{"id":24,"date":"2015-01-22T17:50:08","date_gmt":"2015-01-22T17:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/remnanttrust\/?p=24"},"modified":"2015-01-23T17:52:48","modified_gmt":"2015-01-23T17:52:48","slug":"article-rare-manuscripts-now-on-display-in-odum-library","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/remnanttrust\/2015\/01\/22\/article-rare-manuscripts-now-on-display-in-odum-library\/","title":{"rendered":"Article: Rare Manuscripts now on Display in Odum Library"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the January 22, 2015 Issue of The Spectator<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

by John Stephen<\/em><\/p>\n

The titans of history have arrived on campus \u2013 well, their writings have, at least.<\/p>\n

A collection of rare manuscripts is now on display at Odum Library. The wide-ranging compilation of books, documents and scrolls\u2014the oldest dating back to 1250\u2014is quite impressive. The collection includes works by Machiavelli, Aristotle, John Locke, Thoreau, Booker T. Washington and Ben Franklin, just to name a few.<\/p>\n

Starting with the collection\u2019s grand opening on Feb. 26 and continuing throughout the semester, students will be able to touch and handle these manuscripts, but only under the careful watch of library staff. Right now, students can still see the documents, which are encased in glass displays on Odum Library\u2019s first floor.<\/p>\n

The old manuscripts are divided by subject matter:<\/p>\n

Politics \u2013 Includes Aristotle\u2019s \u201cLibri Politici\u201d (1543), John Locke\u2019s \u201cTwo Treatises of Government\u201d (1694), Machiavelli\u2019s \u201cLi Princeps\u201d (1580), and a rare edition of the U.S. Constitution (1788).<\/p>\n

Slavery and Women\u2019s Suffrage \u2013 Includes Booker T. Washington\u2019s \u201cUp From Slavery: An Autobiography\u201d (1901), Ben Franklin\u2019s \u201cPennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society Founding Document\u201d (1787), and Susan B. Anthony\u2019s \u201cHistory of Woman Suffrage\u201d (1887-1922).<\/p>\n

Literature \u2013 Includes Pope Innocent III\u2019s \u201cOn the Misery of the Human Condition\u201d (1250), Thoreau\u2019s \u201cA Yankee in Canada\u201d (1866), and \u201cThe Works of Geoffrey Chaucer\u201d (1687).<\/p>\n

Religion \u2013 Includes a Koran manuscript handwritten in Arabic (18th century), Martin Luther\u2019s \u201cVon der Babylonischen der Kirchen\u201d (On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church) (1520), and Augustine of Hippo\u2019s \u201cConfessions\u201d (1491).<\/p>\n

Math and Natural Sciences \u2013 Includes Newton\u2019s \u201cThe Mathematical Principals of Natural Philosophy\u201d (1729) and Francis Bacon\u2019s \u201cOf the Advancement and Proficience of Learning\u201d (1640).<\/p>\n

Deborah Davis, VSU archives director, said that normally in the rare books world, you find only bits and pieces of writings. This collection features entire works, many of which came from European great house libraries.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing that\u2019s amazing about these books is their condition is so perfect,\u201d Davis said. \u201cWe have rare books at Valdosta State \u2013 we have them in the archives \u2013 but they\u2019re not as beautiful as these.\u201d<\/p>\n

This collection is currently on loan from The Remnant Trust, a nonprofit organization whose mission, according to its website, is to make rare documents, normally kept under lock-and-key in prestigious institutions, freely available to students, faculty and the general public globally.<\/p>\n

In the past few years, through some generous donations, VSU has been expanding its own rare books holdings, Davis said. In celebration of the Remnant Trust collection coming to campus, the archives department is displaying early printed material on Odum\u2019s second floor. This material includes handwritten medieval manuscripts, 18th and 19th century lithographs and rare European maps.<\/p>\n

Davis said the works in the Remnant Trust collection are valuable not only because of their monetary worth, but also because of the ideas they contain.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese books have influenced history and have had an impact that is so far beyond what an individual (could) do,\u201d Davis said. \u201cThey\u2019re important because they\u2019re the main voices of our Western culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look at them and I imagine what the person who wrote this \u2013 if they\u2019re handwritten \u2013 what kind of conditions would they be writing this under? They would be in a castle or an abbey, and their work\u2026lasted 500 years.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the January 22, 2015 Issue of The Spectator by John Stephen The titans of history have arrived on campus \u2013 well, their writings have, at least. A collection of rare manuscripts is now on display at Odum Library. The wide-ranging compilation of books, documents and scrolls\u2014the oldest dating back to 1250\u2014is quite impressive. The … Continue reading Article: Rare Manuscripts now on Display in Odum Library<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":498,"featured_media":26,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/remnanttrust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/remnanttrust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/remnanttrust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/remnanttrust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/498"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/remnanttrust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/remnanttrust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/remnanttrust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24\/revisions\/25"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/remnanttrust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/remnanttrust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/remnanttrust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/remnanttrust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}