Professors Jérémie-Brink and Milas lead Rare Book Lab with Students at the Sage Library
November 15, 2024
Students recently explored some of the treasured books and manuscripts of the Gardner A. Sage Library at New Brunswick Theological Seminary. This rare book lab has been an exciting part of Dr. Nathan Jérémie-Brink’s History of Global Christianity course. Students are able to join in person and examine, feel, and touch some of the rare holdings of the Sage Library. This allows them an immersive experience with important texts of the Christian tradition.
Dr. Jérémie-Brink admitted, “I love the smell of rare books!” He expressed that “the in-person rare book lab at Sage is one of the highlights of my semester. It is such a privilege to teach at an institution with such rich holdings, and we get opportunities like this to explore the archives and rare books with students.” Dr. T. Patrick Milas, the director of the Sage Library, welcomes faculty to bring their classes to the library for rare book labs, he “loves it when colleagues decide to include library visits in their courses, especially since the Sage Library has so much to offer. Sage Library’s collections date from the period when New York City was called New Amsterdam (1624-1664), and even earlier. Old and rare books are really works of art in themselves, and many works in New Brunswick’s collection feature elaborate woodcuts, fine bindings, illuminations, and marginalia that give us a glimpse into the incredible value placed on books in centuries past. The craftsmanship with which our scrolls, codices, tablets, and manuscripts were made go hand in hand with the innovative, and sometimes revolutionary scholarly ideas they convey.”
Readings and virtual lectures from Dr. Jérémie-Brink throughout the semester leading up to the lab provided background context for these considerations of the material culture of rare manuscripts and books. Students were prepared to discuss the importance of textual formats in the early history of the Christian movement, particularly the emergence of the codex that resulted in greater diversity and portability of texts, and problems discerning authoritative texts amidst variant versions. The class also previously discussed issues of early linguistic and cultural diversity in Christianity that complicated the questions of audience and authority.
The night began with an exploration of the rare books presently on display to the public in the lower level of the Sage Library, which include some non-Christian texts, such as the Zoroastrian scriptures of Vendidad Sade,and some rare holdings in Hebrew, Arabic, and Ethiopic (Talmud Babli, Holy Koran, and Chrestomathia Aethiopica). They also were able to see Sage’s reproduction of the Latin Vulgate Gutenberg Bible.
Students were able to ask questions of Dr. Jérémie-Brink and Dr. Patrick Milas, Director of the Sage Library and Assistant Professor of Theological Bibliography and Research. The Access Services and Reference Coordinator, Indira Douglas, pulled a variety texts for the students to further explore, and Dr. Milas’ joining for the lab brought to the conversations his extensive knowledge of Jewish and Christian texts and provenance details about the holdings at Sage.
Exploration moved to a range of medieval manuscript fragments from Latin and Dutch Books of Hours from the 15th century, a complete 15th century Latin Vulgate (shown below), and a rare 19th century Megilla scroll of the book of Esther. Dr. Milas recounted the story of Esther and explained, “since New Brunswick Theological Seminary has a passion for inclusion, especially women in education and ministry, it’s very fitting that Sage Library should have a scroll of Esther, one of only two books of the Bible named after a woman.” Examinations of the evolution of manuscript and print culture gave students a better sense of the costs and communal labors required to preserve Jewish and Christian texts, and the role of wealth and authority in how individuals and communities came to own religious works and scripture. This invited robust discussion of the role of church hierarchies, councils and synods, royal commissioners, and early-modern states in the creation of books and Bibles.
The experiential lab featured not only the expertise of professors facilitating this exploration of the rare treasures of Sage, but insights from students as they handled and considered these books. Numerous amazing questions were brought to the table: How many goats would have to die to make a scroll of this length? What kinds of bugs would eat the binding of this book? Why does the ink appear bolder and clearer on linen vellum than on wood pulp paper? How do we account for the vast difference between Christians of earlier eras who thought of Bibles as communal texts versus modern American Christians’ expectation that Bibles are numerous enough to be a required personal possession of every Christian, cheap enough to be placed in hotel room dressers, and portable enough to fit in a pocket or more recently available on a smartphone as a digital searchable edition?
Master’s student Lynn Makrin remarked that it was “a fabulous night” and was thankful “for the opportunity to see those wonderful heirlooms of our faith.” Students who could not be physically present were included via virtual experience. Using the seminary’s digital teaching arsenal, Dr. Jérémie-Brink was able to provide a virtual tour of the exhibit to students via Zoom and made use of multiple live cameras, including a 360-degree audio and video conferencing camera setup to transmit the experience to students via Zoom. Pastoral Care and Counselling program student Patrick Beckford and other students who were unable to be there in person remarked that the virtual conferencing “worked great and really gave me the experience of being there.”
According to Dr. Jérémie-Brink, “the rare book lab speaks to the intersection between NBTS’s values of critical thinking and the work of justice. Students are not only asking questions of power and authority about material texts and the history of religious traditions, but they are further given opportunities for access to rare materials that, in many settings, are limited to advanced researchers. Access to rare materials privileges the insights and questions important to them, providing them with a tactile connection to these histories and affirming the importance of their role in interpreting these texts and traditions.”