Kessler Events

The Richard C. Kessler Collection at Pitts Theology Library fosters scholarly research from and public engagement with of its world-renowned collections. Much of that is on display at regular public programming. Each Fall, the Collection hosts “Reformation Day at Emory,” and on occasion the library will also host “Table Talk.” Both events are opportunities to learn from the world’s top scholars about why the study of the past, enabled by the Kessler Collection, is relevant for church and society today. Below you will find video content from past programming.

Spring 2024

Richard C. Kessler Collection Updates

Richard “Bo” Manly Adams, Jr., PhD, Margaret A. Pitts Distinguished Director of Pitts Theology Library

Dr. Adams provided updates on the new acquisitions in and research activities using the Kessler Collection. Highlights included discussion of the Collection’s copy of the German Nuremberg Chronicle, a hand-colored pre-Luther German translation of the New Testament, and woodcuts by Albrecht Dürer.

Kessler Table Talk: “Book History’s New Frontier and the Perils of Big Data”

Professor Andrew Pettegree

Celebrated cultural historian Andrew Pettegree introduced and made an argument for the methodology of the Universal Short Title Catalogue (USTC), a bibliography project he runs with colleagues at the University of St. Andrews. Pettegree explored the limits of national bibliographies and showed how his research in the history of books, publications, and communications, driven the historians’ questions, provides a unique window into the past.