Category: Acquisitions

New Acquisition Sheds Light on Fifteenth-Century Book Trade

March 2, 2023

10:05 am

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Acquisitions, Books

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Pitts Theology Library recently acquired a book that helps us better understand aspects of the book trade in fifteenth-century Italy. This book contains tracts, or spiritual letters, written by Ugo Panciera (or Panziera) da Prato (circa 1260–circa 1330), who was an Italian theologian, lay member of the Franciscan order, and missionary in the Pera-Galata region of Constantinople. While Panciera was in Constantinople, he wrote a series of spiritual letters, or tracts, which were printed for the first time in this book from 1492.

The printing of Panciera’s tracts shed light on competitive printing practices in the fifteenth century. Copyright protections typically did not exist in the fifteenth century and printers often reproduced profitable books produced by other printers. Panciera’s tracts were first printed in Florence by Antonio Miscomini in June of 1492. Miscomini’s edition contained thirteen tracts. Six months later, in December 1492, Miscomini’s rivals, Lorenzo Morgiani and Johannes Petri, issued their own edition of Panciera’s tracts. Their edition copied the text of Miscomini’s edition, but added a fourteenth tract. For this reason, Morgiani and Petri claimed that their version was fuller and superior to the earlier printed edition by Miscomini. Yet the newer edition retained errors produced by Miscomini and printed the text in a more condensed and crude typeface to save money on production costs. Nevertheless, this newer edition of Panciera’s tracts seems to have cut into the sales of Miscomini’s earlier edition. So in response to this newer edition, Miscomini added the fourteenth tract to his unsold copies. Copies of Miscomini’s edition containing the additional tract are rare and so it is significant that the copy of Panciera’s tracts which our library recently acquired does contain the fourteenth tract.

To view the catalog record for this book or to request to view the book in Special Collections click on the following link: https://search.libraries.emory.edu/catalog/9937673492502486

For more information on this topic, see Paul F. Gehl, “Watermark evidence for the competitive practices of Antonio Miscomini”, The Library 15 (1993), 281-305.

Written by Brandon Wason, Head of Special Collections

Why are the shelves empty?

February 16, 2023

11:43 am

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Acquisitions, Books

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If you’ve recently visited the first floor stacks, you may have spotted some empty shelves. Don’t worry! They are not a sign of troubled times or a dwindling library collection. In fact, our empty shelves are purposeful, as they provide space for new materials and growth.

The library may seem like a static space, but the stacks are constantly changing, and there is a lot more to collection maintenance than just re-shelving books. In 2022, Pitts acquired 2,060 new items, taking up nearly 50 yards (half of a football field!), or an entire aisle, of shelf space. Making room for that amount of material is no small feat. To accommodate the ever-expanding collection, we do daily shelf-reading, inventory, and shifting projects, which you’ve probably seen our staff doing downstairs. Daily shelf-reading helps us ensure that all of our books are tidy and nothing has been horribly misplaced. Inventory, another ongoing project, helps us track each individual book’s place on the shelves and assess its condition. Any books that are falling apart, water damaged, or otherwise unsuitable for circulation are removed from the shelves.

Finally, the most important task for making space in the stacks is shifting. Shifting begins by measuring every individual shelf and determining the size of the existing materials in each section to find the proportion of the space currently being used. Based on heat maps of space density, we locate available space in other sections. Once the math balances out, we can begin the physical process of moving all of the materials into their new locations, creating the needed space for new materials to be shelved in their respective sections. Throughout the shifting process, we continue measuring and calculating density ratios to make sure everything is going according to the plan. Shifting is a process that is never fully complete.

You may have also noticed the New Acquisitions section located on the 2nd floor of the library. Designated by yellow signs and end caps, the New Acquisitions section is an important space for us to show the cool, new things we get, but also highlight growth in certain areas of the collection. Before we started this section, library staff were able to see the new purchases, engage with them, and have first dibs on checking out the materials, but patrons weren’t able to engage in the same way. This section was created with you, our patrons, in mind, and we encourage you to check it out and see all the new materials arriving at Pitts! Anything in the New Acquisitions section can be checked out with a valid library account. After a few months, all these new materials are placed downstairs into their permanent homes.

Our current shelving space is structured to comfortably house our current collection with more than sufficient room for growth. So the next time you come across empty shelves, know they are waiting their turn to hold our books.

Written by Yasmine Green, Collection Management Coordinator, & Liz Miller, Coordinator of Digital Initiatives

Pitts Acquires Another Item from the Library of Gaspard Ernest Stroehlin

January 18, 2023

4:37 pm

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Acquisitions, Books, Research

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by Armin Siedlecki

Pitts Theology Library recently added to its Richard C. Kessler Reformation Collection a short tract in the form of a dialogue (a common genre in the 16th century) in which a Catholic monk debates with a Lutheran baker about the usefulness of fasting. The baker wins the argument by arguing that one should not abstain from but enjoy God’s gifts (in proper moderation). The tract, which only has eight leaves, was written by Hans Staygmayer, himself a baker by trade in the Swabian city of Reutlingen. A remarkable detail of this particular copy of the work is the bookplate on its front inside cover. Unlike most bookplates, it does not bear the name of the book’s owner, but instead depicts John Calvin preaching with Geneva’s St. Peter’s Cathedral in the background. A banner below Calvin has the motto Mente Libera (with a free mind/heart). Below it is the name Champel referring to one of the historical districts of Geneva. Almost hidden on the right side of the bookplate are the initials GES for Gaspard Ernest Stroehlin (1844-1907), a Swiss pastor a church historian at the University of Geneva. Stroehlin was an avid book collector, especially of theological source materials from the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. When his library was sold in 1912, the auction catalog was issued in three volumes. His books were usually bound by the Swiss bookbinder Hans Asper (1855–1911), often with fine morocco leather, gilded ornamentation and beautifully marbled endpapers, giving them a characteristic look. Prior to this acquisition, the Kessler Collection held six other works from the library of Ernest Stroehlin.

Left: A Stroehlin bookplate and marbled endpapers from Vo[n] der Haubt Sum[m]a Gottes Gebots, darzů vom Miszbrauch vnd rechtem Brauch des Gesetz (1526 LUTH CC). Right: Cover of Ain Schoner Dialogus (1524).

Pitts Partners with Woodruff on Innovative Acquisitions Program

September 19, 2022

7:15 am

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Acquisitions, Books

by Caitlin Soma

As Candler and Emory continue working to make important resources available online, Pitts Theology Library has been working with the Woodruff library at Emory on innovative acquisitions programs.  

Last year, the Woodruff Library at Emory undertook an evidence-based acquisitions program with the publisher Brill. These programs, known as EBAs, allow libraries to temporarily gain access to a large number of ebooks, gather data on their usage, and then make purchase decisions at the end of the designated time period. The Woodruff Library has used EBA programs for several years, but the Brill EBA is the first time that one of these programs has contained a significant amount of content that relates to the Pitts collection.  

For Emory students, faculty, and staff, Brill ebooks have licenses that allow them to be downloaded and accessed by an unlimited number of users simultaneously. This makes Brill ebooks very user-friendly but comes with a high price tag. The EBA program helps us know which of these ebooks will have the biggest impact so that we can spend our collections funds wisely.  

Although EBA programs are helpful in building an ebook collection, it’s important to balance them against print acquisitions so that the print collection isn’t left with gaps. Throughout the program we continued to purchase print copies of the most significant new Brill publications. Even if we did end up with permanent electronic copies of these titles, many of these titles are important enough that we also wanted them in our physical collection to ensure their longevity at Pitts. However, we delayed purchasing some books that were both particularly expensive and on topics that are tangential to our collecting areas.  

Over the summer, we started getting reports of EBA data. This information included thousands of Brill ebooks dating from 1961-2022. Working with the Woodruff Library, we sorted through it all to determine which items were most relevant to our collection, which titles the Woodruff subject librarians were prioritizing, and what the usage data looked like for all of them. As we worked on the data, it became clear that theology titles were among the most used for the entire program.  

Based on this, we purchased a group of titles from the Brill EBA list to permanently add to our ebook collection. Some of these are duplicates of especially significant and highly used books in our print collection, while others are only available as ebooks. All of them represent new efforts to serve our patrons’ ever-evolving needs while maintaining the integrity of one of the best theology library collections in North America.  

Highlights from this collection include Courtney Goto’s Taking on Practical Theology, Ingrid R Kitzberger’s edited volume Transformative Encounters: Jesus and Women Re-Viewed, Jacqueline Hidalgo’s Latina/o/x Studies and Biblical Studies, and David Warren, Ann Graham Brock, and David Pao’s Early Christian Voices in Texts, Traditions, and Symbols. 

logo for Kessler 4K program

Pitts Reveals 4,000th Addition to Kessler Collection

March 11, 2022

3:56 pm

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Acquisitions

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Over the past few weeks, speculation has been abound regarding the identity of Pitts 4,000th addition to the Richard C. Kessler Collection, following the overwhelming success of Kessler in 4K fundraising campaign. Pitts is thrilled to reveal that the wait is over; the 4,000th item has arrived from a partner in Germany, and it is spectacular! Please watch this video to learn about an unbelievably rare first edition that we are now privileged to hold and share with the world. As you watch, please know that it is because of the generous support of our donors that we are able not only to acquire this important book, but to also digitize it, to share it with students around the world, and to foster research about church reform.

This landmark acquisition further cements the Richard C. Kessler Reformation Collection’s reputation as North America’s premier collection of printed books and manuscripts documenting the religious and cultural reforms in Europe in the 16th century. Pitts commits to continuing our work not only to grow the size of the collection beyond 4,000, but, more importantly, to grow its impact through research and teaching.