Pitts’ Annual Friends of the Library Book Sale returns this year with some big changes! This year we’re offering $15 cartons for EmoryCard holders ($30 for non-Emory) to fill with whatever will fit (estimated 20-25 books per carton). A la carte options are also available—$2 for paperback and $3 for hardcover. Lastly, complete sets will be featured at discounted prices.
As always, thousands of books are available for purchase on a range of topics including biblical studies, church history, ethics, ministry, and more.
DATES Tuesday, February 27th, 2024: 8am-11am (EmoryCard holders only), 11am-4pm (Open to General Public)
Wednesday, February 28th, 2024: 8am-4pm (Open to General Public)
A popular genre of devotional books in the late Middle Ages and during the Renaissance were passionals, illustrated books about the suffering and death of Christian martyrs, in particular about the passion and death of Jesus Christ.
The text accompanying the images in these books was typically of secondary importance to the images, which were intended to inspire meditation and prayer. A recent acquisition by Pitts is a 1508 passional printed in Strasbourg, Passio domini nostri Jesu Christi (1508 PASS). The Latin text, likely translated from a German original, is a compilation drawn from the four Gospels and edited by the humanist scholar Matthias Ringman (1481-1510) and the popular preacher Johann Geiler von Kaysersberg (1445-1510). The 25 full page woodcut illustrations are early works by the Swiss artist and goldsmith Urs Graf (1485-1528), representing Graf’s first book illustrations signed by him with his characteristic monogram VS. While Urs Graf does not exhibit the detailed realism often found in the art of his contemporaries Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) and Lucas Cranach (1472-1553), whose works Graf also reproduced in copies, the characterization of his subjects has a uniquely compelling quality, in particular their often unusual facial expressions.
The particular copy of this work acquired recently by Pitts has significance for the library. The book has the previous ownership bookplate of the Swiss church historian Ernest Strœhlin (1844-1907). The bookplate has a depiction of John Calvin preaching and the motto “Mente Libera” (“with a free mind”). Stroehlin was an avid book collector, and many of his books were bound beautifully in fine morocco leather with gilt tooling on the inside edge, with marbled paste-downs and endpapers. These bindings were the work of noted Swiss binder Hans Asper (1855-1911). Stroehlin’s library was auctioned off in 1912, and Pitts has been making a concerted effort to collect these works from his library. The library now holds at least 8 of these Stroehlin/Asper books, several of which were featured in the library’s exhibition “More Precious than Gold”. You can learn more about these bindings in a blog post from last year, and we invite you to make an appointment in our Special Collections to come and see this new acquisition.
By Armin Siedlecki, Head of Cataloging and Rare Book Cataloger
Pitts Theology Library recently acquired a copy of the Nuremberg Chronicle (1493 SCHE B), one of the most famous books produced in the fifteenth century. The Nuremberg Chronicle, or Liber chronicarum, is a history of the world, best known for its abundant illustrations, which include portraits of famous individuals, maps, depictions of biblical or historical events, and cityscapes. Two editions of the Nuremberg Chronicle were printed in 1493 by Anton Koberger (1440-1513). The first was a Latin edition, written by Hartmann Schedel (1440-1514), printed in June with an estimated print run of 1,400 copies. The second was a translation from the Latin into German by Georg Alt (ca. 1450-1510), Das Buch der Croniken, printed in December, with an estimated print run of 600 copies. Alt slightly shortened Schedel’s text to match the layout of the Latin edition. The new Pitts acquisition is this German edition.
Blind-stamped calf binding
The artwork of the Nuremberg Chronicle sets it apart from other early printed books. The work contains an unprecedented amount of woodcuts, which interact with the text in remarkable ways. The images do more than simply provide a visual companion to the written word; they are as essential as the text itself. Several artists created 645 unique woodcuts, many of which were reused throughout the book. In total, there are over 1,800 woodcut impressions in the work. Because many of the depictions of people or places were not based on historical likenesses, the depictions were often anachronistic. Also, it was common for the same woodcuts to be employed multiple times to represent different people or events. For instance, the same woodcut is used for Enoch and his wife (fol. 10r); Japheth and his wife, Funda (fol. 16r); and Abigail and her husband (fol. 42v). Many of the genealogical woodcuts were designed to be modular so that they could be reused in different ways.
Pitts Theology Library acquires materials like this book to provide resources to researchers and to educate through classroom instruction, exhibitions, and other outlets. This particular work complements the Library’s already robust collection of early printed books and woodcut images.
Pitts plans to include this new acquisition in a Spring 2024 gallery exhibition, where it will be displayed alongside the Latin Nuremberg Chronicle held by Emory’s Rose Library.
This past week Pitts added to its rare book collection a very significant New Testament (1551 BIBL B). After many years of searching, Pitts has acquired the 1551 Greek/Latin New Testament published in Geneva by Robert Estienne (1503-1559), who is often referred to by his Latin name Stephanus. This New Testament is the first to include Estienne’s numbering of individual verses, a system he developed on his own and which became the standard versification system still used today. The New Testament text is printed in three columns, with Estienne’s Greek in the center and the Latin Vulgate on one side and Erasmus’ Latin translation on the other. The verse numbers are placed between the columns of text. Estienne would subsequently print a Latin Vulgate in 1555 (1555 BIBL A) in which the verse numbers were integrated into the text, which is how most subsequent Bibles have printed them.
Matthew 1
This 1551 New Testament is also one of Estienne’s first publications in Geneva, the city to which he had fled (from Paris) when he came under attack from the theologians at the Sorbonne University in Paris, who were critical of his 1550 edition of the Greek New Testament, his famous “Royal Edition” (1550 BIBL), which was the first New Testament to include a system of text critical notes indicating alternative readings in Greek manuscripts. A later report of this episode, written by Estienne’s son, indicates that he created the verse number system on the move from Paris to Geneva, while “on horseback” (inter equitandum), which has led some to joke that the at-times odd placement of breaks between verses could be the result of his placing his pen in various spots of the text as the horse went up and down along the road!
We encourage you to come see this amazing publication, which is just one of the thousands of historic Bibles held in Pitts’ Special Collections.
The Great Bible was the first authorized translation of the Bible into English. First published in 1539 at the initiative of Thomas Cromwell and authorized by King Henry VIII, it preceded the King James Version by over 70 years. Queen Mary, Henry’s eldest daughter, reversed many of the Protestant reforms institutionalized in England during the reign of Henry and that of her immediate predecessor on the English throne, Edward VI. It was not until the reign of Elizabeth I that publication of the Great Bible resumed.
The 1562 printing of the Great Bible in the J. Michael Morgan English Bible & Psalmody Collection is remarkable for a number of reasons. Its current binding in full morocco with gilt covers and spine was done in the 19th century by Tuskett, royal binder to Queen Victoria. The title page woodcut is based on Lucas Cranach’s Allegory of Law and Grace, familiar from many German Luther Bibles. Finally, it is perhaps noteworthy that the recent re-authorization of this translation did not prevent the printer of this edition, Richard Harrison, from being fined for printing it without a license.
Dozens of treasures from the Morgan Collection are featured in our current exhibition “The Very Meanest Translation: Reading, Revising, and Replacing the King James Bible in America,” open until December 2023 and available as a virtual tour. The gallery is open to visitors during all of the library’s open hours (visit pitts.tl/hours for complete information).
By Armin Siedlecki, Head of Cataloging and Rare Book Cataloger
