the last two RBMS Preconferences...