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Material: The Incarnation of Ideas Guest curator Don G. Meyer, of the Class of 2003 in the Williams College Graduate Program in the History of Art, says that “the written word must be recorded on something, and that something is a material article, made of skin or paper, ink or pigments, cords, threads, wood, leather. And just as a book’s text conveys specific ideas, so the materials from which it’s made convey information about its history as an object: evidence of how it was made, how it was used.” According to Meyer, books literally embody ideas, and have done so for hundreds of years. To demonstrate this, Meyer has selected thirty-two books, or parts of books, from the collections of the Chapin Library. Some of these reveal the components of books, such as a 1790 first edition of Goethe’s Faust in unbound gatherings, and a coverless 13th to 14th-century collection of medieval manuscripts in which the structure of the binding is open to view. The Library’s earliest manuscript book, a copy of the Gospels in Latin produced at Charlemagne’s scriptorium in Tours, France around the year 800, shows evidence of how its sheets of animal skin were prepared for writing, as does a 13th-century manuscript of the Book of Isaiah with an elaborate underlying grid to guide its scribe. Incomplete additions to a 1470 edition of Plutarch’s Lives reveal how initial letters were drawn in early printed books, while a manuscript Bible produced in Paris and a psalter made in northern France, both in the 13th century, contain pictorial initials which not only begin texts but also embody their meaning. More curious items in the exhibition include a copy of the 1483 edition of sermons by Petrus de Palude, Patriarch of Jerusalem, still with the chain that once attached it to a desk to prevent theft; Sherman F. Denton’s Moths and Butterflies of the United States East of the Rocky Mountains of 1900, whose illustrations incorporate actual insect wings; and a severely damaged Syriac manuscript of the New Testament from the 10th-11th centuries which graphically reflects the harsh environments in which it has been kept. Reading Material: The Incarnation of Ideas will remain on view in the Chapin Library through May 2, 2003. The Chapin Library is located on the second floor of Stetson Hall, north of Main Street on the Williams College campus in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Adjacent parking is available behind Thompson Memorial Chapel. The Library is open Monday-Friday, 10:00 a.m.-12:00 noon and 1:00-5:00 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, phone 413-597-2462 during library hours, fax 413-597-2929, or e-mail chapin.library@williams.edu.
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© 2003 by the President and Trustees of Williams College |