The Early Book Society Newsletter Spring 2014, volume 19, number 1 Kalamazoo 2014 Early Book Society English Department Pace University 41 Park Row New York, NY 10038 USA

EBS is pleased to present four special sessions at the 49th International Congress on Medieval Studies to be held at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, from May 8 to 11, 2014. EBS sessions are scheduled on Saturday and Sunday (horrors, but we will be there promptly); in fact, the final EBS session this year

closes the Kalamazoo conference! Please also plan to attend the annual EBS business meeting on Friday evening at 8:30 (Fetzer 1030) where we will briefly discuss session themes for Kalamazoo 2014 and the international conference at St. Anne’s College, Oxford. EBS sessions at Kalamazoo are as follows:

Saturday, 1:30 p.m., Session 415, Schneider 1280 Scribes, Scripts, and Readers: In Memory of Malcolm B. Parkes Presider: Martha W. Driver, Pace University “Parkes Nobiscum: How Malcolm Changed the Study of Paleography” David Ganz, Medieval Institute, University of Notre Dame / Darwin College, University of Cambridge “The Curious Case of Cotton Cleopatra A. vi: An Unusual Scribal Collaboration and its Cultural Context in Tenth-Century England” Christine Voth, University of Cambridge “The Planning and Construction of the Ellesmere MS: Further Observations” Stephen Partridge, University of British Columbia “Parkes on Gower” Derek A. Pearsall, Harvard University

Saturday, 3:30 p.m., Session 469, Schneider 1275 Multilingual Texts Presider: William S. Monroe, Brown University “The Codicology of Predestination: Beinecke MS 492 and La Lumiere as Lais” Katherine Hindley, Yale University [Karrer Travel Award Winner] “‘R’ is for Reckoning: An Alphabetic Sermon in Latin and Middle English” Martha Rust New York University “Incunabula Printings of Columbus’s Barcelona Letter in Spanish, Latin, Italian, German and (Perhaps) in Catalán” Elizabeth Willingham, Baylor University “Wynkyn de Worde’s Gothic Types, 1513-1521: A Conspectus” Joseph J. Gwara, United States Naval Academy

EBS Newsletter © 2014 Early Book Society The Early Book Society grew out of sessions planned for the International Congress on Medieval Studies (Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo) by Sarah Horrall and Martha Driver. Founded as an independent entity in 1987, the Society’s goal is to bring together all those who are interested in any aspect of the study of manuscripts and early printed books. Newsletter Editor: Samantha Mullaney ([email protected]). Newsletter items should be sent to the editor, including short reviews, reports on works in progress. Announcements and conference listings are also welcome. EBS Officers:  Martha Driver, Department of English, Pace University, 41 Park Row, NY, NY 10038  Sue Powell, 7 Woodbine Terrace, Headingly, Leeds LS6 4AF , UK  Linne R Mooney, Centre for Medieval Studies, King's Manor, University of York, York Y01 7EP UK Email: JEBS: The Society’s other publication, Journal of the Early Book Society, can be ordered using the form that may be downloaded from the EBS website http://www.pace.edu/ press . Details of how to contribute to JEBS can be found under a separate heading in the Newsletter.

Membership Form The Early Book Society grew out of sessions planned for the International Congress on Medieval Studies (Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo) by Sarah Horrall and Martha Driver. Founded as an independent entity in 1987, the Society was formed to bring together all those who are interested in any aspect of the study of manuscripts and early printed books. EBS now has 475 members in the US, Canada, Japan, Ireland, Great Britain, and on the Continent. Membership brings announcements of EBS activities, including the biennial conference, as well as the membership list and the Journal of the Early Book Society, both published annually, along with pre-publication discounts on books of interest to members and access to the EBS listserv. Dues are $40 or £24 for 2013 to 2014. All members are asked to pay by mail not later than May 1, 2014, or in person at the annual EBS business meeting at Western Michigan (May 10) so copies of JEBS may be ordered in a timely fashion. Those paying Linne Mooney are asked to send a check by May 15. JEBS may also be ordered separately from Pace UP (see www.pace.edu/press for details). Those who have paid dues are indicated on the EBS website: . Please share a copy of this announcement with an interested friend. ___________________________________________________________________ I enclose $40 or £24 as dues for 2013-2014 membership in EBS. Name: ______________________________________________________ Address: ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ e-mail address: __________________________________________________ Affiliation: __________________________________________________ Research interests: _____________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ Members wishing to pay in US dollars should send $40 to Martha Driver, Early Book Society, Department of English, Pace University, 41 Park Row, NY, NY 10038. Members paying in pounds sterling should send £24 to Linne Mooney, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, King’s Manor, York YO1 7EP UK. Visit our Website at http://www.nyu.edu/projects/EBS>. Visit our Website at (http:// www.nyu.edu/projects/EBS). Send newsletter items of interest to the editor Samantha Mullaney .

July 16 - 20 Conferences, Colloquia, Talks, Exhibitions of Interest Nineteenth Biennial International Congress of the New Chaucer Society, Reyto EBS Members kjavík, Iceland, featuring a Presidential Address by Alastair Minnis, the Biennial Lecture by James Simpson, and plenary Second Annual Symposium on Medieval by Guðrún Nordal. For further inforand Renaissance Studies, St Louis Univer- mation, see http://newchaucersociety.org/ sity, with plenary speakers John W. Bald- pages/entry/2014-congress win (Johns Hopkins University) and Robert Hillenbrand (University of Edinburgh). Aug 28 - 31 For more information, see http:// The Art of Reading in the Middle Ages smrs.slu.edu and Renaissance, Stellenbosch, South Africa. Keynote Address: Professor HenJune 30 - July 3 ry Woudhuysen, Lincoln College, UniThird International Conference of the John versity of Oxford. For more information, Gower Society: John Gower: Language, see http://sasmars21stbiennialconf Cognition and Performance, Rochester, erence.blogspot.com/. NY. Consult www.johngower.org or email Bob Yeager ([email protected]) or Sept 15 - 17 Russell Peck ([email protected]) Imagining Medieval English, University for further information of Notre Dame. For information, contact Tim Machan ([email protected]) or see July 2 - 4 http://medieval.nd.edu/events/ The 13th York Manuscripts Conference: 2014/09/15/23889-imagining-medievalCathedral Libraries and Archives in the english/ British Isles, held at the York Minster Library and the King's Manor, York, marking the 600th anniversary of the refounding of York Minster Library. Speakers include Nigel Morgan (Cambridge), Christopher Norton (York), Rodney Thomson (Tasmania), and Magnus Williamson (Newcastle). See www.york.ac.uk/medieval-studies/ conferences/ymc-2014

June 16 - 18

Sunday, 8:30 a.m., Session 528, Bernhard Brown & Gold Room Collaboration: Made to Order? Customizing Medieval MSS and Early Printed Books Presider: Dorothy Africa, Harvard Law School Library “Customizing for Customers in Thirteenth-Century Oxford: Identifying Patron Preference and Atelier Style in the MSS Produced by William de Brailes and his Associates” Cynthia Johnston, Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London “A MS for MacDonagh: Customizing the Book of Ballymote” Karen Ralph, Trinity College, University of Dublin “An Editorial Eye in Longleat MS 257, Part I” Breeman Ainsworth, University of Oklahoma “King and Country: Royal MS 18 D II and the Percys’ Royal Anxieties” Noelle Phillips, University of Toronto

Sunday, 10:30 p.m., Session 565, Bernhard Brown & Gold Room MS to Print and Back Again: Medieval MSS and Early Printed Books Presider: Martha W. Driver “Coded Illustrations: Caxton’s Woodcuts and the Fable Tradition” Greta Smith, Miami University “Illustrative Matter: Christine de Pizan’s Othéa in MS and Print in the Morgan Library” Nancy E. Poehlmann, University at Albany “‘None haue behynde theim, left so greate treasure’: Tracing Intertexuality and Paratexts from MS to Print in late English Chronicles” Andrea Nichols, University of Nebraska-Lincoln “Chronicle of the Very Valiant and Illustrious Knight Cifar: A Thoroughly Medieval Text in Print Dress” Anthony J. Cárdenas-Rotunno, University of New Mexico

EBS Conference 2015 Daniel Wakelin has found accommodation and lecture halls in St Anne’s College, Oxford, to house the next conference of the Early Book Society. The dates are now set from July 2 through July 5, 2015, so please mark your calendars! We hope to include a visit to the Bodleian Library’s new exhibition from its collections in the renovated building, the Weston Library, which is expected to reopen in April 2015. The theme for the next conference is Telling Tales: MSS, Books and the Making of Narrative, 1350 to 1550. This theme may be as narrowly or broadly interpreted as necessary; one might consider stories told in texts and/or in images within manuscripts and books or the ways in which stories are told about manuscripts and books or St Anne’s College, about the liOxford braries that

house them or even the way stories are mangled, improved upon, truncated or elaborated in transmission. Lectures or proposed sessions that consider the transition from script to print, bibliographic issues, or the movement of books within or into Oxford will be particularly encouraged, though papers on any aspect of the history of manuscripts and printed books from 1350 to

Projected view of Weston Library frontage

1550, including the copying and circulation of models and exemplars, style, illustration, and/or the influence of readers and patrons, artists, scribes, printers, are welcome. A call for papers will be sent out next fall. Paris is another venue which has been discussed with the IRHT for some time, perhaps with an eye to 2017. Other suggestions for future conference sites are invited.

Fellowships and Memberships AMARC The Association for Manuscripts and Archives in Research Collections (AMARC) promotes the accessibility, preservation, and study of medieval and later manuscripts and archives in libraries and other research collections in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Membership is open to all and includes reduced-rate attendance at meetings, held usually three times per year (which often involve privileged access to manuscript collections), and the twice-yearly Newsletter. The AMARC Newsletter contains listings of worldwide exhibitions and conferences, and UK lectures and seminars; it also includes a substantial bibliography of recent publications, recent acquisitions by libraries and museums, information about recent and forthcoming auction and dealer catalogues, and a list of useful websites. For further details, visit www.manuscripts.org.uk/amarc.

Harry Ransom Center Fellowships The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin annually awards fifty fellowships to support research projects that require substantial onsite use of its collections. The fellowships support visits of one to three months, with stipends of

$3000 per month (US). Travel stipends of $1200 to $1700 are also available as are dissertations fellowships ($1500). More information about the fellowships and the Ransom’s center’s collections is available at: http://budurl.com/5gcd

Heckman Research Stipends The Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (Collegeville, Minnesota) offers stipends for research at the library from periods of two weeks to six months. Candidates must be graduate students or scholars who are within three years of completing a terminal master’s or doctoral degree. Amounts of grants are variable up to $2,000. Deadlines are twice yearly: April 15 for research conducted from July 1 to December 1, and Nov 15 for research conducted from January to June 30. Submit a letter of application, cv, a one-page description of the research project including proposed length of stay, an explanation how use of the Library’s resources will advance the project and a confidential letter of recommendation from an advisor, thesis director, mentor, or in the case of postdoctoral candidates, a colleague. For more information, contact The Committee on Research, Hill Museum & Manuscript Library, Box7300, St John’s University, Collegeville, MN 56321-7300. Inquiries may also be directed to [email protected] or FAXed to 320-363-3222.

ture Library website www.nationalgalleryimages.co.uk. Discounts are available for images reproduced in student theses, academic presentations or lectures, and noncommercial private use. The V&A offers publishers of academic books and scholarly articles direct download of more than 25,000 images directly from its website www.vandaimages.com The Met in NY has joined with ARTstor to offer highresolution images from its collections for scholarly publication free of charge. Images are available to users, both individual and institutional, who are not ARTstor subscribers. See www.artstor.org/ what-is-artstor/w-html/ servicespublishing.shtml for more information.

Blog on St Andrews Collections Daryl Green, Rare Books Cataloguer, at the Department of Special Collections of the library at the University of St Andrews has a blog on the rare book collections, titled Daryl Green, St Andrews Blogger

“Echoes from the Vault.” Currently, one can access podcasts on the Treasures of the Library, on the Fasciculus Temporum, and on the Roll of Kings (by EBS member Margaret Connolly) or consult the 52 weeks of Historical How-To’s for instructions as to how to make iron gall ink, for example. The blog is available at: http:// standrewsrarebooks.wordpress.com/ The library website is: www.st-andrews.ac.uk/ specialcollections/

Database of Middle English Romance Sponsored by the University of York, the Database of Middle English Romance allows modern readers to access information about more than 80 romances, including the date and place of composition, verse form, authorship and sources, extant MSS and early modern imprints, along with a full list of modern editions and plot summaries. Website: www.middleenglishromance.org.uk

JEBS 17 in Progress The current issue of JEBS is being prepared for Pace University Press for fall publication and includes an outstanding roster of contributors, including Dorothy Africa, Gerard Boumeester, James Carley and Ann Hutchison, Tania M. Colwell, Jean-Marie Flamand, Victoria Flood, John Block Friedman, Joseph Gwara, Ralph Hanna, Katherine Hindley, Hope Johnston, Kathy Kerby-Fulton, David Lavinsky, Arnold Sanders, Valerie Schutte, and Eric Weiskott, among other contributors. The authors represent a range of scholars from graduate students to full professors and librarians who are making their mark in the valuable field of MS and early print studies (no puns intended). As the Press schedule has changed, along with the Editor of Pace University Press, it is expected that JEBS 17 will be sent later in fall 2014 to members whose accounts are current by the May deadline. For future issues, members of the Early Book Society are asked submit longer papers (35 – 40 pp), with endnotes and a full Works Cited list, for consideration for publication by November 1 in both hard and electronic copy. These are substantial essays on any aspect of the history of manuscripts and/or printed books, with emphasis on the period between 1350 and 1550. Essays should be sent in duplicate with an abstract to Martha Driver. A limited number of illustra-

tions may be included with complete captions and permissions citations; Xeroxes of these should initially be sent with papers for consideration to the editor. Please submit notes on recent discoveries (4 to 10 pages), highlighting little-known or recently uncovered texts or images, to Linne Mooney, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, King’s Manor, York Y01 7EP UK. These shorter essays include only endnotes (not a Works Cited list). Inquiries are welcome . Please send brief descriptions (200-650 words) of little- or lesser-known collections and libraries of interest to the Society to Martha Driver, Early Book Society, Department of English, Pace University, 41 Park Row, New York, NY 10038. Members of the Early Book Society who are recent authors may send review books for consideration to Susan Powell, Reviews Editor, 7 Woodbine Terrace, Headingly, Leeds LS6 4AF UK. Sue may be contacted at . Back issues of JEBS are available online through the Modern Language Association database; consult the Pace University Press website, www.pace.edu/ press/, if you wish to purchase the first issue of JEBS, published in 1997, which was out of print for the last twelve years and has been reissued. The Journal uses The Chicago Manual of Style as its house manual. For general information, contact .

Subscription Information JEBS 17, the issue forthcoming next fall, is part of timely membership renewal; further copies must be ordered separately. If you are ordering extra copies, you can pay with VISA (in U.S. dollars) using the order form on the Pace UP site at . Libraries may purchase copies directly from Ingram Library Services (1-800-937-5300). A membership renewal form for 2013-2014, which includes the cost of JEBS 17, may be found on the last page of this bulletin. Members are asked, however, to pay their dues promptly. All members are encouraged to join (for the academic year) not later than the annual business meeting at Western Michigan (Friday, May 9, 2014), so the proper number of orders can be given the Press directly on return. UK and Continental payments are made to Linne Mooney, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, King’s Manor, York Y01 7EP UK. E-mail: , but also by this May deadline, please, if you wish to include the Journal with your subscription for this year. This cumbersome and timeconsuming system is in the process of being updated, and we hope to make website payment available in the coming academic year (that is, from September 2014 to August 2015). EBS has now been officially incorporated in the state of New York as a not-for-profit institution and can also accept charitable donations to further its efforts to promote the history of

the book particularly in the earlier periods of production.

EBS Website, 2013-2014 Membership List, and ListServ Martha Rust at New York University is the webmaster for the EBS site housed at NYU . The site includes an electronic version of the Newsletter, announcements of interest to the EBS membership, the current membership list, and the Honor Roll, a list of those who have paid their EBS dues already for 2013-2014. Suggestions for other items members would like to see included on this site (announcements of forthcoming books, of conferences or talks and exhibitions) may be sent to: or to . Martha Rust has also very kindly volunteered to take over the administration of the Early Book Society listserv from Dan Mosser at Virginia Tech who ran it valiantly from the early days of social media until this spring (for about 20 years, that is). We wish to thank Dan for all of his efforts to maintain the EBS listserv and are very grateful to Martha for taking it over. If you wish to be added to the EBS listserv, contact [email protected] or if you know of someone who might want to subscribe, here is the URL for doing that: http:// lists.nyu.edu/read/all_forums/subscribe? name=early-book-society Instructions for unsubscribing to the list appear at the bottom of this and every message posted to

Manuscripts on My Mind

formation in the Brighten your day with an email newslet- comments section (you must ter from the Vatican Film Library at St Louis University. To subscribe or contrib- first create an account or sign in ute, contact the editor, Susan L’Engle at with a Yahoo or [email protected] Past issues in PDF format with lovely color reproductions may Facebook acbe found at http://slulink.slu.edu/special/ count). vfl/resources/newsletter3.pdf

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight MS Online A digital facsimile of the British Library MS Cotton Nero A.x.(art.3), the unique manuscript of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, is available to scholars on a site hosted by the University of Calgary. The 180 images of all four texts in the MS will be eventually accompanied by a transcription of the poems with new introductory essays on the manuscript along with its texts and illustrations. Available at http:// www.gawain.ucalgary.ca/

Fragment of medieval manuscript used in a sixteenth century binding: Image from the Ransom Center Fragments Project’s Flickr

http:// www.flickr.com/photos/ ransom_center_fragments/sets/

Free Digital Images for Scholars

The National Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, along with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, have made digital images of Harry Ransom Center Binding works from their collections available for Waste Project free for all scholThe Harry Ransom Center at the Univer- arly publications. sity of Texas, Austin, has made available The National Galdetailed photographs of all its known MS lery waives reprobinding waste. There are 75 sets and 228 duction charges images posted on Flickr. Work to identify for digital images items continues, and photos will be added used in academic books and jouras new binding waste is discovered. nals that meet specific criteria (nonprofit, Viewers are encouraged to contribute to the descriptions by providing relevant in- short-run publications) and where orders are processed and delivered via its Pic-

Online Resources Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts The University of Pennsylvania’s Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts (SDBM) makes available data on medieval manuscript books drawn from over 300 years of auction and sales catalogues, inventories, and catalogues from institutional and private collections. These records aid in locating and identifying MSS of five or more folios produced before 1600, establishing provenance, and collecting descriptions about specific classes or types of MSS. The site includes comprehensive browse lists, transaction and bibliographic data for auction, sales and institutional catalogues, and more. Visit this site at: http://dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/ schoenberg

ACLS Sponsors Digital Reference Works ACLS Humanities E-Book is offering individual subscriptions ($35 for one year) to its digital collection of over 3,300 fulltext, cross-searchable titles in the humanities to members of any one of the 70 constituent societies of the American Council of Learned Societies. A complete title list

is available at http:// www.humanitiesebook.org/titlelist.html.

the list.

Renaissance Cultural Crossroads

Carrie Griffin, Bristol University, volunteered to set up a Facebook page for the Society at the York Conference in 2011. Since then, the page has hosted a variety of articles, announcements, and comments. The page is designed to share news in between Newsletters and to encourage people to stay in touch between EBS conferences and our meetings at Kalamazoo. The page can be accessed at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/EarlyBook-Society/191172517607926?sk=wall Please ‘LIKE us’ if you have not done so already, and we welcome your comments and stories about books from around the world. If you have questions, comments, or information of interest to the Society, please contact Carrie directly at [email protected]

Sponsored by the Centre for the Study of the Renaissance at the University of Warwick, this is an online catalogue of translations made in Britain from 1473 through 1640 compiled by EBS member Brenda Hosington. Funded by a grant from the Leverhulme Trust, this free site uses the format of the online STC but further offers additional information on translators and translations. A search of “Christine de Pisan,” for example, brings up four of her works that were translated into English and printed in England with full notes on each translation and translator. Visit http://www.hrionline.ac.uk/rcc/

LALME Online Michael Johnston, Purdue University, has alerted EBS members to the very useful eLALME which was recently launched at a website sponsored by the University of Edinburgh and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council of Great Britain and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation of New York. Scholars may consult the site at http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/ihd/elalme/ elalme_frames.html

EBS Facebook Page

EBS Book Series: Texts and Transitions Through Brepols, EBS publishes monographs dealing with late medieval manuscripts and early printed books to about 1550, particularly those that explore the transition from manuscript to print and questions to do with readers and literacy, owners and patronage, the dissemination of texts, and the reception of medieval texts. The series draws on the ideals and aims of the Early Book Society. A “text” may be either a word or an image, where a picture serves also as a text that can be

read and interpreted. The focus is mainly on manuscripts and books produced in England or for the English market, and closely related French and Continental works. The series includes monographs of about 250 to 300 pages, collections of previously published essays by one author (updated and revised), or in some cases essay collections with a clearly unified theme or one main subject. Authors are encouraged to include illustrations. Pictures are reproduced in black and white, though color illustrations may be included in special cases. Authors are responsible for purchasing photographs and securing the permissions to reproduce them. The first volume in the EBS series, The Making of Poetry: Late-Medieval French Poetic Anthologies by Jane H. M. Taylor, published in August of 2007, received many excellent reviews. Other books in the EBS series include Alexandra Barratt’s Anne Bulkeley and her Book: Fashioning Female Piety in Early Tudor England, Texts and Transitions 2; The Poet's Notebook: The Personal Manuscript of Charles d'Orléans (Paris BnF MS fr. 25458), by Mary-Jo Arn, Texts and Transitions 3; and Rebecca L. Schoff’s Reformations: Three Medieval Authors in Manuscripts and Movable Type, Texts and Transitions 4, all of which have been described in previous Newsletters as well

as reviewed in JEBS. The most recent series publications are Probable Truth: Editing Medieval Texts from Britain in the Twenty-First Century, edited by Vincent Gillespie and Anne Hudson, Texts and Transitions 5, a magisterial volume that looks at approaches to editing Old English, Anglo-Norman, and Middle English manuscripts, and at long last, another expert collection edited by Wendy Scase, The Making of the Vernon Manuscript: The Production and Contexts of Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Eng. poet. a. 1, Texts and Transitions 6, a collection of papers by a range of experts that serves as a useful and informative accompaniment to Wendy’s A Facsimile Edition of the Vernon Manuscript: A Literary Hoard from Medieval England (published by the Bodleian Library). The immediate organizers and general editors of the series are Martha Driver (Pace University, NY) and Derek Pearsall (Harvard University, emeritus). The advisory board comprises scholars expert in the various fields of late medieval and early modern literature and culture and in the history of manuscripts and books. The members of the board are: Julia Boffey (Queen Mary, University of London), Ardis Butterfield (Yale University), Philippa Hardman (University of Reading), Dieter Mehl (University of Bonn), Alastair Minnis (Yale University), Oliver Pickering (Brotherton

Library, Leeds), John Scattergood (Trinity College, Dublin), and John Thompson (Queen's University, Belfast). Those interested in inquiring about submissions should contact Guy Carney , Derek Pearsall or Martha Driver .

NLS Seeks Funding For the Aberdeen Breviary and Compassio Beate Marie The National Library of Scotland hopes to purchase the Aberdeen Breviary (printed c. 1509) bound with a unique copy of the Compassio Beate Marie (c. 1520) which is held in the collections of Glamis Castle and currently belongs to the Trustees of the Strathmore Estates. The Compassio, printed by John Story for Charles Stule in Edinburgh, is the single extant copy of the only known printer in Scotland between 1510 and 1532. The Breviary was referred to in the license given by James IV to Walter Chepman and Androw Myllar in 1507. No copies are identical, and all are incomplete. The Glamis copy is thought to be the best surviving example. The Breviary contains the lives of Scottish saints; some of its liturgy attests to unique Scottish traditions. If this volume is acquired, the NLS plans to digitize it and make it freely available through the library’s website. NLS hopes to partner with Edinburgh and Aberdeen universities, each of which owns a copy of the Breviary, and the British Library and Downside Abbey, which house fragments

AABI President Chastises Italian Police Fabrizio Govi, President of the Association of Antiquarian Booksellers of Italy, protested recently that police failed to provide a list of stolen books from the Girolamini Library and that they seemed disinterested in tracking forgeries of rare books. While De Caro has now been sentenced to seven years in prison, his accomplices have yet to be brought to trial. De Caro deGirolamini Complex, Naples stroyed all of the paper catalogue cards recording the stolen books, and apparently no other inventory exists, which implies that the stolen books may be sold with impunity for years to come. According to Govi, the Italian authorities have also not been “concerned with the production of the forgeries that De Caro has disseminated throughout the antiquarian book marketplace, especially in the United States.” For more, see http:// www.ilab.org/eng/documentation/1221latest_news_about_the_girolamini_thefts.html

Light Sentence for British Book Thief Joseph G. Heath of Leicester, a janitor at Becker College, has been convicted of stealing 100 rare books valued at more than $115,000 from the Becker College library. He then tried to sell them on Craigslist and to local and international book dealers. In his court hearing, Heath was ordered to pay a $3,000 fine and was placed on probation for one to three years, depending on the speed with which he pays off his fine. While some of the stolen books were recovered from Heath's home, about 50 volumes remain missing. For more on this story, see Thanks to Sylvie Merian for forwarding some of these news items.

volumes remain missing. Most recently Nick Schmidle's New Yorker article on De Caro contains more revelations about the case, including detailed information about De Caro’s forgeries, particularly and most brilliantly of Galileo’s Sidereus Nuncius (Starry Messenger). Schmidle reveals De Caro had a history of befriending librarians and in 2003 was given six valuable books from the Vatican Library in exchange for sixteen incunabula, though his further transactions with the Vatican were quickly halted. Two years later, De Caro with two other men at the Marino Massimo de Caro Milan book fair was exhibiting a copy of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili published in 1499, which was known to have been stolen from a private library in Milan, the Trivulziana. The copy disappeared from the sales table after police were alerted. In 2011, De Caro became an advisor to the Ministry of Culture through the agency of an Italian bibliophile and senator (who later was convicted of Mafia ties). Around the same time, De Caro visited the library of Montecassino and slipped the library’s copies of Dante’s Divine Comedy and Galileo’s Compasso into an empty laptop bag, replacing the latter with his Galileo forgery, created with photo-polymer plates. In spring 2011, De Caro became the director of the Girolamini Library, and among his first directives to his staff was the order to disable the alarm system at night. The books were systematically stolen and sold The monastery at Montecassino through a variety of outlets. In August of last year, Herbert Schauer, the Executive Director of the respected Munich auction house Zisska & Schauer, was arrested by Munich authorities, accused of collaborating with De Caro. He has since been extradited to Italy and is in prison in Rebbibia, a Rome suburb. Prosecutors believe Schauer was aware of the origin of De Caro’s books. While 2,700 books have been recovered by international investigators, an estimated 1,300 remain missing. For the New Yorker article, see http://www.newyorker.com/ reporting/2013/12/16/131216fa_fact_schmidle

recovered from bindings. NLS further plans a scholarly edition of the text and a modern translation. For more information, contact Lois A. Wolffe, Head of Development, [email protected]

Progress on Thornton Memorial Effort Those EBS members who attended the EBS sessions or the business meeting at KalStonegrave Minster, Yorkshire amazoo in spring 2013 or heard Rosalind Field’s talk more recently at St Andrews in July will know we are proposing to place a memorial to Robert Thornton (c. 1400-1470) in his parish church of Stonegrave, North Yorkshire. As many EBS members are aware, Robert Thornton preserved a significant body of literature from medieval England. Thornton collected and copied a wide range of works, religious and secular, in two important manuscripts, Lincoln Cathedral MS 91 and British Library, MS Add. 31042. These include unique copies of works that would otherwise be lost to us. His tomb was demolished during the Victorian rebuilding of the church, and there is no memory of him in the church or the histories of the church or the locality, though there remain some traces of other family members. To remedy this by

putting up a memorial to Thornton, we began a petition that many EBS members signed (over 100 signatures), which was sent to the church. This winter, we were contacted by Reverend Sue Bond, Vicar of Ampleforth Benefice, who reported that our petition had been considered and accepted by Stonegrave PCC. She further said, “I am delighted to tell you that your request to have a memorial plaque in memory of Robert Thornton erected in Stonegrave Minster has been very well received. Members of the committee would like to see Robert Thornton, as a newly discovered and famous son of Stonegrave, properly recognised.” The entire village (pop: 60) has shown support for the venture, and we are now at the stage where in the UK checks may be made to ‘Stonegrave Thornton Appeal’ c/o The Treasurer and sent to The Treasurer, Long Byre, Cawton, York YO62 4LW. Donations may be wired to Nat West, sort code 60-16-30. A/c. No 81106831 ‘Stonegrave Thornton Appeal.’ We are still working out the process for international donations for which Carrie Griffin has been instrumental so far (she also generated the petition, thank you, Carrie!). More will be discussed at the EBS business meeting in Kalamazoo and posted on the FB page. In the meantime, for further information, see: http:// www.ampleforthbenefice.org/ StonegraveMinster.html or contact [email protected]

New York Public Library Fight Continues Carolyn MacIntyre, an advocate for New York City libraries and leader of Citizens Defending Libraries, fights on to save all New York City libraries including the collections of the main reference library on 42nd Street. While the Board of Trustees of the New York Public Library approved the development of 30,000 square feet under Bryant Park for additional storage at the main reference library last fall (which will create space to house 1.5 million volumes), there is still concern about which collections will be readily accessible by scholars and the public. She and her supporters regularly organize protests and other activities around the city to save our books. More can be found by googling Carolyn MacIntyre, Save New York City Libraries http:// citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com

The Library of Birmingham – Inaccessible Books, Frustrated Scholars

Constabulary Notes from All Over

As reported in The Telegraph (April 4, 2014), a lack of library ladders and other equipment has prevented librarians from accessing thousands of books stored on the higher shelves in the Library of Birmingham. Renovated to the tune of £188 million with a gala reopening seven months ago, the library was hailed as innovative and modern, but it is still waiting to receive and install equipment to allow its staff to retrieve books in the storage area. The library's director, Brian Gambles, is quoted as saying: "We fully understand how popular materials in the closed stack areas of the Library of Birmingham are, and it is frustrating that we haven't yet been able to give our customers access to them.” The Birmingham Post estimated the recent renovation at £190 million and said the library has been deemed “‘unfit for purpose’.” Researchers and academics have been unable to access a wealth of material held in the library’s collections for more than 18 months, as many of the archives were closed a year prior. For more, see http:// www.birminghampost.co.uk/ news/local-news/librarybirmingham-thousands-bookscant-6911157

Anthony James West has written a compelling essay, “Proving the Identity of the Stolen Durham University First Folio,” for The Library 14.4 (December 2013). Stolen from its exhibition case in December 1998, the book resurfaced a decade later in the hands of one Raymond Scott (to whom this Newsletter has already devoted many pages) who tried to sell it to the Folger Shakespeare Library, claiming he had found the book in Cuba. West had taken notes on the Durham First Folio four years before which he forwarded directly to the Special Collections Librarian at Durham after hearing of the theft. West also listed the volume in his Worldwide Census of First Folios, published in 2003, with a note “in the hope The returned Durham First Folio that it will be returned” (429). In 1964, Ian Doyle had published a description of the book which also supplied details vital to the identification of the Durham copy, damaged by Scott in the hope of concealing its provenance. The details included its dimensions and a distinctive crease and tear in the Durham’s copy’s title page; when Scott tried to sell the volume, the title page had sadly gone, but the same crease and tear were still visible on the book’s first leaf. Ian further identified an inscription on the catalogue page of the stolen volume as being the very same he had studied in the Durham copy, confirming “without doubt, that the idiosyncratic annotation in Folio X precisely matched the annotation in the Durham Folio” (438). West’s essay underscores the need for copy-specific details for every rare volume, “especially details that are unique to any given volume” (428).

More on the Theft of the Durham University First Folio

De Caro Revealed in The New Yorker Marino Massimo de Caro, the former director of the Girolamini Library, is no stranger to these pages, having appeared previously in the spring 2013 issue and again in the fall 2013 issue, but his story becomes “curiouser and curiouser” as more facts about his criminal activities come to light. In our last issue, de Caro had confessed to stealing over 1,000 volumes from the Girolamini, but hundreds more

New York Public Library Fight Continues Carolyn MacIntyre, an advocate for New York City libraries and leader of Citizens Defending Libraries, fights on to save all New York City libraries including the collections of the main reference library on 42nd Street. While the Board of Trustees of the New York Public Library approved the development of 30,000 square feet under Bryant Park for additional storage at the main reference library last fall (which will create space to house 1.5 million volumes), there is still concern about which collections will be readily accessible by scholars and the public. She and her supporters regularly organize protests and other activities around the city to save our books. More can be found by googling Carolyn MacIntyre, Save New York City Libraries http:// citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com

The Library of Birmingham – Inaccessible Books, Frustrated Scholars

Constabulary Notes from All Over

As reported in The Telegraph (April 4, 2014), a lack of library ladders and other equipment has prevented librarians from accessing thousands of books stored on the higher shelves in the Library of Birmingham. Renovated to the tune of £188 million with a gala reopening seven months ago, the library was hailed as innovative and modern, but it is still waiting to receive and install equipment to allow its staff to retrieve books in the storage area. The library's director, Brian Gambles, is quoted as saying: "We fully understand how popular materials in the closed stack areas of the Library of Birmingham are, and it is frustrating that we haven't yet been able to give our customers access to them.” The Birmingham Post estimated the recent renovation at £190 million and said the library has been deemed “‘unfit for purpose’.” Researchers and academics have been unable to access a wealth of material held in the library’s collections for more than 18 months, as many of the archives were closed a year prior. For more, see http:// www.birminghampost.co.uk/ news/local-news/librarybirmingham-thousands-bookscant-6911157

Anthony James West has written a compelling essay, “Proving the Identity of the Stolen Durham University First Folio,” for The Library 14.4 (December 2013). Stolen from its exhibition case in December 1998, the book resurfaced a decade later in the hands of one Raymond Scott (to whom this Newsletter has already devoted many pages) who tried to sell it to the Folger Shakespeare Library, claiming he had found the book in Cuba. West had taken notes on the Durham First Folio four years before which he forwarded directly to the Special Collections Librarian at Durham after hearing of the theft. West also listed the volume in his Worldwide Census of First Folios, published in 2003, with a note “in the hope The returned Durham First Folio that it will be returned” (429). In 1964, Ian Doyle had published a description of the book which also supplied details vital to the identification of the Durham copy, damaged by Scott in the hope of concealing its provenance. The details included its dimensions and a distinctive crease and tear in the Durham’s copy’s title page; when Scott tried to sell the volume, the title page had sadly gone, but the same crease and tear were still visible on the book’s first leaf. Ian further identified an inscription on the catalogue page of the stolen volume as being the very same he had studied in the Durham copy, confirming “without doubt, that the idiosyncratic annotation in Folio X precisely matched the annotation in the Durham Folio” (438). West’s essay underscores the need for copy-specific details for every rare volume, “especially details that are unique to any given volume” (428).

More on the Theft of the Durham University First Folio

De Caro Revealed in The New Yorker Marino Massimo de Caro, the former director of the Girolamini Library, is no stranger to these pages, having appeared previously in the spring 2013 issue and again in the fall 2013 issue, but his story becomes “curiouser and curiouser” as more facts about his criminal activities come to light. In our last issue, de Caro had confessed to stealing over 1,000 volumes from the Girolamini, but hundreds more

volumes remain missing. Most recently Nick Schmidle's New Yorker article on De Caro contains more revelations about the case, including detailed information about De Caro’s forgeries, particularly and most brilliantly of Galileo’s Sidereus Nuncius (Starry Messenger). Schmidle reveals De Caro had a history of befriending librarians and in 2003 was given six valuable books from the Vatican Library in exchange for sixteen incunabula, though his further transactions with the Vatican were quickly halted. Two years later, De Caro with two other men at the Marino Massimo de Caro Milan book fair was exhibiting a copy of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili published in 1499, which was known to have been stolen from a private library in Milan, the Trivulziana. The copy disappeared from the sales table after police were alerted. In 2011, De Caro became an advisor to the Ministry of Culture through the agency of an Italian bibliophile and senator (who later was convicted of Mafia ties). Around the same time, De Caro visited the library of Montecassino and slipped the library’s copies of Dante’s Divine Comedy and Galileo’s Compasso into an empty laptop bag, replacing the latter with his Galileo forgery, created with photo-polymer plates. In spring 2011, De Caro became the director of the Girolamini Library, and among his first directives to his staff was the order to disable the alarm system at night. The books were systematically stolen and sold The monastery at Montecassino through a variety of outlets. In August of last year, Herbert Schauer, the Executive Director of the respected Munich auction house Zisska & Schauer, was arrested by Munich authorities, accused of collaborating with De Caro. He has since been extradited to Italy and is in prison in Rebbibia, a Rome suburb. Prosecutors believe Schauer was aware of the origin of De Caro’s books. While 2,700 books have been recovered by international investigators, an estimated 1,300 remain missing. For the New Yorker article, see http://www.newyorker.com/ reporting/2013/12/16/131216fa_fact_schmidle

recovered from bindings. NLS further plans a scholarly edition of the text and a modern translation. For more information, contact Lois A. Wolffe, Head of Development, [email protected]

Progress on Thornton Memorial Effort Those EBS members who attended the EBS sessions or the business meeting at KalStonegrave Minster, Yorkshire amazoo in spring 2013 or heard Rosalind Field’s talk more recently at St Andrews in July will know we are proposing to place a memorial to Robert Thornton (c. 1400-1470) in his parish church of Stonegrave, North Yorkshire. As many EBS members are aware, Robert Thornton preserved a significant body of literature from medieval England. Thornton collected and copied a wide range of works, religious and secular, in two important manuscripts, Lincoln Cathedral MS 91 and British Library, MS Add. 31042. These include unique copies of works that would otherwise be lost to us. His tomb was demolished during the Victorian rebuilding of the church, and there is no memory of him in the church or the histories of the church or the locality, though there remain some traces of other family members. To remedy this by

putting up a memorial to Thornton, we began a petition that many EBS members signed (over 100 signatures), which was sent to the church. This winter, we were contacted by Reverend Sue Bond, Vicar of Ampleforth Benefice, who reported that our petition had been considered and accepted by Stonegrave PCC. She further said, “I am delighted to tell you that your request to have a memorial plaque in memory of Robert Thornton erected in Stonegrave Minster has been very well received. Members of the committee would like to see Robert Thornton, as a newly discovered and famous son of Stonegrave, properly recognised.” The entire village (pop: 60) has shown support for the venture, and we are now at the stage where in the UK checks may be made to ‘Stonegrave Thornton Appeal’ c/o The Treasurer and sent to The Treasurer, Long Byre, Cawton, York YO62 4LW. Donations may be wired to Nat West, sort code 60-16-30. A/c. No 81106831 ‘Stonegrave Thornton Appeal.’ We are still working out the process for international donations for which Carrie Griffin has been instrumental so far (she also generated the petition, thank you, Carrie!). More will be discussed at the EBS business meeting in Kalamazoo and posted on the FB page. In the meantime, for further information, see: http:// www.ampleforthbenefice.org/ StonegraveMinster.html or contact [email protected]

as reviewed in JEBS. The most recent series publications are Probable Truth: Editing Medieval Texts from Britain in the Twenty-First Century, edited by Vincent Gillespie and Anne Hudson, Texts and Transitions 5, a magisterial volume that looks at approaches to editing Old English, Anglo-Norman, and Middle English manuscripts, and at long last, another expert collection edited by Wendy Scase, The Making of the Vernon Manuscript: The Production and Contexts of Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Eng. poet. a. 1, Texts and Transitions 6, a collection of papers by a range of experts that serves as a useful and informative accompaniment to Wendy’s A Facsimile Edition of the Vernon Manuscript: A Literary Hoard from Medieval England (published by the Bodleian Library). The immediate organizers and general editors of the series are Martha Driver (Pace University, NY) and Derek Pearsall (Harvard University, emeritus). The advisory board comprises scholars expert in the various fields of late medieval and early modern literature and culture and in the history of manuscripts and books. The members of the board are: Julia Boffey (Queen Mary, University of London), Ardis Butterfield (Yale University), Philippa Hardman (University of Reading), Dieter Mehl (University of Bonn), Alastair Minnis (Yale University), Oliver Pickering (Brotherton

Library, Leeds), John Scattergood (Trinity College, Dublin), and John Thompson (Queen's University, Belfast). Those interested in inquiring about submissions should contact Guy Carney , Derek Pearsall or Martha Driver .

NLS Seeks Funding For the Aberdeen Breviary and Compassio Beate Marie The National Library of Scotland hopes to purchase the Aberdeen Breviary (printed c. 1509) bound with a unique copy of the Compassio Beate Marie (c. 1520) which is held in the collections of Glamis Castle and currently belongs to the Trustees of the Strathmore Estates. The Compassio, printed by John Story for Charles Stule in Edinburgh, is the single extant copy of the only known printer in Scotland between 1510 and 1532. The Breviary was referred to in the license given by James IV to Walter Chepman and Androw Myllar in 1507. No copies are identical, and all are incomplete. The Glamis copy is thought to be the best surviving example. The Breviary contains the lives of Scottish saints; some of its liturgy attests to unique Scottish traditions. If this volume is acquired, the NLS plans to digitize it and make it freely available through the library’s website. NLS hopes to partner with Edinburgh and Aberdeen universities, each of which owns a copy of the Breviary, and the British Library and Downside Abbey, which house fragments

AABI President Chastises Italian Police Fabrizio Govi, President of the Association of Antiquarian Booksellers of Italy, protested recently that police failed to provide a list of stolen books from the Girolamini Library and that they seemed disinterested in tracking forgeries of rare books. While De Caro has now been sentenced to seven years in prison, his accomplices have yet to be brought to trial. De Caro deGirolamini Complex, Naples stroyed all of the paper catalogue cards recording the stolen books, and apparently no other inventory exists, which implies that the stolen books may be sold with impunity for years to come. According to Govi, the Italian authorities have also not been “concerned with the production of the forgeries that De Caro has disseminated throughout the antiquarian book marketplace, especially in the United States.” For more, see http:// www.ilab.org/eng/documentation/1221latest_news_about_the_girolamini_thefts.html

Light Sentence for British Book Thief Joseph G. Heath of Leicester, a janitor at Becker College, has been convicted of stealing 100 rare books valued at more than $115,000 from the Becker College library. He then tried to sell them on Craigslist and to local and international book dealers. In his court hearing, Heath was ordered to pay a $3,000 fine and was placed on probation for one to three years, depending on the speed with which he pays off his fine. While some of the stolen books were recovered from Heath's home, about 50 volumes remain missing. For more on this story, see Thanks to Sylvie Merian for forwarding some of these news items.

Online Resources Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts The University of Pennsylvania’s Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts (SDBM) makes available data on medieval manuscript books drawn from over 300 years of auction and sales catalogues, inventories, and catalogues from institutional and private collections. These records aid in locating and identifying MSS of five or more folios produced before 1600, establishing provenance, and collecting descriptions about specific classes or types of MSS. The site includes comprehensive browse lists, transaction and bibliographic data for auction, sales and institutional catalogues, and more. Visit this site at: http://dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/ schoenberg

ACLS Sponsors Digital Reference Works ACLS Humanities E-Book is offering individual subscriptions ($35 for one year) to its digital collection of over 3,300 fulltext, cross-searchable titles in the humanities to members of any one of the 70 constituent societies of the American Council of Learned Societies. A complete title list

is available at http:// www.humanitiesebook.org/titlelist.html.

the list.

Renaissance Cultural Crossroads

Carrie Griffin, Bristol University, volunteered to set up a Facebook page for the Society at the York Conference in 2011. Since then, the page has hosted a variety of articles, announcements, and comments. The page is designed to share news in between Newsletters and to encourage people to stay in touch between EBS conferences and our meetings at Kalamazoo. The page can be accessed at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/EarlyBook-Society/191172517607926?sk=wall Please ‘LIKE us’ if you have not done so already, and we welcome your comments and stories about books from around the world. If you have questions, comments, or information of interest to the Society, please contact Carrie directly at [email protected]

Sponsored by the Centre for the Study of the Renaissance at the University of Warwick, this is an online catalogue of translations made in Britain from 1473 through 1640 compiled by EBS member Brenda Hosington. Funded by a grant from the Leverhulme Trust, this free site uses the format of the online STC but further offers additional information on translators and translations. A search of “Christine de Pisan,” for example, brings up four of her works that were translated into English and printed in England with full notes on each translation and translator. Visit http://www.hrionline.ac.uk/rcc/

LALME Online Michael Johnston, Purdue University, has alerted EBS members to the very useful eLALME which was recently launched at a website sponsored by the University of Edinburgh and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council of Great Britain and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation of New York. Scholars may consult the site at http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/ihd/elalme/ elalme_frames.html

EBS Facebook Page

EBS Book Series: Texts and Transitions Through Brepols, EBS publishes monographs dealing with late medieval manuscripts and early printed books to about 1550, particularly those that explore the transition from manuscript to print and questions to do with readers and literacy, owners and patronage, the dissemination of texts, and the reception of medieval texts. The series draws on the ideals and aims of the Early Book Society. A “text” may be either a word or an image, where a picture serves also as a text that can be

read and interpreted. The focus is mainly on manuscripts and books produced in England or for the English market, and closely related French and Continental works. The series includes monographs of about 250 to 300 pages, collections of previously published essays by one author (updated and revised), or in some cases essay collections with a clearly unified theme or one main subject. Authors are encouraged to include illustrations. Pictures are reproduced in black and white, though color illustrations may be included in special cases. Authors are responsible for purchasing photographs and securing the permissions to reproduce them. The first volume in the EBS series, The Making of Poetry: Late-Medieval French Poetic Anthologies by Jane H. M. Taylor, published in August of 2007, received many excellent reviews. Other books in the EBS series include Alexandra Barratt’s Anne Bulkeley and her Book: Fashioning Female Piety in Early Tudor England, Texts and Transitions 2; The Poet's Notebook: The Personal Manuscript of Charles d'Orléans (Paris BnF MS fr. 25458), by Mary-Jo Arn, Texts and Transitions 3; and Rebecca L. Schoff’s Reformations: Three Medieval Authors in Manuscripts and Movable Type, Texts and Transitions 4, all of which have been described in previous Newsletters as well

Subscription Information JEBS 17, the issue forthcoming next fall, is part of timely membership renewal; further copies must be ordered separately. If you are ordering extra copies, you can pay with VISA (in U.S. dollars) using the order form on the Pace UP site at . Libraries may purchase copies directly from Ingram Library Services (1-800-937-5300). A membership renewal form for 2013-2014, which includes the cost of JEBS 17, may be found on the last page of this bulletin. Members are asked, however, to pay their dues promptly. All members are encouraged to join (for the academic year) not later than the annual business meeting at Western Michigan (Friday, May 9, 2014), so the proper number of orders can be given the Press directly on return. UK and Continental payments are made to Linne Mooney, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, King’s Manor, York Y01 7EP UK. E-mail: , but also by this May deadline, please, if you wish to include the Journal with your subscription for this year. This cumbersome and timeconsuming system is in the process of being updated, and we hope to make website payment available in the coming academic year (that is, from September 2014 to August 2015). EBS has now been officially incorporated in the state of New York as a not-for-profit institution and can also accept charitable donations to further its efforts to promote the history of

the book particularly in the earlier periods of production.

EBS Website, 2013-2014 Membership List, and ListServ Martha Rust at New York University is the webmaster for the EBS site housed at NYU . The site includes an electronic version of the Newsletter, announcements of interest to the EBS membership, the current membership list, and the Honor Roll, a list of those who have paid their EBS dues already for 2013-2014. Suggestions for other items members would like to see included on this site (announcements of forthcoming books, of conferences or talks and exhibitions) may be sent to: or to . Martha Rust has also very kindly volunteered to take over the administration of the Early Book Society listserv from Dan Mosser at Virginia Tech who ran it valiantly from the early days of social media until this spring (for about 20 years, that is). We wish to thank Dan for all of his efforts to maintain the EBS listserv and are very grateful to Martha for taking it over. If you wish to be added to the EBS listserv, contact [email protected] or if you know of someone who might want to subscribe, here is the URL for doing that: http:// lists.nyu.edu/read/all_forums/subscribe? name=early-book-society Instructions for unsubscribing to the list appear at the bottom of this and every message posted to

Manuscripts on My Mind

formation in the Brighten your day with an email newslet- comments section (you must ter from the Vatican Film Library at St Louis University. To subscribe or contrib- first create an account or sign in ute, contact the editor, Susan L’Engle at with a Yahoo or [email protected] Past issues in PDF format with lovely color reproductions may Facebook acbe found at http://slulink.slu.edu/special/ count). vfl/resources/newsletter3.pdf

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight MS Online A digital facsimile of the British Library MS Cotton Nero A.x.(art.3), the unique manuscript of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, is available to scholars on a site hosted by the University of Calgary. The 180 images of all four texts in the MS will be eventually accompanied by a transcription of the poems with new introductory essays on the manuscript along with its texts and illustrations. Available at http:// www.gawain.ucalgary.ca/

Fragment of medieval manuscript used in a sixteenth century binding: Image from the Ransom Center Fragments Project’s Flickr

http:// www.flickr.com/photos/ ransom_center_fragments/sets/

Free Digital Images for Scholars

The National Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, along with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, have made digital images of Harry Ransom Center Binding works from their collections available for Waste Project free for all scholThe Harry Ransom Center at the Univer- arly publications. sity of Texas, Austin, has made available The National Galdetailed photographs of all its known MS lery waives reprobinding waste. There are 75 sets and 228 duction charges images posted on Flickr. Work to identify for digital images items continues, and photos will be added used in academic books and jouras new binding waste is discovered. nals that meet specific criteria (nonprofit, Viewers are encouraged to contribute to the descriptions by providing relevant in- short-run publications) and where orders are processed and delivered via its Pic-

ture Library website www.nationalgalleryimages.co.uk. Discounts are available for images reproduced in student theses, academic presentations or lectures, and noncommercial private use. The V&A offers publishers of academic books and scholarly articles direct download of more than 25,000 images directly from its website www.vandaimages.com The Met in NY has joined with ARTstor to offer highresolution images from its collections for scholarly publication free of charge. Images are available to users, both individual and institutional, who are not ARTstor subscribers. See www.artstor.org/ what-is-artstor/w-html/ servicespublishing.shtml for more information.

Blog on St Andrews Collections Daryl Green, Rare Books Cataloguer, at the Department of Special Collections of the library at the University of St Andrews has a blog on the rare book collections, titled Daryl Green, St Andrews Blogger

“Echoes from the Vault.” Currently, one can access podcasts on the Treasures of the Library, on the Fasciculus Temporum, and on the Roll of Kings (by EBS member Margaret Connolly) or consult the 52 weeks of Historical How-To’s for instructions as to how to make iron gall ink, for example. The blog is available at: http:// standrewsrarebooks.wordpress.com/ The library website is: www.st-andrews.ac.uk/ specialcollections/

Database of Middle English Romance Sponsored by the University of York, the Database of Middle English Romance allows modern readers to access information about more than 80 romances, including the date and place of composition, verse form, authorship and sources, extant MSS and early modern imprints, along with a full list of modern editions and plot summaries. Website: www.middleenglishromance.org.uk

JEBS 17 in Progress The current issue of JEBS is being prepared for Pace University Press for fall publication and includes an outstanding roster of contributors, including Dorothy Africa, Gerard Boumeester, James Carley and Ann Hutchison, Tania M. Colwell, Jean-Marie Flamand, Victoria Flood, John Block Friedman, Joseph Gwara, Ralph Hanna, Katherine Hindley, Hope Johnston, Kathy Kerby-Fulton, David Lavinsky, Arnold Sanders, Valerie Schutte, and Eric Weiskott, among other contributors. The authors represent a range of scholars from graduate students to full professors and librarians who are making their mark in the valuable field of MS and early print studies (no puns intended). As the Press schedule has changed, along with the Editor of Pace University Press, it is expected that JEBS 17 will be sent later in fall 2014 to members whose accounts are current by the May deadline. For future issues, members of the Early Book Society are asked submit longer papers (35 – 40 pp), with endnotes and a full Works Cited list, for consideration for publication by November 1 in both hard and electronic copy. These are substantial essays on any aspect of the history of manuscripts and/or printed books, with emphasis on the period between 1350 and 1550. Essays should be sent in duplicate with an abstract to Martha Driver. A limited number of illustra-

tions may be included with complete captions and permissions citations; Xeroxes of these should initially be sent with papers for consideration to the editor. Please submit notes on recent discoveries (4 to 10 pages), highlighting little-known or recently uncovered texts or images, to Linne Mooney, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, King’s Manor, York Y01 7EP UK. These shorter essays include only endnotes (not a Works Cited list). Inquiries are welcome . Please send brief descriptions (200-650 words) of little- or lesser-known collections and libraries of interest to the Society to Martha Driver, Early Book Society, Department of English, Pace University, 41 Park Row, New York, NY 10038. Members of the Early Book Society who are recent authors may send review books for consideration to Susan Powell, Reviews Editor, 7 Woodbine Terrace, Headingly, Leeds LS6 4AF UK. Sue may be contacted at . Back issues of JEBS are available online through the Modern Language Association database; consult the Pace University Press website, www.pace.edu/ press/, if you wish to purchase the first issue of JEBS, published in 1997, which was out of print for the last twelve years and has been reissued. The Journal uses The Chicago Manual of Style as its house manual. For general information, contact .

EBS Conference 2015 Daniel Wakelin has found accommodation and lecture halls in St Anne’s College, Oxford, to house the next conference of the Early Book Society. The dates are now set from July 2 through July 5, 2015, so please mark your calendars! We hope to include a visit to the Bodleian Library’s new exhibition from its collections in the renovated building, the Weston Library, which is expected to reopen in April 2015. The theme for the next conference is Telling Tales: MSS, Books and the Making of Narrative, 1350 to 1550. This theme may be as narrowly or broadly interpreted as necessary; one might consider stories told in texts and/or in images within manuscripts and books or the ways in which stories are told about manuscripts and books or St Anne’s College, about the liOxford braries that

house them or even the way stories are mangled, improved upon, truncated or elaborated in transmission. Lectures or proposed sessions that consider the transition from script to print, bibliographic issues, or the movement of books within or into Oxford will be particularly encouraged, though papers on any aspect of the history of manuscripts and printed books from 1350 to

Projected view of Weston Library frontage

1550, including the copying and circulation of models and exemplars, style, illustration, and/or the influence of readers and patrons, artists, scribes, printers, are welcome. A call for papers will be sent out next fall. Paris is another venue which has been discussed with the IRHT for some time, perhaps with an eye to 2017. Other suggestions for future conference sites are invited.

Fellowships and Memberships AMARC The Association for Manuscripts and Archives in Research Collections (AMARC) promotes the accessibility, preservation, and study of medieval and later manuscripts and archives in libraries and other research collections in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Membership is open to all and includes reduced-rate attendance at meetings, held usually three times per year (which often involve privileged access to manuscript collections), and the twice-yearly Newsletter. The AMARC Newsletter contains listings of worldwide exhibitions and conferences, and UK lectures and seminars; it also includes a substantial bibliography of recent publications, recent acquisitions by libraries and museums, information about recent and forthcoming auction and dealer catalogues, and a list of useful websites. For further details, visit www.manuscripts.org.uk/amarc.

Harry Ransom Center Fellowships The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin annually awards fifty fellowships to support research projects that require substantial onsite use of its collections. The fellowships support visits of one to three months, with stipends of

$3000 per month (US). Travel stipends of $1200 to $1700 are also available as are dissertations fellowships ($1500). More information about the fellowships and the Ransom’s center’s collections is available at: http://budurl.com/5gcd

Heckman Research Stipends The Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (Collegeville, Minnesota) offers stipends for research at the library from periods of two weeks to six months. Candidates must be graduate students or scholars who are within three years of completing a terminal master’s or doctoral degree. Amounts of grants are variable up to $2,000. Deadlines are twice yearly: April 15 for research conducted from July 1 to December 1, and Nov 15 for research conducted from January to June 30. Submit a letter of application, cv, a one-page description of the research project including proposed length of stay, an explanation how use of the Library’s resources will advance the project and a confidential letter of recommendation from an advisor, thesis director, mentor, or in the case of postdoctoral candidates, a colleague. For more information, contact The Committee on Research, Hill Museum & Manuscript Library, Box7300, St John’s University, Collegeville, MN 56321-7300. Inquiries may also be directed to [email protected] or FAXed to 320-363-3222.

July 16 - 20 Conferences, Colloquia, Talks, Exhibitions of Interest Nineteenth Biennial International Congress of the New Chaucer Society, Reyto EBS Members kjavík, Iceland, featuring a Presidential Address by Alastair Minnis, the Biennial Lecture by James Simpson, and plenary Second Annual Symposium on Medieval by Guðrún Nordal. For further inforand Renaissance Studies, St Louis Univer- mation, see http://newchaucersociety.org/ sity, with plenary speakers John W. Bald- pages/entry/2014-congress win (Johns Hopkins University) and Robert Hillenbrand (University of Edinburgh). Aug 28 - 31 For more information, see http:// The Art of Reading in the Middle Ages smrs.slu.edu and Renaissance, Stellenbosch, South Africa. Keynote Address: Professor HenJune 30 - July 3 ry Woudhuysen, Lincoln College, UniThird International Conference of the John versity of Oxford. For more information, Gower Society: John Gower: Language, see http://sasmars21stbiennialconf Cognition and Performance, Rochester, erence.blogspot.com/. NY. Consult www.johngower.org or email Bob Yeager ([email protected]) or Sept 15 - 17 Russell Peck ([email protected]) Imagining Medieval English, University for further information of Notre Dame. For information, contact Tim Machan ([email protected]) or see July 2 - 4 http://medieval.nd.edu/events/ The 13th York Manuscripts Conference: 2014/09/15/23889-imagining-medievalCathedral Libraries and Archives in the english/ British Isles, held at the York Minster Library and the King's Manor, York, marking the 600th anniversary of the refounding of York Minster Library. Speakers include Nigel Morgan (Cambridge), Christopher Norton (York), Rodney Thomson (Tasmania), and Magnus Williamson (Newcastle). See www.york.ac.uk/medieval-studies/ conferences/ymc-2014

June 16 - 18

Sunday, 8:30 a.m., Session 528, Bernhard Brown & Gold Room Collaboration: Made to Order? Customizing Medieval MSS and Early Printed Books Presider: Dorothy Africa, Harvard Law School Library “Customizing for Customers in Thirteenth-Century Oxford: Identifying Patron Preference and Atelier Style in the MSS Produced by William de Brailes and his Associates” Cynthia Johnston, Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London “A MS for MacDonagh: Customizing the Book of Ballymote” Karen Ralph, Trinity College, University of Dublin “An Editorial Eye in Longleat MS 257, Part I” Breeman Ainsworth, University of Oklahoma “King and Country: Royal MS 18 D II and the Percys’ Royal Anxieties” Noelle Phillips, University of Toronto

Sunday, 10:30 p.m., Session 565, Bernhard Brown & Gold Room MS to Print and Back Again: Medieval MSS and Early Printed Books Presider: Martha W. Driver “Coded Illustrations: Caxton’s Woodcuts and the Fable Tradition” Greta Smith, Miami University “Illustrative Matter: Christine de Pizan’s Othéa in MS and Print in the Morgan Library” Nancy E. Poehlmann, University at Albany “‘None haue behynde theim, left so greate treasure’: Tracing Intertexuality and Paratexts from MS to Print in late English Chronicles” Andrea Nichols, University of Nebraska-Lincoln “Chronicle of the Very Valiant and Illustrious Knight Cifar: A Thoroughly Medieval Text in Print Dress” Anthony J. Cárdenas-Rotunno, University of New Mexico

Saturday, 3:30 p.m., Session 469, Schneider 1275 Multilingual Texts Presider: William S. Monroe, Brown University “The Codicology of Predestination: Beinecke MS 492 and La Lumiere as Lais” Katherine Hindley, Yale University [Karrer Travel Award Winner] “‘R’ is for Reckoning: An Alphabetic Sermon in Latin and Middle English” Martha Rust New York University “Incunabula Printings of Columbus’s Barcelona Letter in Spanish, Latin, Italian, German and (Perhaps) in Catalán” Elizabeth Willingham, Baylor University “Wynkyn de Worde’s Gothic Types, 1513-1521: A Conspectus” Joseph J. Gwara, United States Naval Academy

EBS Newsletter © 2014 Early Book Society The Early Book Society grew out of sessions planned for the International Congress on Medieval Studies (Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo) by Sarah Horrall and Martha Driver. Founded as an independent entity in 1987, the Society’s goal is to bring together all those who are interested in any aspect of the study of manuscripts and early printed books. Newsletter Editor: Samantha Mullaney ([email protected]). Newsletter items should be sent to the editor, including short reviews, reports on works in progress. Announcements and conference listings are also welcome. EBS Officers:  Martha Driver, Department of English, Pace University, 41 Park Row, NY, NY 10038  Sue Powell, 7 Woodbine Terrace, Headingly, Leeds LS6 4AF , UK  Linne R Mooney, Centre for Medieval Studies, King's Manor, University of York, York Y01 7EP UK Email: JEBS: The Society’s other publication, Journal of the Early Book Society, can be ordered using the form that may be downloaded from the EBS website http://www.pace.edu/ press . Details of how to contribute to JEBS can be found under a separate heading in the Newsletter.

Membership Form The Early Book Society grew out of sessions planned for the International Congress on Medieval Studies (Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo) by Sarah Horrall and Martha Driver. Founded as an independent entity in 1987, the Society was formed to bring together all those who are interested in any aspect of the study of manuscripts and early printed books. EBS now has 475 members in the US, Canada, Japan, Ireland, Great Britain, and on the Continent. Membership brings announcements of EBS activities, including the biennial conference, as well as the membership list and the Journal of the Early Book Society, both published annually, along with pre-publication discounts on books of interest to members and access to the EBS listserv. Dues are $40 or £24 for 2013 to 2014. All members are asked to pay by mail not later than May 1, 2014, or in person at the annual EBS business meeting at Western Michigan (May 10) so copies of JEBS may be ordered in a timely fashion. Those paying Linne Mooney are asked to send a check by May 15. JEBS may also be ordered separately from Pace UP (see www.pace.edu/press for details). Those who have paid dues are indicated on the EBS website: . Please share a copy of this announcement with an interested friend. ___________________________________________________________________ I enclose $40 or £24 as dues for 2013-2014 membership in EBS. Name: ______________________________________________________ Address: ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ e-mail address: __________________________________________________ Affiliation: __________________________________________________ Research interests: _____________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ Members wishing to pay in US dollars should send $40 to Martha Driver, Early Book Society, Department of English, Pace University, 41 Park Row, NY, NY 10038. Members paying in pounds sterling should send £24 to Linne Mooney, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, King’s Manor, York YO1 7EP UK. Visit our Website at http://www.nyu.edu/projects/EBS>. Visit our Website at (http:// www.nyu.edu/projects/EBS). Send newsletter items of interest to the editor Samantha Mullaney .