A Book A Week 2014: Made, Altered, or Repaired. Week 8.

Week of 24 Feb 2014

About a book. I scanned some more photos from one of the books I love in the St. Olaf College Vault, The Romaunt Version of The Gospel According to St. John, 1848.

The text is printed, but also contains many pages of hand scripted letters
So beautiful!

Romaunt Version of the Gospel According to St. John, 1848

  The last book in the World Languages Bibles Collection at St. Olaf College, caught my eye, not for its outward beauty (it's plain and has been "mended")

but for the look of its language and that it says it was written in "Provencal". The text had almost a medieval Latin language look to it, but maybe a cross with Spanish or French. The word Romaunt seemed similar to Romance so I did some research to see what it was. Merriam-Webster says Romaunt is Middle English from the Old French romant, first known use in 1530 AD. Inside the front cover of this book is a typed paper explaining Romaunt and the text itself:

Here it says that Romaunt is Gallic (French) and that this was the first vernacular translation of the Gospel of John condemned by the Catholic Church, probably originally written in the 12th century. It seems like the Romaunt language was a common Romance language spoken in France in the region of Provence.

Now, this particular printed volume has a copyright date of 1848, as does the one at St. Olaf.  A quick search online shows other libraries to hold the same version. The University of Chicago has copy # 8086  and you can read the whole book online! The page opposite the title page has written, in beautiful script, "A FacSimile of the Paris MS No 8086". The copy at St. Olaf says it is No.7268. So in 1848 there must have been a huge print run of these. Here is a not great photo of the text, but you can see the pretty hand drawn script and doodles. There are a few more of these throughout the book, and in color, well, red and blue ink.

Better pics here from Lt. Colonel Dave:

  One more point of interest from that typed sheet inside the cover is that it mentions the Waldenses, "the only dissenters from the Catholic church in the middle ages that continue to live". So, who were the Waldenses? A quick search at Encyclopaedia Brittanica gave me quite a bit of information about them. Basically, they began as a sect in southern France that aspired to follow Christ in poverty and simplicity. Followers of this church wanted to be able to read the Bible in their vernacular tongue, and so it was translated into Romaunt. Here is another interesting text about the Waldenses, written by 

J. A. Wylie (1808-1890)

Archives are cool

Archives are cool, right?

So here is the vault for Special Collections at Rolvaag Library, St. Olaf College. (BTW, that's Ole Edvart Rølvaag  author of Giants in the Earth, who roomed with my grandpa, Hjalmar S. Froiland, at St. Olaf in the 'aughts.)

What's not to love about really old beautiful books and compact library shelving where you get to turn the crank to move the shelves? But wait, there's more --

     Look at this beautifully carved book cradle. This (and other ones that are clear acrylic - useful but unattractive) are used for patrons wishing to look at books in the vault. The cradle helps protect the rare book from being opened too wide, and provides a convenient resting place for the book while it's being .read

Why are card catalogs still so appealing? 

I love them. 

They were made sturdy, useful, and of beautiful wood. I have a 36 drawer catalog myself, in which I keep craft supplies.

 Then there are these amazing calf or goat skin covered volumes well over 150 years old. I love looking at the pages of these because the paper is so surprisingly white and quite sturdy. Paper used to be made of cotton rag, which has longer fibers and lacks the acid content of 50 year old wood pulp paper.

  I like the mystery of the acid-free "boxes" in which the more deteriorated books are kept. I used to make these, when I worked in the Preservation lab at UW-Madison, for items to be kept in original bindings, preventing them from excessive deterioration.

  I also am fond of the cotton "tape" used to hold a book together. There are a couple of other "tapes" used in book repair that are non-adhesive: linen tape on which to sew signatures, and tape for headbands.

The calfskin was a good choice for covers because it retained its color and remained supple for centuries.