In recent years, the Libraries have been working to enhance our holdings of medieval and early modern manuscripts, which have many uses as tools for research and discovery across the academic disciplines, from the humanities to the hard sciences. Frequently these acquisitions have come through purchases from antiquarian booksellers and auction houses, often in collaboration with stakeholders from across campus.
In a lovely turn of generosity, retired local librarian and loyal Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (CEMERS) supporter Lavinia Adler recently presented Libraries’ Special Collections with a leatherbound Latin manuscript on parchment, dated 1490. The diminutive book of psalms and prayers is decorated with red and blue penwork rubrications throughout, and also bears occasional marginal decorations and annotations, including florets, faces and some musical notation.
This is what Lavinia Adler had to say about giving back to Binghamton:
As much as I enjoyed having my little medieval psalter at home with me, I realized that I could still visit it when nostalgia hit, and it would be much more sensible to make it available to many other people. If you get to see it you can admire the smooth calfskin cover, the visible finger oil remnants, the incredibly small writing, and the occasional funny face that appears in the margin, due to a scribe with a sense of humor.
Ever since moving to Binghamton after college in 1964, I’ve had one degree or another of contact with the campus – from when it was Harpur College to now when it has grown beyond anything I could have imagined. All along the way I’ve experienced the pleasure of fine music, great art exhibits, beautiful nature walks, friendships with a number of faculty members from various departments, and was on the Friends of the Library board for a couple of years before it disbanded. I’m so very glad that I’ve had the opportunity to give back a little and know that my little treasure will have a safe home for, potentially, its next seven centuries!
Lavinia Adler
The 15th century volume is now part of the Libraries’ permanent collection. Once it has been fully cataloged later this semester in consultation with specialists in manuscript psalters, it will be available for study and research in Special Collections. Students in a Source Project course on the history of the book will have a chance to examine and work with the psalter this fall.