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| | Issue #21.11 :: 03/12/2008 - 03/18/2008 | Illuminating History
USC’s Medieval Manuscript Exhibition Nears Close
| BY RON AIKEN
| For those who admire her, history is a fickle mistress.
Just when you think you have one era’s consciousness, culture and mores pegged, along comes evidence that forces a reexamination of preceding scholarship and analysis. That’s why for periods of history such as medieval Europe, which suffer from a stunning lack of primary source material, what has survived the centuries becomes that much more important.
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| USC Professor Scott Gwara holds one of the illuminated manuscripts on display at Thomas Cooper Library through March 28. Courtesy photo |
For Scott Gwara, professor of medieval language and literature at the University of South Carolina, compiling the legacy of the state’s medieval manuscripts was a task that was as challenging as it was rewarding. Gwara’s ambitious exhibit, Pages From the Past: A Legacy of Medieval Books in South Carolina Collections, runs at USC’s Thomas Cooper Library through March 28 and represents the most important collection of the state’s medieval legacy ever assembled.
“This has never been done here before, bringing all these manuscripts together from so many different collections,” Gwara says. “I sent hundreds of letters across the state to see what people had, and it was a real revelation how much was out there.”
Among the items Gwara is most proud of is Bob Jones University’s Chronicles of the Popes and Emperors, which has been unknown to modern scholarship since it was sold by heirs from the collection of Sir Thomas Phillips in 1910.
“A major work of scholarship just published on the period by a French woman did not find this one,” Gwara says. “These books — some of which were stored away in file cabinets or occasionally shown to undergraduates — are real treasure troves of scholarship but also have value as works of art. They cross the boundaries between textbooks and artwork.”
Also on exhibit among the 90 items: a massive illuminated Italian choir book, circa 1500; a deluxe illuminated manuscript of Ranulf Higden’s World History, written in England circa 1450; a Cistercian sermon manual, written in Italy in 1269; and a previously unknown fragment of French polyphony, circa 1400, that led one of Gwara’s students on a cross-continental journey.
Elizabeth Nyikos, a junior majoring in music, was able to reconstruct a partial French choral manuscript that belongs to Columbia College. Her research currently has her in Madrid, Spain, before she heads to Oxford University to work with Dr. Margaret Bent, a medievalist who helped Nyikos track down similar fragments of the manuscript in Italy and Spain. By literally putting the pieces together, Nyikos was able to reconstruct for the first time in centuries the complete music, a “Gloria,” as it was written in 1400.
“What she accomplished is truly remarkable, and it all came out of this amazing exhibit,” Gwara says. “There’s still so much to discover because these objects are so dense with textuality, visuality and layer upon layer of discovery.”
The only problem with the collection, Gwara says, is that once the doors close on it come March 28, all the items will return to their respective homes. However, Gwara has ensured that future scholars will always have access to the collection.
“We were able to digitize the entire collection and put it on the web at scmanuscripts.org,” Gwara says. “That was a big reason for getting all these works together. It was kind of funny; one day we simply carried everything over to have it digitized and there we were, walking down Greene Street with these treasures that are probably worth around $300,000. But we got it done, and I’m very proud that the online resource will carry on.
“South Carolina has a rich legacy in medieval manuscripts, and I want people to understand just how impressive these books are, how you’re looking at something handmade with unbelievable craftsmanship that meant so much to people at the time and since, whether its books monks sung to or private Bibles before there were printing presses, it’s just staggering the beauty and the personality they still possess.” | |
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