Category: Exhibitions

Exhibition Announcement: Medieval Manuscripts and Books: Dismembered and Dispersed

Medieval Manuscripts and Books: Dismembered and Dispersed

An Exhibit on Fragments and Leaves

Special Collections and University Archives

February-May 2024

Page with handwritten text in Gothic script. The text is written in brown and red, with a decorated capital "O" at the start. Flowers decorate the margins.
Leaf from a Book of Hours. Italy, approximately 1400.

This exhibit is about the dismantling of bound volumes created in the medieval period for the purpose of financial gain. It is also about the ethics of that practice, and the aiding and abetting by libraries and private collectors in their acquisition through purchase.

Without question, if there were no demand from libraries and private collectors, there would be a lesser market for single leaves. The core issues have always been the financial gain for the seller and the financial capacity of institutional buyers. Except for large research universities, few institutions have financial means to purchase complete medieval period works. University of Oregon (UO) Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) was fortunate to acquire a large collection of complete works from Edward Sandford Burgess through donation in the 1930s. In addition to that core collection, some fifty leaves and over a dozen portfolios and leaf books were purchased from various rare book dealers. Today, purchasing complete illuminated medieval manuscripts is out of reach for the UO Library, who can only afford single leaves due to the rampant rise in pricing of complete works driven by wealthy private collectors.

While fragments are found in many leaf books, as can be seen in this exhibit, the most notorious of such endeavors was perpetrated by Professor Otto F. Ege. In Cutting Up Manuscripts for Pleasure and Profit, Christopher de Hamel characterized Ege as a villain, who “probably destroyed more medieval manuscripts than any single person,” (de Hamel, 1998). The destruction to which de Hamel refers took the form of dismembering bound manuscripts (and printed works) for the purpose of selling individual leaves or creating portfolios covering a genre or time-period, like the Bible leaves displayed in this exhibition.

In addition to assembling groups of leaves into portfolios using various manuscripts and printed books he owned, Ege wrote the commentary accompanying the leaves, and stressed their educational value and the equally important experience of seeing and handling the original artifact. In several publications and interviews, he bragged about being a biblioclast. Some of the leaves and portfolios were sold in collaboration with the New York bookseller, Philip C. Duschnes, who marketed their sale pitching this moral high ground.

Ege created a new standard of behavior and acceptance in his wake. Afterwards many dealers were more aggressive in their dismemberment of bound medieval manuscripts and incunabula. In the exhibit cases located in the SCUA Reading Room, you will see examples of portfolios created by rare book dealers, like Foliophiles and Dawson Books, as well as examples from bibliophilic societies, like the Book Club of California and the Caxton Club, who produced for its members limited edition leaf books using dismembered pages from the rarest and earliest printed titles.

Many of Ege’s leaves and portfolios have since been dispersed, frustrating scholars who wish to understand the content and context of the original volumes. Due to the widespread dispersal of leaves from complete codices, the challenge for scholars has expanded far beyond Ege’s exploits. Hope resides in the potential for reassembling these codices using digital copies of the leaves to reproduce a complete volume and made accessible at a single online location.

Exhibit Overview

SCUA Hallway: Selections from Oto Ege’s Portfolio of Early Bible Leaves

SCUA Reading Room Exhibit Cases:

Introduction to the Ethics of Book Breaking and Digital Reconstruction

Examples of Licit breaking and reuse in the Medieval period: paste downs, bindings, palimpsests, etc.

Selections from four Portfolios by Foliophiles

Selections from the Book Club of California Leaf Books

Book of Hours, the Most Broken Genre

Selections of Leaves and Fragments from Breviaries, Missals, Antiphonals, etc.

Selections from Dawson Book Shop Leaf Books

Selections from Caxton Club and Pirages Leaf Books

Works Cited

De Hamel, Christopher. 1998. Cutting up Manuscripts for Pleasure and Profit. Charlottesville, VA: Book Arts Press.

— David de Lorenzo, Giustina Director

New Spotlight Exhibit: Oregon Women Vote!

Abigail Scott Duniway writes and signs Oregon’s Equal Suffrage Proclamation, November 30, 1912. Photo credit: University of Oregon Special Collections and University Archives.

The year 2012 marked a centennial for the state of Oregon – a truly historic victory in the lives of Oregon women in 1912 — suffrage, or the right to vote.  Pioneers breaking down barriers in the cause of woman suffrage in Oregon included Susan B. Anthony, Dr. Esther Pohl Lovejoy, Abigail Scott Duniway, and Hattie Redmond, among many devoted others.  As the rise of forces for suffrage continued, the United States Congress passed the 19th Amendment in June 1919.  This was only the first step toward its final passage.  The amendment required thirty-six states to ratify the amendment in order for it to be formally passed into law.  After sustained toil and arduous efforts, Oregon became the twenty-fifth state to ratify the amendment.  By August of 1920, a total of thirty-six states had ratified the 19th Amendment, the requisite number, enacting the amendment into law.  August 2020 marks the centennial, the 100th anniversary, of woman suffrage in the United States and the enactment of the 19th Amendment into law.

The activism and leadership required for this feat are incomparable and immeasurable in our nation’s history.  The level of sacrifice and the energy exerted in support of such a paramount cause as suffrage is reflected throughout its long history.  Humanity is wrought with periods of crisis and victory; it is inherent and inseparable to our existence. The dawn of the struggle for suffrage in the 19th century reflected a sustained period of tests and trials, of determination and fortitude, and of ardent devotion. Perseverance ultimately remedies inaction; Oregon woman suffrage stood trial at the ballot box six times prior to its passing.

The common adage to study history so that it may not be repeated can be transmuted in acknowledgment of cycles of crisis and victory. It is of principal importance to turn to history in order to see triumphs in the face of adversity, to pay homage, and to extract tactics, be enlivened by the spirit, and to transform what has been learned for tests and trials today. There remains much to be learned, and there is much more still to be done.

The new Spotlight exhibit, Oregon Women Vote! Commemorating Woman Suffrage in Oregon and the U.S., honors and highlights the Oregon and national suffrage movements and the official enactment of the 19th Amendment into law.  It examines the contributions of Abigail Scott Duniway and her contemporaries, contributions of women of color, racism in the suffrage movement, and the political influence of the Oregon Women’s Political Caucus and pivotal leader of Oregon politics, Gretchen Kafoury.  Join us in memorializing this historic feat, one of many that have passed, and one of many still to come.

Written by Alexandra Mueller, Special Projects Archivist

New Exhibit | Tomorrow’s Scientists: Children’s Literature of the Cold War Era

University of Oregon Libraries and Eugene Public Library are pleased to announce a joint exhibition titled Tomorrow’s Scientists: Children’s Literature of the Cold War Era, now on display.

As we reflect on the 50th anniversary of the manned moon landing, this exhibition presents original manuscripts, artifacts, illustrations, and rare books which explore the intersection of politics, space, and technology in children’s literature published during the height of the Cold War.

The joint exhibits are on display at two locations:

Special Collections and University Archives
Knight Library, Paulson Reading Reading Room, Second Floor North
On display through March 2020 | check open hours here

Drawing upon Special Collections and University Archives’ extensive Children’s Literature Collections, this display presents original materials from twentieth century children’s book illustrators, authors, and publishers that highlight the complex intersections between American politics and children’s literature during the Cold War era.

This exhibit documents a range of political issues represented in juvenile popular culture during this period including: science education initiatives in America, responses to the launch of Sputnik I, developments in nuclear energy, the history of the US space program, and Communism ideologies and reactions.

Eugene Public Library
Downtown Library, Children’s Center, First Floor
On display through January 2020 | check open hours here

Little Golden Books, science texts for children, facsimile illustrations, and vintage toys on display at Eugene Public Library illustrate the impact of the space race on popular culture and boom of science publishing in the mid-twentieth century. In many of these works, authors and illustrators presented children of the 1950s–1960s with utopian visions of a future filled with space suits and flying cars on the eve of space exploration.

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Women in Media Symposium

Join us for an all-day symposium dedicated to the history, achievements, and issues of women working in broadcast and digital media.

Tuesday, May 21, 2019 | 10 a.m. – 8 p.m. | Knight Library Browsing Room

Free and open to the public

In conjunction with this symposium, visit the exhibit Comedy of the Commonplace: The Sitcom Genius of Peg Lynch in Knight Library through summer 2019.

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Exhibit Highlight | UO Women’s Track and Field

We proudly celebrate the recent accomplishments of the UO women’s track and field team winning third place, winning 1st place in the distance medley relay, and winning the 3,000m individual title at the 2019 NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships.

The current exhibit, “Oregon Spirit: The Legacy of Track and Field,” highlights some key moments in the history of women’s track and field. The Women’s Athletic Association was founded in 1913, which offered additional opportunities for women to engage in athletics beyond physical education courses. According to the 1914 edition of the Oregana:

The first athletic organization ever to be perfected in the University in the interests of women’s athletics is the Women’s Athletic Association, which was organized during the past year. The purpose of this association is to encourage athletics among the women of the University and to develop a physically more efficient Oregon woman. (p.261)

Women participated in intramural, interclass and intercollegiate contests.  The exhibit includes two field day programs featuring track contests held on the hockey field, and on cemetery ridge.

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