As a class, we visited the new exhibit in Lutnick Library, which was curated by our class’ very own Alex Stern. She explained to us that a man named David Wertheimer had stockpiled a great number of books from the 15th century, when the printing press had just been invented, at least in the European/Western world; the Chinese had invented their own printing press much earlier historically. Therefore, as Alex noted, the idea that the printing press was something new during the 1400s is a very Euro-centric one. However, it was still amazing to see so many books, in all different sizes and thicknesses, each opened to a specific page underneath the glass. There was some Latin I recognized from class, but some looked slightly different. This would make sense, since we have been learning an older version of Latin. As we were told at the beginning of the semester, there are considered to be multiple versions of Latin, the latest being Italian (arguably) as the language evolved over time. I actually remember my Choir teacher last year (at my high school) telling us that there were even different pronunciations for the same version of Latin, at least in hymns. For instance, both Germanic and Italian pronunciations of Latin are considered valid, depending on the piece, the composer, and the time and place in which it was written. It made me wonder if there can really be a standard or “normal” version of Latin, or if one just has to keep up with the changes that occurred through the centuries.
I also asked Alex about the red (and I think some blue) ink I saw on the pages, in addition to the usual black text. She said that red was an easy enough color to find (and turn into ink) that it could be used in mass-produced texts for various purposes, whether it was for edits or purely aesthetic purposes. One last thing I asked her about was whether people were allowed to touch the books, and if they would need gloves. I was surprised to hear that they were actually in good enough condition, and the paper was durable enough, that people were actually allowed to touch the pages without gloves. Apparently, the paper in these books was more akin to the paper of a US dollar bill than a piece of modern printer paper, and thus was more likely to stand the test of time. She also mentioned that the backings were in surprisingly good condition as well, at least for some of them. Books that had sustained more damage were less likely to be put on display, as they needed to be protected from further harm. I still can’t get over the fact that we’re allowed to engage so directly with these texts, not only by reading them, but by actually touching these pages that were written centuries ago.