A university library can be an intersection of past and present — current students preparing for the future, learning from scholars of a different time. That intersection is on spectacular display on the first level of Mullins Library on the University of Arkansas campus. Special Collections is hosting the exhibition "Facsimiles: The Magic of Reproductions." Under glass are painstakingly created facsimiles of important works made centuries ago, like a 2012 reproduction of a 15th-century prayer book titled "The Book of Hours."
Sara Barclay, exhibits and engagement archivist at Special Collections, says the exhibit offers a wide array of facsimiles.
"From medieval manuscripts to Mayan codices and all kinds of really cool stuff.”
Facsimiles have an important role in research and study. Manuscripts and codices from the 14th, 11th or 8th century can be fragile.
“And can't be handled on a very regular basis. And so the alternative to that, and to allow more people to study them across the world, is to create fine press facsimiles of them — which 'fine press' refers to trying to recreate the facsimile to its truest form. Like matching the ink, matching the paper texture, matching — if it has a really cool binding — matching that as well. Trying to recreate it in the most real sense as possible, so that when you are holding the facsimile, you feel like you're holding the real thing."
The current exhibition in Mullins Library displays just how beautiful a facsimile can be, with dramatic art, elaborate lettering and flourishes of gold. These replicas serve a very real purpose for students and scholars. Daniela D'Eugenio, assistant professor of Italian in the World Languages Department at the University of Arkansas, says for her students, it's important to see the history of a text. When, for example, students read Dante, examining how that text appeared centuries ago is important.
“Not only in interpreting the text, but also in producing items that were transmitting the text. And so that's the second important value — to look at how the history of the text was transmitted in real objects, and not just as an intellectual concept. And if my students are minors or majors in Italian, then we can really go into the language and explore the language in depth."
The facsimiles exhibition opened in conjunction with a two-day symposium last month focused on Giovanni Boccaccio's 14th-century work, "The Decameron," a 100-story collection of young people seeking refuge from the plague. Special Collections possesses centuries-old versions of works by Boccaccio and others, complete with added criticism and explanation.
"Most of them are from the 16th century, and we have a beautiful edition of Dante's 'Divine Comedy' annotated by one of the most important commentators at the time, Cristoforo Landino. And the value of this copy is that there are many engravings, and there is one full-page engraving — which involves a lot of artwork in order to be produced. But then there are also smaller engravings at the beginning of each canto. So it's an item important from a literary point of view, because it's the text of Dante with the comments of Landino. And by the way, it's nice to note that the text of Dante on the page is much bigger than the comments, but it's in less space than the comments. So the commentary is much longer than the text because Dante's text was very ambiguous. Commentators were speculating a lot on the meaning of some verses, or sometimes words. But then this item is also important from an artistic point of view, because there is a lot of art involved, and the relationship between the text and the image is important to understand the text itself and the art."
A particularly stunning example of a more recent facsimile in the exhibition is a late-1990s reproduction of a medieval manuscript. Barclay says it's commonly called the Crusader Bible.
"Created in 1250 by a French king when he was full of crusading zeal. It is a fully illustrated version of the Old Testament, but it is done in a style as if those events were happening in 13th-century France. So everybody's wearing armor, there's trebuchets, there's castles — it's a very interesting take, and it has a focus on the wars that were happening in the Old Testament to go along with the crusading holy war vibe that they were really a fan of at the time."
During the length of this exhibition, different pages of the facsimile of the Crusader Bible will be turned by staff to allow visitors to see new images from the work. And Barclay says, though this current exhibition can feel very much like a museum exhibition, it's important to remember every object here — while now under glass — has been used in classroom settings at the University of Arkansas.
"Students I've had in classes, students Daniela has had, can come and see these objects and be like, 'Why is it in a case? I was holding it in my hands in a class one day.' But obviously I'm hovering over them the whole time they're holding it — 'OK, support the spine. Don't crack it open. Be careful with it. We want it to survive for many, many years to come.' And so the logistics of putting something on display, especially open for such a long period of time, is a lot. I work very closely with our preservation team here in the library. All of the cradles — which is what holds the book open — were created by our preservation team. They hand-built all of the custom cradles for everything in the exhibit so that everything is perfectly supported at the place that it's open, and will hold up to being on display for months at a time."
A glimpse into centuries-old ways of thinking, writing and communicating can be exhilarating for the layperson and still thrilling for the scholar as well.
"I've seen that many manuscripts and many rare books, but every time, every item gives me a different experience. It may be a deteriorated page or a marginal note, or something that makes that item specific. Absolutely."
The exhibition hosted by Special Collections can be seen on the first level of Mullins Library on the University of Arkansas campus.
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