Sometimes it’s obvious that a book has a story to tell before you even look at the text. The volume at OLS X-1-60 is a good example. As soon as it is lifted from its protective storage box, the hand-made brown velvet case begs to be stroked. The initials TW are embroidered on the top; the pink felt lining protrudes; and the cardboard backing shows through where moths have made a meal of the felt. Continue reading “And when I looked … a book was therein”
Diversity and similitude in Middle English Ten Commandments texts
Religious miscellanies feature prominently among the Library’s holdings of Middle English manuscripts. Intended as manuals for religious instruction, they frequently contain texts of and commentaries on the Ten Commandments. A survey and analysis of the content and contexts of selected examples suggest that the creation of a flowing effect, whereby the various instructions almost ‘bleed’ into one another, was part of their aesthetic. Thus, the texts are arranged in order to suggest a way of reading whereby the reader becomes deeply familiar with essential religious knowledge. Contrasts in these texts shed light on a vibrant and heterogeneous creative culture of religious instruction, wherein a range of audiences and communities of readers engaged with catechetical material during the late medieval and early modern period.
Continue reading “Diversity and similitude in Middle English Ten Commandments texts”
And there was Light – Day Four
Shedding light on … Christianity
Trinity College Library holds a huge number of pamphlets on various subjects. Many of the early ones are religious as it was common for preachers to publish their sermons. These are often bound together, but some were bound by their owners with completely unrelated subjects. These volumes sometimes have a handwritten index which can be as interesting to researchers as the content of the tracts. This volume, from the Crofton Collection of about 2,000 items, contains a mixture of mainly political and religious material bound in an apparently random order.
And there was Light – Day One
Shedding light on … Our Collections
As 2015 has been declared the International Year of Light by UNESCO, Trinity College Dublin has chosen ‘Light’ as the theme for Trinity Week (11th-17th April) this year. To highlight the wide range of material in the care of the Department of Early Printed Books and Special Collections, a display in the Berkeley foyer of the items shown here, and a series of blog posts over the week, will focus on different aspects of ‘light’.