Original Copies: Facsimiles and their Mediations of Authenticity and Ownership

We are delighted to announce the opening of a new exhibition in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library‘s Kempner Gallery: Original Copies: Facsimiles and their Mediations of Authenticity and Ownership. The desire to capture likenesses, to reproduce things of value as closely as possible, stretches deep back into human history. We have been creating visually […]

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Liturgical Books Goes Live

Liturgical Books presents the examples from the RBML of the various types of books used in the Middle Ages for the celebration of the Latin liturgy. This new resource is the result of the collaborative redesign of a web exhibit (Celebrating the Liturgy’s Books) designed by Consuelo Dutschke, Curator of Medieval and Renaissance Books until […]

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Some Illumination for All

Columbia’s collection of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts is rich and resplendent, for all that much of it has sat quietly and largely unseen in the stacks throughout most of this tumultuous year. But while opportunities to leaf through these manuscripts in person may still feel distant, it just got much easier to see a few […]

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More Bookplates

Inspired by my colleague’s post about bookplates, I thought I’d like to add a medieval example. Not that the Middle Ages produced bookplates, per se; the earliest one, ‘tis commonly said, is the angel holding a shield with an ox——the bookplate of Hilprand Brandenberg, who in 1505 donated his personal library of some 450 books […]

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