This catalogue highlights forty-seven of the 1,180 eighteenth-century imprints held by Memorial University Libraries.

Pages from the Past: History of the Written Word (No. 10 of fifteen numbered portfolio sets) consists of 157 original leaves and artefacts, including a Babylonian clay tablet, a Babylonian cylinder seal, an Egyptian scarab seal, and several papyrus pieces. There are parchment leaves from medieval manuscripts, and pages from incunables, including a leaf each from the Nuremberg Chronicles (Koberger, 1493) and Sebastian Brant’s Ship of Fools (Bergmann, 1498). The Collection also contains a wide range of pages from the hand-press period, including a leaf printed by Wynkyn De Worde (1516), a sample from Munster’s Cosmographia Universalis (1559), a leaf from Martin Luther’s German translation of the Bible (1584), as well as samples of fine calligraphy. There are early printed pages from Ireland, Mexico and the USA, one of the latter being a fragment of a Cotton Mather sermon printed by his sister in Boston in 1685. This leaf book concludes with fragments from some of the best late-nineteenth century and early-twentieth century printers, including William Morris and Bruce Rogers.

For more information, please contact librarian Patrick Warner at the QEII’s Archives and Special Collections.

Now showing in the mail lobby of the Queen Elizabeth II Library, this exhibit highlights book formats from folio to miniatures. The exhibit will be on view for approximately six weeks (posted Sept 13, 2016)

Our new exhibit is up! Come visit from May 15 – June 30, 2016, at the Queen Elizabeth II Library (3rd Floor). The exhibit also will run from July 5 – August 15, 2016 at the A.C. Hunter Public Library, Arts & Culture Centre, St. John’s. For more information, see the Memorial University Libraries’ Spotlight. Also, see our Flickr page for pictures of the exhibit.

Memorial University Special Collections manuscripts featured. “Memorial’s collection is uncommon in several respects.” More here

Closely related to the 2016 George M. Story lecture, there will be an interdisciplinary symposium on the history of the book in Newfoundland and Labrador on 7-8 May in Arts 1043. It is hosted by the Department of English, the Basilica Museum, and the Newfoundland Historical Society.

Featuring talks by researchers in English, History, Religious Studies,
Sociology, and Special Collections, among other areas, the symposium is free
and open to the public.

A full program is available as a downloadable PDF.

In 2013, Roger and Marlene Peattie made a second significant donation to Memorial University Libraries, adding approximately 1000 volumes to the existing special collection of Pre-Raphaelite and Victorian-Illustrated books. The 2013 donation also included a collection of picture books (approximately 1250 titles) and a small number of letters and documents by Pre-Raphaelites and their associates. More about the new additions and how to access them can be found here.

The Permeable Barrier: A Catalogue of Seventeenth Century Print Works at Memorial University Libraries.Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, Newfoundland.

Medieval Fragments. A Teaching Portfolio. Manuscripts in the Age of Print. Meant to Convey Aspects of Manuscript and Print Culture in the Transition from Script to Print, compiled by Dr. Scott Gwara (University of South Carolina).

The eighteen manuscript fragments in the portfolio highlight some of the ways in which print culture affected the layout and decorative style of manuscripts, as well as some of the ways that manuscripts continued to influence printed books. The portfolio also provides evidence of the continued use of manuscripts and the production of new manuscripts throughout the hand-press period. Selected examples below.

Archaized fragment. Processional from the Royal Abbey of St. Louis at Poissy. Single folio on vellum, c.a. 1490. 

A script made to look like print. Luxury illuminated Pontifical. Single folio on vellum. Northern France, ca. 1525.

Printed Book of Hours decorated by hand. Folio printed on vellum and illuminated by Gilles and Germain Hardouyn. Single folio on vellum. Paris, dated 1513.

Fifteenth century text showing erasures, substitutions, abbreviations, notes & directions (margins), added texts and music (margins); music on paper stubs inserted into the gutter;continually updated for more than 200 years. Complete quire from an Antiphonal. Eight consecutive folios on vellum, foliated 45-60. The Netherlands, ca. 1450

Decorated folio from a stenciled Gradual on vellum. Spain, c.a. 1700.

Miniature from an eighteenth-century Persian Work. Sa’di (Saadi), The Gulistan or Garden of Roses. Single folio on strengthened paper. Persia, ca. 1760.

Indenture document (mortgage). Single document on vellum. England, dated 25 March 1774: approx. 620 x 800 mm.
.

The Alcuin Society Book Design Awards Exhibit (2013) is now up for your viewing pleasure on the third floor of The Queen Elizabeth II Library. There are a limited number of catalogues available with the exhibit—first come first served. The books will be on display until early December.

More information about the award winners here.