Medieval Manuscripts & Early Print Works at Memorial University Libraries

Warner, Patrick (2013) Medieval Manuscripts & Early Print Works at Memorial University Libraries. Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. ISBN 978-0-88901-445-9

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Abstract

Of the many thousands of works in the General Rare Book Collection of the Queen Elizabeth II Library and the rare collections of the Centre for Newfoundland Studies, fewer than one-hundred represent the period from 1450 to 1600. This catalogue focuses on twenty-six volumes from the Library’s holdings that were written or printed during the Renaissance period. The selected volumes point geographically to centres of book production at the time, both in the long-established manuscript world and in the rapidly-expanding print world. The catalogue includes works created in areas known today as the Netherlands, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and England. The early print works demonstrate stylistic traits that were new developments at the time, including title pages, page numbering and roman and italic fonts. They also point to new developments in the book trade, namely to a growing market for literatures written in the vernacular. Whether in manuscript form or in print, the texts highlighted in this catalogue expose some of the major concerns of the late-medieval and Renaissance mind: the demand for devotional literature, a continued interest in works of the Middle Ages, an interest in Classical works, astrology, law, medicine and travel literature. The books also provide—in the form of bookplates, ownership inscriptions, armorial stamps, library stamps, annotations, wormholes and scribbles— tantalising glimpses of the journeys they have taken over hundreds of years from the various European stationer’s shops and print shops that produced them to their current home, an ocean away.

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