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.
Pitts Theology Library is pleased to announce that the Lettie Pate Evans Foundation has awarded $150,000 to the Historic Rural Church Archive, a collaborative digital project featuring resources and materials related to historic rural churches in Georgia. The two-year project is led by Historic Rural Churches of Georgia, a non-profit dedicated to documenting and preserving the histories of architecturally unique churches at the center of rural communities.
Building on ten years of development by project partners, Pitts staff will produce the digital platform and infrastructure at the center of the project and coordinate the digitization, processing, and presenting of materials from both academic libraries and community contributors. The project team at Pitts includes:
Spencer Roberts, Head of Digital Initiatives and Technologies
Brinna Michael, Cataloging and Metadata Librarian
Ann McShane, Digital Asset Librarian
Emily Corbin, Special Collections Reference Coordinator
The Historic Rural Church Archive will bring together collections from Pitts Theology Library at Emory University, Jack Tarver Library at Mercer University, and the John Bulow Campbell Library at Columbia Theological Seminary. Each library holds unique collections representing churches in the three largest Christian denominations in Georgia: Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian. Photographs taken by volunteers working for HRCGA will also be included in the archive.
The archive will also feature digital materials contributed by community members through a custom uploading form designed for ease of use and basic information collection. The platform will present all of these materials together, providing a single resource for researchers, genealogists, and visitors to explore various elements of rural communities.
Once complete, the Historic Rural Church Archive will facilitate further collaboration with the Georgia Public Library System to connect rural communities with the project and provide support for local contributors. The project will also become a contributor of relevant digital materials to the Digital Library of Georgia.
Interior of Penfield Baptist Church in Penfield, Georgia. Photograph by John Kirkland. Courtesy of Historic Rural Churches of Georgia.Penfield Baptist Church Minutes, 1839-1892. Courtesy of Jack Tarver Library at Mercer University.
Pitts marks the beginning of the Jewish holiday Passover with the announcement of a major acquisition of Passover Haggadot. The library recently received a donation of 253 Haggadot, the texts that set forth the order of the Passover Seder, from the private collection of Rabbi Stuart Geller. Over the course of 50 years, Rabbi Geller built a collection of more than 300 Haggadot, the vast majority of which are now held at Pitts. Rabbi Geller says he has always been taken by the way different artists and authors interpret the story of the Exodus and how the narrative can be used to reflect the values and goals of the time they were created. Rabbi Geller is now retired and lives in Jerusalem with his wife Ellyn. He previously held pulpits in Lynbrook, NY, and Cleveland, OH. During his career he was known for his focus on youth. He is a past President of the New York Association of Reform Rabbis and past president of the Long Island Board of Rabbis.
This generous donation grows the Pitts Haggadot collection to more than 1,000 items, most of which have been acquired through donations like that of Rabbi Geller, including past large donations from Rabbi David Geffen of Jerusalem and Mr. Richard K. Goldstein of Miami. Rabbi Geffen writes often about the tradition of the Haggadah and significant examples of the art, and this past week he published an article in the Jerusalem Post that focuses on a 1948 Haggadah held by Pitts. The full collection is accessible to researchers through Pitts’ Special Collection. We wish all those who celebrate Passover “Chag Pesach Sameach,” and we invite all to come and experience this incredible (and growing) collection!
The title page of Pitts’ copy of the Amsterdam Haggadah, published in 1695 (1695 HAGG)The cover of Pitts’ copy of an Israeli Haggadah, published in 1948 (1948 HAGG A)
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.
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
One of the most common questions we receive in Special Collections is from patrons seeking historical church records from churches that either were or are current members of the North Georgia Conference. As the repository for the records of the conference, our collection consists of reports, histories, photographs, and bulletins from churches in the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church (U.S.). These histories were maintained by the conference for each church for which members contributed information. Although the depth of information varies for each church, some of the material includes dates the church was founded, founding members, pastors, membership lists, location of the church, and other pertinent data. Many of the histories were prepared by members for church homecomings and anniversaries.
A brief history of the North Georgia Conference
The Georgia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, originally part of the South Carolina Conference, was formed in 1830. In that same year the Methodist Protestant Church was formed as the result of a disagreement over the issue of lay participation in church government. In 1844, the Methodist Episcopal Church, South separated from the Methodist Episcopal Church over the issue of slavery. In 1866, the Georgia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South divided to form separate conferences for North and South Georgia. The North Georgia Conference grew rapidly in the period after this division. Its membership was estimated at 38,211 in 1866 and had grown to 58,520 by 1875. In 1939 the Methodist Episcopal Church, Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and the Methodist Protestant Church merged to form the Methodist Church (United States). The North Georgia Conference of this new unification consisted of ten districts with a membership of 156,400. In 1968 the Methodist Church merged with the Evangelical United Brethren to form the United Methodist Church. In 2000 the North Georgia Conference consisted of twelve districts with a total membership of 308,489 persons.
Asbury United Methodist Church, LaGrange, 1828-1972, United Methodist Church (U.S.) North Georgia Conference, Local Church Histories, Archives and Manuscript Dept., Pitts Theology Library, Emory University
Making church histories accessible
When a church provides materials for the Special Collections, there are several steps before we can make it available to the public for research purposes. We first process the materials, which means that we organize the materials in a way that makes sense for researchers. We place papers in acid free folders and photographs in plastic holders, and we arrange all materials in numbered acid free boxes for easy access. These containers are then placed in our climate-controlled vault that is located within our library, or the items are sent off to our off-site storage facility. We then create an online finding aid to ensure that researchers can easily view the materials that are in a collection. The materials are very useful for our local family researchers. Since the Special Collections department serves as the repository for the records of the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church, we are an active and growing collection. With that much information it can be difficult to find specific information in our collection! Thankfully many of our local church history records were previously digitized and can be seen here. In addition, our finding aids provide more detailed information about what exactly is in our collections.
Beyond church histories, the Special Collections department of Pitts Theology Library also houses over 160,000 volumes of rare or special books and approximately 4,000 cubic feet of archival and manuscript material.
If something piques your interest, please contact us to view it in person. We can be reached by email at pittssc@emory.edu or by phone at 404-727-1223.
Written by Emily Corbin, Special Collections Reference Coordinator
