The blog post below was written by Jana Considine, who is currently working toward her masters in Library and Information Science at the University of Maryland. She completed a volunteer internship in the Rare Books Room this summer.

This Summer, I had the pleasure of interning at the Rare Books Library at Catholic University Libraries, under the mentorship of Sally Kendrick. My project for the summer was to develop an online exhibit utilizing materials from the Pamphlet Collection, after the selection of which I would also digitize and make accessible.

Picking Pamphlets

The Pamphlet Collection at Catholic University contains over 12,000 items, the majority of which date to the 19th and 20th century. The largest collection of American pre-Vatican II pamphlets in the United States, it presented a daunting challenge to look through. In the beginning especially, when I had little idea of my topic, I simply sat down and scrolled through every entry as I found titles of interest. Over time, a few directions of interest began to form, and I was able to narrow my options through keyword searches. I finally settled on the subject of women religious as there seemed to me to be a multitude of unique pamphlets I could work with, each telling its own story.

It was also helpful to focus on the subject, as I quickly ran into problems of copyright. In addition to attempting to contact the original publishers of many of my selected pamphlets, such as a booklet on the Venerable Nano Nagle published by Our Sunday Visitor Press, I also was able to find plenty of documents old enough to be out of copyright. A particular favorite of mine was Letters from Sister Mary Ignatia to her Own Mother. While many of the women featured in the exhibit accomplished wonderful things, Sister Mary Ignatia tragically passed away young, while crossing the Isthmus of Panama to found a charity school in San Francisco. This book dates to 1853 and features a beautiful cover, as well as quite a compelling collection of letters. I found it fulfilling to make this document in particular accessible, and shed light on someone who history had by and large forgotten. 

Digitizing

After I had selected my pamphlets, my next challenge was to digitize them. This process was an exciting one that went for the most part, quite smoothly. Alexis Howlett, who works at Catholic University’s Special Collections, graciously trained me in using the Zeutschel Scanner. I then spent about two days digitizing each document. While the process for the most part went well, I came across a few challenges. For example, I came across a few issues while working with a pamphlet on Saint Louise de Marillac. Due to the tiny size of the pamphlet and its style of binding, it was difficult to open it enough to properly capture the text. I was careful not to damage the pamphlet, but was unable to fully scan every page unobstructed. This problem frustrated me, as the pamphlet has a series of beautiful illustrations I was excited to highlight.

Making Accessible

The Catholic University of America has begun hosting special collections material through JSTOR Forum. As part of my internship, I got the chance to upload the files I had scanned to this service and enter in metadata. The process of doing so was quite intuitive and quick. I also had a pleasant time putting together the exhibit through LibGuides. By far the most challenging part was researching the women religious who were featured in my selection, so that their pamphlets could be contextualized with general information about their lives, allowing readers to get a sense of who they might be interested in learning more about! I also had trouble figuring out how the pamphlets would be linked in the LibGuide. My original hope was that the JSTOR document viewer could be added as a widget, but alas, this turned out to be proprietary software. Instead, each page contains a link to its pamphlet on JSTOR alongside an image of its cover or title page. 

You can find the exhibit here.

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At the beginning of the summer, Rare Books received a bequest of thirteen antiquarian works from the personal collection of Msgr. John F. Wippel, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy [1]. The collection includes eight works printed before or during the year 1500 and features titles by Thomas Aquinas, Augustine, Peter Lombard, Duns Scotus, Anselm, and others. As such, Msgr. Wippel’s books represent a significant and exciting addition to Rare Books’ existing collection of incunabula and other early printed works. 

Msgr. Wippel sought to understand and teach “the historical Aquinas”–that is, “to understand more precisely and accurately what Aquinas himself actually said and thought,” including the ways in which his thinking evolved over the course of his life [2]. Seen in this light, even the earliest book in Msgr. Wippel’s collection (printed in 1476, some two centuries after Aquinas’s death) is too recent to contribute anything unique to Msgr. Wippel’s efforts to understand the mind of Aquinas. Similarly, the editions of Augustine, Peter Lombard, and Anselm are too recent to tell us anything unique about either the minds of their authors or the way these works were understood in Aquinas’s day. On the other hand, the later volumes in the collection, printed between 1569 and 1718, are far too early to reflect modern scholarship. No wonder some of Msgr. Wippel’s colleagues have admitted puzzlement over his desire to collect the volumes at all!

While these books were not integral to Msgr. Wippel’s own research, he recognized their historical significance and their potential to contribute to research of other kinds. So, what can we learn from them?

Unsurprisingly, part of the answer lies in the text each item contains. The addition, removal, and editing of prefaces, introductions, commentaries, and notes all shed light on the ways in which a given text was understood in a particular historical moment and place. Thus, while Msgr. Wippel’s editions do not help us understand the mind of Aquinas, they may very well help us understand the minds of some of his readers.

The text is only a partial answer, however. When we work with antiquarian books, it is important to remember that the information contained in the text of the volume is not the only information the volume contains. We can also derive historical insight from the date and place of publication; the manner in which the text is printed; and annotations, inscriptions, bindings, and other evidence of ownership.  All of these contribute to our understanding of the role and significance of a particular book (both as a text and as an object) and to the ways that role and significance may have shifted over time.

Historians of philosophy and theology are often interested to note the timing and distribution of early printed editions like those in Msgr. Wippel’s collection. Fifteenth-century publishers, like their 21st-century counterparts, endeavored to print books that would sell. Thus, the fact that a particular work was printed at a particular place and time informs our understanding of the desirability of and interest in that work or author in that historical context.

For many historians of the book, the eight volumes of Msgr. Wippel’s collection printed before 1501 are of particular interest. Known as incunabula (from the Latin for swaddling clothes or cradle), these items represent Europe’s earliest experiments with printing books. Some features of these volumes will seem very familiar to modern readers; others are evidence of techniques and practices that eventually fell from favor or never gained widespread popularity. Msgr. Wippel’s books illustrate the explorations of the fledgling print industry in their hand-drawn decorative capitals, woodcut title pages, and even the typefaces the printers selected for the text.

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Antiquarian volumes can offer historical insight into the centuries after their publication as well. The bindings often contain information of this kind: historically, book collectors often commissioned custom bindings that reflected their own taste, status, and allegiances. Later owners then sometimes replaced these bindings, either because the old binding was damaged or because it did not suit the new owner’s taste.

Within the book, hand-written annotations to the text may hint at previous owners’ occupations and interests. Generations of book owners also left behind ownership inscriptions, bookplates, and labels which can tell us who owned a book and, sometimes, where the owners lived. Msgr. Wippel added his own name to a blank page at the beginning of most of these volumes, where the next generation of researchers will find it when they view these volumes in the Rare Books Room.

To keep this post brief, a complete list of the items bequeathed to the Rare Books collection by Msgr. Wippel may be found here. Those interested in visiting Rare Books to study them (or any other items in the Rare Books collection) may send an email to lib-rarebooks@cua.edu to arrange an appointment.

Notes:

[1] For more on Msgr. Wippel and his bequest to Special Collections (including the Archive), see our previous post on the topic.

[2] Therese Cory, “John F. Wippel–In Memoriam,” Thomistica, November 7, 2023. https://thomistica.net/news/msgr-wippel-in-memoriam.