“Who Created the New and Copied the Old: Printed Books of the Fifteenth Century”
On the last day of class, December 13th, we, as a whole class, visited Lutnick Library to see a collection curated by Alex: “Who Created the New and Copied the Old: Printed Books of the Fifteenth Century.” Before looking around the collection, Alex gave us a brief introduction, including how she got into the curation and her overall experience. She shared with us that the experience hugely influenced her to take Latin because she got to handle a lot of books from the Medieval Ages that were written in Latin. She wanted to understand Catallus’ poems, for example! However, what was most impressive and intriguing was the question that she asked during the process: What was the effect of the Printing Press on publication and books? Her answer was even more interesting; While it made mass distribution of books possible, it didn’t change the way people read books or the content. It had less impact than what most people anticipate when thinking about the printing press.
I visited again a few days ago during the finals week because I wanted to spend more time looking around more carefully. Also, I wanted to have a study break! The first thing I noticed was the Bible. I read about how Christianity was central to the medieval society and the Bible was published in Latin. Therefore, only clergy or those who could read Latin (often church officials) could read the Bible. I saw different versions of the Bible that were displayed, and I was intrigued by the intersection between Latin and culture (e.g. religion). Another huge part of the collection showed how scholarship was positively affected by the printing invention. Likewise, a lot of scholarly articles in humanities and sciences in the past were published in Latin. Although the printing press is a tremendous invention of the time, I was actually focusing on the influence that Latin had on European culture, society, and academics. Of course, when I carefully observed each collection, I noticed the embroidery and the luxurious first letters of the paragraphs. However, I started to think that languages in general, but Latin in particular, is more than a language that is a mean of communication, but conveys the rich culture and history.
The exhibit really encouraged me to think about Latin and its cultural, societal, religious, and scholarly ties with our world. I also got to know about other fun facts such as how the type of paper that was used back then is different from nowadays. It is way more high quality with more rigidity and durability. Overall, I got to learn a lot from the exhibition, and I am excited about the next semester of Latin!